Hints and tips:
...The result is that many homeowners feel trapped where they are....
...Homeowners “are incentivised to stay put” right now, he adds....
...It is as though the positive associations of period homes trump any practical problems that come with them. One such association is social class and prestige....
...State law requires associations to have a schedule to pay for big repairs, but there is a loophole: homeowners can vote to waive paying into a reserve fund....
...For some, rising crime is enough to persuade them to leave LA for the South Bay area further down the coast....
...Dolphins jump in the bay. Pelicans swoop around the fishing boats by the stone sea wall, which is sprayed with the crushed shells of abalones. Restaurant Chiringuito serves up locally caught sea bass....
...Owners pay service charges (or homeowners association fees) that can often be offset by putting the residence into the hotel rental programme and earning an income — Rosewood residences at Baha Mar command...
...Relative quiet is secured by local conservation easements, which consist of agreements between homeowners’ associations and the local government to limit development, says Tucker....
...As prices falter and nervousness grows, homeowners have become reluctant to move....
...Only in San Francisco’s Bay Area and New York is the gap larger....
...Noble Francis , economics director, Construction Products Association Not really....
...On the streets of San Francisco’s Castro district, baby strollers are more common than drag queens these days, and homeowners are as likely to identify as “techie” as LGBT....
...The British Hospitality Association takes a dimmer view....
...“I don’t think were going to hit four,” said Nat DiBuduo, president of Allied Grape Growers, a grape farmers association....
...“Throughout the Bay area the upper end is driven by the technology industry....
...Apart from four or five “anchor-outs” (floating homeowners who live permanently moored in the bay), all of the homes have berths on docks and are hooked up to essential services....
...“There are homeowners’ associations, regulations and height limits (no boat is allowed to be taller than 16ft).” Prices have also rocketed, with some houseboats valued at more than $2m....
...During the financial crisis, mortgage-backed securities plunged in value as house prices fell and homeowners defaulted....
...Yet astonishingly, new homeowners still believe that values will begin anew their upward march....
...Ideas to limit this “moral hazard” include requiring homeowners to give the mortgage lender a stake in the house if a loan is refinanced, meaning that any future price gains would be shared between homeowner...
...Chuck Fowke, a builder of luxury homes based in Tampa Bay and president of Florida’s homebuilders’ association, says of the tax credit expiration: “It brought people out prematurely and now we’re taking...
...From 2003 to 2008, all auction sales in residential real estate, including distressed sales, grew 47.7 per cent, according to the National Auctioneers Association....
...The catalyst for the bust was defaults by subprime borrowers but, as prices continue to fall, less marginal homeowners are coming under pressure....
...“I’ve turned down a handsome offer for my apartment overlooking the beach but now I’m not sure I did the right thing,” says one Glitter Bay homeowner....
...Data from APACS, the payments association, suggests that there were 2.7m fraudulent transactions in 2007, up by about 20 per cent from 2006. The crime survey also excludes under-16s....
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