Real Estate Information

Do you ever wonder if your pizza box should go in the recycle can or not?  Full of grease, so you would think not.  Your right!  All that delicious cheese seeps into the bottom of the box, contaminates the box and makes it non recyclable.  Food is one of the worse contaminants when it comes to recycling!(So that should answer your questions about paper plates, napkins, etc...)  You may feel guilty for having just one more piece of pizza pie, but the knowledge of knowing when and how to recycle diminishes that right away, I promise!  Here's the secret...just cut the pizza box in half, recycle the top and throw out the contaminated bottom (unless it is grease-less).  Done, that simple.  I know many of you have just put the whole box in the recycle bin, you know who you are - feeling guilty are you?  But with just a simple tear(and release of that pent up aggression) you have managed to help our environment in Gilbert, AZ.

I'm often asked if this is a good time to buy a home. Some clients are concerned that home prices may fall further than they have already. They are assuming that the best course of action is to wait for the bottom in the market and then buy. The problem with this approach is that you don't know where the bottom is until you see it in the rear view mirror, meaning until you've missed it!

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability. Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows. Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life. It's important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial "comfort zone." To that end, it may be more important to lock in today's relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today's market.