Daily Archives: August 20, 2008

Coming down with a cold when you share an apartment for rent almost always leads to a widespread epidemic amongst the roommates. Living in a communal apartment is not very conducive to quarantine. There are, however, some preventative steps you can take that may mitigate the spread of disease. At the very least, your roommates [...]

Adding plants to your apartments can help keep your apartment healthy by removing pollutants from the air. This can help especially if you have noticed some symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome. Here we provide a short list of plants that can keep you healthy.

If you do encounter an infestation of some kind, contact your landlord. They will usually want to know as soon as possible if there is a problem, so that they may address and contain it. If your landlord does not respond in a reasonable amount of time, you can contact your local health department. Many [...]

Hopefully, you never need to deal with the problem of an apartment with an infestation. Although you can most likely have your landlord take care of the problem, both logistically and financially, there is not much good that can result from an infestation of pests, be they bugs, mice, or even koala bears. Before you [...]

Reality: Most of these calculators are overly simplified and seriously flawed. An economic analysis of the leading calculators found numerous problems. Some fail to include basic costs like maintenance, insurance or property taxes. Others leave out the transaction costs of buying and selling a house.

Reality: This is a risky and unwise investment strategy. Mortgages can work like a forced savings program. Instead of paying rent, you pay your mortgage and build up equity, assuming you stay long enough to cover the costs of buying, maintaining and then selling the house. But remember, nearly one third of all owners move [...]

Reality: Nearly one third of all homeowners move within five years and many end up losing money. Most people who buy a house plan to stay there for a long time, but many end up moving sooner than planned for job and personal reasons. Short-term homeownership can be a costly proposition. The cost of a [...]

Reality: Low interest rates may actually serve to make buying more expensive. It sounds counterintuitive, but low interest rates can actually make housing more expensive, not more affordable. How? Well, if low rates bring a lot of new buyers into the market, housing can turn into a seller’s market. Now that there are more prospective [...]

Reality: There are very few risk-free investments and a house is certainly not one of them. House prices are not a one-way escalator going up. They can also go down. Predicting whether a specific house in a specific market will appreciate is very difficult. As financial columnist Jane Bryant Quinn noted, “any single [house] sale [...]

Reality: Only your mortgage payment will remain constant. Other costs can go up every year. And if you have an adjustable rate mortgage, your monthly payment can rise too. Your mortgage payment is just part of your housing cost as an owner. You also have to factor in the cost of property taxes and homeowners [...]