Taurence J. Ratcliff

If you want to invest in income generating property, or want to buy a place of residence, this is the time to make it happen! Mortgage rates are at record lows and we may not see rates this low for decades to come! Also, there's so much inventory that there's a shortage of buyers in contrast to 2006-07 when there wasn't enough inventory.

Mortgage Rates Drop Yet Again
(source: IAR)
Freddie Mac reports that 30-year mortgage rates dropped to near record lows for the week ending May 27, averaging 4.78 percent nationally and 4.77 percent in the North Central region. "These low rates will help elevate home-buyer affordability and soften the effects of the sunset of the home-buyer tax credit," says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist.

I applaud the real estate community in the Gulf Region for standing up and sticking BP with a bill in which they are responsible for (among others). This spill is a gigantic mess that will take years to deal with economically, and more importantly environmentally.

Among people trying to collect compensation from BP for income loss caused by the oil spill are real estate practitioners.

Four states-Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida-have opened claim centers where residents who lost income due to the spill can request compensation.

Only Florida is reporting its numbers. Over the last three weeks, BP has paid $75,725 to begin settling 446 claims against it for income lost from rental properties. It paid another $5,000 to begin settling losses due to stalled real estate sales.

BP CEO Tony Hayward said in a TV commercial, "We will honor all legitimate claims, and our clean-up efforts will not come at any cost to taxpayers."

China's housing bubble may be the next market to explode. How will that effect the world's economy? One has to wonder, since they do have the world's largest population.

Chinese Housing Bubble Called Huge
Anyone who thought the U.S. housing bubble was bad should take a look at what's happening in China.

Official Chinese data shows real estate prices in 70 cities climbing 12.8 percent in April, an unsustainable rise for the country, according to Standard & Poor's.

A typical 970-square-foot apartment in Beijing cost $278,160 in 2009, 111 times the average household annual income in the city of $2,514. In comparison, the average U.S. home sold for $316,800 in 2007, 5.4 times the median household income of $58,480.

"The housing market problem in China is actually much, much more fundamental, much bigger than the housing market problem in the U.S. and U.K. before your financial crisis," Li Daokui, a member of China's Central bank monetary policy committee, told the Financial Times.

Source: Daily Finance, Peter Cohan (06/02/2010)