FEATURED POST
Plenty of apartment dwellers are shopping around for cheaper rents, but you just might get a better deal if you stick around.
It's not just the landlords of bigger apartment buildings who are willing to negotiate for cheaper rent.
The Wall Street Journal writes that a recent survey of 500 smaller, independent landlords found that more than two-thirds would be willing to cut a deal with a cash-strapped tenant, and that a third of them had done so in the past 18 months.
The survey by the National Association of Independent Landlords also found that 61% were willing to cut up to 5% off a tenant's monthly rent, and 29% were willing to reduce rent by up to 10%. And The Journal wrote that a handful would consider even steeper discounts.
A Connecticut tree that twinkled over the holidays in Rockefeller Center is giving back to its home state as lumber for a Habitat for Humanity house.
You've no doubt seen pictures of the Christmas tree that decorated New York's Rockefeller Center over the holidays. But the Connecticut tree's journey doesn't end there.
The New York Times writes that the tree is returning to its home state to spread the Christmas joy for years to come as part of the lumber for a home being built by an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International.
The home, which will be owned by single mom Iveth Bowie, is one of eight 1,250-square-foot row houses being built in Stamford, not far from where the tree grew up in Easton.
Is the recently unemployed 'Tonight Show' host staying in Los Angeles?
And the speculation about what the future holds for Conan O'Brien continues.
It all started after NBC announced last month that it was returning Jay Leno to the network's 11:35 p.m. time slot, bumping O'Brien's "Tonight Show" to a 12:05 a.m. start. If he wanted it, that is.
Turns out he didn't. Instead, O'Brien accepted a $45 million payoff for him and his staff, with the agreement that he must wait until September to work for a competing network.
So what's he doing in his time off? Apparently, he's attempting to quietly sell his New York penthouse for a jaw-dropping $35 million, according to The New York Post.
Perhaps O'Brien and his wife, Liza, are going to stick around Los Angeles after all.
One company is hoping a cash payout when you pay off your mortgage will help keep 'underwater' borrowers in their homes.
For some people, it's not even about whether they can pay their mortgage anymore, it's whether they want to.
The New York Times says it is estimated that by June, the value of 5.1 million homes will fall below 75% of the amount owed on the mortgages, what it calls "the critical threshold" where "the owner starts to think hard about walking away, even if he or she has the money to keep paying."
Some say homeowners are morally obligated to continue paying their "underwater" mortgages, while others ask why more borrowers aren't walking away from their homes. But one company, Loan Value Group LLC, is actually trying to figure out a for-profit way to persuade homeowners with the money to pay to stick around.
According to a post by Nick Timiraos in The Wall Street Journal's Developments blog, the company is proposing a plan to give borrowers a lump-sum reward when they pay the mortgage off if they make good on their payments:
The actress is asking $4.95 million for the Spanish villa in Hollywood Hills that she paid $7 million for in 2007.
Oh woe is me, it's another loss for the rich and famous.
Move.com reports that actress Scarlett Johansson, also known as Mrs. Ryan Reynolds, has listed her Hollywood Hills, Calif., home for $4.95 million, a painfully steep drop from the $7 million she paid for it in 2007, according to The Real Estalker.
And as if that much of a decrease isn't enough on its own, it sounds like she also dumped some cash into creating her very own little abode, with the listing touting an "extraordinary restoration" that was recently completed, including system upgrades to solar electric power as well as all new windows and doors.
Sales fall to nearly 2002 levels in their fourth consecutive year of decline.
Although home prices in some of California's metropolitan areas are beginning to improve, the same can't be said for the Golden State's luxury-home market.
According to real-estate research firm MDA DataQuick, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year that the number of homes sold there for more than $1 million decreased.
The number peaked in 2005 with 54,773 homes sold in the state for $1 million-plus, but has fallen since to 50,010 in 2006; 42,506 in 2007; 24,436 in 2008; then the number took a 23.8% decline to 18,621 last year, according to DataQuick.
The next-lowest sales count was in 2002, when 15,703 were sold.
Want more time to enjoy your garden when it's in bloom? Grab your pruning shears and shovel and get to work now.
When just looking outside at your chilly garden causes a shiver to run down your spine, heading out there with some pruning shears is likely the furthest thing from your mind.
But if it's going to grant you a little more play time come spring and summer, it might not be such a bad idea to bundle up and brave the cold.
Anne Marie Chaker writes in The Wall Street Journal about the importance of prepping your yard in winter for its upcoming growth spurt:
Winter "is the bridge between last year and this year, and the better gardener makes it a shorter bridge," says Eliot Coleman, who runs an organic farm in Harborside, Maine, and has written books on harvesting food throughout the seasons.
A growing number of consumers are choosing to stay current on their credit cards while their unpaid mortgage bills stack up.
When payday arrives and you're behind on your bills, it's a struggle to decide what to do with your money. However, once upon a time, it was less of a struggle for homeowners to make that decision. You gotta keep a roof over your head, right? So you pay the mortgage first.
But according to a new study by TransUnion, more and more homeowners are letting their mortgage bills pile up while they instead spend their money keeping their credit card bills up to date.
From Diana Olick with Realty Check: "Welcome to the new world order."
This trend first popped up in the first quarter of 2008, when the percentage of consumers current on their credit cards yet delinquent on their mortgages surpassed the percentage of consumers current on their mortgages and delinquent on their credit cards, the study says. And the chasm keeps growing.
About Mai Ling Slaughter
Mai Ling Slaughter is a veteran journalist based in Seattle who has worked around the Northwest and abroad. She keeps a close eye on multimillion-dollar real-estate follies as a distraction from her own home's falling value.
