Bad Credit? Insurers Will Make You Pay

By now you know that you need to keep tabs on your credit history to make a good impression on lenders, landlords and employers.  But did you know that your home insurer is also looking?

In most states they're allowed to use your credit information to formulate premiums - and in June the U.S. Supreme Court decided that your carrier doesn't need to tell you if your credit has caused you to pay more.

How insurance premiums are determined is a recipe long kept secret from consumers.  Some 90 percent of homeowner insurance carriers use a score based on credit data as part of that recipe, according to risk-assessment firm Fair Isaac, known for its FICO credit score.

However the scores are tabulated from your insurance company, here are a few tips that should help you get a better rate on your homeowner's insurance the next time your insurer takes a peek at your credit report:

• Pay bills on time: Late payments show up for seven years.
• Keep revolving balances low: Insurance companies look at how much debt you have relative to available credit.
• Keep your oldest credit card: Insurers like folks with well-established lines of credit. Five years is good, 10 ideal.
• Don't apply for lots of credit at once: Your score might drop. (You're not penalized for shopping, however; multiple auto or mortgage inquiries within 45 days are considered as one.)
• Get rid of miscellaneous cards you don't use: Having too many can hurt your score.

No matter who devises your score, the original data comes from credit bureaus.  So check your credit reports for accuracy.

Get a free copy from each of the three bureaus annually at annualcreditreport.com.blog erofreepornpornotube erosbeastiality erotic porn storiesporn erotic cowgirlerotic sites porn freeporn hardcore erotichypno erotic pornliterature erotic porn Map

Housing Slump Gets Longer and Longer

The slump in home sales and prices will be deeper and last longer than previously expected, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors.

The trade group is now looking for flat prices for existing homes in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the first quarter of 2007, and a more year-over-year declines for new home.

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Still Better to Buy a Home  

In areas where the monthly cost of owning is a big premium over the cost of renting, the long-term approach still shows that owning produces a higher lifetime standard of living than renting.

Let's say you bought a house for $150,000 with a 20% down payment and a 30-year mortgage at 6%, it would cost $8,634 a year for the mortgage and about $7,500 a year for taxes, insurance and upkeep (based on 5% of market value).  The total out-of-pocket cost would be $16,134 a year.

Long term, this would put you way ahead of a renter, even though the same house could probably be rented for about $15,000 a year, or $1,250 a month.

The benefit comes from the decline in the real cost of the mortgage.  Even modest inflation will cut the effective cost of the mortgage dramatically over 30 years.  And then the cost disappears.  The renter, meanwhile, faces a lifetime of rising rent bills.

Of course, in real life the actual numbers will differ. But as long as inflation whittles away the purchasing power of the mortgage payment, the odds will favor the homeowner over the renter.

We'd be happy to run the ACTUAL numbers for you to see for sure, but in most cases, inflation will protect us from all but the worst housing markets, if we give it enough time.

Leave us your comment on this story.  We'd love to hear from you.

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Homebuilder Confidence Slides to 16-Year Low

U.S. homebuilder sentiment slid in July to its lowest since January 1991 as fallout from the housing slump and subprime mortgage crisis caused a glut of new homes, the National Association of Home Builders said recently.

Homebuilders are struggling to unload excess inventories left to them as speculators abandon contracts and buyers find it harder to obtain mortgages. Soaring delinquencies on the riskiest loans have forced lenders to boost requirements for many borrowers, locking out customers who might previously have qualified.

"The bottom line is that the single-family housing market is still in a correction process following the historic and unsustainable highs of the 2003-2005 period," NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders said in the statement.

June Housing Starts up 2.3 Percent

The pace of home construction rose 2.3 percent in June but building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, sank to its lowest rate in 10 years, signaling further weakness in the listless housing market.

Housing starts set an annual rate of 1.467 million units in June compared with a revised 1.434 million unit pace in May. Economists had forecast June housing starts to drop to a 1.45 million unit pace from the 1.474 million unit rate originally reported for May last month.

This latest data comes a day after another report indicating that home-builder confidence is sinking as mortgages become more difficult to obtain, with banks tightening their lending standards.

The continued sad news in the housing sector could make this the best time to buy a home in over a decade.

Contact us for more information.