Want a bargain on a house? Try snapping something up in on of these 25 US cities that saw the greatest plunges in their home prices in the 3rd quarter:
real estate
Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended To June 2010, Woot!
By 11.8.09
As anticipated, President Obama signed the 8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit extension into law on Friday. You can now collect the credit if your home purchase is complete by June 30, 2010. But wait, there’s more! The extension also offers a tax credit for people who are purchasing a new residence, but aren’t first-time homeowners.
When To Buy A Home And How To Avoid Screwing It Up
By 11.2.09
Are you hitting that stage in life where you’re thinking of becoming a homeowner? Morningstar has published two home buying articles that together offer some good, concise advice to the prospective buyer, especially if you’re a first-timer.
Know Your Closing Costs Or Else A Shark Will Eat You
By 10.21.09
Homebuyers looking to save money will try to buy without an agent and deal directly with the seller’s broker, but beware, they feed on your weaknesses, ignorance, fear, and money.
$8000 Credit For New Homebuyers Might Get Extended
By 10.16.09
Washington is working on getting the up-to-$8000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers due to expire in November extended, and perhaps even expanded to current homeowners buying a new house. [AP] (Photo: sflovestory)
How To Buy A Foreclosed House (That You Might Actually Want To Live In)
By 9.28.09
Buying a foreclosed home may seem like a great deal, since the bank that’s selling it would rather unload it at a loss than stay on as owner. But foreclosures come with a lot of risks — including vandalism by former owners or theives who strip vacant homes of just about anything that isn’t bolted down — and even things that are (you know, like toilets).
Newsflash: The Next Tsunami Of Aggressively Irresponsible Loans Didn't Magically Disappear
By 9.18.09
We’ve been talking about the next wave of the mortgage crisis for quite some time now, and it seems that, as predicted, it’s cresting and about to hit. We are, of course, speaking of Option-ARM loans — considered the riskiest of all mortgages due to their ability to grow rather than shrink. Yes, there actually exists a mortgage that allows the borrower to pay less than the interest that is accruing on the loan.
Buying Your First Home? Here Are 7 Good Tips
By 9.18.09
Ron Lieber at the New York Times has put together seven sensible tips that can help you find a first time home that you can both afford and enjoy living in.
Bernie Madoff's Beach House Sells For $8.75 Million
By 9.17.09
An unidentified person has offered $8.75 million cash–more than the asking price–for Bernie Madoff’s beachfront home in Long Island. Bidders made sealed offers for the property, and the realtors say they won’t reveal any more details until after the deal closes. The house is supposedly very fancy, but if we lived there we’d just tear it up looking for hidden piles of cash. This is why we can never have anything nice.
Banker Uses Foreclosed Beach House For Totally Awesome Parties
By 9.12.09
It’s Saturday night! Let’s party! …But where? Oh, I know. I heard that there’s this foreclosed Malibu beach house where a Wells Fargo manager is having some killer parties. Well, at least until ACORN had to go and ruin everyone’s fun.
Bernard Madoff's Penthouse Now On Sale For $7.5 Million
By 9.9.09
If you’ve ever wanted to live like the King of Ponzi Schemes, now’s your chance. Bernard Madoff’s penthouse at 133 East 64th Street in New York is on the market, and can be yours for a mere $7.5 million. The U.S. Marshal Service, which is liquidating Madoff’s assets, gave a guided tour, and The New York Post captured it on video. Inside, a shoe closet to make Imelda Marcos jealous, Ruth and Bernie’s separate bedrooms, the shelves that once held monogrammed “BLM” shirts, and Deputy Marshal Roland Ubaldo doing his best Chad Rogers impression.
What Home Sale Listings Say, What They Mean
By 8.10.09
With real estate listings, every day is opposite day! The words are stretched so far from the truth that you could break it with a pebble. To help you navigate this real estate mire, the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents released a tongue-slightly-in-cheek report on Home Buying Euphemisms and Lingo, based on its members actual experiences. So here’s what you might read in the listing, and what they really mean:
This Is Timothy Geithner's Beautiful House – Not Selling
By 7.31.09
It’s a common enough story. A family puts their house up for sale after one of the parents gets a great job offer in another city. Sure, they bought the house at the peak of the housing bubble, but they refuse to sell for less than they paid. The house stays on the market for months on end.
Tenant Sued After Using Twitter To Complain About Moldy Apartment
By 7.28.09
If the the puiblic didn’t read Amanda Bonnen’s Twitter feed before, they will now, thanks to a defamation lawsuit brought against her by Horizon Group Management in Chicago.
Top 10 Best Places To Live In The US
By 7.13.09
If your priorities are in line with that of Money magazine and are looking to move, you’ll be glad to know that they have once again put together a list of the best places to call home in all of these United States. This year, Money set out to find “small towns across the country-those with populations of 8,500 to 50,000-where jobs are available, crime is low, schools are top-notch and housing is affordable.” Sounds dreamy. The top 10 inside.
Quick! Snap Up A Multi-Million-Dollar Home Before The Housing Market Corrects Itself!
By 6.30.09
If you’ve been following Consumerist religiously and have implemented all our money-saving tips then you will no doubt have saved enough cash by now for a down payment on the 13-bedroom, 9-fireplace Upper East Side home listed recently for $45 million. You didn’t? Well, Madonna beat you to it. And since this girlfriend doesn’t pay retail price for anything, she managed to get it at the sweet, sweet price of $32.5 million.
