Hello everyone. This isn’t one of my typical posts about Finance or the Economy, but instead I just wanted to let all of you know that I am heading down to Ecuador for a week to visit my sister starting tomorrow. I will be back the Monday after Thanksgiving with a fresh mind and new educational articles! I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and enjoy the day with the people you care about most!
Andover, Massachusetts November 2nd 2010 — As the economy tries to rebound from the recent recession and get people back to work, the one constant throughout the past 3 years has been the brutal housing market which saw values plummet by over 30% in many areas of the country. As a result of these market conditions, America saw its homeownership rate remain at lows not seen since the last century.
The third quarter saw the percentage of households that owned their homes remain unchanged at 66.9% from the previous quarter. It hasn’t been this low since 1999, when 66.7% of households owned their homes. It is important to take these numbers into historical context before we make assumptions about the current housing market. Most of the last 3 decades saw homeownership rates hover between 60 and 65%. The late 1990’s and most of the 2000’s saw a huge spike due to federal policies encouraging homeownership and relatively low interest rates compared to previous decades. This housing boom led to an all time high homeownership rate of over 69% in late 2004.
So, what can we make of these numbers? Most likely it’s a return to more reasonable levels of homeownership. Many Americans that were given mortgages over the past decade could not afford them and due to these bad mortgages we now face the looming threat of record high foreclosure rates.. Perhaps we need to realize that owning a home is not a right, but something that is achieved over many years through lots of hard work and extremely smart financial moves. It shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing if people are declined for mortgages on financial grounds. Hopefully the banks didn’t forget what led to the current housing market mess and we won’t see a quick return to ownership levels like we saw over the past decade.
Readers, do you agree with me that owning a home is not a right? Do you expect more and more people to shun owning a home and instead remain renters? Have you sold your home and gone back to renting?
Preferred Financial Services is a debt reduction firm certified by the CFC (Center for Financial Certifications) and accredited by U.S.O.B.A. (United States Organizations for Bankruptcy Alternatives). Headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, Preferred Financial Services has been a leader in the debt reduction industry since 2003. Preferred Financial Services has acquired some of the best experience in the industry over the past 7 years. In 2009 alone Preferred Financial Services reduced over $16.5 million worth of consumer debt for just $6.4 million, for a savings of about 60%- and over 2,900 accounts were settled on behalf of their clients.
For more information, please visit www.pfsdebtrelief.com or follow us on our blog at www.pfsdebtrelief.com/blog/ .
Contact:
Stephan Tavernini
Marketing Coordinator
Certified IAPDA Debt Arbitrator
Preferred Financial Services
Andover, Massachusetts October 21st, 2010 – Another week has passed and another jobless claims report has come out. The result: We are back to where we were 2 weeks ago. The temporary rise 2 weeks week has been offset by a drop of 26,000 last week. This means we are still hovering around that stubborn 450,000 number. The leading indicators for the economy point to continued slow growth that should bring this number down over time. What could throw all of these projections out the door however is politics. Depending on who wins the midterm elections and how the markets react to it could throw a huge cloud of uncertainty over the economy. Only 11 Days to go, stay tuned!
Andover, Massachusetts September 8th, 2010 – As the fall season begins Congresswill be getting back to work shortly after a month long summer recess. While there is always a lot on the table for Congress to deal with, this upcoming fall could have a huge and lasting impact on this nation. Not only are the upcoming midterm elections exrememly important in deciding where our country is headed but our economy is still not growing at the pace it should be. At the moment, Congress already has a small business tax cut proposal on its desk and the president recently announced a new round of tax breaks, tax cuts, and spending that is designed to not only stimulate the economy and hiring in the short term but also to position the country to lead world economy for decades to come. Research and Development as well as a renewed emphasis on infrastructure investments are the most critical aspects of this spending proposal. I will be detailing both proposals in detail tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Stephan Tavernini
Marketing Coordinator
Preferred Financial Services
We have listen to all of you who read this blog and have updated our site to make it easier for you to find previously released articles. I have reorganized past articles so they can now be searched not only by date but also by category. If its financial news it will be in the financial news section and if its a personal finance article it can be found in the personal finance section. Once in a particular folder, use the top right search box to find an article by title. Hope you like the changes and can now enjoy all the past articles with ease.
We negotiated another great settlement for one of our clients from California, who enrolled in August,2009. The original balance was $18,396.96, and we settled it for $5897.00 This is a savings of 63%!
