House Hunting 101

In their quarterly report, CNN Money takes a trip around the country to see what $1,000,000 worth of residential real estate looks like. Number 3 on their list was an Atlanta home in Norcross with 5 bedrooms, 5 and a half bathrooms contained in 3,200 square feet of living space. The price tag was $1.15 million.

After you look at the Atlanta home tell me what you think. Better yet, shoot me an email or place the info in the comments below with what you think would be a better way to spend $1,000,000 on Atlanta real estate. Over the next few days, I’ll do the same.

Tonight, on WSB TV channel 2, Clark Howard will bring his expert consumer knowledge to prime time television as he speaks about Georgia real estate. The show starts at 8:00 PM, runs for an hour, and is titled, “Georgia Real Estate - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly”.

Clark Howard’s scheduled to share stories about adjustable mortgages, being on the verge of foreclosure, how to make your house stand out in a buyers market, selling an Atlanta condo, and investing in real estate.

I spoke earlier about a newer trend of buying vacation homes and/or retirement homes at an earlier age than people used to. Here is a list of the top places to buy retirement homes.

Best Places To Buy A Vacation Home in the Northeast
Best Places To Buy A Vacation Home in the West
Best Places To Buy A Vacation Home in the Midwest
Best Places To Buy A Vacation Home in the South

It’s no surprise that here in the south, most of the locales are in Florida.

Country Home Magazine has recently released their list of the Top 25 Green Cities In America. Here are the top 5:

1. Burlington, VT
2. Ithaca, NY
3. Corvalis, OR
4. Springfield, MA
5. Wenatchee, WA

According to Forbes Magazine, here is the list of the 10 Most Affordable U.S. Real Estate Markets.

1. Indianapolis, Ind.
2. Cleveland, Ohio
3. Detroit, Mich.
4. Pittsburgh, Pa.
5. Cincinnati, Ohio
6. St. Louis, Mo.
7. Atlanta, Ga.
8. Greensboro, NC
9. Dallas, Tx.
10. Austin, Tx.

I just came across another Barbara Corcoran article (sorry, you’re going to have to read this one, instead of just watching it ) regarding buying a home right now, in her area of the country that is a buyer’s market. Well, here in the Atlanta area, it’s a buyer’s market as well, and this information is great for anyone looking to buy real estate. Go check out her ten rules for buying in this current real estate market.

I’m a particularly big fan of rule #5, and agree entirely with every word of it.

“Don’t buy a property that is out of your budget… that is one of the reasons the market is where it is at.”

If you have a student in college or about to go to college, spend four and a half minutes and watch this video from The Today Show. It talks about buying a house for your college student child and having him or her find friends to live with them and pay the mortgage. This is a great way to have some or all of the room & board paid for your child as well as a way to make some money on the resale of the house once your child graduates.

A very informative post pointing out some of the reasons why the APR of a home loan differs from the interest rate. I also loved this “rule of thumb” about discount points.

Paying discount points to achieve a lower rate when taking a short-term ARM is always a money-losing proposition. Because this is a short-term 2-year ARM loan you will never recoup the money you paid in points to get the lower interest rate

Everyone has heard and repeated the adage, “The early bird gets the worm”. Early adopters of the internet and web technology made out like bandits, both before and after the dot com bust. But, to turn one of our favorite phrases on its ear, hear’s an article on why you shouldn’t be the “early bird” into a foreclosure real estate market.

Yes, there are some trends in the luxury housing market that are surviving; even flourishing in this “down market”. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal mentions a few of these designs.

• Better, Not Bigger
  

  Homes may not be getting bigger, for the most part, but that hasn’t stopped builders from packing them with pantries and decks — increasingly, several of each. John Laing’s new best-seller, a 4,121-square-foot called Plan 2 that sells in the $1 million range at Ravenna in San Clemente, Calif., has two butler’s pantries, two decks, with an option for a third, and two fireplaces, also with an option for a third. Orleans’s Bradford Grand II has two walk-in closets and two optional bookcases in the master suite, and four optional bay windows on the first floor.

• Standard Sunrooms
  

  Once marketed as a luxurious upgrade, sunrooms are now a standard feature in many builders’ top-selling models. More energy-efficient windows have made it easier to create walls of glass without making the house cold and drafty, builders say; and opening up the outdoor views makes homes look bigger.

• Angles Walls Or Entryways
  

  The best-selling La Jolla model by Drees Homes in Fort Mitchell, Ky., puts the front door off to the side of the house instead of at the center, which creates a slanted hallway to the main rooms. Bensalem, Pa.-based Orleans Homebuilders’ Bradford Grand II twists the center staircase so it opens to the side rather than the front, opening up the sightlines throughout the house.