Posts

Showing posts from December, 2008

Nelson City Panoramic

Image
Nelson City Panoramic - taken from Atmore Terrace Nelson, looking out towards Tasman Bay. Nelson city is centre left of photo. Port Nelson approx. centre. Large Full size 3mb photo here .

Totally off topic but .....

Image
Image via Wikipedia ...follow this advice and you sure will save some moola! Its about Supermarkets, there tactics to encourage you to spend. spend, spend and some cute ways to not do that.....[ read on ] I suppose one of the most obvious ones we should recognise straight away is why is fresh produce first? Based on what we've been taught about sales / income generation, really we should be suspicious shouldn't we?....[ go here ]

California home sales are up 27 percent

Image
Image via Wikipedia In Southern California, home sales are up 27 percent . But the median sale price is down, having fallen below the $300,000 mark for the first time since 2003, the Los Angeles Times reports. And as prices fall, affordability appears to be making a modest comeback. During the height of the real estate boom, only 2 percent of those living in the Los Angeles area could afford the median home price. Now that number has risen to 20 percent, the article in the Times notes.....[more]

30,000+ estate agents jobless

Image
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Housing market crash in UK see’s over 30,000 estate agents leave industry. More than 30,000 estate agents have lost their jobs since the start of the credit crisis, according to research which highlights how the housing crash has wreaked havoc across the economy. Around 4,000 estate agency offices -approximately one in four - have closed, leading to the loss of jobs not just for the sales agents themselves, but also valuers, negotiators, weekend viewing staff, administrators and mortgage advisers. [ ...more ] FULL ARTICLE HERE - Telegraph.co.uk

UK homes lose over £20,000 in value each!

Image
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Residential property in the UK has lost over £591 billion in value during 2008 ­the equivalent of every single British home losing £22,083 since January, according to research. Property values have decreased by nearly 10% (9.72%) leaving 2.1 million owners owing more on their mortgage than what the property is worth, according to the 2008 Property Review from Zoopla.co.uk, the property valuation website.....[ more ] SOURCE - PROPERTY WIRE

Nelson Panorama few days before Xmas 2008

Image

It’s Not All Subprime. Pay Option ARM’s - California’s Billion Pound Gorilla

Image
What a headline huh? That's the heading in this article here . Well it seems according to this article, and a great many more there's more trouble brewing on the US home loan market. So just when you thought you had heard it all, are we about too see the next round? These are yet another type of loan where you can elect a lower start repayment , but then they ratchet up as the years go by. In what looks like more pain for California, BusinessWeek reports that 25-30% of all pay option ARMs were made in California. The most of any state. Check out the above chart from BusinessWeek. And this chart from an MSNBC.COM article with data from First American Core Logic shows when its probably going to happen. Interesting next year will be.

for the first time since at least 1952...

U.S. households pay down debts for first time WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Stung by the loss of more than $2.8 trillion in their net wealth, the nation's households paid down debts in the third quarter for the first time since at least 1952, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. As of Sept. 30, the total outstanding debt for households shrank at an annualized rate of 0.8% from $13.94 trillion to $13.91 trillion, the Fed said in its quarterly flow of funds report. It's the first decline in household debt ever recorded in the report.....[ more ] SOURCE: Marketwatch.com Story here

NZ Property a safer choice?

Two held over Spanish property scam that duped British investors Madrid : Police have arrested two people after a two-year investigation into a €65 million (£54 million) property scam aimed at foreigners. Prosecutors believe that as many as 200 overseas investors, most of them from Britain, were persuaded to buy into a number of nonexistent property developments along the southern coast of Spain. The identities and nationalities of the two people being held were not released. Police said that more than 20 other suspects from a number of countries were still being sought in connection with the fraudulent scheme. (AP) SOURCE - Times Online

Sellers Agent, Buyers Agent, Squatters Agent?

Squatters 'agent' moves homeless into abandoned properties in US city A squatters 'agent' is helping homeless people in the US move into foreclosed properties that have been abandoned by owners who can no longer pay their mortgages. Max Rameau isn't like any other real estate agent in Miami where he is based. He doesn't wear a suit, is unshaven, drives an old car and takes no payment. He also breaks into the properties that he is showing. He has formed a group called Take Back the Land which he says helps homeless people move into foreclosed homes. 'We're matching homeless people with people-less homes,' he said. 'I think everyone deserves a home.' He claims to have helped six families move into foreclosed property and he has more on his waiting list. One was a 39 year old single mother who had been sleeping in a shelter with her toddler. Rameau claims he is actually helping the owners who have abandoned their property as someone moving in p

Princes Drive ~ newer lookout position

This is the newer lookout on the top of what is currently the highest part of Princes Drive, and in fact for any residential suburb in Nelson itself. View Larger Map

Princes Drive ~ the Original Lookout

The newer part of Princes Drive has another lookout too, but this is the original one with perhaps arguably the better view, at least as far as water views are concerned. Again, thats Haulashore Island below with "The Cut" to it's top right, being the main shipping entrance to Port Nelson, and then the Boulder Bank starts. Tasman Bay is all out there in front with one of our National Parks in the distance. Below photo is interactive. View Larger Map

Rocks Rd Waterfront

Right in front of the Southern end of Haulashore Island, and nearby Fifeshire Rock. Photo is interactive. View Larger Map

Nelson City Council - on the steps of

One of Nelsons main intersections, that multi-storey in front of you is the Nelson City Council building with its "strike on the hour" clock tower. Photo is interactive. View Larger Map

Tahuna Beach

View Larger Map