Another Gold Star for Richmond

Three Virginia cities make nation's 'Best for Business' list
Blacksburg, Charlottesville, and Richmond have made Forbes magazine's annual short list of metro areas that are business-friendly in the U.S.Forbes magazine has for the tenth year in a row ranked the 200 largest metro areas according to their business acumen. Cities topping the list have solid job growth, an educated labor pool and low business costs. The calculation also includes tax, energy and office space costs, and takes into account Economy.com's living cost index.Six of the 10 top metro areas are in and around state capitals.Here are the magazine's top choices (in ranking order):
Best Metros:
Raleigh, N.C.
Boise, Idaho
Fort Collins, Colo.
Des Moines, Iowa
Lexington, Ky.
Atlanta, Ga.
Richmond, Va.
Olympia, Wash.
Spokane, Wash.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Best Smaller Metros:
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Iowa City, Iowa
Bloomington, Ind.
Columbia, Mo.
Bismarck, N.D.
Morgantown, W.Va.
Rapid City, S.D.
Greenville, N.C.
Charlottesville, Va.
Blacksburg, Va.
Source: Forbes, Kurt Badenhausen (03/19/2008)

Need help searching for someone to do repairs around the house.

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't know where to turn to hire someone to do home repairs? Look no more. Long and Foster's website, http://www.longandfoster.com/ and http://www.angieslist.com/ are great places to start. While Angieslist requires a contract the Long and Foster Home Services Connection is free. Simply scroll down to the bottom of the home page and find Home Services Connection under the Services heading. Long and Foster screens and qualifies every vendor on the list to insure you get the best service. You can also handle transfering your utilities on this site. So next time you have repairs and no where to turn...check out these sites.
Wythe

Business/Services that you would like posted

This site was designed to offer a boutique of products and services that would be useful to homeowners as well as report on topline real estate information. Please click on "comment" and briefly describe your business along with your contact information. If you have a website, I will add it as a link. Together we can create a "depot" that will be a resource for all homeowners.
Thanks for your addition.
Wythe

Richmond Makes the Top 10 list of Best Place for House Bargains

Daily Real Estate News February 11, 2008
10 Best Places for House Bargains The best place to get a bargain on a home is an area where there is healthy job growth and more houses available than people to buy them.These are markets “where you have high inventories but pliable borrowers, with lenders willing to deal,” says Anthony Sanders, a professor of finance at Arizona State University.Forbes magazine went looking for markets where the damage from risky lending hasn’t been as dramatic as in some parts of the country and where employment growth will burn off an over-abundance of inventory quickly.Here are what the magazine considers the 10 best cities for bargain house hunters.
1. Salt Lake City, Utah. Developers have gotten ahead of the demand, but the city is adding jobs more quickly than practically any place else in the country.
2. Raleigh, N.C. Another place where building got ahead of the curve, but the economy is expanding quickly.
3. Orlando, Fla. This part of the state had fewer speculators than Miami and Tampa, and it’s adding jobs faster than those cities as well.
4. Charlotte, N.C. The financial industry is moving here, adding jobs, but the inventory of unsold homes is still significant.
5. Phoenix. This city had a high foreclosure rate, but the economy is growing and people are still moving here in large numbers.
6. Seattle. The city’s port has profited from the weak dollar, but the housing price growth has slowed.
7. Las Vegas. This market was hit hard by foreclosures, but the growing economy makes the huge inventory less toxic than it is many places.
8. Jacksonville, Fla. The foreclosure rate is slower than the rest of the Florida cities, making the large inventory likely to improve.
9. Richmond, Va. There is only one foreclosure per 1,103 households here (compared to 1 in 33 in Detroit). Still, there are plenty of homes on the market.
10. Houston. Homes in Houston have long been a bargain. While there have been plenty of foreclosures, the population and the economy are expanding.
Source: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (02/07/08)
Reprinted from REALTOR magazine online by permission of the National Association of Realtors. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Mortgage Demand reachs 4 year high

Daily Real Estate News January 16, 2008Mortgage Demand Reaches 4-Year HighDemand for mortgages surged last week, hitting its highest level in nearly four years as interest rates fell, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.Mortgage application volume reached 906.4, an increase of 28.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, up from 706 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 64.8 percent compared with the previous week, which was shortened by the New Year holiday and was up 39 percent compared with the same week a year ago.The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 62.7 percent of total applications, up from 57.7 percent the previous week. Adjustable-rate mortgages were only 9.2 percent of total applications.Meanwhile, mortgage rates slipped during the week. They were:
30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.62 percent from 5.73 percent.
15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 5.07 percent from 5.21 percent.
1-year ARMs decreased to 5.77 percent from 6.04 percentSource: Mortgage Bankers Association (01/16/08)