Archive for October, 2009
Home sales jump 9.4 percent to highest level in two years
Existing home sales jumped 9.4 percent in September to their highest level in two years, fueled by first-time home buyers pouncing on cheap prices and an $8,000 tax credit, according to industry data released Friday morning.
Help your family, but beware 'phantom interest'
Q I plan to lend my son and daughter-in-law $100,000 to assist them in buying their first home, a condominium in Maryland. I have heard about a legal concept called “imputed interest” and don’t want to get caught in some kind of Internal Revenue Service trap. Exactly what is “imputed interest?”
Where you park doesn't have to be scary
Halloween is when many children, willing to risk being scared, bravely venture into a makeshift haunted house at a neighborhood elementary school. All year round, grownups occasionally venture into another kind of potentially scary house: a shadowy parking garage.
Foreclosure bus maps the local real estate bust
Local real-estate agents make shopping for a foreclosed home easier with tour bus service.
Why you may want to own some renters insurance
Most renters either believe they can’t afford the insurance or don’t know about it.
Adjustable-mortgage resets could bring a nasty shock
Take a look around the corner. Millions of adjustable-rate mortgages are going to reset in the coming years, possibly to higher interest…
Variety of incentives available to pay for energy-efficient upgrades
As the weather turns chilly in many parts of the country, homeowners are looking at improvements to help them keep their energy costs down…
Homebuyer tax credit's impact exaggerated, analysts say
Congress is a step closer to extending the $8,000 first-time-homebuyer tax credit and offering a new credit to other types of buyers, but…
Architecture awards event at Benaroya Hall
The 59th annual Honor Awards hosted by The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle chapter, honors local architects.
Detroit ‘ice house’ to spotlight foreclosure crisis
A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one of Detroit’s thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region.