A home along the road to recovery.
Freedom House offers a detox center, men”s and women”s halfway houses and counseling programs. On Friday, it celebrated the opening of two new buildings that cost $2.7 million.One houses a commercial kitchen, cafeteria and meeting space. The other replaces two small detox buildings with a new center able to serve 21 clients, with a family room for when relatives visit.The quiet Chapel Hill complex is located at 104 New Stateside Drive near a neighborhood and a park. Men relax in rocking chairs on a porch.Small tomato plants grow in a vegetable garden next to the women”s halfway house.In 2008, Freedom House served 6,048 clients in Chapel Hill and its centers in Durham, Chatham, Person and Caswell counties.Some come because a judge sent them. Others come in crisis, straight from the police station or the ER in the middle of the night.And some, like Autry-Corbett, come voluntarily.But detox alone is not a lasting solution, said director Trish Hussey.’They”re not going to maintain their recovery, they”re going to relapse,’ she said.That”s where the halfway houses and support programs come in.more
Deadline nears for paying second-half property taxes in Idaho.
Monday, June 22, is the last day for Idaho property owners to pay their property taxes for the second half of 2008 without delinquent charges being added.
Taxes can be paid at your county treasurer?s office or mailed. Payments must be postmarked with a US Postal Cancellation Mark ? a postage meter is not acceptable postal cancellation.
If you have recently closed a business, purchased property or believe you may owe taxes, call your county treasurer?s office to make sure you do not miss the deadline. In Canyon County, call 454-7354. In Ada County, call 287-6800.
Failure to pay on time will result in a late charge of 2 percent and interest of 1 percent per month dating from Jan. 1, 2009. For any property assessed on the personal property tax rolls, if not paid by the due date, state law requires that a warrant of distraint be issued to the county sheriff, instructing him to seize and sell enough property to satisfy the tax.more
How to block the next real estate bubble.
There”s so much talk about how Israeli real estate is an island of stability in the roiling world market, that one has to wonder whether the very complacency contains the seeds of the next real estate bubble.
Bubbles form precisely under the conditions of utter faith in the future: the feeling that what was, will continue to be, and that an uptrend will stay around forever. And when a given market stands firm in the face of a planet-wide storm, as the local real estate market has, the danger of complacency is all the more acute. .more
Stockton, Valley touted as a disaster waiting to happen.
As property values plunge, property tax revenues decline, governments struggle to function. Banks close, or freeze lending. Business cannot access capital. Commerce withers. Foreclosures rise. Whole families become homeless. People lose hope.
Even Republicans skeptical of federal bailouts appeared aghast at the Valley”s dire straits. They were ‘astounded and shocked,’ in the words of one congressman.
‘It”s nothing but a nightmare,’ Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus said.
Bachus seemed to have a light bulb moment about the Valley”s combination of crisis and perpetual neglect.
He mentioned New Orleans after Katrina. ‘Unfortunately for you, the television cameras are not trained there every day,’ he sympathized. ‘If they were, I think people would be demanding a solution.’
The solution proposed by Cardoza and Costa is legislation that would authorize the President to declare Economic Disaster Areas and rescue them with federal funds.more
In Hindsight: Is there any hope for Silicon Valley”s home, job.
For that matter, Silicon Valley”s real estate market is still in grim shape, at least according to the latest foreclosure and default data from ForeclosureRadar. Foreclosures in Santa Clara County jumped 63 percent from the month before in April to 480. And the number of homeowners who received default notices because they were behind on their mortgages was higher, too. ‘There”s a big backlog of homes scheduled for foreclosure, in default, not making payments, or with negative equity,’ ForeclosureRadar CEO Sean O”Toole told a Merc reporter. ‘All of those numbers are far higher than they should be in a healthy housing market.’
Wednesday
When happy days are here again, can anything be done to make sure we avoid a repeat of this Great Recession? In our nation”s capital, President Barack Obama proposed creating a new agency that would oversee consumers” interactions with the banking industry and giving the Federal Reserve new power over the financial sector.more
Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) PriceWatch Alert Support.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities (NYSE: ARE) closed yesterday at $34.58. So far the stock has hit a 52-week low of $30.48 and 52-week high of $116.50. Alexandria Real Estate Equities stock has been showing support around 32.58 and resistance in the 36.26 range. Technical indicators for the stock are Bearish and S&P gives ARE a positive 4 STAR (out of 5) buy rating. ARE appears on the Investors Observer Hedged Dividend Income list. For a hedged play on this stock, look at a Jul “09 30 covered call (ARE GF) for a net debit in the $28.88 area. That is also the break even stock price for this trade. This covered call has a 50 day duration, provides 16.48% downside protection and a 3.88% assigned return rate for a 28.31% annualized return rate (comparison purposes only). Alexandria Real Estate Equities has a current annual dividend yield of 9.09%.more
Housing market making a comeback.
Omaha”s housing market continues to show signs of a comeback, but one Omaha real estate official says the local industry should remain cautious about the recovery.
For the third straight month, home sales under contract were up compared to the same month last year, according to statistics from the Omaha Area Board of Realtors. With 1,101 homes under contract in an area predominantly covering Douglas and Sarpy Counties, May was the area”s best month for pending sales since May 2007.
In April, housing permits for single-family homes in the Omaha metro area increased compared to the prior year, according to estimates from the U.S. Commerce Department. That represented the first increase in seven months.
Meanwhile, the supply of homes on the market is down compared to previous years — another positive sign at a time when demand is increasing.more
Romania Headed toward National Bankruptcy.
The real estate market has virtually ceased to exist. Transaction has decreased by 90 percent, and credit for real estate has frozen. (Only ten people have received bank loans for real estate investment in 2009.) Price slides have made fortunes disappear. Prices have dropped from 3,000 euro per square meter in 2007 to below 300 in May 2009.
This collapse has affected financial and investment markets and provoked a huge storm of bankruptcy. In the leasing field, the number of firms has been cut in half, and a new tax system has caused a wave of closing down small enterprises.
Bank system failure
In January, the general manager of Raiffeissen Bank announced that he will be forced to close operations in Eastern Europe without Romanian support. Central Europe Bank made a similar announcement, and National Bank suspects that ten of its major banks will close within two years.more
Facing foreclosure? Modify your mortgage, local real estate.
Local real estate experts are reaching out to homeowners fearing foreclosure with options to avoid losing their homes.
One new option is to modify your mortgage. President Obama”s Making Home Affordable program is attempting to help as many as 9 million U.S. homeowners refinance or modify their home loans. To qualify, mortgage holders must be an owner-occupant of a one- to four-unit property. The loan must have been originated on or before Jan. 1 and has an unpaid principle balance of no more than $729,750 for one unit properties –higher limits apply to multiple units. The mortgage payment must exceed 31 percent of gross monthly income, and the payment is not affordable because of a change in income or expenses.
Gov. Pat Quinn has approved a 90-day grace period for those facing foreclosure to work with lenders and housing counselors to avoid losing their homes.more
Tax credits boosting home purchases.
‘It”s the same as them buying this house for $100,900,’ said Jack Rhoads, a real estate broker at Murney & Associates who sold the couple the home.
Plus, with near-record low interest rates and a plethora of empty homes to choose from, it”s a buyer”s market.
‘Three years ago they wouldn”t have found a house this nice for (that price),’ said Rhoads, a 31-year veteran of the real estate business.
The McDowells will get the tax credit next spring after they file their 2009 federal income tax return.
‘We”re going to use the tax credit for updates or maintenance on the home,’ said Tim McDowell, 32.
Springfield-area real estate agents credit this provision in the federal economic stimulus bill with helping the local real estate market rebound after being battered by the national subprime mortgage crisis.more