Buyers Reports

While the thought of paying a mortgage is more enticing than paying rent, it's important to understand all the costs involved in buying and owning a home as you determine whether you can afford to join the ranks of homeowners. Potential buyers sometimes forget to factor in the down payment, homeowners insurance and the possibility of depreciation, as well as the costs associated with closing the transaction, moving, purchasing major appliances, and home, landscape and pool maintenance, not to mention furnishings and design accessories once you move in…

Looking for a home in a community that's adapting well to the new economic order? Seek a region teeming with knowledge-based jobs and global trade. Look for a dynamic, fast-changing economy steeped in competition. And ferret out a digital economy built on an infrastructure of technological innovation. And don't forget, while regions that operate out of the economic box can be boons for your personal goals and global progress, they can just as quickly become outposts of economic volatility that wreak havoc on the best laid plans. Silicon Valley is a prime example. Ground zero for the new economy, Silicon Valley led the nation into its longest economic expansion ever. The region also led the nation into dot combustion when the bubble began to burst. The area emerges from recession fraught with economic uncertainty leaving it short of the top of the economic pecking order, according to "The 2002 State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States"…

If you've been waiting to get through the holidays and closer to warmer weather before beginning the search to buy your first home, you're not alone. The traditionally busy spring real estate season is just around the corner, meaning heavy competition looms. But there are things you can do as a potential homebuyer to get a head start. The number of home sales in 2002 shattered records with 5.56 million existing and 979,000 new homes sold throughout the country, according to National Association of Realtors chief economist David Lereah…

Once those formalities have been resolved, here are some suggestions. Let's assume your parents currently have $150,000 in liquid assets. Your purchase price is $150,000. Your parents can lend you the entire purchase price, and you will take title to the condominium in your name only. You will sign a promissory note, agreeing to repay this money over an agreed upon period of time. To secure payment of this note (and to allow you to deduct the mortgage interest for tax purposes) you will also have a deed of trust (the mortgage document) recorded against your property in favor of your parents…

If you're one of the growing numbers of homeowners opting for a condo, you shouldn't consider the buying process any different than if you are buying a single-family home - especially when it comes to the home inspection. With condo sales on the rise and buyers gravitating toward higher-priced units, putting the condo - and yourself - through the rigors of a home inspection will always be worth the investment. In April, May, and June this year some 831,000 existing condos and co-ops were sold, according to the National Association of Realtors. A co-op is an apartment building in which you own a share of a corporation whose main asset is the building in which you live…

Yearning for a brand, spanking new home but don't have any cash for a down payment? That may no longer be a problem under a new "strategic partnership" announced recently between the Nehemiah Corp. and the Homebuilders Financial Network. Under the terms of the alliance, Nehemiah will offer down payment assistance to cash-starved buyers who have their eyes on houses built by any of the 20 builders throughout the nation whose in-house mortgage operations are run by HFN…

Thinking about a second home? In 2001, nearly 6 percent of the record 6.2 million sales of single-family homes were of second homes. According to the most recent data, there were 3.6 million vacant seasonal homes in the third quarter of 2002, up from 3.1 million in 1990 and only 1.7 million in 1980, the U.S. Census Bureau said. "That category often is cited as the total number of vacation homes," David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, says. "However, we believe that assumption misses many recreational properties that are not vacant." Other census data show there are 9.2 million homes held by owners in addition to their primary residences…

As an increasing number of Americans are snatching up new homes at record levels and technology's role in the home-buying process continues to mount, many homebuyers are thrust into the position of buying their homes site unseen. The National Association of Home Builders reports that new-home sales in August reached a record 996,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis. "Very low interest rates and the widely held view that housing is a very good investment are largely responsible for the surge in new home sales," said NAHB President Gary Garczynski, a builder/developer from Woodbridge, Va. In addition, many home shoppers are relying on the Internet to conduct virtual tours of new-home plans and research home prices, availability, and options…

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). PMI is a monthly fee that the borrower pays if the first trust loan exceeds 80 percent of the purchase price. Since a lower down payment results in a statistically higher risk to the lender, PMI insures a portion of the loan to reduce the risk to the lender. Thanks to creative lenders, however, a borrower can still put as little as no money down and avoid PMI by taking out two loans. Ask your loan officer about loan packages with no PMI, sometimes called "piggy-back" financing…

A couple have been looking for the right house to buy for the last year or so. Property values have skyrocketed so we have been searching for well-priced "handyman specials", figuring we could buy at a good price and make improvements ourselves, over time. They found the perfect house in a great neighborhood for $230,000…