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Thanksgiving has a real half glass empty or full quality to it this year, with the answer depending totally on how I choose to view the situation. Last Thanksgiving, I never could have imagined that it would be the last one in our house. But three months later, both my husband and I were laid off from our respective jobs and we found ourselves off on a new adventure. If I just stopped there, it would just be a half-glass empty perspective. But that wouldn’t be honest. Unlike so many of our friends who are out of work this year, we were extremely fortunate to get another job -- without even trying. The day before we got the news of my lay-off, my husband got a call about a job interview. His new job -- which pays more than his old one -- started before my severance ran out, and we never missed a day of health insurance. We’re so blessed, and so many of our friends are hurting, that we almost feel guilty about being employed. The one heartbreak of this has been moving to a new city. We... - Reggie Nicolay

This Thanksgiving will be one of new traditions for us: first, rather than traveling the four-plus hours to visit our families, we’re staying put for Turkey Day. This will be our first Thanksgiving without either my mom’s famous dressing or my mother-in-law’s legendary red hot cinnamon apples, and we will definitely miss them. But that’s not the only change this Thanksgiving. We’ll also be celebrating our first holiday season in our new house. This in itself is nothing that unusual for us, I guess -- it’s our third residence in three years. In 2007, we were decking the halls in our home in the Memphis, Tenn., area. (We’re now trying to rent that house out). Last year, we baked pies and trimmed trees in a rental house here in Huntsville, Ala. And this year, we’ll be cutting the turkey and placing the tree in our new home. Looking back, it makes me realize how much I have to be thankful for house-wise. We’ve lived in comfortable homes that served our family well. The house we live in... - Reggie Nicolay

This week, the Cyberhomes bloggers will be sharing what we've been thankful for in 2009, a most difficult real estate year. Check back each day for a new Thanksgiving post and share your own thoughts on what you're thankful for this season. The best time to stop and ponder what makes one thankful is when you think the list on the plus side of life’s ledger is getting a little thin. The Great Recession and accompanying real estate meltdown likely have a lot of people wondering just what they’re thankful for this past year. I can’t answer for anyone except myself, but like many people, there were challenges this past year. Fortunately, I know I’m a lot better off than those who have lost or are losing their homes, are facing illness or a terrible tragedy. At 51 and having worked more than 30 years without interruption, I was laid off from two jobs within a span of 10 months this year. Fortunately, my wife allows me no more than 10 minutes of self-pity. So, that’s the first thing I’m... - Reggie Nicolay

The median home price for new and resale homes in California was up in October from the previous month according to MDA DataQuick, which monitors real estate activity nationwide. The median sales price for October was $257,000, a 2.4 percent increase over the $251,000 in September. The number of sales rose 2.6 percent from September to October. The numbers were generally consistent throughout the state. In Southern California, sales were up 2.8 percent and the median price grew 1.8 percent from $275,000 in September to October’s $280,000. The news was even better in Northern California, where the median price was up 6.5 percent from September and had a year-over-year gain of 1.5 percent. It was the first time since November 2007 that the region experienced year-over-year price growth. “The regional price statistics mainly reflect the fading of the foreclosures and the uptick in high-end activity in recent months,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president, regarding the Northern... - Reggie Nicolay

For the second week in a row, mortgages to purchase properties fell despite interest rates falling. According to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage interest rates fell from 4.90 percent to 4.83 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate purchase loan with a 20 percent down payment. Even with more economists and mortgage watchers calling for rates to begin increasing soon, purchase applications fell a seasonally adjusted 7.9 percent last week from the previous week. Last week’s drop was modest compared to the 11.7 percent fall the week before. The 15-year fixed-rate (4.32 percent) and one-year adjustable rate mortgages (6.82 percent) remained relatively the same from the prior week. Tax credit uncertainty The lag could be attributed to the uncertainty of the home buyers tax credit, which was extended and expanded two weeks ago. If the extended credit begins to contribute to home purchases, an uptick in mortgage applications should soon begin to show. Overall, mortgage... - Reggie Nicolay

The stock market took a tumble yesterday because of investor reaction to what is being called a surprising drop in housing starts. The Commerce Department said October new home construction fell 10.6 percent from the previous month, dropping to a six-month low. With apologies to those in the construction business, this drop is good news for the trying-to-recover real estate market. The fact is, inventory of homes for sale and rent are too high and the last thing we need is for new construction to pile on more vacancies. Some economy watchers were likely getting too caught up in recent “good” real estate news — falling inventories of properties for sale, the extension of the home buyer tax credit and a slight uptick in building permits, among others. Housing starts overall have fallen 30.7 percent from October 2008. But single-family starts have fallen 6.8 percent, while multi-family units (34.6 percent) and apartments with five or more units (33.3 percent) accounted for more than... - Reggie Nicolay

Although the real estate industry did not get everything it hoped for when the home buyers tax credit was recently extended and expanded, they were more than happy the program was continued. But for some, there’s a lot not to love about the home buyer tax credit. A survey of naysayers: • “Congress threw good money after bad this week when it voted to extend and expand a wasteful home buyer’s tax credit set to expire at the end of the month,” the New York Times stated in its lead to an opinion piece on Nov. 6. The Times went on to say that “… housing analysts were finding that the tax credit did little for home sales. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the people who have bought homes using the credit would have purchased those homes without it. To put it another way, the tax credit has been wasteful spending, not stimulus spending.” • Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT Sloan, and James Kwak , a Yale law student and software entrepreneur, wrote in the Washington Post: “This is a bad... - Reggie Nicolay

In my last post, I told you how we ended up “reluctant” -- and long-distance -- landlords. For the past year, we hoped the people living in our Memphis-area house would buy it. But they defaulted on their lease-purchase contract and left us with a major clean-up. They also left us with our first lesson. Don’t expect that tenants will treat your house with any respect at all, especially if they don’t have a deposit hanging in the balance. I guess part of the problem is that we were always good renters. We paid our rent on time, we cleaned a house thoroughly when we were moving out, and we tried to stay on good terms with our landlords. So when we signed that lease-purchase contract, I thought that if the “buyers” defaulted, we’d be able to use that $7,500 deposit to cover the mortgage until we got the house sold or rented again. Unfortunately, when our renters moved out, we were left with a lot of fixing to do. And while my husband and I spent one long weekend in the house trying to... - Reggie Nicolay

There’s nothing like waking up to a noise so loud that your house actually shakes. That happened to me this morning, and it has happened, on and off, for the past three months. My neighbors across the street, you see, are renovating their house. Scratch that: They aren’t just renovating, they’re tearing it down to the studs and starting over. The good news is that I've suddenly become a morning person -- even on weekends and holidays -- because I’m so conditioned by the noise to wake at around 7 a.m. After all, who needs an alarm clock when you’ve got a cement truck in front of your house? That is, at 6:30 a.m., an hour before you usually get up? Not me, apparently. And I won’t need an alarm clock for the next 10 months. See, the very nice guys who live across the street from me are adding a third story to their little San Francisco house. I’d known about it for months beforehand, of course. I’d seen the public notice posted on the outside of their house. I’m kicking myself now for... - Reggie Nicolay

Home prices may rise 4 percent next year, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, told real estate professionals at NAR’s annual convention, held earlier this month in San Diego. Of course, that statement was met with much applause, as 2009 has been a tough year for real estate, with home prices down in 123 out of 153 U.S. metro areas, according to NAR’s own data. Some of NAR’s hopeful stance stems from the fact that the home-buyer credit, which has been extended into 2010 and now includes move-up buyers, has been fueling in an increase in first-time home buyers, who now make up at least half of all buyers, says CNNMoney.com. NAR (a trade organization that represents Realtors across the U.S) often tends to have a rosier outlook on the housing market than others -- which makes sense, since it’s an organization for professionals whose bread and butter is real estate. I’m not an economist myself, so all I can say is that I hope that NAR is right --... - Reggie Nicolay

Call me the reluctant landlord. Our story starts simply enough: My husband got a new job in the Memphis area. It was a big pay bump from his current position, and we’d be closer to our families. So we jumped at the chance. We bought a great house, thinking we’d be there for years. We imagined our kids growing up there, big family dinners and a bright future. But then the economy took a nosedive, his company laid people off, and one of the first to go was the new guy -- him. We had been in the house six months. Don’t get me wrong: We were very fortunate. He got a fantastic new job within a few weeks. But it wasn’t in Memphis -- it was in Huntsville, Ala. We were going to be moving, and we had a house back home in a neighborhood that was still being built. And Memphis was taking the economic downturn especially hard. It’s a huge shipping hub, and when things weren’t being bought and sold as much, people were losing jobs and getting their hours cut left and right. Becoming landlords My... - Reggie Nicolay

Not everything is headed down in today’s real estate market. Despite that median home prices fell in 123 out of 153 U.S. metro areas, according to recent data from the National Association of Realtors, median home prices are up in 30 cities from where they were a year ago. And some of these cities have seen substantial increases. Could these cities be harbingers of more positive real estate news? I hope so. Maryland and West Virginia’s Cumberland metropolitan area saw its median price increase 19.2 percent from a year ago to $122,100. In the Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro area in Iowa and Illinois, the median home price increased 14.3 percent to $115,600 from a year ago. Of course, none of the 30 cities hail from states like Florida and California, which saw prices soar during the housing boom and crash equally hard when it ended. (Nor are they in New Jersey, where I live. Guess I’ll be staying put for a while.) The Christian Science Monitor has a very helpful list of the 30... - Reggie Nicolay

I guess that it’s fitting that actor Nicolas Cage’s upcoming film, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which comes out this month, is based in the Big Easy. It’s in New Orleans that Cage lost two homes to foreclosure last week. Cage, who owns multiple properties, has the IRS after him for a reported $6 million in back taxes. He owed $5.5 in mortgage payments for two homes he owned in New Orleans, as well as $151,730 in real estate taxes to the City of New Orleans, according to a recent CNNMoney.com story. Cage’s New Orleans homes that went on the auction block last week were the supposedly haunted LaLaurie Mansion at 1140 Royal Street in the French Quarter and a home at 2523 Prytania Street in the Garden District. The French Quarter home, appraised at $3.5 million, sold at $2.3 million, while the Garden District property, appraised at $3.3 million, sold for $2.2 million. Movers reportedly removed Cage’s belongings from the homes on Friday, People.com says. The properties were... - Reggie Nicolay

Although interest rates have dropped to a five-week low, there has been a potentially unsettling surprise in the numbers. The Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey said the average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan with a 20 percent down payment was 4.90 percent for the week ending Nov. 6. The twist on the news is that loans for real estate purchases fell nearly 12 percent from the previous week. The loan purchase index is at its lowest level since December 2000. So despite near record low mortgage rates, buyers are not jumping into the market. Whether this is a trend or an aberration in the statistics will be followed in future weeks. Tax credit may spur buyers Purchase loans may be lower because of a lull caused by debate over the home buyers tax credit in the Senate and House. First-time buyers need at least 30 days to close a real estate transaction, and when the credit was set to expire after Nov. 30, most would have had to be in escrow before last week’s survey.... - Reggie Nicolay

Anyone who has been looking to buy an entry-level house can likely share stories of losing the battle in a war of multiple bids. Outside of a few hardest hit areas, the entry-level market is nothing if not robust. A big reason is the pent-up demand that was created by quickly appreciating home prices. Although homeowners cheered when the price of their home increased, there were many others who groaned, knowing that home ownership was that much farther from their grasp. Few move-up buyers So although the entry-level market has seen great demand from investors and first-time buyers, the move-up market is stagnant. In a normal market, entry-level buyers would allow those sellers to move up to a more expensive house. But not this time, because the entry-level market consists of too many foreclosures and short sales. The previous owners of foreclosures are now renting. The same goes for those who negotiate a short sale. The National Association of Realtors is set to release its annual... - Reggie Nicolay

An elite prep school in Ashburnham, Mass., has upset bibliophiles everywhere by exchanging its 20,000-volume book collection for a digital database of books that holds millions of titles, says NPR.org. Now, instead of perusing a hushed atmosphere of stacks of books, students at Cushing Academy openly chat in the library and can read their “books” on 68 Amazon Kindles provided by the campus or on laptops provided to each student by the school. Now the school’s action to scrap of all its books to go digital may be extreme, but perhaps it’s a good example for homeowners to follow -- or at least in part. Getting rid of printed material for digital versions would be a good step for homeowners (like me) to take -- whose homes are swamped with so many bills, documents, magazines and books that there’s precious little living space. Is your home being overrun by paper? Here are a few steps that you can to do lighten up the paper and perhaps save some trees: Pare down the paper -- Check with... - Reggie Nicolay

Although there are some glimmers of hope that a real estate turnabout is just around the corner, it seems just as likely that the coming spring could bring a storm of epic proportions. That is why the next few months may be the best time to buy a house or investment property if you plan to finance the purchase. If you are one of the few who have gobs of cash on hand, it’s probably better to wait until the summer because rising interest rates and the home buyers tax credit won’t affect your purchases. But for the rest, the time is now. Time to buy You hear a lot of economists saying the real estate market will likely get worse before it gets better. The spring of 2010 just may be the “worse” econs are talking about. And here’s why: • Buyers battle it out. The home buyers tax credit has been extended to purchases under contract by April 30, 2010. The tax credit almost exclusively appeals to entry-level buyers, which means the prices of these homes will continue to be inflated above what... - Reggie Nicolay

Last week, President Barack Obama signed the “Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009,” which extends the $8,000 tax credit available to “first-time” home buyers and adds a tax credit of up to $6,500 for repeat or move-up buyers. The tax credits are available to those who purchase a primary home, and aren’t available to buyers of investment or vacation homes. For those of you who don’t know how a tax credit works, a credit can reduce the amount of tax you owe. For example, if you owe $6,000 in income taxes, and qualify for the full $8,000 tax credit, you may be able to get $2,000 back. Under the new regulations, home buyers are eligible for a tax credit of 10 percent of their home’s purchase price. Wondering if you qualify of the credit under the new regulations? Read on: -- Buyers who qualify: “First-time” and “repeat” home buyers are eligible. First-time home buyers must not have owned a primary home during the last three years before a home purchase. Repeat home... - Reggie Nicolay

With their vibrant red wings and black spots, ladybugs aren’t often thought of as pests in the traditional sense of the word. Children and others who’d usually run screaming from any type of beetle or bug are apt to like them, and farmers and gardeners welcome ladybugs because they are known to goggle up lots of crop-destroying pests. But this year, there are reports across the U.S. of Asian lady beetles swarming by the hundreds upon houses and even in homes, creating quite a mess. As the weather gets colder, the beetles can get into a home through any unsealed area, and once inside, can leave behind stains and stinky smells if squashed. I noticed a modest infestation of ladybugs in my home just a few years ago. Now, I am not the best at keeping my home tidy, so when spring came and it was time to start opening the windows, I found a few dead ladybugs here and there on our windowsills. I was surprised to find the ladybugs because I had never before seen more than one ladybug at any... - Reggie Nicolay

When it comes to selling a home, one of the biggest mistakes is pricing it incorrectly. That’s especially a problem these days, as home prices drop and home sellers compete for a relatively small pool of interested home buyers. It especially can be tough to price your home when you purchased it for more than what it can likely sell for today. That fact was brought home recently in a New York Times article on the subject. The story starts out with a look at a Philadelphia homeowner who owns a penthouse in the city with amazing views. However, he came to the realization that however wonderful his place may be, he’ll have to lower his price to reflect current market conditions in order to sell. “It is such a special place, but now I realize that doesn’t matter during a recession,” he says in the article. Ouch -- that's a hard lesson. Unfortunately, selling in today’s market often means getting less for a home than one had hoped. The "New York Times" offers these tips on how to sell at... - Reggie Nicolay

Most of us hold a soft spot in our heart for our college town. My college town is Bryn Mawr, Pa., home to Bryn Mawr College, my alma mater, and where Katharine Hepburn, one of the school’s most famous alums, studied. Located on Philadelphia’s Main Line, the real estate there is fantastic -- there are plenty of winding leafy streets filled with beautiful large homes that I most likely will never be able to afford. But the opposite is the case for many of a college town. The Coldwell Banker® College Home Price Comparison Index (HPCI), released by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, looked at 2,200 square foot, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom homes in college markets across the U.S. (in this case, college towns that are home to the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools -- which obviously doesn’t apply to Bryn Mawr), and found that in most cases, real estate in college towns are quite affordable. Coldwell Banker found that the most affordable college town is Akron, Ohio, home to the... - Reggie Nicolay

Golfing great Greg Norman has set the price for his oceanfront home in Jupiter Island, Florida, at a whopping $60 million. The 8-acre estate -- which has 172 feet of oceanfront and 370 feet on the Intracoastal Waterway -- is where President Bill Clinton famously injured his knee in 1997. Surprisingly, in today’s real-estate climate, where home prices tend to fall instead of rise, Norman’s asking price is an increase from his recent asking price of $47.5 million. The property was first listed for $65 million in 2007. The land for the home is appraised at $21,504,210 in 2009, according to tcplam.com. The taxes for the property are an astounding $355,176.44. Norman shared the home -- which sits at 382 S. Beach Road in Hobe Sound, Fla., with his ex-wife, Laura Andrassy, to whom he was married 25 years. They purchased the property -- named “Tranquility” -- in 1991 for less than $5 million. He wed his second wife, tennis great Chris Evert in 2008, only weeks after his divorce. His marriage... - Reggie Nicolay

Earlier, today, I blogged about the oceanfront home that golf Greg Norman shared with ex-wife Laura Andrassy and has on the market for $60 million. Well, now that he’s separating from his new wife of 15 months, tennis star Chris Evert, he’s also selling his Colorado estate. He has the 11,601-acre “Seven Lakes” Ranch, which is located near Meeker, Colo., listed for $55 million. The duo left their longtime spouses for each other. Norman’s relationship with Evert soured in part because the couple’s children from their previous marriages didn’t support the union, says People.com. There’s been some speculation that Norman’s separation from Evert is fueling his desire to sell his Colorado home -- Norman’s ex-wife received $103 million when she divorced Norman. Norman’s spread -- which he purchased in 2004 -- is quite lavish and beautiful. It’s surrounded by two million acres of the White River National Forest and sports several lakes, miles of river frontage, mountain views and... - Reggie Nicolay

There was a time when it seemed that everyone owned a vacation home -- or at least dreamed of owning one, anyway. Vacation homes were seen as cash cows that would reap easy money in quick appreciation, plus the added bonus that rental money would bring in. Oh, how times have changed. These days, you could probably pick up a vacation home for a relative bargain, but not so many people are buying them these days -- at least compared to the heyday of the housing boom. “Second homes have become an ugly stepchild in an environment [where] people aren’t even buying first homes,” the Wall Street Journal quotes Cicily Maton, a financial planner for Aequus Wealth Management Resources LLC in Chicago. Vacation homes have become financial burdens to some homeowners, the Journal says, adding that according to data from the National Association of Realtors, the median price of a vacation home dropped 23 percent from 2007 to 2008, with sales falling about 31 percent from 2007. If you are struggling... - Reggie Nicolay

President Barack Obama, as expected, signed a bill today that includes a home buyer tax credit that will give up to $8,000 to first-time buyers and up $6,500 to buyers who have owned their home for at least five years. This bill will take over for the first-time buyers tax credit program that will expire after Nov. 30. The new program also expands the pool of eligible consumers with income limits raised to $225,000 for couples and $125,000 for individuals. The one aspect of this program that everyone can agree on is that this is a positive for buyers. Hey, who’s going to turn down free money? But after that, it’s up in the air if the tax credit significantly spurs home buying or just gets people to purchase a home sooner. NAR claims that the first-time home buyers credit contributed to at least 350,000 home sales. A more conservative estimate has come in at about half that. The politicians certainly were behind this bill. More likely, the politicos were more afraid “not” to vote for... - Reggie Nicolay

If you haven’t done any remodeling yet this year, now may be the time. The Wall Street Journal reports that thanks to the economic downturn and slow housing market, homeowners are paying as much as 20 percent less for home improvement projects, compared to what the same projects would have cost them a few years ago. On average, remodeling prices are down 5 percent to 10 percent from their peak across the U.S., the Wall Street Journal says. This is because contractors now looking for jobs are willing accept less for their work and because the cost of some materials -- like plywood and insulation -- are down, the Journal says. Tax credits increase savings Couple the lower of cost of remodeling projects with federal tax credits that are now available for energy-saving projects like adding insulation or energy efficient windows to your home, and you can see substantial savings for home improvement projects that you take on. Also, because contractors are scrambling for work, it's also more... - Reggie Nicolay

The bill to extend the $8,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers and open the program to move-up buyers easily cleared the House of Representatives by a 403-12 vote Thursday. The House vote came a day after the Senate passed the measure 98-0. President Barrack Obama is expected to sign the bill on Friday. This new program will replace the one that was part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That program is set to expire after Nov. 30 and offered up to an $8,000 tax credit to only first-time buyers. Here’s a look at the new tax credit program for homebuyers: • To qualify, homebuyers have until April 30, 2010 to be under contract for a home purchase and until June 30, 2010 to close the transaction. • Move-up buyers can qualify for 10 percent of the purchase price with a maximum $6,500 tax credit. Move-up buyers must have owned their home for at least five years. First-time buyers can still qualify for up to $8,000. • The bill also expands the income levels to qualify.... - Reggie Nicolay

My fellow blogger, Heather Boerner, recently wrote a story for Cyberhomes about how in today's slow economy, some people are bartering for home services. I have recently found out -- quite by accident -- that bartering can work. I have done very little to update my home since purchasing it seven years ago. However, I recently had custom curtains designed and installed by a local New Jersey interior design shop, Pat's Decor, of Cranbury, N.J. The owner and I got to talking, and before I knew it, she had commissioned me to create a Facebook page for her business. It seems that with the economy down, fewer homeowners have been enlisting her interior design services. She's hoping that the Facebook page (which will be regularly updated with news about the shop and its promotions, etc.) will help her reach out to new clients. In exchange for getting her Facebook page started for her, the shop owner is visiting my home next week to help me pick out new window coverings for my kitchen. It... - Reggie Nicolay

Singer Whitney Houston may be on the comeback trail (click here to see the filming of her "Million Dollar Bill" video), but apparently, all isn't well in the pop star's world. The singer has put her 12,561-square-foot home in Mendham, N.J., on the market for $2.5 million -- significantly less than its assessed value of $5.6 million, according to published reports. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage has the listing. The singer/actress, who starred in the movie, "The Bodyguard" with actor Kevin Costner, purchased the property for $2.7 million in 1987. It was at the home, which sits on 5 acres at 22 North Gate Road, that she wed her abusive ex-husband, singer Bobby Brown. Whitney, 46, nearly lost the home in 2006, when a mortgage company filed a lawsuit against her for $1.04 million, and foreclosure papers were drawn, says NJ.com. Whitney was able to avert foreclosure, however. The contemporary residence has round living spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights. Perhaps Whitney... - Reggie Nicolay

The Senate appears to have sifted through the myriad proposals to extend the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit and draft a program that will include those who have owned their home for at least five years. The Senate agreement is similar to an earlier proposal that was gaining traction. The final version calls to extend the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers for contracts signed from Dec. 1 through April 30, 2010. Buyers will have until July 1 to close. The proposal allows for current homeowners to receive a tax credit, although it will be for a maximum of $6,500 and they have to have lived in their current residence for at least five years. Expanding the credit to current homeowners is likely an attempt to spur activity in the move-up market. Although the entry-level market has seen significant activity, which the real estate industry attributes to the tax credit, the move-up markets have been lazy at best. The reason is that the vast majority of entry-level homes being... - Reggie Nicolay