12. March 2010

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Hail Damage to Your Home Can Be Costly – Be Sure You Have Enough Homeowners Insurance Coverage

With spring right around the corner, hailstorm season will soon be upon us. Unfortunately, occasionally, hail can cause quite a bit of damage; thank goodness most hailstorms are fairly innocuous! You really just never know, so it’s important to be prepared for the possibility of hail damage to your home.

If your home sustains damage from a hailstorm, it is sometimes tough to decide whether or not to make a claim with your homeowners insurance company to have the damage repaired for fear that your insurance premium will be increased as a result. Luckily, most homeowners policies do cover hail damage; it’s considered an act of nature, so filing a claim is not likely to cause your rates to go up.

Insurance companies will typically, however, repair only the parts of your home that sustained hail damage. This can result – as was the case with us when our home was damaged a few years back after a very severe hailstorm – in having perhaps only one or two sides of your home re-sided, leaving you to try to find siding that matches the rest of your home or paying for the sides that do not have hail damage in order to have your entire home’s siding be of the same make and color.

Before you are subjected to the chance of hailstorm damage to your home this season, contact your insurance company to find out what your coverage might be; it may be possible to increase your coverage to include re-siding of your entire home should you be unable to match your old siding to new, replacement siding.

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11. March 2010

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Homes for Sale in CA are Getting Higher Prices

After hitting their bottom in 2009, California Homes Prices are on the rise. In February of last year, the median California home price hit $245,170. Since then they have climbed up to above $270,000.  Low mortgage rates and the first time home buyer tax credit have given a boost to the housing market, attracting 11 percent more first time home buyers in 2009 [...]

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11. March 2010

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2009 Home Owner Tax Credit Series #7 – Use Your Tax Credit as a Down Payment at Closing

This is the seventh in a 12-part series of weekly posts on the 2009 Home Owner Tax Credit. To see all the posts in this series, click here.
If you’re considering buying a home because you want to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit, but are reluctant to do so because you wonder how [...]

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10. March 2010

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Has The New Homebuyer Tax Credit Caused Home Prices To Rise?

New and existing home Realtors and community developers are jazzed that the new homebuyer tax credit deadline was extended to April 30 for a valid contract (no later than June 30 to close). It’s definitely pulling buyers in that might not otherwise choose to purchase a home at this time. Many homebuyers are using the assurance of [...]

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10. March 2010

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Stay Safe This Tornado Season: Plan Ahead

March is the beginning of tornado season in many parts of the country, peaking in April, and decreasing in May and June. Tornadoes tend to come from the southwest, south, or west, and peak time for tornadoes to hit differs per region. Early morning tornadoes are almost as common as late afternoon ones in some southeastern states. [...]

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10. March 2010

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To Rent Or To Buy, That Is The Question…

With home prices and mortgage rates so low, renters should consider buying a home instead. While there are some downsides to property ownership in these times of little funds (such as the cost of maintenance), owning is still a good investment when prices are so affordable.
However, Dawn Wotapka writes that homeownership in many large cities is still unobtainable [...]

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9. March 2010

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Home Buyer Tax Credit Series #8 – Caps and Income Limits

This is the eighth in a 12-part series of weekly posts on the 2009 Home Buyer Tax Credit. To see all the posts in this series, click here.
As discussed in previous posts, if you are a first-time home buyer, the 2009 tax credit stimulus has a cap of $8,000; for those who currently own a [...]

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9. March 2010

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Is The Tax Credit For Repeat Homebuyers Helping The Economy?

When the first-time homebuyers tax credit of up to $8,000 was extended last November, Congress also added the repeat-buyer tax credit of $6,500 to be used for homeowners to sell their current home and purchase another one. With the high unemployment rate, the higher credit scores wanted by lenders since earlier this year, the upside down [...]

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9. March 2010

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Obama’s Home Refinance Plan Extended to 2011

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Monday that the Home Affordable Refinance Program will now run another year. Scheduled to end on June 10, it will now be available for one year longer  with a new expiration date of June 30, 2011. This refinance program, set up by the Obama administration as part of the  Making [...]

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9. March 2010

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Understanding Mortgage Purchase Points to Lower Mortgage Rates

Mortgage rates are at an all time low but if you’re looking for an even lower mortgage rate, you can buy points towards reducing it. If purchasing points doesn’t make much sense to you, read on.
Understanding Purchase Points
Purchase points are also referred to as buy-down or discount points, so a lender may talk to you [...]

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