While the entire country continues to struggle due to the various negative effects of the economic recession, even the nation’s most wealthy individuals have had their share of financial loss. The collective worth of the country’s 400 wealthiest people has fallen by $300 billion to $1.27 trillion, according to Forbes magazine.
 
This loss of wealth among the super rich has also lowered the threshold for the “super rich” designation to $950 million from $1.3 billion in assets. Forbes has reported that most of the financial loss comes from tumultuous capital markets and plunging real estate values, but a fair share of …read more

The state of the economy, falling wages, and rising unemployment have had a dramatically negative impact on homes sales over the past year, but several factors have recently contributed to a turnaround in the home market. However, the 0.7 percent gain in home sales that was seen last month was far below what analysts on Wall Street expected.
New-home sales increased in August to 429,000, up from the 426,000 homes that were sold in July, according to statistics released by the Commerce Department. Although it was the fifth consecutive month to feature an increase in home sales, the percentage of growth …read more

Homebuilder Lennar Corp. has reported a larger-than-expected loss for its fiscal third quarter, blaming its financial outcome on sluggish home sales and the weak economy in general. However, Lennar has expressed optimism that it will be able to return to profitability by the next fiscal year on the back of improving orders and a significant backlog.
 
Lennar’s marked optimism comes as a surprise to many analysts at a time when home builders are suffering through one of the worst industry downturns in decades. The signs of recovery in the home market have started to appear, though, with potential homebuyers encouraged by …read more

According to an official from North Carolina’s Carteret County, former governor Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, have been named as one of the buyers of a property whose price was overstated in tax records. This worked out to a $137,000 discount on the home that was not recorded in the $550,000 purchases price.
 
A county tax supervisor stated that distorting the purchase price of one home can result in distorted appraisals for other homes in the area. The transaction factors into a larger mortgage fraud case in which more than 200 plaintiffs have stated that they were deceived into paying …read more

As part of the Obama administration’s commitment to helping every American find a place to live, the government has been offering what essentially boils down to up to $8,000 of free money. Buyers who close by November 30th are eligible for this tax credit, one that is worth up to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price.
 
Purchasing a home before Nov. 30 is not the only requirement, though. The home you are buying has to be your first home or the first home you have owned in three years. Single buyers must have a modified adjusted gross income (MADI) of …read more

Despite the fact that the Federal Housing Administration is, by all accounts, having a difficult time holding onto its monetary reserves, the agency still maintains that it will not need to ask for any federal bailout money. This decision has been thoroughly questioned by many of the FHA’s longtime critics, many of whom wonder if the FHA is financially healthy enough to make such claims.
 
According to FHA Commissioner David H. Stevens, the surplus fund set aside to account for any unexpected mortgage losses backed by the FHA will dwindle below the stipulated amount required by Congress as early as October. …read more

After losing a significant amount of money to Bernard Madoff and his multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, a Malibu couple was forced to return their $12 million beach house to Wells Fargo. A scandal erupted, though, when it was discovered that Cheronda Guyton, a Wells Fargo senior vice president in charge of foreclosed commercial properties, had been spending weekends in the foreclosed home, throwing parties and living the high-life, all the while prohibiting the house from being sold.
 
For many, Guyton’s brazen use of a multi-million dollar foreclosed home has reignited outrage about how banks that received billions of dollars in taxpayer …read more

SO, last week, on Saturday, I offered a list of people who are underpaid, according to Len Penzo. Well, now he’s got a list of overpaid folks. And there are 10 of them. I found it an interesting list:

Government Civil Servants
Professional Athletes
TV, Movie and Music Stars
College Football Coaches
Public School Administrator
Hedge and Mutual Fund Managers
Voice Actors
Lawyers
High-End Real Estate Agents
Television Weather Forecasters

I thought this list quite interesting. He makes a point about government civil servants: They are often paid more than those in the private sector, and they get amazing pensions. For people who are supposed to be serving We the People, …read more

Welcome to part 3 of my series on Social Media & Your Job Search. Social Media is here to stay, just in case you missed my first two posts. And resistance is futile. I believe that was a line in a movie, but it applies to Social Media & Your Job Search. Rather than start a new topic today, I thought I would share a few links from my colleagues here at bizzia.com and others around the blogosphere. I was shocked on Thursday when I began my series how many others around bizzia.com were writing about the same topic. Resistance …read more

Another industry that has been proactively implementing social media as part of their business plan is the Real Estate (RE) industry. The Real Estate industry has found that social media is a great to connect with potential home buyers so that information can be shared with them.
Some of the examples of how the Real Estate industry has been implementing social media are:

ActiveRain.com: ActiveRain is a Bellevue, WA based technology/media company hybrid that operates the largest and most active social network in the real estate space. In June 2006, we launched the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a free social network and …read more