Part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 is a tax credit for first-time buyers purchasing a home between April 9, 2008 and July 1, 2009. The government will hand over up to $7,500 to you, if you qualify. The catch is that you have to pay back the IRS over the next [...]

Real estate website Zillow released the results of a survey on homeowners’ perceptions last week. While we’re all aware of the difficulties facing the housing market these days, Zillow’s survey revealed some nuances that you should be aware of — especially if you’re thinking of buying a new house any time soon.
According to the survey, [...]

A real estate agent in my area has been running a TV commercial telling prospective buyers that just because other parts of the country are having housing market problems not to worry about. “You wouldn’t want a weather report for the whole country,” this agent announces, “So why do you listen to national real estate [...]

Even with the rough spots in the housing markets these days, ‘flippers’ are still buying houses. These folks buy houses in poor condition, fix them up and sell them at a profit. Home buyers often like them because flippers need to sell their houses as fast as possible to avoid paying more than a month [...]

There’s a fairly fixed amount you should pay on housing, whether you buy a house, rent an apartment or otherwise obtain shelter. Most personal finance experts will tell you that you will wind up spending one-third of your income on housing.
As a general rule, one-third of your income is a good number to use when [...]

When you sell a house, an office building or any other type of real estate, you usually wind up handing
over 6 percent of the final price to real estate agents. That money is divided between the buying and selling agents. If you’re buying property, you don’t officially have to pay either agent, but that commission [...]