This Could be an Opportunity for Some People to Buy

With the real estate market in shambles and homes entering foreclosure at record levels, this may not seem like a good time to enter the market as a home buyer. However, investors and individuals looking for a bargain are taking advantage of short sales, foreclosed properties, and lowered home valuations to get some good deals. In fact, recent months have actually seen an increase in home buying activity in the U.S., and there are a lot of reasons you may want to consider cashing in on this trend.

Motivated Sellers

Sellers are very motivated in this market and are willing to negotiate on a number of sales points including price reductions, property improvements and payment of closings costs to get a sale. If you qualify to buy a home in this tight credit market and plan on living in the home you buy for at least five years, this just may well be the right time to buy.

According to the National Association of Realtors’ housing affordability index (which measures the relationship between home prices, mortgage interest rates and family income) homes were more affordable in December of this past year (2008) than at any other point since the group started the index back in 1970. What does this all mean? Prices are at their lowest point in years. For example, listings for homes in the Las Vegas market have dropped by more than 50 percent.

Low Prices

Vegas isn’t the only U.S. city that is seeing this trend, either. A recent report from Moody’s Economy.com predicted that house prices will stabilize by the end of 2009, even though the Case-Shiller house price index will fall another 11 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008. By the end of this current real-estate downturn, prices are predicted to fall by double digits in almost 62 percent of the nation’s 381 metro areas. In 10 percent of the areas discussed in the report, declines will be more than 30 percent. Not every market will see these types of declines, however, so be careful to investigate the real estate valuations in the market where you plan to buy.

Plenty of Homes to Choose From

Because it is taking so long to sell homes in many markets, there is a lot of inventory to choose from out there. The variety of homes makes it a seller’s market, from short sales and foreclosures to new homes. There was a 9.6 month supply of unsold existing homes in January of 2009 in the U.S. according to the National Association of Realtors. For new homes, the inventory hit a 13.3-month supply at the end of January, according to the Commerce Department. Because there is such a vast supply of homes to choose from currently, prices are driven down even further, helping potential buyers out even more.

It’s difficult to say whether we’ve hit the bottom of the trough and are moving upwards or not, so buyers who are trying to time the market for when it reaches its lowest point before buying may have already missed their opportunity. The longer they wait, the smaller the inventory will be as well, leading many experts to believe that the time to buy is now.

Mortgage Rates and Tax Credits

Another big reason to buy now is the historically low rates currently being offered on home mortgages. Earlier in 2009, rates on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit a level unseen in decades, and rates have stayed relatively near that low figure to date. You’ll still need to have good credit and a substantial down payment to buy, so keep that in mind.

Another big incentive to buy is the federal credit of up to $8,000 for home buyers who haven’t owned a home in at least three years. Unlike the previous credit, this is money that doesn’t have to be paid back, either. The credit was originally set to expire at the end of October 2009 but was extended for another six months and expanded to include more potential buyers than before.

To further entice buyers, the income limit on the credit has been raised from $95,000 to $145,000 for an individual taxpayer and from $170,000 to $245,000 for joint filers. Also, the credit is no longer restricted to just first-time buyers. Previous homeowners can also qualify for a credit of up to $6,500, provided they’ve been in their home for five consecutive years and will make this new home their primary residence. The combination of price, value, inventory, and this extended and expanded tax credit make this the best time to buy a new home in decades.

written by REI Circle (www.reicircle.com)

China is predicted by some experts to become the largest economic player in the global economy within the next 10 years. Their dominance is already seen in the large number of products they produce each year to sell abroad to several countries, including the U.S. As a result of their growing economic base, the Chinese government is wary to slow their progress. Manufacturing and exports are not the only economic pistons driving the Chinese economy. There is another financial force are work – their real estate market.

That’s why the Chinese Government enacted aggressive stimulus measures a year ago to ensure that real estate bubbles in some of their largest cities don’t spread to other large metropolitan areas in China. Boasting almost a dozen major cities with populations of five million people or more, and three with populations greater than 10 million, the potential damage to the Chinese economy due to a depressed real estate market is staggering.

Chinese officials, wary of being drawn into the woes of the rest of the world economy, took measures to battle these possible real estate bubbles, which for the time being seem to be working. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been some price inflation in isolated cities, however. There is still a great deal of concern about the future of the Chinese real estate market during these tumultuous times. Speculation in the real estate market has been so helpful to the Chinese economy as a whole that it must be managed effectively to avoid possible disaster.

House prices have risen modestly, about 4 % in recent months. Some cities such as Shanghai have even seen increases closer to 7%, with the highest at almost 14% in the southern manufacturing district of Shenzhen. China is somewhat isolated from the types of problems that other countries have faced in the last year, though. The fundamental causes of the real estate collapse in the US and other countries are non-existent in China. Buyers in China may only borrow 70% of the price of a home and even less for second properties, eliminating the type of zero down payment ARM loans that sunk the US market and created the American real estate bubble. This, coupled with the growing need for housing in China, keep their real estate market healthy for most part.

The only worry for government officials now is that this boom market will lead to speculation that eventually creates more supply than demand. Surging prices for land in many Chinese cities also causes pressure for developers in the short term to make money without asking inordinately huge prices for their properties. Currently the market in China is doing much better than a year ago, due in large part to government regulation. A run of soaring property sales and rising prices during 2007 led the government to impose restrictions on real estate sales and lending. As a result, home prices peaked in 2008 and residential property sales were down 17% as developers running short on cash faced greater debts.

In response, a regulatory effort came in the form of a four-trillion Yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package launched back in November of 2008 with the aim of encouraging banks to lend more. The result was an increase in loans which brought with it a rise in the average house price. Some experts believe that a third of developers in China would have taken a serious hit if these stimulus measures weren’t taken. Because of the success of this regulatory intervention, the move was seen in an incredibly favorable light by many of China’s largest real estate developers, who are seeing larger revenue than they had predicted for 2009.

It’s uncertain whether the current concerns over possible real estate bubbles in China will warrant further government intervention in their real estate market. There is also some speculation over the long term effects of the 2008 stimulus on asset prices for the coming year. Large economic measures such as this may take on a life of their own and prove difficult to reverse if they lead to inflation in the real estate market throughout China further down the road.

written by REI Circle (www.reicircle.com)

Almost every big company has its own in-house experts. These experts have specific skills and knowledge that can prove useful in helping their colleagues and seniors. Locating in-house experts in a company is not an easy task and most companies end up making this tougher than it already is. Many problems remain unsolved and new innovations never get thought of and employees end up feeling that their potential is not being used properly by the organization. These things are very harmful for a business organization at any point in time.

Today, in tough economic situation, expertise locator systems have become very sought after in corporate IT. The basic problem is with the centrally managed effort, which most companies use for the purpose of locating experts. In such a set up, the system identifies and classifies experts in an easy to search database that holds the description of their expertise and knowledge. This approach has flaws because firstly, most large corporations are dynamic in nature; they are always changing in one way or the other.

Thus, the credentials of a so-called “expert” are always changing. Secondly, a centrally managed database offers no help in gauging the soft skills such as communication and reliability of a person. They only list their area of technical expertise. The database system currently in use cannot offer any help in this aspect without crossing ethnical and social limits.

The best answer to this problem of locating experts is usage of socio computing tools:

1. Internal blogs and Wikis: Employees maintain blogs to communicate and to organize their work. All types of messages can be posted on blogs. This way, technical knowledge and communication skills, both can be assessed. The basic function of expertise locator system helps its users to make enlightened choices regarding selection of an expert. The most commonly sought qualities are experience, communication skills, trustworthiness, extent of knowledge, and awareness of other subjects. Unlike current systems, blogs eliminate the need of relying on someone else’s judgment. Users can assess the blogs themselves. Another advantage of blogs is that they help the users to explore previously unlisted options.

By blogging, a blogger can display the window of his or her expertise. Wikis (WebPages) allow more than one user to add, delete or edit content. This application has become useful for sharing information and for collaboration in areas of software development. They can offer great insights about authors and editors whose articles are on display. They are one of the best sources of expertise identification.

2. Social Networking and Tagging: Social networking websites offer their members an opportunity to network based on common interests and professional relations. In a business setting, a social networking website can help employees look outside their department for expertise. This helps in breaking organizational barrier. An application that lists people who have worked together on projects in the past is also immensely helpful.

Tagging is also a potentially useful social tool. It refers to the affixing of keywords to the name, images, documents and pages of a certain person on the Internet. For an expertise locator system, employees of an organization can have tags to describe their work profiles, projects, hobbies and more.

Tags can be used for purpose of evaluating a person’s past helpfulness and his/her expertise. People can be tagged on their new areas of expertise from time to time.

Actions and interactions that take place in blogs, wikis and social networking websites provide subtle hints that are altogether absent from current expertise search system. A system that goes through blogs and social networks for information offers better information.

Thus, the social computing is a tool that can help organizations manage their in-house expertise better.

written by REI Circle (www.reicircle.com)