How to Save on Your Heating Bills

Cool weather (which can be a relative term to us here in Houston) is upon us and we would all do well to know how to cut back on heating expenses this year! Depending on where you live, fall and winter mark the expensive home-heating season. It is important for is to make the most of our energy! Here are some recommendations you can use to save some money this season. Just follow these simple guidelines from the Department of Energy and enjoy lower heating bills.

Tip #1 Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter. For each degree you raise your thermostat setting, your fuel bill climbs 3 percent. So dress accordingly. Consider slipping into a sweater before you crank up the temperature.

Tip #2 Check the temperature setting of your water heater. In very few circumstances should it be set at 120 degrees or higher. Also, check the location of the water heater. If it is stored in a cold space, such as the garage or basement, purchase an insulation blanket and wrap it around the heater. This step will help reduce heat loss and save you money.

Why Sell Now, During the Holidays?

Every year it is the same story around the holidays in the real estate market. Sellers become increasingly nervous that as the holidays approach, the less and less activity their property is going to receive and they talk themselves out of thinking a contract is "right around the corner." Also, if you don't have your house on the market yet, but have been considering putting it up for sale, often times if it is the holiday season sellers wait until the new year to get it on the market. As Realtors we know that there are advantages to having your house on the market at this time and we would like to share some of those reasons with you in hopes that it will instill confidence in your listing!

Reasons why sellers should still list their home during the Holidays:

* January is traditionally the month for employees to begin new jobs. Since transferees cannot wait until spring to buy, you need to be on the market during the Holidays to capture that market!

* Some people must buy before the end of the year for tax reasons!

* Buyers have more time to look for a home during the holidays than they do during a working week!

* Buyers are more emotional during the Holidays, so they are more likely to pay your price!

* Houses show better when decorated for the Holidays!

October Home Values See a Dip in Houston

There was an interesting article in The Houston Chronicle yesterday reporting that home values in Houston fell 2.7% in October compared to October 2007. The median home price is currently at $142,000. This comes after a 4% rise in September and small, incremental rises throughout the year. The Chronicle reported that a slowing national economy, tighter mortgage guidelines and an uncertain presidential election continued to plague the local housing market, which also saw sales fall 20 percent last month, compared to a year ago. The median price had been holding up because of a shift in the types of homes that had been selling. The number of lower-end sales dropped as sub prime credit dried up, while activity increased for more expensive homes. But in October, the only price segment that posted an increase in sales was that less than $80,000.
Despite the bad news, year-to-date home prices are still up compared to 2007. And national figures show Houston continues to fare better than many other U.S. markets, some of which have experienced price declines of as much as 40 percent, the local association said in its monthly market report. Also on Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors reported prices in the July-September quarter fell in most U.S. cities but were up slightly in Houston."Houston is the highlight in the country, but there's no way to get around the national uncertainty in the economy," said Michael Levitin, chairman of the Houston Association of Realtors. Another bright spot in the data was the number of months it would take to sell all the homes on the market at the end of October, which was about half the national average at the end of October, the association said.Residual business interruptions from Hurricane Ike also hurt the market last month, as did the generally slower time of the year for real estate sales. Realtors sold 4,202 single-family properties in October, marking the 14th consecutive monthly drop, according to the association, which tracks primarily existing homes sold through the Multiple Listing Service. In September, sales fell 30 percent as power outages and damage from the hurricane shut down real estate offices for weeks. Thousands of transactions were postponed as sellers repaired their damaged properties. All can agree that there both buyers and sellers are being very cautious at this time and what the real estate market is really lacking is confidence!

Financial Market Update!

With Veteran's Day last week making it a shortened week in the Bond Market, the financial market was still lively as they reacted to several pieces of bad economic news brought throughout the week. Bad News #1 The week started with Circuit City filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and stating that they will be closing 150 stores - all this news before the holiday season, when most retailers make a larger portion of their profits for the year. Nordstrom reported its growth rate is down 16%, where they were expecting an increase of 10%. Best Buy and Macy's, Wal-Mart and Intel also reported lower earnings. As if the headlines of the week weren't enough, Friday's Retail Sales report showed that overall retail sales fell for the fourth straight month and plunged to their worst level since record keeping began in 1992. It is looking like this may be the worst holiday season "shopping/money" wise that retailers will have seen in a long, long time. In addition, there was bad news for the automobile industry as Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of General Motors from hold to sell, giving a price target of $0. As a result, General Motors stock fell below $3 for the first time since April 13, 1943. Interestingly enough, the automaker was not even making cars at that time but producing only military equipment for WWII. Nationally, the job market reported bad news as well as Continuing Jobless Claims reached their highest level in 25 years.
Now, remember that poor economic news and a weak labor market usually cause Bonds and home loan rates to improve. This is because fewer jobs and lower confidence about keeping or finding work causes people to spend less. In turn, businesses and retailers lose pricing power, and this is a cycle that keeps inflation - the arch enemy of Bonds and home loan rates - at low levels, especially if oil remains near present reasonable prices. Bonds and Home Loan Interest Rates are stable right now, which is great at this time when the rates are really low! Now is a great time in real estate to be a buyer!
*Source MMG Weekly

How Worried Do I Need To Be About Identity Theft?

If you are still with me on this Identity Theft thread, than you are wanting to know the answer to Question #2: Consumers can prevent criminals from accessing their bank accounts by not writing down their personal identification numbers (PINs). True or false? The answer to question No. 2 is also "false." You don't want to write down your PIN, of course, but keeping it a secret won't necessarily protect your account. Monitoring all your accounts is important, but these days you want to pay particular attention to what's going on in your checking and savings accounts, because thieves increasingly target bank accounts. The bad guys have found plenty of ways to steal all-important PINs. Some set up bogus ATMs or install skimming devices or cameras on legitimate machines to record account numbers and PINs. A few may even have cracked the "holy grail" of bank-account hacking by stealing and decoding encrypted PINs from a retailer's database. Avoid unfamiliar ATMs; consider using your credit card instead of your debit card for transactions; monitor your bank transactions at least once a week and question any unfamiliar charges. If your accounts have been compromised, shut them down and open new ones. The bank may resist, but once the bad guys have access to your account, there's really no foolproof way to keep them out, except by shutting it down and starting with a new account number.
*Source:Liz Pulliam Weston, http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/

Are you ready to fight against Identity Theft?

In the last post I posted a few questions regarding identity theft. The answer to the first question is "false." While Database breaches get a lot of media coverage (245 million consumer records have been exposed in data breaches in the past 4 years according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse), the number one method criminals use to steal our IDs is through old school tactics, rather than higher-tech approaches.

In 2007, the following methods were found to be utilized:
33% of the incidents were due to lost or stolen wallets.
23% of victims were "shoulder surfed" while conducting a transaction (the thief watched over the victim's shoulder as the victim punched in a PIN or used a credit card).
17% were victimized by family members or other people they knew.
12% were victimized online.
7% were victimized as a result of data breaches.
That's actually good news, since there's a lot more you can do to protect the information that's under your control than the stuff that's out there in somebody else's database.

Some ideas to help protect yourself are: Program your credit card 800 numbers into your cell phone so you can quickly report lost or stolen cards. Shield the keypad with your hand anytime you type in a PIN, and palm a credit card so the numbers don't show while you're waiting in line or finishing a transaction. Keep your checks, account statements and other sensitive financial information in a locked filing cabinet. This is especially important whenever people you don't absolutely trust will be in your home, such as during parties, when you're having work done on your house or during any family gatherings that include sketchy relatives. Set up e-mail alerts in your bank and credit card accounts to inform you when large transactions have been made or when your balance reaches certain limits. Monitor your credit reports. You can access reports from each of the three major bureaus once a year at the government's free site; consider getting a credit-monitoring subscription. Consider blocking access to your credit reports if you've already been a victim of identity theft or are at high risk. Never click on a link embedded in an e-mail, even if the message looks like it legitimately came from one of your financial institutions. Open a new browser window and type in the institution's URL yourself. Cancel paper bills and statements. Monitor your accounts and pay your bills online. People who monitor their accounts online tend to catch fraud much faster.

Combating Identity Theft

Simply put, tough economic times are ripe for ID theft. Because of that, we are realizing very quickly that our job and our financial portfolio ar not the only things we need to be worrying about right now! We need to keep an eye on our identity as well. Crime tends to increase during hard economic times.

There has been a recent delining trend in identity theft cases recently, however, we may see a reversal in this trend if things continue down the road we are headed! I.E. The percentage of adult Americans victimized by ID theft was 3.58% last year, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, down from 4.25% in 2004.

Think you already know everything that's needed to protect your identity? Here is a pop quiz to see if you are ready to protect yourself against identity theft:

1. Data breaches, in which personal information such as Social Security numbers are stolen or exposed by hackers, have become the leading cause of identity theft. True or false?

2. Consumers can prevent criminals from accessing their bank accounts by not writing down their personal identification numbers (PINs). True or false?

3. What is "vishing"?

Are you comfortable with your level of Identity Theft knowledge?