Tips For First-Time Home Buyers – 2010 (US News and World Report

2010 First-Time Home Buyers’ Guide – US News and World Report.

OBAMANOMICS IN ACTION: Home Buyer Tax Credit Likely To Cost Taxpayers $100K Per Home (Huffington Post/Calculated Risk)

Recent indications that demand for housing is lagging, Calculated Risk writes, are “no surprise and suggests that the extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit will probably cost taxpayers over $100,000 for each additional home sold.
Just about every economist opposed the tax credit as expensive and ineffective. Here are some quotes from a [...]

The 10 Cheapest U.S. Cities To Buy Real Estate (US World News)

10 Cities for Real Estate Steals – US News and World Report.

HOME BUYERS BEWARE: 10 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN PURCHASING A HOUSE (US News and World Report

10 Rookie Home Buyer Mistakes to Avoid – US News and World Report.

The Happiest And HealthIest Cities In The United States (USA Today)

Feeling down? You might consider a move to Boulder, Colo.
A massive new study of Americans’ attitudes concludes that the city at the foot of the Rocky Mountains is home to the happiest, healthiest people in the United States. At the bottom of 162 large and medium-sized cities: Huntington, W.Va.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, based on interviews [...]

How To Buy Foreclosed Properties At Auction (Bankrate.com)

Home foreclosure filings declined steadily from August through November 2009, but were still significantly higher than they were a year ago, according to RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties.
Home foreclosure filings For November 2009 — including default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions — numbered 306,627, a decrease of nearly 8 percent [...]

10 Must Have Features In Today’s New Homes (Yahoo!)

Americans want smaller houses and they are willing to strip some of yesterday’s most popular rooms — such as home theaters — from them in order to accommodate changing lifestyles, consumer experts told audiences at the International Builders Show here this week.
“This is a traumatic time in this country and the future isn’t something we’re [...]

HOME BUYING: The Best Foreclosure Bargins In America (CNBC)

The turmoil in the US housing market has been punctuated with a wave of residential foreclosures. With sellers looking to offload foreclosed properties, often at a loss, the discounted prices have been identified as potentially profitable investments by speculators betting on a housing rebound. But across the country, where are the best opportunities?
According [...]

The Fastest Growing Cities In Amercia (Business Week)

Tired of reading about how rotten the real estate market is? Here’s some good news that shows that even during the worst of the recession plenty of American cities, towns, and suburbs continue to grow.
One such place is Atascocita, Tex. A mostly residential community 20 miles from Houston, it gained more than 1,800 households in [...]

Obama Foreclosure Plan Falling Far Short On Goals (Washington Post)

The Obama administration disclosed on Friday that it has made little progress in helping struggling homeowners attain long-term relief under its signature foreclosure-prevention effort, reaching only 18 percent of the target announced just six weeks ago.
On Nov. 30, the administration kicked off a “Mortgage Modification Conversion Drive” to help distressed borrowers in the trial phase [...]