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	<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Real Estate &#38; Homes &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Real Estate &#38; Homes &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>What Retirement Crisis? Retirees Say They&#8217;re Doing Just Fine, Thank You Very Much</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/06/07/what-retirement-crisis-retirees-say-theyre-doing-just-fine-thank-you-very-much/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/06/07/what-retirement-crisis-retirees-say-theyre-doing-just-fine-thank-you-very-much/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=81283</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Maybe we worry too much about retirees. As a group, they are more likely than working people to describe their finances as comfortable, according to a new poll. How can this be? Aren’t oppressively low bank rates crushing the lifestyle of folks concentrated in conservative investments? Hasn’t the housing bust wiped out much of their home-equity safety net? Weren’t many forced to sell assets at low prices to make ends meet? The answer to these questions is, in part, yes. Yet 75% of retirees report that they are financially comfortable right now, Gallup reports. That tops the 67% of working people who claim to be financially comfortable and suggests that whatever economic hardships have befallen elders, they are no more painful than those that have afflicted working folks. On its face, the comfort level that retirees express is confounding. Low rates have curbed income, rendered fixed annuities a costly solution, and jacked up the premiums on long-term-care insurance, among other things. Meanwhile, retirees are far more likely to report less income than working people. (MORE: The New Retirement: Forget Being Rich, All We Want Is Peace of Mind) So why are retirees feeling so secure? For one thing, only 41% of people past age 65 have interest-bearing and other financial assets in retirement accounts; Social Security is the principal income source for nearly half of older Americans and many others receive guaranteed income from a traditional pension plan. If you have no rate-sensitive investments, low rates are nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, many of those with financial assets have shifted them into riskier segments of the market, like real estate investment trusts, high-yield corporate bonds and dividend-paying stocks. They have added risk, but their income hasn&#8217;t necessarily fallen. So, again, low rates have had little impact on monthly income. Besides, &#8220;many of today&#8217;s retirees are Depression-era babies who have learned to live on less,&#8221; says Debra Whitman, head of policy, strategy and international affairs at AARP. They feel secure because they have made financial adjustments to match their expenses with their income, she says. Such adjustments can<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=81283&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Average Rate on 30-year U.S. Mortgage Nearing 4%</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/06/06/average-rate-on-30-year-us-mortgage-nearing-4/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/06/06/average-rate-on-30-year-us-mortgage-nearing-4/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Marcy Gordon</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=81435</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — The average U.S. rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage rose above 3 percent this week for the first time in a year, while the rate on the 30-year fixed loan approached 4 percent. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan jumped to 3.91 percent from 3.81 percent last week. That&#8217;s the highest since March 2012. The rate on the 15-year loan rose to 3.03 percent from 2.98 percent. That&#8217;s the highest since last May. (MORE:  Uh-Oh: We Already Started Spending Like It’s 2005) Concerns that the Federal Reserve may scale back its bond purchases have pushed rates higher over the last month. Still, mortgage rates remain low by historical standards. The 30-year loan hit a record 3.31 percent rate in November. The 15-year loan fell to its low of 2.56 percent a month ago. Mortgage rates are rising because they tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield on the 10-year note climbed as high as 2.2 percent last week, its highest level in more than two years. It has since slipped to 2.1 percent in early trading Thursday. That compares with 1.63 percent at the beginning of May. The Fed&#8217;s $85-billion-a-month in Treasury and mortgage bond purchases have pushed down long-term interest rates. As speculation has grown that the Fed will slow those purchases, investors have driven rates up. That has decreased the value of bonds with lower yields. The rise in mortgage rates has slowed mortgages applications. They dropped 11.5 percent in the week ended May 31 from the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. Still, cheaper mortgages have helped boost home sales and prices this year, strengthening a housing recovery that began in 2012. Both home prices and sales increased throughout the country from April through late May, according to a Fed survey released Wednesday, and several regional districts noted that sellers were receiving multiple offers. (MORE:  US Homebuilder Confidence Rises in May from April) Data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday that home prices<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=81435&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/145449611.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Pending Sales Of U.S. Existing Homes Decline By Most In A Year</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>The New Way to Flip a House: Let Buyers Weigh in Before Renovations</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/06/03/the-new-way-to-flip-a-house-let-buyers-weigh-in-before-renovations/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/06/03/the-new-way-to-flip-a-house-let-buyers-weigh-in-before-renovations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:30:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Construction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreclosures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Improvement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baltimore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charm City Builders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[house flipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Corbett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rowhouses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trulia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=81116</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In Baltimore, builders are flipping the way that homes are normally flipped. Instead of fixing up an older home and hoping that a buyer likes the improvements, builders are welcoming buyers into the process much earlier, allowing them to customize the renovation with their choice of countertops, cabinets, colors, tile, and more. Normally, a model home is a brand-spanking new, never-lived-in property that serves as a showcase for a new real estate development. A company in Baltimore called Charm City Builders is in the process of building its own model home—only theirs is a rowhouse that&#8217;s more than 100 years old. The Baltimore Sun recently highlighted how Charm City Builders and a few other local builders are rehabbing old neighborhoods and changing notions of what house flips and model homes can be. In the typical house flip, an investor purchases a home, puts some money into the place to fix it up, and then sells the finished property (ideally, at a profit) to buyers who don&#8217;t want to deal with the hassles of renovating it themselves. Charm City Builders, on the other hand, is putting a few hundred thousand dollars into a rowhouse that the company has no immediate plans of selling. Instead, the property will serve as a model home. On the top two floors, Charm City can show off to buyers how it might renovate similar homes in the city. The bottom floor will serve as a sales office, where customers can pick out colors and browse samples of tile and fixtures. (MORE: The New Retirement: Why You Don&#8217;t Have to Pay Off Your Mortgage) This kind of sales model, which real estate experts say hasn&#8217;t really been tried before, not only allows builders to demonstrate the quality and craftsmanship of their rehab skills, but also gives buyers a much better idea of what they&#8217;re getting themselves into. Walking through an actual renovated home has a much greater impact than viewing computer-generated images of potential rehabs. &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing like walking through and kicking the tires,&#8221; Stephen Melman, director<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=81116&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate Markets</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/real-estate-markets/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Dog Bites Insurance Companies: Man&#8217;s Best Friend Behind One-Third of All Homeowner Claims</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/28/dog-bites-insurance-companies-mans-best-friend-behind-one-third-of-all-homeowner-claims/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/28/dog-bites-insurance-companies-mans-best-friend-behind-one-third-of-all-homeowner-claims/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 May 2013 16:06:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dog bites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[homeowners insurance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Insurance Information Institute]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Postal Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[U.S. Postal Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[USPS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80917</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the last decade, the number of insurance claims related to dog bites has basically remained flat. But the amount of money paid out in claims has soared, and last year dog bites accounted for more than one-third of all dollars paid out in homeowners insurance liability claims. Data from the Insurance Information Institute (III) released in honor of something called National Dog Bite Prevention Week indicates that over the past decade, the number of dog bite claims has drifted from the low 14,000s to the high 16,000s. In 2012, the total stood at 16,459, down from the 2011 tally of 16,695, and also lower than the 2003&#8242;s total of 16,919. The low over the past decade occurred in 2005, when 14,295 dog bite claims were recorded. While the number of dog bite claims has fluctuated a bit up and down, the value of claims has gone in one direction: upward. In the 2012, dog bite claims accounted for $489.7 million, which is more than one-third of all homeowners liability claims paid in the year, according to the III. Compare that to 2003, when there were a few hundred more dog bite claims, and yet the claim payouts totaled $324.2 million. From 2003 to 2012, the value of dog bite claims increased 51%, a rate that far outpaces inflation. The average dog bite claim payout rose from $19,162 in 2003 to $29,752 last year, an increase of 55%. (MORE: Millions on Pet Halloween Costumes? Why We Spend More and More on Pets) Insurers take notice of such data, and yes, owning a dog—especially one that has bitten someone—can affect your policy. In general, the fact that you have a dog doesn&#8217;t factor into what rate you pay for homeowner&#8217;s insurance. But as the New York Times noted, once a dog bite takes place at your home, the insurer could raise the premium or even exclude dog-related injuries from coverage. Some animal cruelty prevention societies report that homeowners have been denied insurance because they own certain &#8220;high-risk&#8221; breeds of dogs, including<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80917&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/485_biz_dog_bite_0528.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Dog</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Home Prices See Double-Digit Jump</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/28/home-prices-see-double-digit-jump/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/28/home-prices-see-double-digit-jump/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 May 2013 15:30:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alison Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80898</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With a 10.9% increase from March 2012 to this March, home prices continued their upward trajectory as measured by the S&#38;P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. The index has been rising for some time, but the pace of the increase is now the highest since the &#8220;bubble&#8221; days of April 2006. Some of that is due to an investment push by financial firms, as we noted last month in an article on February&#8217;s 9.3% year-over-year gain. The spending certainly seems to be widespread, with a dozen U.S. cities registering double-digit year-over-year gains. Hot markets basically got hotter, as Detroit, formerly up 15.2%, jumped 18.5%; Atlanta, formerly up 16.5%, jumped 19.1%, and Las Vegas, formerly up 17.6%, soared 20.6%. The price increase laurel still goes to Phoenix, where prices, are up 22.5%. That&#8217;s if you can find anything to buy. Inventory is tight all over the country, and real estate listing aggregator Zillow has noted that in February, the number of listings on the site was down 17% from the previous year. Last week, the site published a report arguing that that&#8217;s due to homeowners who are &#8220;underwater&#8221; (remember them?) owing more on their mortgages than they have in equity, and thus unwilling or unable to list their homes. (MORE: This Housing Upturn Looks Like the Real Thing) However, the good news is that the number of Americans in foreclosure or late on their mortgages continues to decrease. A report from LPS Applied Analytics notes that the number of distressed homeowners dropped to 4.7 million in April, which is the first time in five years that that figure has come down below 5 million. If we think of distressed homeowners as a tide-water mark, the flood of foreclosure is clearly receding. So the question on the table for this month is: When can those homeowners recover enough to list their homes, pushing up inventory, and providing some balance to prices? According to Zillow, it may be the first quarter of 2014, at which point the firm predicts that 1.4 million homeowners who currently have negative equity<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80898&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate Markets</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/real-estate-markets/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">1alisonrogers</media:title>
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		<title>The New Retirement: Why You Don&#8217;t Have to Pay Off Your Mortgage</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/28/the-new-retirement-why-you-dont-have-to-pay-off-your-mortgage/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/28/the-new-retirement-why-you-dont-have-to-pay-off-your-mortgage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 May 2013 09:45:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dan Kadlec</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[401(k) Savings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Estate Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home-Equity Loans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reverse Mortgage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80638</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Low interest rates have changed the game for retirees—but not always in a bad way. Consider your mortgage. With rates having fallen so far, there may no longer be a pressing need to own your house outright before you call it quits at the office. This may be of little comfort to millions of savers trying to eke by each month on income from bank deposits paying below 1%. But today&#8217;a low rates are a boon to those saddled with a mortgage payment at a time in life when carrying large debts has long been ill-advised. In 1989, just 26.4% of all households were retired with a mortgage, according to data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. That jumped to 46.5% by 2007, before receding a bit during the recession. These stats trouble traditionalists, who view owing money on a house in retirement as heresy. After all, paying off a mortgage brings peace of mind, because you know your living expenses have been cut and that your home equity offers a sturdy safety net. (MORE: New Retirement Priorities: Forget Being Rich, All We Want Is Peace of Mind) Yet clinging to a mortgage in retirement has benefits too, especially with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage running at just 3.5%. You might be better off keeping the mortgage and investing the money elsewhere, which amounts to borrowing at a tax-deductible 3.5% in order to start a business, invest in stocks, or purchase an income property. Over time, such investments should provide superior returns. This new calculus assumes that you have the means to pay off your mortgage in the first place. Many folks have been downsized into retirement prematurely and may still hold a mortgage because they can&#8217;t do anything about it. But for those with a choice, the basic rule of thumb: If you expect to earn more after tax on your investments than you pay after tax on your mortgage, keep the mortgage. However, if you are a conservative investor and keep your money in bank CDs and Treasury bonds,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80638&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/970_biz_housing_0430.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Suburban homes in Massachusetts</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">dankadlec</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Oklahoma&#8217;s Dangerous Dearth of Storm Cellars</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/22/oklahomas-dangerous-dearth-of-storm-cellars/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/22/oklahomas-dangerous-dearth-of-storm-cellars/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 May 2013 09:45:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80555</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[UPDATED 5/22/13 12:30 pm The deadly tornadoes that struck outside Oklahoma City on Monday have a lot of people asking why there aren&#8217;t more storm cellars and safe rooms in the area, which would have enabled more residents to shelter safely. Glenn Lewis, the mayor of devastated Moore, Oklahoma, said today that he wants to pass a law requiring either tornado shelters or safe rooms in new homes. &#8221;We&#8217;ll try to get it passed as soon as I can,&#8221; he told CNN. In the meantime, however, why were so many area residents unable to flee into a conventional storm cellar or basement as the storm approached? To debunk one popular myth: It’s not that these structures can’t be built in the area. But a combination of market and climatological forces makes them expensive and rare. A key factor behind the dearth of basements in Oklahoma is the region&#8217;s frost line. Structural foundations everywhere need to be set below the depth at which the surrounding ground freezes. In most northern states, that means digging as much as six feet down — and if you’ve already gone to that much effort, you might as well just go ahead and build a basement. In Oklahoma, however, the frost line is only about 18 inches below the earth&#8217;s surface, and since there’s no structural or financial advantage to digging deeper, most builders don’t. “The main issue is cost,&#8221; explains Calvin Taylor, owner of Taylor Concrete Construction in the northeast Oklahoma city of Tahlequah. &#8220;They can go down and put a slab floor down for less.” (PHOTOS: Tornado Flattens Suburb Outside Oklahoma City, Kills Dozens) Then there&#8217;s the unusual quality of the earth itself in parts of Oklahoma. In the northeast part of the state, rocky soil often requires builders to use a jackhammer to dig basement, which is more expensive than the conventional process. Other parts of the state have unusually shallow soil covering sandstone bedrock, which means even more heavy-duty excavation. That can add several hundred to a few thousand dollars onto the cost, says Mike Hancock,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80555&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>This Housing Upturn Looks Like the Real Thing</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/15/why-this-housing-upturn-looks-like-the-real-thing/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/15/why-this-housing-upturn-looks-like-the-real-thing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 09:45:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Construction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economic Indicators]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreclosures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home-Equity Loans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mortgages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79982</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ever since the recovery began in 2009, a weak housing market has held back the U.S. economy. The first rebound in home prices was lackluster and after only a year was followed by another dip. But the recent upturn in home prices looks like the real thing. One clear sign of a turning point: In March, homeownership hit a 17-year low, while the 12-month gain in home prices was the biggest in seven years. Those two extremes suggest that the market has hit bottom. The people who are least well financed have been squeezed out, while demand is growing among people who can afford to pay higher home prices. If that trend continues – and there are good reasons to believe it will – a substantial burden will be lifted from the U.S. economy. The great surprise since the recession ended has been the weakness of the economic rebound, which has been particularly clear in the housing market. After falling 31% from 2006 to 2009, home prices rose almost 5% over the following year. But that recovery faltered, and during the next 20 months prices fell to a new low. Then the current recovery began, and barring another recession, all the evidence indicates that it will be sustainable: In the first quarter, home prices were higher (compared with a year earlier) in 133 of 150 metropolitan areas, according to the National Association of Realtors. On a national basis, the median home price gained 11.3%, the biggest yearly gain since 2005. (MORE: The Housing Mirage) The glut of homes for sale has diminished, down almost 17% compared with the previous year. In addition, the number of foreclosures in April (including bank repossessions and scheduled auctions) was 23% lower than a year earlier. Mortgage applications were up 7% in the most recent week, helped by low mortgage rates. Refinancings, which typically improve homeowners’ finances, have been generally rising in recent months and reached their highest level since December. And a Fannie Mae survey of consumer expectations for housing found that a majority of those surveyed in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79982&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/600_ml_housing_03271.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/600_ml_housing_03271.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/600_ml_housing_03271.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Housing</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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		<title>Please Don&#8217;t Use a &#8216;Best Places to Retire&#8217; List to Decide Where to Retire</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/please-dont-use-a-best-places-to-retire-list-to-decide-where-to-retire/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/please-dont-use-a-best-places-to-retire-list-to-decide-where-to-retire/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Florida Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health Care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Healthcare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retirement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AARP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[income taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Council on the Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Dakota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oregon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[property taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retirement community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79540</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It can be confusing making sense of the many “best places to retire” lists out there. In fact, it&#8217;s probably best to eye these lists with extreme skepticism &#8212; unless you really do want to spend your golden years in (gulp) frigid North Dakota. What with all the &#8220;best places to retire&#8221; lists in circulation, you&#8217;d think there would be some consensus about the top spots to kick back in retirement. Yet these lists are literally all over the map, and often contradictory. Bankrate.com&#8217;s new roundup ranking the &#8220;surprisingly best&#8221; states for retirement touts the Dakotas, West Virginia, and Mississippi — and ranks Oregon dead last in its corresponding &#8220;worst places&#8221; list. A Forbes list, on the other hand, included Medford, Ore., in its roundup of the best places to retire in 2013, and CNN/Money listed Portland, Ore., in a roundup published last fall. These discrepancies are the rule rather than the exception, partially because the rankings emphasize different criteria. Some lists emphasize college towns, whose populations tend to skew young, while others put a premium on communities with a lot of senior residents. Many publications advise looking at local tax rates, but they clash when it comes to deciding whether income, property or sales tax is most important. Here’s the good news: you can probably ignore them all. As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out two years ago in the New Yorker, rankings fail when they bite off more than they can chew. A “best of” list can aim to evaluate a broad set of criteria or a large number of contenders, but not both. “It’s an act of real audacity when a ranking system tries to be comprehensive and heterogeneous,” Gladwell wrote. Gladwell was critiquing the way college rankings are conducted, but the principle is the same when it comes to cars, restaurants and where to spend your retirement years. (MORE: Um, You&#8217;ve Actually Been Able to Order Authentic Viagra Online for Years) The way &#8220;best places to retire&#8221; lists are graded often misses the point: they don’t tell you much about<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79540&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retirement</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/retirement-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/retirement1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/retirement1.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">retirement</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/9a5a9e4f28beb5afb59b1202632d219a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>Forget Lowballing: Bidding Wars Return in Hot Housing Markets</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/forget-lowballing-bidding-wars-return-in-hot-housing-markets/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/forget-lowballing-bidding-wars-return-in-hot-housing-markets/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:18:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[asking price]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bidding wars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Connecticut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Denver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hartford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home listings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[real estate agents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[San Francisco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Underpriced Homes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are buyers being manipulated into overbidding for the relatively few attractive homes on the market? Earlier this year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced that the number of homes for sale in the U.S. had reached a low not seen since 1999. More homes have hit the market since then, but Lawrence Yun, NAR&#8217;s chief economist, said in March that in many areas around the nation, the inventory of homes for sale is unlikely to keep up with the number of interested buyers. &#8220;Buyer traffic is 40% above a year ago, so there is plenty of demand but insufficient inventory to improve sales more strongly. We&#8217;ve transitioned into a seller&#8217;s market in much of the country,&#8221; said Yun. &#8220;We expect a seasonal rise of inventory this spring, but it may be insufficient to avoid more frequent incidences of multiple bidding and faster-than-normal price growth.&#8221; (MORE: Code Police! 6 Things That May Be Surprisingly Banned in Your Front Yard) Bidding wars have been commonplace in Connecticut this spring, especially for mid-range properties ($300K to $600K), reports the Hartford Courant. Buyers are reportedly frustrated by &#8220;the slow trickle of new listings,&#8221; and &#8220;they are ready to pounce,&#8221; according to a local realtor, when an attractive property in their price range comes onto the market. Bidding wars have also been popping up in cities such as Denver, where half of new homes on the market have been selling in under 30 days. CNN Money recently noted that nine in 10 homes in hot markets in northern and southern California have attracted bidding wars, as have at least two-thirds of properties in Boston, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. &#8220;The only question is not whether a new listing will get multiple bids but how many it will get,&#8221; one agent in the Sacramento area explained. But is the increase in multiple bids a sign of a hot housing market &#8212; or one in which underpricing has become the standard? A bidding war is a sign that the home is probably underpriced—and the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78883&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate Markets</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/real-estate-markets/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/970_biz_housing_0430.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/970_biz_housing_0430.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Suburban homes in Massachusetts</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>Housing Prices Jump Again&#8230;and Wall Street May Be Playing a Role</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/housing-prices-jump-again-and-wall-street-appears-to-be-playing-a-role/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/housing-prices-jump-again-and-wall-street-appears-to-be-playing-a-role/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:11:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alison Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78913</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If journalists were allowed to bet (we&#8217;re not) it would have been easy to call today&#8217;s S&#38;P/Case-Shiller housing price data. After jumps of 6.8% two months ago (reflecting December year-over-year sales) and 8.1% last month (reflecting January sales), &#8220;up&#8221; would have been a fairly easy prediction. And, indeed, today&#8217;s announcement of a 9.3% year-over-year gain for February is right on trend. The number appears to reflect a broad national trend, with gains in each of the 20 metro areas the Home Price Index includes. Even New York, which had been the last holdout with a negative report of down 0.3% last month, came in with a 1.9% gain. In fact, the index is ratcheting up with such speed that it no longer seems driven by people buying homes in which to live, especially in an economy with unemployment still at a pesky 7.6% and job growth low. Compare that with housing price gains of 23% per year in Phoenix; 17.6% in Las Vegas, and 16.5% in Atlanta. Prices are even up 15.2% per year in Detroit, which is enough to make many city mayors consider their own Clint Eastwood commercials. (MORE: More Young Couples Commit — To Homeownership Before Marriage) The answer to the paradox may indeed be buying by investors rather than homesteaders. First-time buyers, especially, have found current credit markets tough to navigate. The Federal Housing Administration, which traditionally provides a boost for first-time homeowners by insuring their mortgages, is now backing one-quarter of all homes purchased in America, up from a more typical 10 to 15% market share, according to a story by Rose Melly in the San Jose Mercury News. However, the FHA has made its policies more restrictive &#8212; and those purchases more expensive &#8212; by raising the mortgage insurance premiums (MIPs) that it charges by one-tenth of 1%. For homes under $625,000, the MIP has gone up from 1.25% to 1.35%. That may not seem like much, but when you&#8217;re trying to make a housing payment as a first-timer, every dollar counts. Investment funds, by contrast, seem to be<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78913&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/145449611.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/145449611.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Pending Sales Of U.S. Existing Homes Decline By Most In A Year</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">1alisonrogers</media:title>
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		<title>Code Police! 6 Things That May Surprisingly Be Banned in Your Front Yard</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/code-police-6-things-that-may-surprisingly-be-banned-in-your-front-yard/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/code-police-6-things-that-may-surprisingly-be-banned-in-your-front-yard/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:35:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Florida Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Improvement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clotheslines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[couches]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Garage Sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gardening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Great Neck]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[homeowners association]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[laundry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lemonade stands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Free Library]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regulations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[residential community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tag sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[treehouse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vegetable gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vegetables]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[yard sales]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77569</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just because it&#8217;s your property doesn&#8217;t mean you can do anything you&#8217;d like with it. Towns and residential communities ban all sorts of things from appearing in front yards, and by most accounts, enforcement of the rules is picking up. The code enforcers around the country have recently targeted everything from tree houses to lemonade stands, and even if outright bans aren&#8217;t in place, homeowners are facing the annoyance of getting permits or variances just to do what they please on their own properties. On the front-yard prohibited list are things such as: Vegetable Gardens Given America&#8217;s obesity epidemic, it seems odd that any community would risk being called anti-vegetable. And yet, as the New York Times detailed last December, gardeners—who &#8220;aren’t generally known for their civil disobedience&#8221;—have been ordered by local code enforcers to get rid of front-yard veggie gardens in places such as Orlando, Fla., Tulsa, Okla., and Ferguson, Mo. Officials in West Des Moines, Iowa, considered a front-yard garden ban recently, and a woman in the summer of 2011 Michigan faced 93 days in jail for refusing to dig up her garden. (MORE: The Bigger Box Store: Home Improvement Centers That Are Double the Size of Home Depot) The anti-garden forces say that raised beds and veggies are unsightly and should remain strictly backyard affairs. For homeowners who think otherwise, and who live in places where front-yard gardens aren&#8217;t prohibited, take note of tips for landscaping a yard so it&#8217;s both beautiful and edible. Little Free Libraries Last fall, the village of Whitefish Bay, Wisc., ordered a church to remove a mailbox-like structure on its front lawn. The structure resembled a mini-chapel, but was filled with books available to all comers, free of charge. There are hundreds of such &#8220;little free libraries&#8221; on private residences in Wisconsin, and thousands more around the globe. Yet, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, Whitefish Bay officials shot down one resident&#8217;s request to install a free library in his front yard. (The village bans all structures in front yards, even mailboxes.)<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77569&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/157403714.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/157403714.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Garden Gnome</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>More Young Couples Commit — To Homeownership Before Marriage</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/17/more-young-couples-commit-to-homeownership-before-marriage/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/17/more-young-couples-commit-to-homeownership-before-marriage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:45:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Borrowing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Decision Making]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Coldwell Banker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[commitment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marriage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[millennials]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[romance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[youth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77843</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[First comes love, then comes … mortgage? A new study indicates that young couples in committed relationships have been far more likely than older generations to purchase homes before getting married. A recently released CDC study quantified a trend that most of us are well aware of: Couples are increasingly likely to live together before marriage. From 2006 to 2010, nearly half (48%) of American women ages 15 to 44 said that they had ever cohabitated—i.e., lived with a romantic partner without being married. In 1995, by contrast, just 34% said that they&#8217;d lived with a partner before marriage. Now, the results of a soon-to-be-released survey from Coldwell Banker indicate that today&#8217;s young couples are also more likely to buy homes together before marriage. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of polled married couples ages 18 to 34 said that they purchased a home before they were married. Among married couples ages 45 and up, just 14% said that they bought a house together before tying the knot. Couples in the Northeast stand out as particularly likely to buy real estate before getting hitched: Just 60% in the survey waited until marriage to purchase a home, compared to 72% in the tradition-minded South, where people tend to marry younger (and therefore, poorer). In a phone interview, Dr. Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist and Coldwell Banker&#8217;s official &#8220;lifestyle correspondent,&#8221; said that buying a home together has become &#8220;the new engagement ring&#8221; for some young couples. They&#8217;re committing to purchasing real estate as a couple regardless of whether they&#8217;ve set a wedding date. Some even forego lavish weddings and honeymoons in order to cover the down payment and a chunk of the mortgage. &#8220;Millennials have a very pragmatic state of mind,&#8221; said Ludwig. &#8220;They know that they have an opportunity here, with low mortgage rates and low housing prices. And they think, &#8216;We&#8217;re moving toward marriage anyway, so let&#8217;s buy.&#8217; It makes sense.&#8221; (MORE: Financial Independence? Today&#8217;s Young People Don&#8217;t Expect It Anytime Soon) This doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that more millennials—married or not—are buying homes nowadays.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77843&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Decision Making</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/planning/decision-making-planning/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/83899391.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Young couple with moving boxes in new house</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Home Price Gains Continue Increasing Nationwide</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/home-price-gains-continue-increasing-nationwide/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/26/home-price-gains-continue-increasing-nationwide/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:11:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alison Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=75804</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Citing &#8220;steady employment and low borrowing rates&#8221; as well as inventories that have fallen &#8220;to their lowest post-recession levels,&#8221; the S&#38;P Dow Jones Indices released Case-Shiller housing data that showed home prices jumping 8.1% from the previous year. When charted, the data looks like it&#8217;s been hit with a booster rocket, with the past three months&#8217; reports showing solid year-over-year gains of 5.5%, 6.8%, and the just-reported 8.1%. All twenty metro areas covered in the index posted gains, ranging from New York&#8217;s 0.6% to Phoenix&#8217;s 23.2%. Eight cities&#8217; gains were in the double-digits: Miami (10.8%); Los Angeles and Minneapolis (each 12.1%); Atlanta (13.4%); Detroit (13.8%); Las Vegas (15.3%), and San Francisco (17.5%), in addition to Phoenix. That list is notable for its breadth: Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix all fell victim to a run of investment speculation during the housing boom, and subsequently crashed hard; but the other five metros range from rust-belt economies hit hard by the Great Recession (Detroit) to high-flying tech-driven ones that were relatively unscathed (San Francisco). The latest Case-Shiller data reflect January sales, so the possibility of a strong spring in the real estate market &#8212; traditionally the high season for home sales &#8212; is emerging. The National Association of Realtors, which reports February data, notes that &#8220;sales have been above year-ago levels for 20 consecutive months,&#8221; with volume at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 4.98 million units. That&#8217;s 10.2% above last February&#8217;s pace of 4.52 million units. In addition, homes are moving much more quickly, with a median days on market of 74, down 24% from a year ago. The one data point casting a shadow on the prospect of a sunny spring is mortgage applications. The Mortgage Bankers&#8217; Association reports that the volume of mortgage applications has dropped in each of its latest two weekly surveys. That&#8217;s not a reaction to interest-rate swings; the interest rate for 30-year fixed loans, according to the MBA, has recently been unchanged at 3.53%. (Two-thirds of home purchases are financed, according to the National Association of Realtors; the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=75804&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate Markets</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/real-estate-markets/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">1alisonrogers</media:title>
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		<title>The Bigger Box Store: Home Improvement Stores That Are Double the Size of Home Depot</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/19/the-bigger-box-store-home-improvement-stores-that-are-double-the-size-of-home-depot/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/19/the-bigger-box-store-home-improvement-stores-that-are-double-the-size-of-home-depot/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:30:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Improvement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[big box retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DIY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Depot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lowe's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Menards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[midwest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[St. Louis]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=74828</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The average grocery store in the U.S. measures under 50,000 square feet. Home Depots average about 100,000 square feet, and the typical Costco or Walmart Supercenter—generally considered the biggest of all big box retailers—runs 100,000 to 150,000 square feet. But a new breed of home improvement store in the Midwest blows them all away. Menards, a Wisconsin-based home improvement chain founded in 1958, has been introducing a new store model throughout the Midwest that measures well over 200,000 square feet. In 2011, the company opened a revamped, dramatically expanded two-floor, 235,000-square-foot store in Eden Prairie, Minn., that &#8220;makes a Costco or Wal-Mart Supercenter look modest by comparison,&#8221; according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. In addition to a huge selection of home improvement DIY supplies, the store also stocks groceries, stuffed animals, clothing, jewelry, and drugstore staples. Another mega-Menards opened in Golden Valley, Minn., last year with, for instance, 41 different full kitchens on display for customers. With 5-pound vats of Cheetos and 17 shades of black spray paint among the options in aisles, the 250,000-square-foot store is &#8220;everything both mesmerizing and horrifying about our consumer culture,&#8221; in the words of an MSP Magazine editor who toured the place after it opened. (MORE: Are We Witnessing the Death of the Big Box Store?) Two more 200,000-plus-square-foot Menards will be opening this spring in the St. Louis area, each complete with &#8220;a full-service lumberyard and warehouse that shoppers can drive into,&#8221; reports the Post-Dispatch. While it wasn&#8217;t particularly surprising when Menards launched its first supersized store in the pre-recession, bigger-is-always-better mid-00s, it&#8217;s definitely against trend to be opening new megastores—and larger ones at that—lately. For years, observers have been postulating that the big-box store model is dying, thanks to factors including the struggling economy, the growth of online shopping, and rising real estate costs. Instead of pushing for bigger and bigger locations, chains such as Best Buy, Cabela&#8217;s, Office Depot, and Walmart have been more likely to be introducing smaller &#8220;express&#8221; stores with less merchandise—and less costly overhead. What makes Menards think it<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=74828&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/891356-001.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Forklift in warehouse</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>If There’s No Inflation, Why Are Prices Up So Much?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/12/if-theres-no-inflation-why-are-prices-up-so-much/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/12/if-theres-no-inflation-why-are-prices-up-so-much/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:45:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Austerity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commodities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Currency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economic Indicators]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Planning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street & Markets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=74397</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week, I ran out of ink for my printer and ordered some more online. My computer automatically pulled up the previous order, and I was shocked to see that the price of the ink cartridges I was buying had gone up 25%. To my mind, ink always seems overpriced. Manufacturers sell printers cheaply because they know that they can make lots of money on the ink. For the same reason, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil is said to have sold millions of cheap kerosene lamps in order to make big profits selling kerosene. But since ink cartridges were already priced way above cost and official statistics show little general inflation, why had ink gone up 25% in less than a year? Price hikes for a particular item here or there don&#8217;t qualify as inflation. If one thing gets more expensive but something else gets cheaper, that’s what economists call a relative price change. Inflation is a simultaneous increase in prices across the board. Some measures of inflation, such as the GDP Deflator, track price changes that affect businesses as well as those that affect consumers. But the Consumer Price Index is supposed to focus on inflation at the consumer level. And the CPI has recorded minimal increases over the past four years. Since the recession ended, the 12-month change in consumer prices has averaged 2% and has never been as high as 4%. (MORE: Online &#8216;Predictions&#8217; Market Intrade Shuts Down Months After Federal Lawsuit) There are lots of other ways to gauge inflation, however, that give very different signals. Gold was $930 an ounce when the recession ended, and today it’s $1,583. So if you believe in the gold standard, prices have increased 70% in four years – or an annualized rate of 14.2%. Of course, many economists dismiss the gold price as an archaic indicator. So it may be more meaningful to look at price increases over a broad range of commodities. The Reuters CRB Commodity Index, which tracks the prices of coffee, cocoa, copper, and cotton, as well as<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=74397&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Economy &amp; Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/inflation.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">inflation</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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		<title>North America Gets Its First Sustainable &#8216;Active Home&#8217; — And It&#8217;s in the American Heartland</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/11/north-america-gets-its-first-sustainable-active-home-and-its-in-the-american-heartland/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/11/north-america-gets-its-first-sustainable-active-home-and-its-in-the-american-heartland/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:00:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Construction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Improvement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[active home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[active house]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[front porch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[passive house]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[solar panels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[solar power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[St. Louis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Windows]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=74325</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the weekend, an open house was held in the suburbs of St. Louis, Mo. OK, there were lots of open houses over the weekend in the region. But one in particular stood out, for it featured the first &#8220;active home&#8221; in North America. What&#8217;s an &#8220;active&#8221; house? Basically, it&#8217;s one that incorporates a comprehensive, exceptionally sustainable and green design inside and out. In 2011, an official list of Active House specifications were established, including a wide range of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly practices and guidelines. In terms of energy usage, for example, the established goals are to create: • A building which is energy efficient and easy to operate • A building which substantially exceeds the statutory minimum in terms of energy efficiency • A building which exploits a variety of energy sources integrated in the overall design How these goals are achieved is left largely to the discretion of builders and homeowners. The world&#8217;s first active home opened in Denmark in 2009 and featured lots of solar panels and windows, so that over the years the home could capture more energy than it used. Another active home, in Russia, was built to consume five times less energy than an average home in the country. (MORE: Selling Your House? Choose Your Words Carefully) If an active home is green, then you might assume that a &#8220;passive home&#8221; is the opposite. But that&#8217;s not the case. As a 2011 Wall Street Journal story explained, passive house design focuses on conserving energy rather than producing it, and it too is considered sustainable, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective: Instead of focusing on environmentally friendly ways to produce energy, passive houses cut the need for energy consumption in the first place—by as much as 90% compared with the average American home, backers of the passive-house movement say. A combination of air-tight building materials, insulation calibrated for the local climate and windows set to maximize the angle of incoming sunlight all are designed to reduce energy needs. Even the expected body heat of the building occupants<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=74325&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Green</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/green/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Will Reform of Fannie and Freddie Kill the 30-Year Mortgage?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/04/will-reform-of-fannie-and-freddie-kill-the-30-year-mortgage/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/04/will-reform-of-fannie-and-freddie-kill-the-30-year-mortgage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:45:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christopher Matthews</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=73534</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The sequester is all anybody wants to talk about. I get it: It&#8217;s the hip new crisis sweeping Washington. But remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? You know, the once quasi-independent housing giants whose takeover by the federal government has cost taxpayers upwards of $190 billion thus far? Well, Fannie and Freddie are still owned by the federal government and, on top of that, are the only thing holding the U.S.&#8217; badly battered housing-finance system together, as the Feds back 9 out of 10 mortgages issued today. But Congress and the President have been so bogged down in their never-ending budget battles that we&#8217;ve heard little from Washington on this subject in recent months. Until last week, that is, when the Bipartisan Policy Center &#8212; a think tank formed by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, and George Mitchell &#8212; tried to bring this very important issue back to the fore by releasing a 131-page report on the future of housing policy in America. (MORE: Home Prices Jump Again. Are We Out of the Woods Yet?) Their solution is to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by slowly selling off their assets to the private sector as the economy improves. In their place, the government would create a public guarantor of mortgages, sort of like what Ginnie Mae does for FHA and VA loans now. This guarantor would not purchase mortgage-backed securities as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do now; rather it would simply insure mortgages in case of default, and charge a fee to do so. The BPC framework would also require issuers of mortgage-backed securities to purchase private insurance, so that the government guarantor would only have to step in in the case of a total real estate market meltdown, similar to the one we experienced in 2008. This system is more stable than the one in place prior to the crisis because the government guarantees would be explicit, and be accounted for in the budget. Furthermore, any losses the government would have to take<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=73534&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Real Estate</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/real-estate-economy-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">christopherrmatthews</media:title>
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	</item>
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		<title>Selling Your House? Choose Your Words Carefully</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/03/01/selling-your-house-choose-your-words-carefully/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/03/01/selling-your-house-choose-your-words-carefully/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Martha C. White</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[California Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hawaii Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Luxury Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[real estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Residential Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[San Francisco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trulia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trulia.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=73274</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Certain phrases pop up again and again in real estate listings, and these keywords offer a good indication of the prices a property will command. A listing promising a &#8220;once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,&#8221; for instance, has an average price of $3.4 million, while a &#8220;cute little bungalow&#8221; asks around $62,000, on average. Quirky terms pop up in local markets, too: You&#8217;ll never guess what one of the top phrases in San Francisco is. After sifting through its 4.5 million-property database, Trulia.com has released a new study naming the real estate listing phrases that appear often in the highest- and lowest-priced homes. As might be expected, most of the phrases that fill out the highest-priced listings evoke magnificent estates; in fact, &#8220;magnificent estate&#8221; is one of the top 10. (The average listing price of a magnificent estate: about $3.6 million.) The priciest phrase of all is &#8220;parlor floor,&#8221; which corresponds to an average property price of $4.9 million. &#8220;Parlor floor&#8221; is a common descriptor for  luxurious townhouses in New York City, which is notorious for high real estate costs. Even the 250-square-foot shoeboxes under consideration by a space-squeezed city government would start at $940 a month to rent in NYC. (&#8220;Shoebox,&#8221; by the way, is not a term you&#8217;re likely to see in real estate listings.) The phrase &#8220;highest level&#8221; — another example of urban market-speak — corresponds to a $3.4 million price tag, but most of the other terms imply more spacious surroundings: &#8220;formal gardens,&#8221; &#8220;paneled library&#8221; and &#8220;motor court&#8221; all make the top 10 list. (MORE: The Best Times to Buy or Sell a House) More specific phrasing seems to be a better bet for sellers: Trulia found that specifying oak or bamboo rather than just saying &#8220;hardwood&#8221; in reference to the floor corresponded with a higher listing price. At the other end of the pricing spectrum, listings warning about defective paint or a &#8220;mold-like substance&#8221; clocked in with average listing prices of around $45K. When there&#8217;s a lead paint warning, the average goes down to $40K. Buyers looking for a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=73274&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Real Estate &amp; Homes</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/real-estate-homes/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/110052980-e1362065937282.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Couple looking into estate agents window</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">marthacwhite</media:title>
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		<title>What Happens When the Fed Really Does Run Out of Ammunition?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/02/27/what-happens-when-the-fed-really-does-run-out-of-ammunition/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/02/27/what-happens-when-the-fed-really-does-run-out-of-ammunition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Austerity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Portfolio Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate & Homes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=72950</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stocks dropped sharply last week, with the Dow falling some 200 points, after the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its January Open Market Committee meeting. Although the minutes reaffirmed the Fed’s easy-money policy, they also showed that some members of the committee had voiced concerns. The dissenters cautioned that quantitative easing, the current program of massive bond buying, could not be continued indefinitely without serious risks. Loading the Fed up with bonds creates the danger of big losses for the central bank if interest rates rise (which causes bond prices to fall). In a worst-case scenario, those losses could total half a trillion dollars over three years, according to one estimate. As a result, the January minutes included a carefully worded caveat: “Evaluation of the efficacy, costs and risks of asset purchases might well lead the committee to taper or end its purchases before it judged that a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market had occurred.” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke remains undaunted, however. In his testimony before Congress on Tuesday he defended his easy-money policy, noting that it has &#8220;supported real growth in employment and kept inflation close to our target.&#8221; With consumer prices up only 1.6% over the past year, Bernanke declared: &#8220;My inflation record is the best of any Federal Reserve chairman in the postwar period — or at least one of the best.&#8221; (MORE: Italy&#8217;s Political Mess: Why the Euro Debt Crisis Never Ended) In addition he argued that worries about potential losses on the Fed&#8217;s ballooning bond holdings were overstated. Careful portfolio management, he said, would allow the central bank to absorb the losses over time by trying to hold bonds to maturity rather than selling at a loss. &#8220;We could exit without ever selling,&#8221; Bernanke said. This debate raises profound questions — probably not for the last time — about the effectiveness of the Fed&#8217;s easy-money policy. Why hasn&#8217;t it worked better? How long can it be continued? And, most important, what will happen when the Fed finally runs out of ammunition and quantitative easing comes to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=72950&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Economy &amp; Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/biz-ben-bernanke-130227.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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