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Feng Shui is a type of Chinese design that helps to bring positive energy to a home. The way in which you have things laid out can influence what type of feelings people entering the home are able to receive. Using the power of Feng Shui you will be able to sell your home in less time. This is because the decision to buy a home is also an emotional one. 

The feelings that people have when they are in your home can determine whether they are interested in buying it or not. Chances are they have already decided they like the location, the size of it, and the price before they schedule a time to come see it or stop in for an open house. 

To do this, you want to start with the outside of your home. That is the first thing people are going to see when they are coming to look at it. Have some fun making changes but you also need to be tuned into what is going on. Go to the end of your driveway and take a note of what you see. Write down how you feel about your home from that distance. Let the words flow and don’t criticize what you are writing down.

Adding some nice plants to your landscaping makes the home inviting. You don’t need to have very many of them to make a nice transformation. If you have an entry way, a table with some fresh flowers is a great way to bring positive energy into the home. One area that you want to offer a very relaxing look into is the bathroom. Here you should have things set up to show it as a room where a person can completely pamper themselves.

You also need to create positive energy in the bedroom and the kitchen. Why? The theory behind this Chinese method of decorating is that a person should feel confident that they can eat, sleep, and get clean with positive elements all around them. Perhaps this is why you feel great when you go to a certain hotel or stay with a particular friend but you don’t get the same types of feelings when you are at other locations.

Avoid having mirrors offered as soon as a person walks into your home. This is said to result in the positive energy being reflected back out of the home instead of into it. The entire concept of Feng Shui is quite fascinating. In fact, you may want to read books about it so you can decorate your new home according to the guidelines that it offers. The more you learn about Feng Shui the more you can get your home for sell ready using those techniques. 

There are Feng Shui consultants out there too that you can hire to come do an assessment of your home. They will walk you through what changes need to be done and why. They can also help you with accomplishing them. The cost of hiring such a consultant varies by location. You may have to look around online to find someone in your area. It certainly won’t hurt to contact them to see what they have to offer. 

The power of Feng Shui is something you can use to quickly sell your home. It is a way to get positive emotions running through a person. They may not even realize that you have things set up that way because many people aren’t familiar with this type of positive energy. What they will know though is that they love your home and that they feel very good when they are in it.

It feels good to be a homeowner, and you’re going to feel even better when you take advantage of the tax cuts that are only available to homeowners. The shifting economy of the past year or so has created additional tax deductions. Plus, increasing ecological concerns have resulted in some green tax benefits you can look into.

Claiming these deductions means you most likely will have to itemize on your tax return-no more short forms for you! But they net you enough money to make itemizing worth the cost. Just be certain to keep all of your receipts throughout the year.

One of the primary tax advantages that has been and always will be around is the deduction of interest you pay on your mortgage each year. For those unaware of how your mortgage is structured, when you buy a home and decide how many years you want to pay it off, the lender figures out how much interest you will owe them by the end of those years. In the early years of home ownership, most of your monthly mortgage goes toward interest. And, it’s tax deductible.

You should be aware of limitations. For example, you can generally declare this interest for first and second mortgages, refinanced mortgages, or home equity loans, as long as the total value of the mortgages does not surpass the fair market value of the home.

First-time home buyers in 2008 and 2009 can take huge tax credits of up to $8,000. Basically these applied to purchases made between April 8, 2008, and December 1, 2009. As the government persists in its efforts to stabilize the economy, check to see if this credit is extended beyond 2009, or find out whether you can claim it for a property that closed after that date by filing an extension.

If you bought your home early in 2009 when the government offered a $7,500 tax credit that had to be repaid, you can file an amended return to qualify for the $8,000 tax credit that does not have to be repaid.

The state and local real estate taxes you pay are deductible. Be careful to include only those taxes that apply to your home. For instance, you must exclude local employment taxes.

You can also deduct mortgage points paid when you financed your home. There is a list of qualifications, available in IRS Tax Topic 504-paying the points must be usual practice in your community; points charged cannot be excessive; points are calculated using the principal amount of your mortgage, and so forth.

The first year you buy a home, you can take a big deduction from the sales taxes you pay. These include the state and local taxes you paid for the cost of your home, as well as items you purchase to build or maintain the home.

Most people take a deduction for general sales tax paid throughout the year based on their adjusted gross income. But if this is a year when you acquired several major appliances for your new home, you might want to take the deduction for these big-ticket items. Just be certain you have receipts! This includes taxes you spend on materials to maintain existing value of the property-such as repairing the sidewalk-but not to improve the value of the property.

If you install energy-saving features such as solar electric or water heating, small wind energy, a geothermal pump, or small wind energy pump, you can take a deduction. This must be on your residence and not on business property.

Last but not least, be certain to document valuables within your home. Not only will you need this for your insurance, but in the event of a theft or catastrophe you can deduct the loss if it exceeds a percentage of your adjusted gross income by $500. Check tax laws in effect at the time for the exact qualifications.

Buy a Brand New Windemere Home in San Ramon and get a $7500.00 landscaping credit, compliments of the Shastri Team!

That’s right! Purchase your new home in the beautiful community of Windemere in San Ramon through the Shastri Team at Remax and in addition to the great pricing offered by the builders, you will get an additional $7,500.00* towards the landscaping of your new house, courtesy of the Shastri Team! But don’t wait, as this promotion is for a limited time only! Call today – 925.699.9099.

*Credit given in escrow, from commissions earned by the builder.

About Windemere:

Windemere is a master planned community offering a broad selection of home sizes and styles. Along with the new neighborhoods, are state-of-the-art schools, 18 parks, miles of trails, a new community center and library and acres of dedicated open space. In fact 55% of the land is dedicated to permanent open space. Windemere BLC is a partnership of Brookfield Homes, Centex Homes and Lennar Homes.

Schools – Windemere schools rank in the Top 2% Statewide.

Schools in the district have won the National Blue Ribbon Award or State Distinguished School designations 28 times over the past decade.

Elementary Schools:

Hidden Hills Elementary

Hidden Hills Elementary received a score of 959 out of a possible 1000 on the 2007 Academic Performance Index. Also offers complete on-campus before and after school programs.

Live Oak Elementary School

This state-of-the-art campus is located next to the 15-acre San Ramon Sports Park and Tiffany Roberts Field. Before and after school programs are also provided.

Middle School:

Windemere Ranch Middle School
Windemere Ranch Middle School received a score of 928 out of a possible 1000 on the 2007 Academic Performance Index. The new campus includes a language lab, computer lab and more.

High School:

Dougherty Valley High School
The first new high school in the valley in 32 years, this 54-acre campus offers great academics and comprehensive athletic facilities—an aquatic center, gym, football field, track and more. Everything is state-of-the-art.

College:

Diablo Valley College, San Ramon Valley Campus
This 65,000 square foot state-of-the-art campus serves students of all ages and interests with classes ranging from culinary arts to computer science.

Call the Shastri Team today to find your next Windemere Home – 925.699.9099.

Presented by: Gary Watts – Real Estate Economist

California Previews Retreat
Monterey, August 2007

Brief History of Real Estate

Historically, housing downturns average 27 months. We are in the 23rd month of the current downturn, so once we are past this financial over-reaction, things should improve. The national median price of a resale home is 3.4% higher than a year ago and the pending sales index is moving back up. There may just be some light beginning to shine at the end of this tunnel!

1970 to 1980

Prior to my entering real estate in 1971, a quote appeared in Business Week (late 1969) due to an increase in housing prices: “The goal of owning a home seems to be getting beyond the reach of more and more Americans. The typical new house today costs about $28,000. “In 1972, interest rates were 7% and it would take over 24 years before a home buyer could be able to obtain those low rates once again – today, we are in the low 6’s. In 1973, banks had a run on deposits and for a period of approximately 8 months there were no lenders who were in a position to make loans to home buyers. This should have caused a collapse in the real estate market, but home prices continued to rise. In 1977, the National Business magazine stated: “The median price of a home today is approaching $50,000. Housing experts predict price rises in the future won’t be that great.”

1980 to 1990

At the end of the 70’s and into the 80’s, inflation hit 21.5% and home loans were reaching 18%! This was followed by a crash (and later bail out) of the savings & loans industry in America. Although large job losses were creating foreclosures, home prices continued to rise. By 1985, Money Magazine made this prediction about home prices: “The golden-age of risk free run-ups in home prices is gone.”With a buildup in defense spending and huge growth in manufacturing sector in the late 1980’s, increased job creation led to a boom in home construction and home prices continued to rise. Then on November 11, 1989, a dramatic event took place: the Berlin Wall came down! With the Evil Empire (the Soviet Union) breaking up, things were going to change around the world and change quickly!

1990 to 2000

In early 1990, Congress began slashing funds for defense spending. Within a very short period of time, a lot of highly paid workers in both defense and manufacturing had lost their jobs. California home prices declined about 12% by 1996 when the San Francisco Examiner said: “A home is where the bad investment is. “In the following 3 years, California home prices rose 19.7% wiping out all the losses of the early ’90’s and ended the decade with net gain of 9.35%. The median price in California has not declined since 1996.

The Media

Today’s media plays up bad economic news now more than ever, which leads to misconceptions about economic realty. Our economy is extremely strong, profits are superb and the world economy is exploding.

. All you read and hear is that real estate is going down, yet last month, prices in the U.S. rose 3.4% from a year ago and California is up almost 1%. The Bay Area prices have gained 4.1% over the last year and southern California median price is up 3.7%.

· Foreclosures are supposed to be at a record high – but last year 98.83% or mortgages did not go to foreclosure. Today, the Bay Area’s foreclosure rate is up only 1.5% over last year while southern California’s foreclosure rate is up 2%.

· The media reported 53,942 notices of default for the 2nd Quarter – a near record high. They are comparing it to the 1st Q. of ‘96 when 61,541 notices were filed but fail to mention that 2 million more home have been built in California since then!

· What if the media’s headlines read: 99.2% of Mortgages are Not in Foreclosure?

· The media and the financial markets have greatly over-reacted, to the real problems that have been revealed in the lending marketplace, which is typical.

The Sub-Prime Market

It may surprise you to know that sub-prime loans make-up only 5% of the U.S. total loan market and Alt – A loans (those with credit better than sub-prime but less than prime) total only 8% of all loans in the U.S.!

1. These exotic loans became a major influence in the early 2000’s, but anyone obtaining them up through 2004 had very few problems due to rapid equity growth. Many with no-money-down purchases soon found they had 20% (+) equity within a year or two!
2. Most of the problems with sub-prime loans originated in the summer of2005 through 2006. In California, 43% of all loans funded during that time were sub-prime loans.
3. Sub-prime loan investors that needed to sell their loans were liquidating their paper for $.96 on the dollar. There has been no current data on sales since August 5th, but with the current turmoil in the financial markets, I am sure they are being “dumped” for less.
4. Here is a financial report on some of the banks that provided the sub-prime money:

· Bear Stearns 2nd quarter revenue was $2.512 billion – a new record!

· Merrill Lynch saw 2nd quarter profits rise 30.2% Morgan Stanley (holding $5.2 billion in sub- prime loans) had a 60% jump in earnings.

· Goldman Saks earned $2.33 billion in the past year.

· Bank of America (#2 U.S. bank), after putting aside $1.81 billion for potential credit losses, saw net income rise to $5.76 billion – up from $5.48 billion last year.

· The media will still report about massive delinquencies and huge foreclosures in the sub-prime market, but those reports will not be accurate because they don’t explain the difference between a delinquent payment, a notice of default or a foreclosure. They tell us “Foreclosures at Record High!” but that is not accurate.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association, National Homebuilders Association, Inside Mortgage Finance

Delinquencies vs. Notices of Default vs. Foreclosures

Delinquencies

Delinquencies cover any missed payment – even if it is just for one month, it is reported as a delinquency.

1. The delinquency rate on sub-prime loans was running at 13.77%, which is up 13.44% from the previous year. In the last quarter, the delinquency rate dropped to 12.4%!
2. The delinquency rate on Alt-A loans is only 2.69%, while prime loans are at 2.57%.
3. Combining the three rates with the loan volume gives you a delinquency rate for all loans in the U.S. of only 4.84%. The record low is 4.0%.
4. On jumbo mortgages (anything larger than $417,000) the delinquency rate is 0.37%

5. California’s delinquency rate is only 3.25%.

Notices of Default

Notices of Default are filed when lenders’ loans have been delinquent for a specific period of time. These loans begin the foreclosure process. The four states of California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona currently have the largest amount of loans in the foreclosure process. Yet, in the 1st Quarter, 24 states saw a decline in foreclosure starts and 36 states saw a decline in the 2nd quarter!

1. Only 3.23% of all sub-prime loans have entered the foreclosure process, with most of the defaults occurring on loans from Jan. 2005 to June 2006.
2. Only 1.28% of all prime loans have entered the foreclosure process.
3. In California, the last quarter saw 53,943 notices filed, with most filings being on loans from the summer of 2005 to the summer of 2006.
4. The lowest number was 12,417 in the 3rd Quarter of 2004.

Foreclosures

Foreclosures occur when the buyer has been unsuccessful in curing the debt, and either a lender or an investor has acquired the property. As of last month, there was 1 foreclosure filing for every 693 homes in America.

1. For sub-prime loans, 68% of the buyers are able to prevent the foreclosure by either refinancing the property or successfully selling their home.
2. For prime loans, the foreclosure rate is 0.86%. Last year, the U.S. saw a combined foreclosure rate of only 1.09% while California’s rate was 1.17%!
3. California now ranks #4 in the nation in foreclosures – down from #1!

The media will try to scare you with numbers like $1 trillion in loans needs to be recast this year and that foreclosures could cost lenders as much as $2.3 billion dollars! They never mention that there is $10.4 trillion of mortgages with $56 trillion dollars of equity in American households.

Add to that the wealth of the U.S. at $70 trillion, with the value of stocks between $15 and $20 trillion, while the bond market is even larger. So these loses (should they occur) should not have any great effect on home prices.

A final note about foreclosures: The #1 reason they occurred was due to fraud. The #2 reason was unethical lending, followed by #3 – loss of job, and finally #4 was medical reasons. By the way, mortgage insurers are in a good position to cover losses at these (high) levels.

Source: Mortgage Bankers Association, Federal Reserve, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Why the World Changed in 1979 Baby Boomers’ Impact

Never before in the history of the world has a generation accumulated so much wealth as the baby boomers. The Internal Revenue Service will tell you that from 1945 to 1979, incomes increased at the same rate for all tax brackets. By 1979, the early baby boomers had been in the workplace for over 10 years. They were the most educated generation to enter the work force, and they had the skills for our changing world. Today, the IRS tells us that, from 1979 to 2004, the median income in the U.S. rose 18%. From 2004 to 2005, incomes grew 5.8%.

The number of taxpayers making more than $100,000 grew by 3.4 million and accounted for more than two-thirds of the growth vs. 2000! Half of Americans make less than $30,000 and two-thirds make less than $50,000.

Those making more than $1 million grew by 26% and numbered 303,817 in 2005! These individuals, who constitute less than a quarter of 1 percent of all taxpayers, reaped almost 47 percent of the total income gains in 2005.

The top 85% of the nation’s wealth resides with the richest 15% of Americans; the bottom 50% of Americans holds only 2.5% of the nation’s wealth.

Over the next decade, there will be a 25% increase in the population over 50 years of age. They have more money than any preceding generation, due to having dual incomes, equity growth, and record inheritances (60% goes to the top 40%)! This age group is spending $2 trillion dollars annually! Last
year, 2.1 million boomers turned 60, with 25% planning on not retiring.

They found a way to mix leisure with work and are not ready to fully retire – they have money and income and they are still investing in real estate.