Todd Levinson

One can barely glance at a newspaper, TV screen , or web page these days, without coming across yet another story about property foreclosure. There are some genuinely heartbreaking tales, where unfortunate folk have become the victims of circumstance, and there are others that are, frankly, parables of sheer greed and arrogant shortsightedness.

There's a great deal of talk in the housing trade these days, about 'green' building, and how the industry is looking toward sustainable construction, and more energy efficient homes.

The practice of house flipping became so popular during the real estate boom that even reality television producers jumped on the bandwagon and created shows that followed investors throughout the flipping process. In the seller's market of the past, supply was down, prices were up, credit was easy to obtain, and there was a lot of money to be made in flips. Now that the market has crashed, is flipping still a good idea?

Although you can find conflicting reports, the general consensus among analysts is that the economy is rebounding. If the economic condition of our nation truly is improving, albeit at a lackluster pace, one could assume that consumer spending would also be on the rise; however, reports from retailers do not support this theory.

With the increased numbers of homes falling to foreclosure, there are many non-home owners across the country who are increasingly suffering from anxiety related to their housing; these tenants are the renters of homes in foreclosure.

Homeowners insurance really depends on the value of your home and belongings, but you might be paying anywhere from $50 to hundreds of dollars a month to ensure that damage, vandalism, burglary, etc. can be repaired and items replaced. So that is something that you might need to calculate paying.

The Home Buyer Tax Credit was created to encourage first-time home buyers to purchase their first home and is calculated as 10% of the home’s purchase price up to $8000. By taking advantage of this tax credit, new home owners now have a financial advantage that can make home ownership that much easier. It’s like having one’s closing costs and taxes for the year paid for with a bit left over.

Since the well before the end of the Cold War in 1991, there has been a greatly reduced interest in building and/or maintaining bomb shelters in most countries unless there is active strife still active, at least until fairly recently. There has been a renewed interest, particularly after the September 11th attacks on the United States, for an updated version of the backyard bomb shelter.

The downside to a storage water heater is, unfortunately, that in the long run it is more expensive to heat your water this way; the cold water fills the tank, is heated, and then sits in the tank waiting to be used. These tanks are a lot more energy efficient now that the standards are higher and they are much more insulated than they were in years gone by.

Many people see nothing wrong with "removing" clutter or questionable art using image software. The practice of "tidying up" photos is rarely called into question. One might wonder, however, since people will eventually (hopefully) be touring the home, why the owners did not clean and stage the home so such alterations are unnecessary.