Financial Solutions

Rents Rising as Rental Availability Shrinks

March 27th, 2012

Because of the challenges in the current economy, many families have either decided to rent or been forced to rent. How has this impacted rental options and the cost of the available options?

HousingWire recently quoted Paul Dales, senior economist with Capital Economics:

“As a consequence of Americans being less willing and less able to buy a home, the number of households in rented accommodation is set to rise by at least 850,000 a year over the next few years.”

The price of anything is determined by supply and demand. As demand increases, the price of an item will increase unless there is an equal increase in supply. The article mentioned above said:

“Dales said in his research that rental vacancy rates will fall again in the future, pushing prices up. The m

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Tags: Rental, Rental Availability

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Three ways to put the U-turn in Treasuries to work for you!

March 22nd, 2012

Last week most of the financial media focused on the fact that the stock market made new highs for the year and hit the highest level since 2006. Indeed impressive. But I don’t believe that was the week’s most significant event …

I believe that the 10- and 30-year Treasury yields breaking out to the upside for the first time in months deserved a lot more attention.

The breakout was in reaction to the Fed announcement that basically said, given the recent economic strength, there was little chance for additional quantitative easing, while at the same time despite rising oil prices, they don’t see inflation as a risk at this point, signaling there is little chance of tightening of economic policy.

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Do Oil Companies Pay Their Fair Share in Taxes?

March 9th, 2012

There has been a lot of debate recently about oil and gas companies and the tax treatment they get in the United States. President Obama has on multiple occasions proposed increasing taxes on oil companies specifically, in addition to endorsing general corporate tax changes that would include oil companies.

Today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required) provides some valuable context on what oil and gas companies actually pay in taxes:

The federal Energy Information Administration reports that the industry paid some $35.7 billion in corporate income taxes in 2009, the latest year for which data are available…That figure also doesn’t count excise taxes, state taxes and rents, royalties, fees and bonus payments.

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Tags: Taxes

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Interest Rates still at historic lows

March 6th, 2012

In order to help steady the economy, the Feds took positive action which kept mortgage rates at historic lows. Many felt this would be a short term policy, and once stopped, would result in rates returning to previous averages of 6 to 7%.

Yet the government has continued to hold up lower rates with hopes of promoting a recovery in the housing market. The 30 year fixed rate mortgage stays low at around 4%.  Rates seemingly continue to fall into early 2012.

The reduced rates along with remarkable prices have had a great impact on home affordability bringing more buyers into the market.

Tags: Historic Lows, Lows

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