New Home Mortgage : New York, New Orleans, Arizona, Florida & Texas

In this buyer’s market, many are taking advantage of sellers’ desperation, demanding major home repairs, warranties on appliances, and even tax rebates.
A rock-bottom price just isn’t enough for buyers these days - it’s a starting point. If the furnace is out of date, they’ll demand a new one. Cracked driveways have to be repaved, and dirty carpeting torn out and replaced. All at the seller’s expense.

Type	Overnight avgs

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Many empty-nesters assumed the grass will be greener in a smaller home. Not necessarily. Last year Rick and Suzanne Pepin moved from the four-bedroom 3,400-square-foot house in Minneapolis where they lived with their three (now grown) kids to a luxury condo that’s a third smaller and offers only a Murphy bed for guests. Still, the couple couldn’t be happier. Downsize home downsize expenses

Here’s what a family of four could save annually by moving from a 2,800-square-foot home to a 1,800-square-foot one.

Utilities savings Property tax savings Atlanta $1,217 $983 Boston 1,922 3,962 Chicago 1,281 4,545 Denver 1,179 1,779 Houston 1,755 6,162 L.A. 1,153 4,958 Miami 1,243 9,089 Philadelphia 1,665 1,159 U.S. Avg. $1,300 $2,597

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Canadian banks will improve certain disclosure practices as urged by the G7 in its recent Financial Stability Forum report. The severity of the financial crisis has prompted an extraordinary meeting of the heads of the central bank, the country’s banking regulator, the federal Finance Department and the big banks, who will gather this morning to talk about what Canada should do to prevent another liquidity crisis. Within 100 days, Canadian banks will establish and adopt “leading practices for disclosure” by tweaking the way they disclose bank securities at mark-to-market values, among other items. Policy makers and regulators are under pressure to show they are taking action in the wake of the financial turmoil that’s reverberated in markets around the world.