It had to come to this sooner or later. Interest rates broke zero at an auction of 5-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities last week. The auction lead to a nominal negative 56 basis points coupon for the notes, so evidently folks are convinced enough to pay 102 for a bond that will return 100 in five years, with only the inflation adjustment to change that outcome.
Questions to consider when seeking home care for your loved one
As the cooler temperatures arrive in Arizona, our relatives arrive as well. This is a wonderful time of year, when our loved ones join us for holiday celebrations and outdoor activities. For some families, this means seeking help for their elderly family members. They may not get around as well as they used to, or perhaps a job requires you to leave them alone for long periods during the day or even a few days at a time. Read more
Real Estate Corner…
Q. How important is landscaping in buying or selling a house?
A. Good landscaping can increase your home’s resale value by 14 percent, according to the Associated Landscape Contractors of America. Better curb appeal may speed up the sale by as much as six weeks.
Professionals recommend that you invest 10 percent of your home’s value in landscaping. More than just plantings, this includes structural features such as lighting, outdoor rooms, fences and pools. Here are some helpful tips:
- Determine what you need. Are you landscaping to sell your home or to enjoy the property yourself for the longer term.
- Get professional guidance. Depending on the scope of your project and budget, consider hiring an arborist, a landscape designer or a certified landscape architect. Ask friends for recommendations or search web sites such as the one for The American Society of Landscape Architects.
- Develop a plan. Set your priorities ─ what needs to be done (have you solved that drainage problem?) versus what you’d like to do (put in an outdoor entertainment area). If you take a piecemeal approach, the result will look disorganized and cost you more money in the long run.
Q. What should I know about buying a foreclosed home?
A. There are advantages and disadvantages to buying a foreclosed home. Here are some general tips:
- See the house in person. Don’t rely on a low price and internet pictures.
- Conduct a title search. Find out whether it has a second mortgage or a lien on it.
- Get an up-to-date inspection. Conditions change and older inspections probably no longer apply.
- Budget for repairs and renovations. Chances are the longer the house has been vacant, the more problems there may be.
- Study the neighborhood. Is the house in a crime area or surrounded by other foreclosures?
- Get expert help. Work with a real estate agent who is experienced in foreclosures.
Published by: Craig Forte, Service for Life® Newsletter Subscription
If you have any questions, or need capable and trustworthy representation,
please call Joan at 480.241.7542
Joan Byrnes, SRES
Realty One Group
Stampede
A buying stampede happens when a whole bunch of investors and speculators all decide at once that a market is moving and they have to get aboard, now. We saw something like that recently when despite a poor jobs report, no inflation pressure, Fed waffling on QE2 and other ambivalent news, the stock market started heating up. There are a lot of underinvested or un-invested people who decided this was what they were looking for, proof that the coast was clear to begin investing in this ongoing bull market. Sure stocks are up 70% from the bottom eighteen months ago, but there is a good argument why it should keep going up. The argument goes that the Fed will engineer what looks a lot like stockholder nirvana, lower rates, mild inflation, better growth, a lower dollar and yet not inhibit strong earnings (if you believe that, we’ve got some real estate we’d like to sell you just as soon as the tide goes out.) Read more
Back To (Old) School
We hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend.
A while back, I was thumbing through my bookshelf copy of Graham & Dodd’s classic text, Security Analysis, first authored in the 1930’s. Coincidentally, this was just before the recent Wall Street Journal article declaring the “Decline of the P/E Ratio,” among other articles that occasionally allude to their work. Strangely, the two seem to be most readily acknowledged either in times when they’ve been dismissed as passé, out-of-step with cutting-edge quantitative techniques, or, conversely, their traditional and straightforward ways of looking at the world have been “rediscovered” by investors discouraged by complicated modern methods. Read more
Economic Recovery: Now a Year Old
Summer Is Almost Over, Thank Goodness!
We’ve just past an anniversary. It might have been in May but more likely in June or July. Our economic recovery is now a year old, hard to believe since there is about as much angst about the economy now as there was a year ago or two years ago. Most people in the investing world worry about the economic future all the time, but usually the worry is about just how fast we’re growing. Today the worry is whether or not we’re growing. This whole debate misses one very important point, we’re still growing! Read more