New York Times - For all the hand-wringing about the weaknesses of health care, one aspect of it has remained strong: its ability to provide jobs. In fact, health care employment has increased during the recession, while employment as a whole has declined, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the private sector, more than 11 percent of the American work force is engaged in health care work, compared with just 3 percent before 1960, the bureau says.
Regardless of how health care reform shakes out, the industry jobs picture is likely to remain robust, given the aging population and technological advances in medicine.
High school and college students take note: the positions expected to post some of the largest increases include registered nurses; personal and home care aides; home health aides; nursing aides, orderlies and attendants; medical assistants; licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses; pharmacy technicians; and physicians and surgeons.
Labels: New York Times
Jane Donaldson spent £200,000 doing up her bungalow but like many vendors can’t find a buyer
This week Britons announced themselves more optimistic about the economy than at any time in the past 18 months, according to a Populus poll conducted for The Times. But while some are now determinedly anticipating the next housing boom, many existing homeowners are stuck with the hangover of the last one.
More than two years after putting her home up for sale (and four agents and price cuts of £170,000 later), Ms Donaldson is struggling to sell for the £625,000 that she needs to settle a “substantial” boomtime mortgage. She says: “When we bought it, there was us and another couple fighting over it. Now, despite all the work we have done, I can’t find one person to buy it.”
Agents say that the best homes are selling well, in all regions of the UK, but that leaves many others that are being passed over. In the area around Ryarsh and West Malling, buyers can snap up three-bedroom bungalows for under £200,000, making it difficult to entice buyers to view a four-bedroom on a main road at three times that price, even though it has a good school near by, a three-car garage, electric gates, substantial garden and backs on to farmland. A train into London Victoria is within walking distance, but it takes 50 minutes; many buyers are opting instead to invest closer to the high-speed line into King’s Cross.
Jason Tebb, a director with Chesterton Humberts, says that such prices can be achieved for a home of this type in the area, but that targeted marketing is crucial, especially as many local buyers are after low-maintenance homes in which to downsize. He said: “If your house does not sell within a week or so you need to work hard to find the buyers. If the quality of the finish of the property is not immediately apparent, it may work to take it off the market and relaunch it with an open house, to get them in the door. And, while we advise decluttering and neutralising, do not go so far that the kind of buyer you are targeting can’t imagine themselves living in your house.”
The difficult conditions in the mainstream market are behind predictions from Savills, the estate agents, that prices may fall again next year, by an average of 6.6 per cent, as Britons grapple with high unemployment and taxes. From 2011 more sustained recovery is expected — but the agent does not anticipate recovery to 2007 levels until 2013 in the South and 2015 for most of the rest of the UK.
Ms Donaldson may have overspent in her refurbishment of the home, but did so because she and her former spouse expected it to last a lifetime — the long-term approach that experts usually counsel. But circumstances can change. Ms Donaldson says: “Despite what the headlines say, for anyone trying to sell, it is a tough time.”
Callis Court Cottage in Ryarsh is for sale at www.lambertandfoster.co.uk
How to wrap up a sale in time for Christmas
Your house isn’t selling? Here are the top tips for securing a sale.
Is the price right?
Rebecca Monday, of Wooster & Stock, says: “Some agents will overvalue just to get an instruction. Look on nethouseprices.com to see what similar properties on your road or block have sold for this year.”
Consider changing agent
If you’re not happy with your agent, don’t be afraid to get a new one. The brochure should be easy to obtain from the agent’s website and contain full details, good photography and an accurate floorplan. Giles Cook, of Chesterton Humberts, says: “It is also incredibly important to have a For Sale board. It is the best form of advertising.” Don’t turn down a good offer — you may regret it in six months’ time.
Be flexible about viewings
Agents say that this vital. Be “on call” during working hours and be prepared to show people around at weekends. Penelope Court, director of the Central London agent Beauchamp Estates, recommends an “open day”, with drinks and canapés for potential buyers.
Be realistic about your taste
Take a fresh look at your home: does the bathroom need repainting? Might that purple wall be off-putting to potential buyers? Agents recommend painting dark walls a light colour, and “neutralising” rooms where possible. Robert Green, associate director at John D Wood in Chelsea, says: “Presentation is key. It is worth getting an impartial set of eyes to look at your home.” Strutt & Parker has two warehouses of furniture that it uses to “dress” vendors’ homes.
Declutter
Your home should look immaculate. Declutter and thoroughly clean your property — including windows — and make sure that all rooms are tidy and beds are made. Keep personal items to a minimum.
Deep clean kitchens and bathrooms
These rooms are apparently the “make or break” factor for many buyers, so make sure you show them in their best light. David Rathbone, of Strutt & Parker’s Guildford office, says: “Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink and bathrooms should be sparkling too.”
Evict pets and children
A chaotic house full of noisy children and excitable pets can be off-putting for anyone coming to view. Arrange for everyone (including pets) to be out of the house to create an atmosphere of calm.
Get planting
Make sure the outside is tidy: mow the lawn, sweep up leaves, cut back overgrown trees and hide bins. Add a few flowers for colour.
The personal touch
As winter closes in, it’s important to make sure that your house is welcoming. Light the fire — if you have one — and put the heating on. “Personal touches help to differentiate one property from the next,” Lisa Cavanagh-Smith, a partner at Carter Jonas, says.
Renegotiate the lease
“A property with a short lease could eliminate a significant number of buyers as most mortgage companies won’t lend on a property with a lease of less than 80 years, especially if you’re a first-time buyer,” Mark Hutton, from Douglas & Gordon’s Battersea Park office, says. He advises renewing the lease to maximise your selling potential.
Claire Carponen and Laura Dixon
Labels: Times Online
by David Smith - Times Online
Competition is a good thing, so the break-up of Britain’s rescued banks, announced last week, should be a positive move for the housing market. Although nothing is imminent, the disposals approved by the European commission will increase choice. Lloyds TSB-HBOS has a mortgage-market share of about 30%, so the split should be beneficial, and has been lauded by Which? and other consumer groups.
Marrying the proposed break-up with the Financial Services Authority’s regulatory reforms, it seems clear that the mortgage market of the future will look different. Competition is not all one way — in the past couple of years, smaller building societies have been absorbed by bigger competitors — but there is the prospect of new players.
The key issue remains: will there be enough mortgage capacity to support reasonable activity in the housing market? The big picture on approvals for house purchase is that they are still rising. The Bank of England’s latest monthly figure (for September) was 56,215: up by 68% on the same time last year, and more than double the November 2008 low.
That has been enough to support the rising house prices of recent months, perhaps surprisingly. Halifax reported a 1.2% increase in October, a fourth consecutive monthly rise. Prices are up by 2.9% since the end of 2008 and by 7.1% from the April 2009 low. Yet approvals remains well below pre-crisis norms. In all bar one month from January to June 2007, they were more than double the latest figure.
The drop in mortgage activity — despite the recent recovery — is even more striking when you look at all approvals, including remortgages. At just under 110,000 a month, it is barely more than a third of pre-crisis levels.
So this is not merely a question of competition in the mortgage market; there is the important issue of how much lenders can lend. Nobody expects a return to the levels of the first half of 2007, but a proper recovery in the housing market requires considerably more lending than now. And it is not clear we are going to get it.
* Average price falls of 6.6% are likely in the property market next year, as the backlog of pent-up demand that has brought recent growth is gradually eroded, while supply increases and economic growth remain weak. In its market forecast last week, Savills estate agency said that a gradual return to house-price growth is expected once the economy starts to recover and unemployment falls — with a probable 2.7% rise in average prices in 2011, steadily growing to 5.5% in 2015.
Labels: Times Online
Save Big on Credit by Getting Loans for Less: The 'Do's' of Raising Your Credit Score
By ELISABETH LEAMY
ABC News Consumer Correspondent
This week I'd like to continue our conversation about how to Save Big (not small) -- something we could all stand to do right now. This week's topic: how to raise your credit score to Save Big on credit.
As I've been telling you in the past few columns, I recently wrote a book called "Save Big," but it doesn't come out until January, and I feel like people need the information right now because of the crummy economy. So I'm sharing my favorite tips and tricks in this space each week in an effort to help and to get a conversation going in which you also share big savings ideas with me.
I maintain that the best places to find Big Savings are among our top five costs: houses, cars, credit, groceries and health care. Sandwiched right in the middle is credit, a puzzling one. Most people don't think of credit as an expense, and I'm trying to change that. We purchase credit just like we purchase houses and cars. The price of credit is the interest. For example, the interest owed on a $200,000 mortgage at 7 percent is $279,160 over the life of the 30-year loan. The credit costs even more than the house!
There are two ways to Save Big on credit: by using less of it or getting it for less. Today let's tackle the latter. The higher your credit score, the lower the interest rate you will be charged for loans. A lower interest rate can save you tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.
Let me blow you away with some examples: 620 is the lowest score you can have and still get a mortgage. If you raised that score to 720, right now you would qualify for a mortgage at 5.093 percent interest instead of 6.46 percent interest. Here's how much that saves you each year on a $300,000 mortgage:
FICO Score … Cost of Loan
620 .................. $22,656/year
720 .................. $19,536/year
BIG SAVINGS = $3,120/year
The $3,120 savings a year is nice, but get this. If you kept the loan for 30 years, your total savings would be $93,600. Now let's look at a car loan. In this case, raising your score from 620 to 720 lowers your interest rate from 12.780 percent to 6.348 percent. Amazing. If it's a three-year auto loan for $25,000, here's your savings:
FICO Score … Cost of Loan
620 ..................$30,240/three years
720 .................. $27,504/three years
BIG SAVINGS = $2,736/three years
That's $2,736 that you can put toward your next car! OK, now that I've got you motivated, you'll want to know what steps you can take to raise your credit score. There are a bunch of do's and don'ts. This week I'll tackle the do's, next week the don'ts. Some are slow, steady steps. Others are faster, flashier moves.
• Pay down debt: If you have any extra cash on hand and you can put it toward your credit card debt, your score will rise as soon as the payment is reported to the big three credit bureaus. It is the fastest single step you can take.
• Pay on time: You must do whatever it takes to pay your bills on time. If you're a busy person, I recommend setting up an automatic payment so that you are sure never to pay late. If you've paid late in the past, the good news is that your most recent payment history carries more weight than past mistakes, so beginning to pay on time every time now will raise your score.
• Ask creditors to delete single sins: If your overall payment history with a company is good and you made one glaring mistake, you may be able to get the bank or credit card company to delete it. Just call up the company and ask.
• Keep ratios low: Credit scoring statistical models place a lot of weight on the ratio of how much debt you carry to how much credit you have been approved for. To improve your score, charge up no more than 30 percent of your available limit. (10 percent is even better.) If you carry balances, try to reduce them down to 30 percent.
• Move your money around: Since it's best to charge only up to 30 percent of your balance, one way to game the system a little is to move debt from one card to another. If you have one card that is near the limit and another that has little or no balance, move the debt from the former to the latter. This is no substitute for healthy payment practices, but it can give you an encouraging momentary boost.
• Request a higher limit: Another way to change your ratio of debt to credit is to tweak the credit number. You can do this by contacting your credit card companies and requesting a higher limit. In this down economy this step isn't as easy as it used to be, but the effort is worth the 15 minutes you'll spend on the phone.
• Apply for a secured credit card: If you are young with a "thin" credit file, one way to fatten it up is to sign up for a secured credit card. You put down a deposit, say $500, and in exchange, you get a credit card with a $500 limit. The activity on that card is reported to the credit bureaus, so if you handle it responsibly, you will improve your score.
• Become an authorized user: Another way to establish or improve credit is to be added as an authorized user to another person's (responsibly managed) account. Many parents do this for their kids. Even though the authorized user is not responsible for paying the bill, the account -- and all its history -- will show up on their credit report.
Here's my favorite part about raising and then maintaining your credit score: It's free! All you have to do is use your current credit responsibly and you will save thousands on your future credit. You will Save Big.
