Land ho! Now's the time to buy

There are bargains out there in real estate that you ought to buy right now.

No, no, stop laughing. I'm serious. All right, wipe that smirk off your face. Give me some credit. Of course, I don't mean shares of home builders. I still wouldn't touch them with a 10-foot pole. And I don't mean mortgage lenders, big banks or Wall Street mortgage traders. Those are toxic and likely to get more so.

No, the kind of real estate I mean is the kind you can walk on but can't bundle into a tranche and resell. Real assets that don't evaporate when the rocket scientists on Wall Street get it wrong. You know, the earthy stuff they're not making anymore, except in the Netherlands.

Cut Property Taxes Now - Sign the Petition!

Are you tired of politicians making empty promises when it comes to cutting property taxes? Who did the politicians in Tallahassee think they were kidding when they told us that property taxes would “DROP LIKE A ROCK” ? Despite their empty promises, property taxes in Florida have skyrocketed--unchecked for too long. Families and businesses are paying too much and it has to stop!

Five solutions for a troubled housing market

NEW YORK – Nov. 9, 2007 – How do you fix a troubled housing market? Forbes.com asked that question of a broad range of housing experts, including CEOs of real estate firms, real estate practitioners, economists from lending institutions, and research directors at analytics firms.

Here are five of their best suggestions.

1. Restore investor faith. “Mortgage fraud, by both borrowers and insiders, must be identified and prosecuted in order for faith to be restored in the market,” says Anthony Sanders, professor of real estate finance at Arizona State University.

2. Expand Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration loans. “Our local banks and community banks have done a great job providing funding. (FHA) should be there as a supplemental for people who have good credit,” says Congressman Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.)

3. Cut construction and prices. “The market will only hit bottom after builders cut construction and sellers slash prices,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The longer builders and sellers hold on, the longer the market will struggle.”

4. Bring back non-agency loans. “The dramatic seizing of the mortgage-credit markets caused the elimination of almost any loan that wasn’t backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac,” says Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans. The revival of non-agency loans “will add much-needed mortgage funding to potential home buyers and folks looking to refinance.”

5. Buyers and sellers get real. Nelson Gonzalez, senior vice president of Esslinger, Wooten Maxwell, believes that once buyers realize that they’re not going to convince a seller to accept a rock-bottom price, fluidity and activity can return to the market. “There is much pent-up demand,” he says, “and buyers have been sitting on their hands for some time now.”

Source:Forbes, Matt Woolsey (11/07/07)

First-time buyers can be in the money

“It’s a very good time for first-time buyers,” said Susan Wommack, national account manager with LoanSifter.com, an industry database business in Little Chute, Wis. “The lenders who are still standing are very competitive, and service levels have gone up, too.”

“For people with good credit, who’ve shown some responsibility, and have some income to work with, there’s plenty of money,” said Kevin Kubacki, senior loan officer with Pyramax bank in Greenfield, Wis.

TAX COMMISSION - Plan aids homeowners, slashes business perks

Former state Senate President John McKay has proposed a tax plan that would reduce homeowners' property taxes up to 45 percent at the expense of business interests that have been exempted from sales tax for decades.

McKay, a member of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, took steps Friday to address a ''patently unfair'' tax system by filing a proposed constitutional amendment with the commission that would direct the Legislature to review all items and services that are not being taxed in order to to repeal $15 billion worth of sales-tax exemptions on services and items like lawn care service, professional sports skyboxes and cattle growth enhancers.

Panel may do what Legislature couldn't

TALLAHASSEE -- The failure of the Florida Legislature to give voters a chance to vote on a comprehensive rewrite of the property tax system doesn't necessarily mean Floridians won't get an opportunity next year.

As early as Thursday, an effort to put a broad tax-cutting proposal on the November 2008 ballot is going to be discussed by the one entity outside the Legislature with the clout to do it: the state Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.