With so many incentives to buy a home, now is by no doubt, the time to buy. With lenders tightening their guidelines, you might want to be sure you have your finances in check.
With brand new federal regulations, this will help you understand how it will benefit you and tame your credit card debt. The bad news, is because of this government intervention you might have already seen a rise in your interest rates. This is from Red Book Magazine
1. They can’t raise interest rates on debt you’ve already racked up. They can if you are more than 60 days late on these payments. So pay your cards on time!
2. If your card charges you different interest rates (say, 14% for existing balances, and 2% for balance transfers), they must apply your payments to the debt carrying the highest rates first. So the faster you pay it off, the more money you save.
3. They can’t raise your rates if they find out you’ve been late on other credit cards or loans. This doesn’t mean you credit score will not be affected, which can eventually lead to higher interest rates. Your best bet is just to pay it on time.
4. You can no longer go over your credit limit and be charged the subsequent fees- unless you notify your credit card company in writing that you’d like to spend more than your limit. So don’t spend more than your limit.
5. They will tell you on your bill how long it will take to pay off your debt and how much it will cost you, including interest, if you pay only the minimum each month. This will be an eye opener, and a hard lesson for many. Pay more than the minimum or you could possible pay on this card longer than your house mortgage.
6. Those under 21years old won’t be able to get a credit card unless they show proof of income or get an adult to cosign. I think this is the smartest law of all! When I was in college, you would sign your life away for a free t-shirt or can coozie. All adults over the age of 21 take note…DON’T COSIGN
While foreclosures themselves can be nasty monsters to deal with by themselves, they’re unfortunately, not the only ugly animal that homeowners facing foreclosure have to deal with. Along with the hassles and frustrations of an impending foreclosure, homeowners also have to be wary of those preying on their weakened financial position.
Scammers absolutely love to prey on the weak so it’s no surprise to see that as the number of foreclosures rise, so too does the number of foreclosure scams.
According to Stella Hopkins of the Charlotte Observer,
“The N.C. Attorney General’s Office handled 448 foreclosure-scam complaints last year, a jaw-dropping jump from 82 the previous year. In 2007, there were just seven.”
The majority of these scams appear to be in the area of firms charging upfront fees for so-called ‘foreclosure prevention help, a practice which has been illegal in NC since 2005. Last year, the NC Attorney General handed out 166 cease and desist orders to firms charging these upfront fees.
Again, according to Ms. Hopkins:
“Working out a loan modification is time-consuming and frustrating. The main federal program is cumbersome. But there’s a lot of free help. See www.fightncforeclosure.org to find a free foreclosure prevention counselor in your area. The site has contacts for other resources, too.
And remember: If you’re facing foreclosure, we want to hear from you. We’re looking this year at whether the $75 billion federal foreclosure-prevention program is really helping people. E-mail me at shopkins@charlotteobserver.com or call direct, 704-358-5173.”
Filed under Carolina Business News, Foreclosed Houses, News Reports by 
Love’s Plaza, located at the corner of Cherry St. and Mt. Galant Rd, is the latest business to comply with a 2002 policy aimed at cleaning up Cherry St. The Rock Hill City Council approved a plan in 2002 that would require all businesses in the city limits along Cherry Road and Saluda Street to comply with tighter limits on signage.
According to the Rock Hill Herald Online, “This policy allows only monument-style signs that are no more than 10 feet high, featuring no more than 200 square feet of sign surface on each side. That rules out the towering pole signs and billboards that have dominated much of Cherry Road.”
The city agreed to immediately pay up to 60% of the cost of replacing non-conforming signs, with that amount being reduced over time, and none of paid in 2010.
The idea behind the policy was to clean up the commercial section of Rock Hill, but if it’s taking almost 7 years to complete, how much of an effort is the city really making? Believe me, I’m all for doing whatever it takes to clean up anything that devalues anything about our beloved Rock Hill SC so I definitely appreciate Love’s taking down the sign, but at what point do we get serious and make a concerted effort to really make it happen?
I don’t have a list of businesses or signs that don’t comply with the policy, but it would certainly be interesting to see a list of everyone that’s complied and those that have yet to fall in line.
As of 12:01am ET this morning work on The Vue, a 51-story condo project in uptown Charlotte NC was halted because apparently the contractor hasn’t paid its bills. Whoops!
According to the Charlotte Observer today,
“At the worksite, at Fifth and Pine streets, workers streamed out of the tower at the shift’s end Monday, carrying an assortment of items, such as ladders, buckets and drills, which workers often leave overnight. Workers with four subcontractors, along with half a dozen Griffin employees, said they had been told that work may stop because of unpaid bills. Employees also removed R.J. Griffin signs from fences and used cranes to hoist portable toilets and other heavy equipment to the ground from The Vue’s upper floors.”
While it’s highly unlikely the work stoppage will last long simply because I seriously doubt the Charlotte city leaders want such a large real estate project just sitting unfinished, it definitely points to the fact that the regions real estate market isn’t completely out of the woods yet.
While home sales have picked up in the lower price brackets ($100-150K) things are still a little slow in the upper price ranges. That’s not to say house aren’t selling, it just means they’re not selling as quickly as they did prior to the current economic downturn.
Filed under Carolina Business News, Carolina Commercial Real Estate, Charlotte NC by
Yesterday, Rock Hill SC city leaders made a huge step towards making the Riverwalk development a reality.
“City leaders approved a public financing package for Riverwalk, the 1,000-acre project that could bring new life to the old Celanese textile site at Cherry Road and Interstate 77. Plans call for an industrial park, retail shops and hundreds of home sites — which developers say could represent a $600 million redevelopment.”
While the entire project isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2028, construction could begin as early as next summer on some key components of the project. One interesting piece of the project will be the east coast’s only velodrome, which is an oval bicycle race track. It’s one of the projects slated to begin next summer and could be completed by as early as 2012.
Overall, the project is expected to attract around 4,000 new jobs which is certainly good news for both Rock Hill SC and Fort Mill SC. With the real estate activity already picking up, knowing this project is coming along with all of the associated benefits I can only expect it will continue to help the housing market.
Filed under Carolina Business News, Carolina Real Estate, Fort Mill SC, Fun Stuff, Rock Hill SC by
