© Vladimir Voronin – Fotolia.com

Mark Zandi, chief economic analyst for Moody’s, ought to know better than most. Considered to be one of the nation’s leading economic authorities, he points to similarities between today’s “housing renaissance” and previous recoveries since World War II.

“A housing revival is key to any optimism about the broader economy and jobs,” explains Zandi to the Washington Post.

“Now that housing is finally getting its bearings, it will turn from an economic headwind into a tailwind and become a significant source of jobs. There will be more construction jobs, construction-related manufacturing jobs, transportation and distribution jobs, retailing jobs, financial services jobs and a range of service jobs from cable hookups to landscaping. A better housing market is the principal missing link to a better job market.”

That’s a pretty bold statement to make, even with the present signs of optimism all around us, but Zandi argues that driving this is the fact that owning a home hasn’t been so attractive in years, something that will tempt growing numbers of people to do what it takes to buy. While tight credit standards are holding some back (for now), those that can obtain are taking advantage of low housing prices and super-low interest rates. Zandi also points to another factor – increasing rents – that leads many to think that buying makes more sense from a financial perspective.

Federal Budget Discretionary Spending – chart courtesy of National Priorities Project, Inc.

But how much of this is really “defense” and how much of it is related to our modern policy of geo-political intervention?

If we are going to start wars or enter existing wars, I’d like to see us plan to win them instead of dragging them out endlessly. Personally I think that one of the great travesties of our modern age is the way that we’ve stopped winning wars, and instead concentrate on operating them as open ended geo-political businesses. We send our country’s bravest and finest into wars that they are not allowed to win, facing enemies that they are often not allowed to even shoot at. This isn’t as much a defense of the nation as it is old fashioned “gun-boat diplomacy“.

President Dwight Eisenhower was prophetic in his farewell speech to the nation, when he said:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”

It would appear from the chart shown above, that this is exactly what has happened. And not only has this so called military-industrial-complex grown, it is now consuming 58% of all federal discretionary spending. In short, the M-I-C has become the biggest government subsidized “business” in the United States. And now that major cuts in it’s budget are looming, everyone is crying that this is a calamity that must be avoided.

Don’t get me wrong. I support a strong defense, but where does defense spending legitimately end? I do agree that President Ronald Reagan used a strong military build up to force the Soviet Union into capitulation in the late 1980′s. But we had more money back then, and basically were able to out-spend the soviets. Once the cold-war was won, what were we to do with our vast military industrial complex? Bush I, Bill Clinton, Bush II and now president Obama have all seen the need to start or continue various military actions around the world, in response to various perceived geo-political situations.

When you have a large military presence, there seems to be some overriding need to find a place to use it. As a result we’ve seen one “justifiable” military action after another, with little benefit to the US as a result. If we are going to have a military as our largest industrial employer, we need to see some bang for our buck. Funding endless wars such as Afghanistan, with no political will to win, is keeping the military in business, but at a horrible cost in US lives, with virtually nothing to show for it.

Is war too big a business to be allowed to fail? © Oleg_Zabielin – Fotolia.com

The Iraq war, many claimed, was supposedly to get oil. But did we get any of it? Donald Trump famously argued that we did not know how to take advantage of our wars to get some of the spoils for ourselves. I suppose he was right.
But at the end of the day, we did keep the military-employment and contractor machine busy, which in and of itself adds to jobs in the US.

Now we stand at the edge of the fiscal cliff, and no one is yelling about the fallout more than the military industrial complex. I don’t have to link to any reports of how many defense and military related jobs will be lost if those cuts in defense spending take place. They will. The housing market will definitely suffer in areas that are most dependent on military activity. So will local businesses located near military installations.

Franklin Roosevelt, it is thought by many, actually knew about, and allowed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, as a way to get the U.S. into WWII, which effectively ended the great depression. World War brought big business and manufacturing which ignited an economy that had been struggling with depression for over a decade. A recession quickly followed the end of that war, in 1945.

Many, if not most of our recessions in the 20th century have come after a war ended. Major recessions occurred after WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the end of the cold war in 1988. War, whether justified or not, results in more employment and manufacturing in the U.S.

I don’t doubt that the looming cuts in defense spending will have a drastic impact on our economy, at least in the short term, and yes it might put us back into a recession. From the perspective of the defense industry, one of the nations largest employers, the business of war is too big and too important to our economy to be allowed to fail.

Donna S. Robinson is a real estate investor, author and the wife of a US Army veteran. Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults. Her latest book, Basics Of Real Estate Investing is now available on Amazon.

Given below are five suggestions, which will hopefully make your task a lot easier.

1.Don’t Let Emotions Sway Your Business Decisions – Many times,  people commit the cardinal mistake of hiring a realtor, simply because      he/she relates to them on an emotional ground. It might be that your  nephew has just entered the real estate market and would want you to be      his first customer. Some other times, you might come across particular real estate agents who request you to give them a chance even though they      lack the qualification or essential experience of making great sales in the past.

At these times, try to keep a calm mind and only hire somebody who has a good history of making sales. Always remember that there is no place in business for leniency and your first priority should be your own gains.

2. Get references, before you hire somebody – So, you have met a  certain realtor who has made a great impression on you. In fact, he is  also the only realtor who agrees with your irrationally high selling price. You can’t wait to hire him and set the ball of sale rolling. Have you, however, got a second opinion? A common mistake that many people make, when they hire a realtor, is that they go by appearances.

The real estate market is very competitive and a realtor would pull out all the stops to get hired by you. Therefore, it is essential for you to do a bit of background research and find out what past clients have to say about a realtor. In fact, you are also legitimate in demanding a profile of most recent sales that a realtor has made. In this way, you can avoid getting duped by your faulty judgment.

3. Don’t rely on promises of low commissions – Many amateur realtors work with very low commissions. Yet, they lack the skill or expertise for making a great sale for you. On the other hand, a truly outstanding realtor may charge a high fee for his services but the profits that he will generate for you will definitely balance out such high commissions.

4. Hire your realtors from a reputed company – There are many  prestigious real estate companies operating in miami beach. So, rather hire such companies to make a sale for you. With the assistance of these companies,  you can be sure to get a great deal for your property, including those sunny isles condos that you are hoping to sell at a great price.

The industry is thriving with many real estate agents each of whom claims to be the best at his game. In such a situation, it might be difficult for you to hire the right person to sell your real estate assets, by a high margin of profit. If you follow the above suggestions, however, you will surely end up hiring a great realtor.

Brenda Lyttle is an enthusiastic custom home builder. She loves her job as she helps people frame out their dream homes from their imaginary canvas into reality.

© Stephen VanHorn – Fotolia.com

But this year, I find myself wondering whether I should plan to take some educational courses in 2013 or just go ahead and kill myself. I’m torn between being totally positive about our country and our spirit of determination versus a constant series of dooms day scenarios.

The talk shows on the financial and news channels parade an endless variety of “experts”, “strategists” and politicians who can be counted on to argue constantly about whether we are experiencing the growing pains of the worlds brightest and most successful nation or this is actually a real crisis so severe that we all need to dig a hole and crawl in it.

I’m weary of the endless arguments that never bear any fruit. It’s just a jumble of information and opinions. Very little actual truth or clear, unbiased, documented facts. But it’s great for TV ratings and government program creation when everyone is up in arms over something – anything.

From my perspective, it is pretty clear that this whole entire mess has been gradually created by Federal entities over many decades of our existence. From the original income tax, created to pay for the civil war, to the birth of the Fed in 1913, social security, medicare, medicaid, fiat money, wars, deficit spending, pet programs created with “government money”, along with the resulting special interests that were created to take advantage of various opportunities to get “government money”.

It seems to me that the collective federal government authorities and their cronies on Wall Street and the Federal Reserve are clearly responsible for this, if we are, in fact, standing at a fiscal cliff. On the other hand, if we’re not, it wouldn’t be the first crisis we’ve averted. These things are getting to be old hat. So either we really are in serious financial trouble, as half the experts say, or times are getting better and better so don’t worry, be happy, as the other half of the experts say.

Or perhaps politicians and wall street have figured out that crises are a great way to justify funneling public money into programs contrived to benefit fellow cronies and supporters. After all, the fix for every single crisis has been more money, more money and more money. Everyone has a crisis that needs more money in order to fix it. I suppose if we just let Ben Bernanke actually drop more money from helicopters, we can eventually fix every single problem we have.

How is it that the same organization that spent years creating the collective mess, the organization that created the very deadline we are facing, are going to somehow fix this entire problem over some eggnog at a Christmas – er – holiday party? I think we’ve lost our collective minds if we remotely believe that a meaningful solution is going to happen before new years day. But so what? Everyone has apparently forgotten that we’ve still got to get through the “gateway to the next epoch” on December 21, 2012. The media and the government seem to have totally overlooked the Mayan calendar crisis. Heck, we may not even have to worry about the fiscal cliff.

I’m not happy about the fact that I can’t be happy. I am generally happy but all these crises are bringing me down. It’s a bummer. But I think that come January of 2013, the sky may not fall, even if the stock market does. Does anyone remember Y2K? I spent 3 months filling-in the hole I had dug to hide in before we went over the digital cliff. The nation spent years getting ready for that one, and nothing happened. Nothing. Half the experts I polled agreed that there was never a real Y2K crisis to begin with, and the other half of experts from the tech sector said the cliff was averted by the billion-zillion dollars we spent to reprogram or replace our old computers. Doomsday narrowly avoided once again.

Here’s my suggestion to those who are “working tirelessly” to get this done: The federal government already uses accounting methods that are illegal in the private sector, to come up with numbers and budget projections that are designed to disguise or cover up reality. There’s no real accuracy in any federal method of accounting, estimating the size of our deficit or the real inflation rate or anything else that actually requires a real number.

So, just make something up. That’s all you have time to do. With 4 weeks left in the year, and only about 10 actual working days in there somewhere, all you can do is whip up a few spreadsheets and cryptic regulations with more of the standard government planning and accounting that always makes things look OK, even if it is total nonsense. So, in a nutshell, just fix it. You’ve been making up numbers and regulations for a very long time already. Just make up a few more and get a press release out on pressrelease.com or twitter – We know you aren’t capable of actually fixing the problem anyway, because you’ve all been creating one crisis after another for years now. Don’t expect me to spend my new years eve hiding in a bunker watching cable news. Enough already.

The bottom line is that if this is a real crisis, you’ve already blown numerous opportunities to work it out. You’ve already spent millions on commissions, planning sessions and studies, with absolutely nothing to show for it. The taxpayers have no reason to expect you to suddenly come up with a real solution now.

Or, when disaster is averted on new years eve with yet another grand, new plan that calls for lots more money, it may be more proof that this latest crisis and most others have been created by the “powers-that-be” in order to facilitate more power, along with more money for you and your buddies.

Any way you slice it, expecting the feds to fix any crisis that they’ve created themselves is like expecting that the arsonist who started the fire can be counted on to put it out, and that the folks who gave him the matches will be happy about it.
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Donna S. Robinson is a real estate investor, author and residential market analyst located in Atlanta, GA. Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults. Her latest book, Basics Of Real Estate Investing is now available on Amazon.

The 2012 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reveals that 65 percent of all buyers are married couples. Two years ago, just 58 percent of buyers were married.

“We’ve known for some time that stringent mortgage credit standards have been holding back home sales, but these findings show single buyers have been hurt the most over the past two years,’ said Paul Bishop, NAR vice president of research. “The study is painting a clearer picture of the impact of mortgage limitations.   Total home sales would be 10 to 15 percent higher without these unnecessary headwinds.”

“The continued growth in married couples as single buyers shrink demonstrates that households with dual incomes are more successful in obtaining a mortgage.  However, given the historically favorable housing affordability conditions, most single-income buyers could also purchase a home and stay well within their means, if lending requirements were more sensible,” Bishop said.

The median age of the first-time buyer was 31 and the median income was $61,800. And what did that get them? A 1,600 square-foot home that costs $154,100. The average repeat buyer was 51, earned $93,100, and bought a 2,100-square foot home that cost $220,000.

The biggest factors influencing neighborhood choice were:

• Quality of the neighborhood, cited by 61 percent of buyers
• Convenience to jobs, 43 percent
• Overall affordability of homes, 39 percent
• Convenience to family and friends, 35 percent
• Neighborhood design and convenience to shopping, 26 percent each
• Quality of the school district, 25 percent
• Convenience to schools, 22 percent
• Convenience to entertainment or leisure activities, 19 percent

Buyers are also heavily swayed by the commute time and cost of gas from their home; 75 percent of buyers said transportation costs were important.

Some 30 percent said the biggest reason people buy a home is the simple desire to own a home of their own. That included 60 percent of first-time buyers.  The next biggest reasons for buying were desire for a larger home, cited by 11 percent of respondents; a job-related move, 9 percent; a change in family situation, 8 percent; and the affordability of homes, 7 percent.

Not only have prices slightly stabilized, but they also indicate that the coming two years will continue along these same positive lines. Additionally, the survey’s abstract explains that one factor which might negatively impact other sectors of the economy will prove particularly beneficial when it comes to real estate. Specifically, the dynamics of the stock market, which is on the move and somewhat volatile, are set to determine increases in popularity among investors for both the commercial and the residential sector.

The survey is not one which polls the general population, but experts from the industry: managers of property funds, valuers, financers and analysts. It targets the three major east coast capitals (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) and attempts to determine the market’s development cycle over the two following years. For the coming cycles, increase is expected in all sectors for all capitals, with the exception of retail property in Brisbane and Sydney, which are currently “at the bottom of the cycle.”

What is more, prices for residential property in Sydney are expected to rise over the 2012-2014 period. Not only is an increase expected, but the API survey also found that the similar markets of the two other capitals are not likely to catch up in rate of growth over the next two years. This is not to say that the situation is entirely bleak in Melbourne and Brisbane. Melbourne and Sydney markets are comparable to say the least, in terms of growth.

An even more substantial increase in the commercial segment is expected to take place in Melbourne for the 2012-2013 year, while Brisbane is, indeed, lagging a little behind its traditional competitors. At the same time, Brisbane is expected to display the biggest price increase by 2014—its industrial real estate segment will most likely surpass the performance of the other two capitals over the following two years.

The rate of growth in residential property is still slow, but it is steady. It’s not just investors’ return that the industry experts are awaiting, with renewed enthusiasm and a much-needed, long awaited infusion of capital. Individual buyers are also returning to the table, as home loans are available to them from an increasing number of sources. Analysts indicate that the market is competitive, given the number of lenders and their many offers, yet they advise that comparing as many offers as possible is still the best route to take. We gave their piece of advice a test run and compared home loan offers on Bankwest.com.au, and found that online loans come with special terms, available only via the Internet, for instance.

The situation might not seem as rosy in Melbourne, where the number of home auction listings has continued to fall and is currently at much lower levels than the ones posted around the same time last years. However, the outlook is not all that dire for the Victorian capital either—while API expert’s state that prices will continue to fall on residential property, while also dragging down industrial and commercial property, others disagree.

According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, recent figures indicate that the residential sector in Melbourne has already hit ‘rock bottom.’ REIV representatives claim that prices have already fallen to their lowest low, and will soon begin a timid, yet determined upswing movement, set to restore investor faith and put the minds of sellers and buyers at ease.

by Kimberly Mahr/Flickr

Statistics in US economy point that increasing number of families are being raised by single mothers and this has been due to rapidly changing and fast moving lifestyles. Around 35% of homes in US have single parents as the occupants and approximately another 40% of these homes are monetarily balanced by single mothers who are living below the national poverty structure.

There are different types of home loans available to single mothers, but many a times loan application is just disapproved, For example, if the single mothers are forwarding their home loan application to the banks for securing home loans, it is very likely that their application will be rejected. It is because banks usually consider single mothers as high risk borrowers. But there is still hope left as single mothers can secure several other effective loan options. There are also several of the other government aided home loan programs which will ensure quick and easy loan facility and at the end help in buying the new home for all the reasons and benefits.

Listed below are some of the federal home loan programs which are exclusively designed for single mothers so that they become home owners and raise the family comfortably as well as make a permanent asset:

Housing and Urban Development – This agency will not in actuality provide direct home loan to the single mothers,  but on the contrary offer instant loan guarantees for borrowers who are otherwise finding it too difficult for the bank home loans. In short, the housing and urban development agency works significantly towards bringing valuable changes in the lifestyle and adding to the prospects of the single mothers.

Look for FHA Loan – Single mothers are offered financial assistance through the route of FHA. It works on the principles of housing and urban development and after you have been approved for this loan, you will also become eligible for the bank home mortgage loan. It is a kind of win win situation for the home loan buyers, especially, if the buyers are single mothers who are just more than willing to buy a home.

Housing Choice Vouchers Program - This special housing program is also based and assisted by Housing and Urban Development designed exclusively for single moms who really want to buy a home for their family members and want to give a completely independent life to her family. The housing choice vouchers program is a state specific program, and therefore, it is quite necessary that single mother looks in detail on the terms and conditions.  Though the program is not made strictly for single mothers, definitely, the program will help mothers to purchase homes with this route of financial assistance.

With home loan finance modalities available, you can definitely make the right choice and bring the best of everything. Women’s Business Grant, an individual is expected to provide complete details of assets and corpus of business to the government body. The government authorities will then verify the required documents and other essentials before approving the loan.

This guest post is written by “Carol William” who contributes to a website which provides housing assistance for single mothers.

Image/freedigitalphotos.net

Existing home sales rose 7.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.82 million in August from 4.47 million in July. Comparing year to year, August sales this year were 9.3 percent higher than August 2011.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said favorable buying conditions get the credit. “The housing market is steadily recovering with consistent increases in both home sales and median prices. More buyers are taking advantage of excellent housing affordability conditions,” he said. “Inventories in many parts of the country are broadly balanced, favoring neither sellers nor buyers. However, the West and Florida markets are experiencing inventory shortages, which are placing pressure on prices.”

The national median existing-home price for all types of housing rose 9.5 percent to $187,400 from August 2011 to August 2012. The August increase was the strongest since January 2006 when the median price rose 10.2 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the NAHB reports that builder confidence in the market for new homes rose for the fifth month in a row. In September the level rose to 40, marking the index’s highest rating since June 2006.

“This fifth consecutive month of improvement in builder confidence provides further assurance that the housing market is moving in a positive direction, but there’s still a long way to go on the road to recovery and several obstacles are slowing our progress,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. “In particular, unnecessarily tight credit conditions are preventing many builders from putting crews back to work – which would create needed jobs — and discouraging consumers from pursuing a new-home purchase.”

The survey, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, conducted for the past 25 years, gauges builder perception of home sales and sales expectations for the upcoming six months. Any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

And more good news for buyers: the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage dropped to 3.49 percent with a .6 point this week, according to Freddie Mac. The average 15-year fixed rate mortgage came in at 2.77 percent with a .6 point.

Michele Dawson is a freelance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona. She spent seven years as a newspaper reporter and has written for various magazines and web sites specializing in real estate and home improvement, including Realty Times, SmartHomeowner, California Builder, and the Sacramento Business Journal.

Image courtesy Ricardo Carreon via flickr

The plan is to purchase $40 BILLION per month in Mortgage Backed Securities “until such time as unemployment reaches an acceptable level”. But Bernanke’s statement omitted any direct benchmark as to what an “acceptable” unemployment number would be. And, the big question that few in the main stream media have asked is “How in heck will purchasing MBS’s have a direct impact on unemployment?” But I suppose the answer is that as long as you protect the big banks from collapsing under the weight of mortgage assets that are worth less than one-half of their face value, you are essentially protecting the economy from further job losses. This post from John Wu helps explain what Bernanke is really doing.

Everyone at the Fed is well aware of how unpopular another trillion dollar banking bailout would be if the public actually KNEW that the taxpayers were about to pony up another 2 or 3 trillion dollars to help the banks out, not to mention politically unpopular in a big election year.

So, Bernanke is doing this for “the man on the street” to help grow more jobs and reduce unemployment. It’s the one angle that the public will tolerate, and besides most people have no idea what Mortgage Backed Securities are, and how buying them actually impacts the economy.

We’ve had QE1, QE2, and Operation Twist since November of 2008, growing the FED balance sheet by TRILLIONS of dollars. Yet unemployment is still above 8% “Officially”, while private analysts using real numbers (not government accounting gimmicks), placed the unemployment level for August 2012 at 22.8%.

Housing is still in the tank. Mortgage credit is still very difficult to obtain, and home sales have improved only marginally. At present mortgage rates are around their lowest level since 1956, yet this has failed to jump-start the housing market. It’s very difficult to see how buying trillions more in MBS’s will result in a different outcome than we’ve already seen.

No, the real strategy here is to cover up a second bailout of banks and the bad assets they are holding. When Bernanke says “prices are not rising”, or “Inflation remains low” he’s not referring to YOUR food prices or YOUR inflation rate, he’s referring to the value of bank owned mortgage’s or Mortgage Backed Securities. In his world, inflation is non-existent and deflation is the real problem. If you live atop the banking and finance pyramid, as Bernanke does, you see the problem in a totally different light.

Bernanke obviously believes that saving “main-street” means funneling money to the big banks for as long as necessary. And that’s exactly what an open-ended QE3 is really about. It’s a very dangerous position Bernanke is taking. The market fundamentals that are keeping home values low and delinquency rates high are like a tidal wave which Bernanke seems to believe he can hold back with a large bucket of sand.

In fact, Reggie Middleton, of BoomBustBlog.com has called Bernanke out on this and says that Bernanke is “lying through his teeth“. The general media just accepts it as if it were a normal occurrence. Middleton further points out that if Bernanke were interested in reducing unemployment, he could purchase SBA bonds and funnel the money directly into loans for small business, and hit the unemployment problem directly at the business level.

Instead Bernanke has chosen to force interest rates even lower, continue to prop up the banks, and buy MBS’s for as long as it’s needed. The direct beneficiary of this policy is the big banks who will be unloading their mortgages at what will likely be a much better price than they’d get if they were forced to sell them on the open market.

So the same game of hiding toxic assets, that began with the 2008 crisis is continuing today – pump up the banks and hope that the housing market and broader economy begins to recover before the dollar totally collapses.
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Donna S. Robinson is a real estate market analyst, investor, author and speaker in Atlanta, GA Follow her on twitter at donnaconsults and read her blog at her website: RealtyBizConsulting.com

Image Courtesy of In This Economy

Without including all the technicalities that can account for such a rise, it should be significant enough to note default notices, auctions, and especially repossessions totaled 193,508 in August alone. The research firm documented that some 20 states reported increases in foreclosure related activities, Illinois being at the top of the national list. One in every 298 housing units there has some kind of foreclosure filing associated with it.

California and Florida also remained high on the list of state with the worst foreclosure rates. New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Illinois, and Pennsylvania were not far behind in the dubious category either. The heat map from RealtyTrac below shows the foreclosure picture state by state.