Home Equity

Cash in your home - Equity release schemes from channel4.com/4Money E4 More4 FilmFour FourDocs TV Listings Site A-Z NEWS FILM HOMES LIFE ENTERTAINMENT HISTORY SCIENCE COMMUNITY SHOP SPORT CULTURE CARS MONEY VIDEO LEARNING HEALTH MUSIC GAMES Home On TV Compare & Buy Mortgages & Homebuying Smart Money Banking & Saving Borrowing & Spending Insurance Tax & Pensions Funny Money Forum Latest features Mortgages and homebuying features Special features Guide to renting & letting Homebuying guides Property buying Property selling Remortgage How much can I borrow Conveyancing What mortgage type Flexible mortgage Choose an interest rate type Decide a repayment method Cut your bills Gas & electricity Home phone Digital TV Mobile phone Broadband Top tools Mortgage calculator Overpayment calculator Stamp duty calculator Payments calculator Money jargon A-Z Compare and Buy 400 Loans 300 Credit Cards 7000 Mortgages 1000 Saving Accounts 300 Current Accounts Subject to Moneysupermarket .com Terms Money Books Latest personal finance books Share money tips Share your money tips Cash in your home - Equity release schemes next Older homeowners who struggle on the State Pension are also living in properties which have soared in value in recent years. Sarah Jagger looks at how you can unlock the value in your home. With the average house price in England and Wales now standing at £151,467, according to Halifax figures, people may be not be aware of the true value of their home. One of the simplest ways to release equity – the difference between what you owe on a mortgage and the value of your home - is to sell it and buy a smaller, cheaper property. This isn’t always practical or acceptable though. There are lenders who will advance mortgages to older customers, including the Norwich & Peterborough, Nationwide and Halifax. However, once people reach retirement they might find it difficult to keep up monthly payments, and could be worried about what would happen if one partner died. Equity release plans, also known as home reversion or home income plans or, increasingly, lifetime mortgages –are a way of unlocking this equity or wealth, whether to buy a new car, to pay for a holiday or home improvements, or simply to make day-to-day ends meet. These schemes essentially allow you to borrow money against the value of your home, with the debt being repaid from the sale proceeds after your death. Next: How equity release schemes work and the types available next About C4 | Jobs | Text Only | Access Advice | Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy | Help | Online Ad Sales

Florida Real Estate Bubble

Florida Real Estate Bubble Stock Market Crash History Bear Market Forecasting Stock Market Crash! - The authority on the market crash phenomenon Home | Site Map | Blog | News Term Glossary | Book Review | Bear Market Sites Florida Real Estate Bubble The 1920’s, in America, were a time of great prosperity. Skilled and educated working Americans had jobs providing numerous fringe benefits, paid vacations and pensions. In addition, automobiles were becoming commonplace for the wealthy and middle class allowing cross country travel. This good fortune set the stage for the Florida real estate bubble . Starting in 1920, many Americans became enamored by the materialistic and prosperous lifestyle of the time. During this time, the stock market was moving forward at an extremely fast pace. Many investors were becoming quite wealthy. Florida became a hot spot for these newly rich people, who didn’t enjoy the cold. Many whole families took vacations to Florida. It was at this point that tourism started booming and land prices were skyrocketing. Many astute investors took notice and started buying Florida real estate. The population in Florida was growing exponentially and housing couldn’t meet the demand. Florida became the “playground of the rich and famous”. Illegal casinos and drinking parlors became widespread in Miami. At this point, almost anybody could invest in Florida, even without much money. Credit was plentiful and soon everybody in Florida was either a real estate investor or a real estate agent. In 1922, the Miami Herald became the heaviest newspaper in the world as a result of its humongous real estate advertisements. People in the North heard about the real estate prices “doubling and tripling”, causing a snowball effect. Capital was rapidly pumped into the real estate market. Whole golf communities were developed, such as Temple Terrace. Resorts and retirement communities were developed almost overnight. Mansions were sprawling in every area, as were swimming pools. As always, waterfront property was the most desirable. Florida was seen as a veritable Utopia. Real estate prices quadrupled in less than one year. An elderly man invested $1,700 in property and by 1925 the property was worth over $300,000! It seemed you could do no wrong by just buying any property in Florida and become a millionaire. By 1925, real estate prices had become so exorbitant that buying land wasn’t affordable any longer. New investors failed to arrive and old investors started to sell. Panic arrived, as it always does, and the real estate market crashed. Prices kept moving downwards as heavily indebted investors tried to sell to avoid bankruptcy . In most cases, no buyers arrived, and the investors were bankrupt from the enormous mortgages. To make matters even worse, a highly destructive hurricane ravaged South Florida in September 1926. The 125 mile an hour winds eventually turned Palm Beach County into swamp lands. After the storm, a huge tidal wave crashed upon the towns of Belle Glade and Moore Haven. Due to these horrible turn of events, over 13,000 homes were destroyed and 415 people died. Additionally, the arrival of the Mediterranean fruit fly obliterated the large citrus industry. It took years for Florida to fully recover, even through the highly prosperous time from 1925 to 1929. Florida was barely affected in the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression , because of its poor financial state from the start. Market crashes always occur in the same manner. Regardless of the market, the same simple psychological underpinnings are always at work. People who are caught up in a bubble never look back for historical examples. For this folly, they become paupers. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Links to other Florida Real Estate Bubble Websites The Biggest Market Crashes in History: The Florida Real Estate Bubble Bear Market Articles • What Exactly is a Market Crash? + The inner details • Does Everyone Lose in a Crash? + The answer may surprise you! + What it takes to be an insider • Can Crashes be Forecasted? + Learn the warning signs + Take action! • The Housing Bubble + Why it is destined to pop + How you will be affected • The Coming Crash! + Prepare for the worst Financial Crisis History 1. Tulip Bulb Mania - Read about the Dutch tulip craze in the 1630's 2. South Sea Bubble - Learn about England's disastrous stock market crash in the early 1700's 3. Mississippi Bubble - The financial scheme which caused a stock market crash in 18th-century France 4. Florida Real Estate Bubble - The speculative boom and implosion of Florida property in the 1920's 5. Stock Market Crash of 1929 - The Great Crash + Depression 6. Stock Market Crash of 1987 - Mayhem and program trading 7. The Nikkei Bubble - The downfall of the Japanese titan 8. The Collapse of Barings Bank - Read how England’s oldest, most established bank was collapsed by a single trader. 9. The Nasdaq Bubble - The mania of Silicon Valley and Wall Street Home | Site Map | Blog | News Term Glossary | Book Review Bear Market Sites

Real Estate Loan

Real estate - Boston.com Buying Renting Recent Sales Place an ad Luxury Living Community data Mortgage Commercial Moving Guides Real estate Boston.com Check out the Real estate Section on Boston.com. December 29, 2005 -- Skyline at Station Landing Starting at: $339,000 Allston 2 bedroom $384,390 Newport 1 bed/1 den $755,000 Quechee Lakes, VT 3 bedroom $455,000 Sugarbush, VT 2 bedroom $166,457 Loon Mountain, N.H. Now accepting reservations Newbury 4 bedroom $749,900 Malden 2 bedroom $314,900 The Grandview Starting at: $600,000 Swampscott 3 bedroom $329,000 Boston 2 bedroom $545,000 South Boston 3 bedroom $429,000 Needham 4 bedroom $1,195,000 Dorchester 2 bedroom $314,000 York Beach, ME 3 bedroom $629,000 Battery Wharf Starting at: $1.15MM 210 South Street Regatta Residences Rooney Real Estate NOTE: We are experiencing technical problems that are preventing some photos from appearing in our listings. We are working now to correct the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for using Boston.com Real Estate. Homes New developments Condominiums Open houses Get started All rentals Apt. communities Vacation rentals Get started HOME OF THE WEEK Old styles in a bustling area Amid a neighborhood becoming known for new restaurants, shops, and condos, the residential block where this narrow, four-level home sits may be one of the few things that has yet to significantly change. Homes of the week: Watertown | Sudbury | Westminster See photos of this home Brockton builds on legacy This working-class city's once moribund downtown is being revived by young professionals drawn to the industrial chic of old factories where laborers plied their trade more than a century ago. (The Boston Globe, 12/25/05) Kerouac's Cape home up for sale ON LOCATION Historic cottage for sale The Pratt House in Northampton, which was commissioned in 1859 by Boston doctor Alvah Littlefield and once faced demolition, is now on the market for $1.285 million. (The Boston Globe, 12/25/05) GALLERY Editor's picks: On the market Check out our favorites this week and see all different sizes, shapes, prices, and locations. (Boston.com) Last week's picks METRO HOME FEATURE A safe haven Several designers donated their time and expertise to decorate 13 bedrooms and living areas at a Children's Hospital shelter. (Metro Boston, 12/16/05) See photos of the hospital makeovers Submit photos of your pad to be featured More in Home MESSAGE BOARDS Where are prices headed? Open house advice Things to consider when buying View all message boards NEWS From one generation to another A group of young developers felt a need to give back to their Jewish community in a way that has never been done before. (Boston Globe, 12/18/05) Formal room is hereupon retired Office market shows signs of rebound COMMUNITY SNAPSHOT Holbrook Holbrook offers a mix of properties for first-time home buyers seeking more affordable options and for those in the market for more high-end housing. (The Boston Globe, 12/25/05) More profiles: Hingham | Somerville | Wellesley | Southborough All Community statistics and town data | Compare towns GALLERY A look at Manny's condo Boston.com toured Ramirez's penthouse condo, on sale for $6.9 million, and caught a glimpse into the daily digs of the World Series MVP. (Boston.com) Alternatives to heating See what others are doing to cut down on their heating bill this winter. (Boston.com) Cost comparison What is your home heating plan? Heating tips Q&A about your home heating bills More in home heating NEWS Sellers chop prices as market slows Boston-area homeowners trying to sell their houses are sharply reducing asking prices -- in some cases, by $100,000 or more -- in response to a sudden slowdown. (By Kimberly Blanton, Boston Globe) Holiday season is the ideal time to buy Lilly's five steps to real estate success 14 tips to finding a great apartment Need some help finding your next new pad? Here are a few items you should make sure to check for. (Boston.com) Print the list A sense of community in a rental Sept. 1 moving scenes Self-storage how-to Step-by-step moving guide Print box labels What are your tips for moving? Pointers on renting, your rights and so much more Search rentals Renting guides NEWS Rises in rent outpace some wages The cost of rental housing has increased more rapidly than have wages, making it increasingly difficult for low-income families to afford even modest apartments. (By Stephen Ohlemacher, Boston Globe) Tools and calculators Run the numbers on everything from your income to upfront costs and credit. Instant mortgage quotes Mortgage rates 30-yr Fxd: 6.30% 15-yr Fxd: 5.85% 1-yr. ARM: 5.15% Mortgage quotes Daily commentary NEWS Real estate slump chills 'flippers' Get in, get out, get the next deal. That's the code of the ''flipper." Flipping -- buying and quickly reselling homes -- has helped some investors make a killing over the past few years in markets such as the North Shore. Selling a house? Try some entertainment 10 things you must do when selling 10 tips for hiring a broker Selling or renting your property? click here Latest articles: Real estate transactions ( Boston Globe, 12/29/05 ) A term every home buyer, real estate agent, homeowner should know (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) Dry rot leaves home buyer in the gutter (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) Home sellers beware: Undisclosed info comes back to bite (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) In bankruptcy sale, must co-owner pay 50 percent of expenses? (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) ENeighborhoods exec. has roots in real estate technology (Inman, 12/28/05) Visions of gold entice a tin city (Boston Globe, 12/28/05) Government requirements for disclosure fail to make the grade (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) Electrical panel requires upgrading (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) Should landlords rent to section 8 subsidized tenants? (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) 'House Poor' a profitable read for home buyers (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) Inside capital gains tax law for real estate (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) Ensuring home's proper ventilation (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) America closes doors to architectural expression (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) 5 negotiation tactics for real estate deals (Inman, 1:06 p.m.) HOME OF THE WEEK: Old styles inside, bustling outside (Boston Globe, 12/25/05) ON LOCATION: Historic cottage escaped demolition, now it's a gem for sale (Boston Globe, 12/25/05) BUSINESS LETTERS: Home prices are falling, but why? (Boston Globe, 12/25/05) Brockton builds on factory legacy (Boston Globe, 12/25/05) COMMUNITY SNAPSHOT: Holbrook (Boston Globe, 12/25/05) feedback form | help | site index | globe archives | rss © 20 The New York Times Company

rental property software. You

Rental Property Tracker Plus Easy to use rental property management software for rental managers and landlords... Click here to get a free trial copy of this rental property software. You pay only $149 after your 10 day free trial! (Includes Customer Support) Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back! Rental Property Tracker Plus is easy-to-use , software for rental property management with which you can: • Keep track of all your rental units, tenants, rental income and expenses. • Organize all your property rental manager activities, tasks, contacts, and even appointments with this productivity software suite. • Accepts government subsidies (Section 8 certificate and voucher programs for example) as partial rent payments. • Assign multiple tenants to any unit. The number of units and tenants is only limited by memory and CPU speed. • Send form letters to any or all contacts, tenants or owners. • Prepare property manager accounting reports for printing or exporting to a spreadsheet quickly and accurately. • Make income tax preparation easier with this rental tracking software . • Receipts, Statements, Notices and Reports can be translated into any language . Free trial rental property software to download for all Windows and Macintosh computers. Data can be shared between any of these computers. Customize colors, currency symbol ($, £, ¥, €, etc.), date, time, distance and liquid measure formats, report font and size, etc. in this relational database. Guided Tour included with this rent tracking software. Get FREE Customer Support when you register! Version 1.8.5.2 has just been released. Click here to see what's new. Click here to find out about Vacation Rental Tracker Plus, the perfect lodging rental management software for single & multi-property Hotels, Motels, Resorts, Condos, etc... Rental Property Tracker Plus contains all of the following Rental Management Software: This rental expense tracking software keeps track of all your rental expenses including advertising, cleaning & maintenance, insurance, management fees, mileage, repairs, utilities, etc. You can also print checks and view balances with the Checkbook Register. Easily create reports for tax returns. Click here for more information about Rental Expense Tracker. This rent payment tracking software keeps track of all your rental income for weekly, monthly or multiple month rental periods. Easily generate rental receipts and reports for accounting or tax returns. Click here for more information about Rental Income Tracker. This component will help you keep track of deposits and payments to your Accounts, and all your miscellaneous income such as coin operated vending machines, laundry, etc. Click here for more information about Other Income Tracker. This building management software keeps track of all your rental property including past and present tenants, descriptions, condition notes, etc. Easily create reports. Click here for more information about Rental Unit Tracker. This tenant tracking software keeps track of all your tenants and their phone numbers, payment history, etc. Easily create leases, reports and notices. Click here for more information about Tenant Tracker. This electronic address book keeps track of both business and personal contacts including their name, address, phone(s), and associates as well as any notes about previous interactions. You can print or export your contact list to other programs including Palm Desktop. You can also easily print envelopes or all contact information including notes. Also includes an area code locator which will tell you what cities are in a specified area code and what area codes are in a specific city or state. Click here for more information about Contact Tracker. Keep track of all your appointments, birthdays, etc. with this versatile electronic date book. You can set an event to repeat every day, every other day, every week day, every week, every other week, every month on the same date, every month on the same day of the month, or every year for as long as you specify. You can print daily, weekly and monthly schedules too. Import or export your appointments to other programs including Palm Desktop. Click here for more information about Schedule Tracker. This To Do list generator helps you remember and prioritize all the things you think of as you are working. You can easily sort your task list by priority, date entered, deadline or task name. Then you can print or export your list to another program such as Palm Desktop. Click here for more information about Task Tracker. Here is a simple number calculator that will also: compute a date that is x number of days before or after a date you specify; let you know the day of the year of any date; tell you what time it is anywhere in the world; convert just about any US or British length, volume or weight to it's metric equivalent with the conversion calculator; figure the amount of foreign currency that a number of dollars is worth (or the other way around) given the current exchange rate with the currency calculator; and easily compute discounts and sales tax on any amount. Click here for more information about the Universal Calculator. Click here to get your copy of Rental Tracker now! ©2005 Garth Catterall-Heart SpiritWorks Software Development 503-560-1028 PO Box 685 Carlton, OR 97111 e-mail: info (at) SpiritWorks-software.com Terms of Use, Refund and Privacy Policy

Texas Land

Bush and the Texas Land Grab Bush and the Texas Land Grab July 16, 2002 By Nicholas D. Kristof Editorial Op-Ed To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@nytimes.com Democrats and media hounds are baying under the wrong tree. The point in President Bush's business career where he took outrageous shortcuts was not at Harken Energy, but rather when he was grabbing land for a new baseball stadium in Arlington for his Texas Rangers baseball team. Mr. Bush broke no laws. Neither do the overwhelming majority of corporate executives. The cloud over the business world comes not so much from lawbreaking as from avaricious bruising of the public interest. The challenge is not catching criminals but injecting public scrutiny into a culture of cronyism in which executives, accountants, regulators and "independent" board members all ooze empathy for each other. When Asia had its economic crisis in 1997-98, Americans properly trashed its "crony capitalism." But we suffer from the same affliction ourselves, and President Bush will not address the issue seriously because cronyism has been his way of life -- the Bushes call it loyalty. I have a stack of court documents from Arlington that portray the "sordid and shocking tale" of the Rangers stadium, as one lawsuit puts it. Essentially, Mr. Bush and the owners' group he led bullied and misled the city into raising taxes to build a $200 million stadium that in effect would be handed over to the Rangers. As part of the deal, the city would even confiscate land from private owners so that the Rangers owners could engage in real estate speculation. "It was a $200 million transfer to Bush and Rangers owners," complains Jim Runzheimer, an anti-tax campaigner in Arlington. William Eastland, a leading Republican in Arlington, is also outraged, and puts it this way: "You're using public money for a private purpose." Mr. Eastland was a Bush delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000 but still believes that the Bush group behaved shadily and against the public interest. Local voters overwhelmingly approved the deal, so maybe we shouldn't get so exercised by star-struck local officials giving $200 million to rich baseball owners. But the most unseemly part of the deal was that Mr. Bush and the Rangers' owners conspired with city officials to seize private property that would be handed over to the Bush group. "A group of wealthy and influential people threatened and traded their way into an unprecedented takeover of government power and private property in an awesome display of greed and avarice," charges a lawsuit by the landowners, in what strikes me as a fair recitation of events. Another suit charges that the deal "can only be described as astounding, unprecedented and blatantly illegal." A copy of the secret agreement among Mr. Bush and the other Rangers owners shows that they intended to make money not just by running a baseball club but also by land speculation. For example, one owner found a nice chunk of land and sent a memo suggesting that it "sounds like another condemnation candidate if you want to work the site into your master plan," according to the court documents. Another of the owners' internal memos casts a proprietary gaze on a property and declares: "We plan to condemn this land." For a group of financiers to go around town admiring properties and deciding which to seize through the government power of condemnation so that they can acquire free land and speculate on it is appalling. Even Kazakhstan would blush at such practices. Horace Kelton, for example, owned land that the Rangers wanted. The owners got Arlington to seize it, with the city paying less than $1.50 per square foot even though it had previously paid $10 a square foot for other land nearby. "It was an extremely low price, and that's why we had a court case that lasted seven years," Mr. Kelton recalled. Eventually, his family got $11 a square foot. In fairness, Mr. Bush was simply being a hard-nosed businessman. He did a great job leading the owners' group, and it's hard to take seriously the caricature of him as unintelligent when he led the Rangers so lucratively. Indeed, his $14 million profit on the Rangers financed his entry into politics. But it's also a sordid tale of cronyism, of misuse of power, of cozy backroom money-grubbing -- a more pressing threat to American business than outright criminality. LINK to source