Home Ownership

About every three months, our mortgage lender sends us a letter. It’s to encourage us to pay our mortgage bi-weekly, instead of monthly. The pitch is simple. We would send off half of our normal mortgage payment every other week. That would make 26 annual payments, instead of 24 (12 months x 2). So we […]

The joys of homeownership are manifold. You can nail whatever you want to the wall! You can paint a room neon green! You can be financially responsible for an alarming mortgage, personally responsible for house liability issues and emotionally responsible for how sad you get in the summer when all the neighbors around you mow their […]

While most of us are necessarily familiar with our income taxes (if only because we’re hoping for a refund), not too many people excitedly follow their property tax value. That’s kind of a shame, because the National Taxpayers Union estimates that 60 percent of homes are overvalued for property tax purposes, while only 2 percent of […]

While there is no such thing as a recession-proof home, some houses hold their value better than others. Especially whenever economies go through their boom and bust cycles. It would be easy if housing values were solely based on upgrades or innovations inside the house. However, the simple truth is that homes that keep their […]