Mortgage Lowdown

Greetings! Welcome to the 5th edition of the Carnival of Home Improvement. We have received 8 posts for this edition. Here are the posts in the order they were received.

ISPF presents Why Do Some People Prefer to Pre-Pay Mortgage, while Others Prefer to Invest the Money Instead? posted at Grad Money Matters. Rationally, it makes more financial sense to stash the additional money we have in a well-chosen index fund. But month after month, we apply the money to the principal of our mortgage loan. It’s not like we are this irrational all the time. So, why are we so irrational when it comes to mortgage?

Manos Peglis presents Home Decorating Mistakes posted at Home Improvements. Most people have great decorating ideas which they have picked up from books, magazines, looking at model homes, or as they see places in their daily routine.

Almomento presents 10 Steps to Better Efficiency in Your Day to Day Life posted at BurstCreativity. Ability to be creative in all of the aspects of our life can enhance it beyond belief. Since creativity enhances with practice, we have to put ourselves through an intense emergence into the world of creativity, to make a profound change in how we approach life. We will condition our mind to think creatively where before it wasn’t natural for us to do so.

Mark Cutler presents Top 5 Things for a Powder Room posted at Mark Cutler Design. Get tips on how to improve your Powder Room.

Ben presents The Costs of Being a Homeowner posted at Money Smart Life. An air conditioner out, a leaky roof, and a threatening flood make it an interesting week as a homeowner.

Kristen presents Decorating small spaces posted at Shakhammer. 3 good and practical tips on how to decorate a small space.

KRG presents Why Buying a House is Better Than Renting posted at FIL-AM WORDS. Reasons why home ownerships is better than renting.

Steve Faber presents - American Homes - How Large Can They Get? posted at Debt Free. If you are already into a home, be aware what new home buyers are now looking for when you evaluate remodel projects with an eye toward future value enhancement.

That concludes the 5th edition of the Carnival of Home Improvement. Keep submitting your posts to the future editions of this carnival. Thank you for your support and contribution.

–By Sagar Satapathy

Hi Everyone! We are here with the Carnival of Home Improvement. I am sure that you will find the featured posts useful and interesting. Although only 7 posts are featured on this edition, they are the real gems. Without further ado, here are the posts in the order they were received.

Barry Mahfood presents Should You Add Storm Protection? posted at Central Florida Real Estate News. The Orlando Sentinel today has a good article about the affordability of upgrading your home’s storm protection.

ISPF presents Should You Get a 40 (or 50) Year Mortgage? posted at Grad Money Matters. Very long-term mortgages (40 or 50 years) are offered in some of the west coast cities and are touted as options for bringing home ownership within the reach of the common man. What is the true cost of taking out such a long term mortgage? What are the alternatives?

Kristen presents Environmental Shift posted at Shakhammer. When it comes to environmentally friendly commercial buildings, St. Louis is one of the 10 greenest in the country.

ISPF presents Steps to Avoid Foreclosure: What to Do When You Can’t Keep Up With Mortgage Payments posted at Grad Money Matters. If you are one of the unfortunate people snagged into a sub-prime loan or know of someone who is, and finding it hard to keep up with the mortgage payments, it is important to remember that a foreclosure can be avoided.

Darius presents How much worse can housing get? posted at Related to Mortgage. The slow drift downward in long-term rates stopped this week, the 10-year T-note at 4.69 percent, mortgages settling just above 6.25 percent.

Tracy Coenen presents Home buyers suing to get out of contracts posted at FRAUDfiles. Cancellation rates on these home buying contracts may be as high as 30%. The story highlights a few situations in Florida, where attorneys are even advertising their services to people who want to get out of their contracts.

Kristen presents Build your own solar panels posted at Shakhammer. Solar panels are great, if you have the space then you can have as many as wish and place them anywhere as long as they get the sun most of the time, the draw back to using solar panels is the cost, they are very expensive, so much so that the savings may not pay for the installation for years to come, that is the downside of using solar power.

That concludes the 4th edition of the Carnival of Home Improvement. Keep submitting your posts to your favorite carnival. We expect a sharp increase in the number of submissions over the next few weeks.