The argument about whether it is better to buy or rent a home has raged for many years and will probably continue to do so. The consensus is that, basically, when you can do it, all things considered, it is better to buy a home. There are, however, many cases, especially in the short term, where renting a house makes more financial sense.

Recently there was a healthy debate on the issue from different sources, one claiming that are Rent Vs. Buy Myths That Ruined the Housing Market. The second article, written by Trent over at The Simple Dollar, calls the article nonsense and breaks down some very strong reasons whey this is the case.

Both articles are a little one-sided, as things are never really so black and white, but they both make some decent points. Of interest as well are the numerous comments on The Simple Dollar site. It’s obvious that people can get very emotional about this issue and there are strong arguments to be made on both sides.

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The Real Estate Book is a great resource for finding homes and property listings across the United States and Canada, including focused searches in all major cities and regions in the countries. So, for instance if you’re interested in the Atlanta Real Estate market, the Real Estate Book is a perfect place to start.

No only is the book a free magazine at local gas stations and grocery stores, it is the ultimate tool for searching for real estate listings. You can focus your search in any number of ways, narrowing down you search to number of bedrooms and bathrooms, location, price or even a specific MLS#.

Since the real estate market has been slowing down in the last year or so, and prices have slowed the frenetic rise we’ve been seeing over the prior five years or so, it’s become an opportune time to be a buyer in the market. Recent figures released from the National Association of Realtors show that the number of houses sold recently dropped by about 20% from the same month last year. In addition, the median price for a new home has been falling in the past year. This really spells a great opportunity for prospective home buyers to start shopping around and getting a great deal on a home.

In order to take advantage of this potential buyer’s market, the Real Estate Book provides the tools needed to get started and find the right home.

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The housing woes continued today as it was announced that new home sales had fallen more expected recently. The sales of new single family homes fell 4.7%, an annual rate of 604,000, lower than the projected 647,000.

This most recent drop makes for a fall of 26% for new home sales last year, the biggest decline since 1963, the Commerce Department said on Monday.

According to the NY Times, “last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of previously owned single-family homes, a large portion of the overall housing market, suffered their biggest annual drop in 25 years. Prices have also fallen sharply. In December, the median price of a new home fell to $219,200, down 10 percent from December 2006.”

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If you’ve been looking for information on a 1031 exchanges then you might consider the services of Costa Financial Securities, Inc. This company specializes in different tax deferral strategies and this includes 1031 tax exchange property solutions. The basic idea behind a 1031 tax exchange is that you can reduce or relinquish your tax-burdened assets more effectively and efficiently, and you may be able to defer all of the capital gains tax and depreciation recapture tax when you sell certain kinds of property.  If you replace the sold property for a like kind one, you can defer the profit or gain until a later date.

To put this into legalese, the Internal Revenue Code, section 1031 describes it: “No gain or loss shall be recognized on the exchange of property held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment if such property is exchanged solely for property of like kind which is to be held either for productive use in a trade or business or for investment.”

The key for any successful 1031 tax exchange to work right, the transaction must be properly structured.  This is not something you’d want to undertake with the right kind of expert advice.  Costa Financial Securities can work with you in a number of different ways to help guide you through the process or give you the right type of advice so you can effectively use the 1031 exchange. Costa has partnered with leading 1031 exchange professionals and are able to best leverage those relationships to make sure each real estate transaction that can benefit from this tax exchange.

Some of the ways that Costa can help you would be to help you defer all of the capital gains tax and depreciation recapture tax in a real estate transaction, possibly increase your income and capital appreciation, reduce you property management troubles, diversify you real estate portfolio to a better class of asset as well as a more desirable geographical property.  They can also put you in touch with the right qualified tax attorney or accountant, and they can procure a highly trained intermediary who is an expert on 1031 tax exchanges.

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In our frequent discussions here regarding real estate planning and investing, we don’t get to talk much about building your own home. This is obviously a great option for many homeowners as it allows for the type of hands-on work and input that appeals to many people. If you’ve been thinking of building a home and like the style and elegance of an older home but want a new construction, you might want to consider acquiring Victorian house plans.

The home designs from Garant Homes Corporation feature some unique plans that allow the home owner to build a home with a modern floor plan and amenities while reflecting the architectural details from the past. The Victorian house plans from Garant Homes include many unique ideas that include plans from quaint cottages to much larger and more stately homes. They even have a plan that will provide a home designed as a fully functional bed and breakfast.

If you’ve been thinking of building your own home, you owe it to yourself to check out the house plans from Garant Homes. In addition to their Victorian plans they also have plans for Caribbean and Mediterranean houses so that you can build the home you’ve always wanted.

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As the real estate market begins to slow and the shifts to a buyer’s market, sellers are trying to find new ways to entice potential buyers to their listing. This might be a good time, if you’re a real estate buyer, to shop around for not only the best deal but some nice perks thrown in the mix. This article in CNN Money mentions a couple of things sellers, including new home builders, are beginning to offer.

In Seattle, a homeowner is offering plane tickets anywhere in the world plus a six night stay in the Four Seasons hotel.

Another seller, a builder in New Jersey, is offering a two year lease on a luxury vehicle if you buy his house.

If the market continues to fall, and most experts feel it will through most of 2008, we should start to see more incentives from sellers as they become increasingly desperate to sell their house.

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If you’ve been waiting out the seemingly endless rise in home prices the recent declines may bring a smile to your face. For everyone else, it’s just more bad news from the housing sector. A recent report listing a home price index has noted that home prices have fallen an average of 4.5% this year. This drop has been the biggest quarter-to-quarter fall in prices in the last 20 years that the index has been covered.

Unlike previous quarters, this last one has seen prices decline in all 20 cities that are covered in the index. The largest declines were seen in cities that had some of the biggest gains during the boom years.

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The real estate market has been in the news with a vengeance this past several years, first because of it’s meteoric rise and now because of it’s fall, or at least stumble. It’s certainly cooled off, that’s clearly the case. Some markets, especially those that saw the biggest gains these last few years, seem to be faring more poorly than others. Now we have word this week that housing starts have dropped to their lowest point in 14 years. Seems like a pretty gloomy time to be selling a home. On the other hand, those buyers that have been holding out for a good deal might be in for a good time for awhile. It’s been quite a long time since we’ve had a nice buyer’s market.

If you want to get caught up on the situation quickly or just want to better understand what exactly happened to the market, there’s been quite a bit of ink on the subject this last year. If you don’t have a lot of time, there’s a short little piece at Time.com that summarizes a bit of the situation. SeekingAlpha.com has a very convenient housing bubble and real estate tracker page that will give you a lot of links to relevant links on real estate.

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After several years of an absolutely white hot real estate market in just about every corner of the US, it seems things are cooling down. In fact, the bubble has really burst just about everywhere as prices have actually begun to fall in many of the biggest markets around the country. Despite this fact, however, people are still buying and selling homes.

Some folks need to relocate, or find a bigger home, or, more likely, downsize a bit and get something more affordable. Whatever the case, homes are still on the market and since the tide has turned, it is now clearly a buyer’s market. Fortunately for these buyers, there are a bunch of online tools they can use to help them weave their way through this changing real estate market.

Most people still choose to use a realtor and these folks still have their place. Thee are, however, some useful websites to help you work your way through the real estate maze whether you’ve chosen to work with a realtor or want to do-it-yourself.

One of the most useful tools is just going to realtor.com and doing some searches for the homes in your area that fit your criteria. You won’t see as much information as realtors can see, but it’s a great place to start.

Another great place to explore is www.zillow.com. You can find homes in your prospective area that are for sale or have sold, but you can also get an estimate…or a “zestimate” …of the value of the home. This site also gives you information such as recent sales prices and tax rates on individual homes.

A similar site to zillow is Trulia.com. This site gives information like that found on zillow such as homes for sale, as well as information on the neighborhood and schools. Trulia also offers an interesting “Heat Map” that shows a colored map of home prices and trends.

If you want to tackle the real estate market yourself, but aren’t quite ready to do a FSBO, you can use the services of Redfin.com. Redfin will help you to either sell your home or buy a new one. If you are selling your home, rather than take the 3% that most agents take, Redfin will take a flat fee of either $3,000 or $4,000, depending on the options you choose. This can be quite a bit of savings, especially if your home is listed for a high price. For this fee, they will place your property in the multiple listing service (MLS), provide you with a lockbox and a sign for your yard, and then they will hadle all the negotiations and paperwork.

For buying a home, you do most of the legwork in finding a home while Redfin provides you with an agent who handles home tours, gives you advice on pricing and handles the negotiations and helps with the closing process. For this service Redfin takes 1% of the sales price instead of the full 3%, and you get to keep the remaining 2%. That can lead to some serious savings.

There are websites and tools popping up all of the time online to help you work your way through the maze of real estate. I suggest you take some time to use these tools to keep yourself better informed and ready for the market whether you’re using a realtor or not.

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If you’re thinking of buying a home, a condo or even some land in Hawaii, you really need to think about how you want to conduct your search. Hawaii real estate is a very competitive market and there are quite a few resources. To get the very best value and conduct the most thorough search you want to find the very best resource.

Sometimes it is best to consider which of the islands you are looking to buy real estate on. Oahu Real estateand Kauai real estate are just two of the possibilities. By limiting your search to the specific Hawaiian island you can really narrow down your search and get the specific listings you want. However, if you’re not yet sure where you want to find real estate in Hawaii then leave your search open to all of the islands so you can find the perfect match.

Remember that real estate can be a great investment and this goes for property and homes in Hawaii. You might consider going in on the purchase with a group of friends and then you can use the home as a vacation spot. The group can divide the calender up so that each member is allowed a certain time of the year. It can be your own personal timeshare. Additionally, you purchase a home or condo in Hawaii and rent it out occasionally to tourists in order to help pay for the property.

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When you buy a home, you need to be aware of the various things that can limit your control over the property. This is as true for finished lots and single family homes as it is for townhouses, condos, and apartments. It’s a good idea to understand these limitations before you buy, so that you can decide whether you’re willing to live with them or not. After you buy, it’s too late; you’re stuck. Read more »

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It’s been said many a time that overseas real estate buyers leave their brain on the plane when they step out into the sun in their overseas destination of choice. They’ve already fallen in love with the country, its people, climate and lifestyle and they’ve come to snap up that dream home. Read more »

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Moving house can be a daunting venture in itself without having to worry about additional dangers, such as the possibility of moving next-door to neighbours from hell or areas where crime rates are high. Statistics reveal that two thirds of people find moving house highly stressful, while 9% have actually taken ill from the process! Women in particular find moving house to be a highly painful procedure, with 30% admitting to having sleepless nights. Read more »

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I started investing in property in 1996 with only £500 and now I own a property portfolio of 150 properties worth over £10m. I can already hear you – “it was easier back then!” Ironically it wasn’t. Read more »

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In a competitive real estate market, home sellers are looking for the edge to make their home sell fast. Feng Shui, or the ancient Chinese art of placement, is one answer. Jaan Ferree, a Feng Shui consultant based in Asheville, North Carolina, explains. that Feng Shui is “having the intention to pay attention” to your environment. Read more »

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