Blog > Blog > Other Topics > Archive by category 'Financial Issues'

March 31, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Ever since the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka The Stimulus Bill) was passed in February, many homebuyers have been trying to figure out what this means for them. Sure an $8,000 tax credit is great, but how do you get and how do you qualify? Read more

February 13, 2009 at 2:28 pm

There is a bill, a stimulus bill, up on Capital Hill, that might be of interest to you if you or someone you know is looking for their first home.It could mean $8,000 in your pocket. Read more

February 10, 2009 at 5:52 pm

It appears that Fannie Mae has decided that it is going to cut real estate investors a break. Word is hitting the street that the current cap on Fannie Mae backed loans will be removed for credit worthy real estate investors beginning March 1, 2009. The new cap will jump all the way up to 10 properties. Read more

February 9, 2009 at 5:10 pm

Since your house isn’t your biggest investment and you are using this mentality as a springboard to get out of the endless cycle of dumping your money into the bank’s coffers, there is one big question looming in your mind: “What do you do with this new found money you have saved?” The short answer… invest it. Read more

January 29, 2009 at 5:54 pm

So if your house isn’t your “biggest investment,” what is a person to? You have to live somewhere. That’s an important question, but there is no easy answer. If the solution had to be narrowed down to one thing it would be “responsible money management.” Read more

January 21, 2009 at 2:22 pm

When you own an investment property, you can easily claim your property taxes as a business expense. With your personal residence, however, the rules are a bit different. If you itemize your federal deductions you can claim your actual property tax amount. On the other hand, if you use the standard deduction, you can not claim them. Until now. For 2008 and 2009, when claiming the standard deduction on federal income tax returns, the IRS is allowing homeowners to claim up to $500 in property taxes if single and $1000 if married filing jointly. This won’t apply to many homeowners, but if it does, looks like you’ll be saving a bit of extra money this year.

Here is the language taken directly from the IRS’s website:

Your standard deduction is increased by any state and local real estate taxes you paid in 2008, up to $500 ($1,000 if married filing jointly). The taxes must be state or local real estate taxes that would be deductible on Form 1040 (Schedule A) if you were itemizing your deductions. Taxes deductible in arriving at adjusted gross income, such as taxes on business real estate, and taxes on foreign real estate cannot be used to increase your standard deduction.

January 21, 2009 at 1:55 pm

In the world of real estate you often here people touting that a person’s home is their single biggest investment. If you subscribe to this idea, perhaps it’s time a dose of reality. Read more

January 13, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Now that the giving season of the holidays is over it’s time for another kind of giving season: giving to the IRS. With 2009 here it’s time to start thinking about taxes. Your 2008 tax returns aren’t due until April 15, 2009, but  it never hurts to get an early start. Read more

December 23, 2008 at 12:59 pm

It seems like Pulaski Bank couldn’t resist the call of all that bailout money. The Post Dispatch is reporting that they will receive an infusion of $32.5 million fromt he government in exchange of like amount of stock. Reports say that the bank is well capitalized, but they want the money to be able to lend more in the current market. One part of me wants to beleive that, but the cynic in me says this will have no affect on the amount of loans they are giving out. Sure would be nice though.

November 25, 2008 at 10:32 am

You’d think that the sky was falling. Here’s the bad news of the day on housing:

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller national home price index released Tuesday tumbled a record 16.6 percent during the quarter from the same period a year ago. Prices are at levels not seen since the first quarter of 2004.

This doesn’t make me happy, but I still don’t understand why people overreact so much about things like this. People have become so spoiled due to years of steady appreciation that this blip has everyone running for the hills. We need to all get back into focus. If inflation is 4% annually, any appreciation of home values exceeding that amount should be looked at as a bonus. After years of 8% annual appreciation we are finally resetting back to a level of sanity. We need to get used to it. This is probably going to be the way of things for the foreseeable future.

Click here for the full article.

October 4, 2008 at 11:47 am

I just read this article on Forbes, which I think paints a very different picture of the current situation. They make the claim that lending is actually easier to get now than a year ago. It’s worth a read: Bank Loans Have Not ‘Dried Up’

October 3, 2008 at 2:10 pm

With all of the uncertainty in the financial sector, it seems like everyone is running scared. I have heard from multiple clients this week about this situation. It seems that many of these institutions are putting a freeze on some types of loans. This is in now way across the board at this point, but it is a cause for concern. Read more

September 29, 2008 at 11:00 am

What a difference a year can make. Thats about how long it has been since Wachovia bought St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards. According to this article, it looks like Wachovia just sold off its banking operations to Citigroup. Apparently the brokerage is not part of the deal, but one has to wonder what kind of affect this could have on St. Louis and the 4,800 jobs currently employed through joint Wachovia/A.G. Edwards operations.

One thing I don’t get is how all these huge companies seem tobe so blindsided by the current status of the economy. If they had their eyes open, knowing what they knoe, they had to expect this. Perhaps that is why Wachovia bought A.G. Edwards in the first place. Maybe they saw the way the wind was blowing and decided to shift gears. What we have is either a brilliant strategy or stupidity. Care to take a pick?

September 22, 2008 at 8:42 am

With all the sweeping changes hitting our country’s economy right now, I don’t know if many people truely grasp how sweeping these changes could be. Looks like we just got some more fuel to feed the fire. With Bear Stearns gone and Lehman Brothers gone as we know it, the fate of the last two big investment banks seems to be sealed: they really aren’t going to be investment banks anymore. Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will become traditional commercial banks. The times they are a changing. Check this out for more.

September 12, 2008 at 3:12 pm

Check out this surprising spot-on article about the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout from David Nicklaus of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I’m still afraid the cure could be worse than the disease here. Hopefully that’s just the cynical, pessimist in me.

Next Page »