Unless you've been in hiding over the past four years, we've had one of the worst housing slumps since the Great Depression. Housing prices have plummeted. Untold numbers of folks have decided to rent rather than buy. Millions are already foreclosed on, and there are millions more that this is going to occur to. This means that, the whole housing ball game has changed. Which means that the basic assumptions most of us have had about homeownership must be challenged. Little is a given in a market similar to this. Let me explain.

An element of the American Dream has long been homeownership. It's really a goal of every single American to own your own home. Homeownership is also seen as a road to wealth in our country. Purchase a house, pay it back, and have a few hundred thousands dollars of assets. Unfortunately, throughout the economy we've had over the past three years, this all hasn't worked out just as planned.

For the past decade or so, obtaining a house was easier than it has ever been in history. Too easy, in fact. This lead to huge numbers of people buying houses they couldn't afford, which lead to the massive foreclosures we're seeing now. You wonder if purchasing a house nowadays is also a good option? Is It Advisable To purchase a house, or should you just rent for some time until the market clears up? We will try to tackle this question in this post.

Okay, and so the real question is...is it advisable to purchase a house these days. Well, unfortuantely, there is no wrong or right answer, just guidelines. Historically, people bought houses partially to generate money. Sure, it's really a place to live and raise your family, but it's also a way a normal hard working American family can build a retirement. Those days may be over. They're certainly over for an additional several years or so. Some experts even say a long time. The housing collapse isn't something that will straighten itself out in a year or two and after that it's normal again. This is a new normal! So, you won't want to purchase a house with generating revenue in mind. Buy a house for some other reasons, but not for earning money!

Having said that the single most significant thing you should take into consideration when obtaining a house is price. Since we're probably not likely to have any appreciation for a few years, you have to buy right, if you're not likely to find yourself in trouble with a house you simply can't sell, in case you want to sell it. Another problem is downpayment. Was in the past you put down as little as you could. In this market, that's a prescription for not the ability to sell your house, because your mortgage is too big. Today, you have to put down just as much as you can. 

In case you have been in hiding for the past 2 yrs, we're in one of the worst housing slumps since the Great Depression. Housing prices have gone down. Sellers are upside-down, which means they owe more than their house is worth. Buyers are all hoping to get the best deal for themselves so that they don't recreate the mistakes of the past three years or so with housing values. In this article, we're going to discuss a few issues you need to think about when buying a home in today's world.

To begin with you need to become hyper-aware of is price. For decades, housing prices in america rose. If you overpaid for a house, all you had to do was to live there an extra five years and you would at least erase your mistake. That's not any longer necessarily true. The housing sector might rebound...or it might not for several years. In a flat or even declining market, you have to put price first of all! Don't overpay for your new house. How do you avoid this? Well, by looking at a lot of houses and by having the agent you're working with make available to you comparable sales before making an offer.

The second point comes with the first. What's weird about your house is the fact that it's historically an investment vehicle and also a place to live. We have both a rational and an irrational connection with our house. With price playing a much larger role than it did 5 years ago, you need to be aware when your heart is talking and you're not paying attention to your head. This is a easy way to get in too deep!

Again, another thought about price! You will find loads of houses on the market. Let's say you're interested in an area and there are 20 houses all listed for around $260,000. That doesn't mean the value of the house you're buying is $260,000. It may be $200,000! You need to discount the importance of what people are asking for their houses. Look instead at what actually houses have sold for. Most sellers owe more than their property is worth. They're in financial trouble, and they tend to try to at the least pay off their mortgage when they sell the house. But if prices are lower, they're really asking too much for the house.

In our culture, home ownership is a really big deal. We get a lot of self-esteem and status from the type of house we own. Okay, here we are talking about price again! People have often bought as much as they could get a loan for! You might not want to do that. A more conservative view is what you probably want, here. Let's put it this way. If you're buying your house and you're still carrying credit card debt, you're making a huge mistake! Potentially, over your lifetime, a multimillion dollar mistake. Get your own personal finances right first, then buy a home you can easily afford.

Finally, realize that virtually every real estate agent you meet is actually working for the seller. If you go to an open house and see an agent there, they are working for the seller. When we say that you need an agent, this means you need someone who's working for you and not for the seller. The seller can pay them, but you need a buyer's agent.

Undoubtedly you've seen omega-3 fatty acid capsules. At least, you've seen fish oil capsules, which amounts to the same thing. Fish oil is chock full of omega-3's. So really whenever someone talks about one, they're really talking about the other, too. Also, I'm sure you understand the benefits of taking fish oil in any form. If not, let's talk about that for a moment.

Fish oil is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. What's so unfortunate is the fact that we don't get these nutrients in our food supply as we once did before industrialized farming. Now, I've got nothing against industrialized farming, per se. We have to feed ourselves and others, which means we have to come up with more efficient ways of getting more food created. But the fact is our fish, fowl, and other animals we eat used to be the source for omega-3 fatty acids. Now, they're not. This is because they don't consume these nutrients themselves through their food. The same is true for fish. Wild caught salmon have tons of fatty acids in them, which are passed on to us when we eat the salmon. But when's the last time you actually checked to see if the salmon you just bought was wild caught or not? Chances are it wasn't.

So, the thing is you need omega-3 fatty acids for several reasons. Scientists have linked a lack of these substances with diseases and conditions as varied as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and arthritis. You might wonder what the connection between these three ailments is. In a word, it's inflammation. Inflammation is seen recently as one of the big markers for aging and also as one of the main causes of lots of chronic diseases like the four mentioned above; also, like Alzheimer's, stroke, and high blood pressure. Now, the only question is how to get the fatty acids you need. And that's what we'll discuss next.

Although you can get the essential omega-3's you need through nutrition, it's much easier to get them through supplements. Fish oil, flax seed oils, and other oils made from things as varied as krill and algae are great sources of these essential nutrients. Lately, there's been a lot of discussion about how to actually take these oils. Should you swallow a capsule with the oil in it, or should you just take the oil in liquid form? Swallowing the capsule has the advantage of not tasting the oil. But taking the oil in liquid form has the advantage of being absorbed into the body sooner.

To learn more about fish oils, especially dha supplements, take a look at my blog. 

Lee Cole is a health and exercise enthusiast! To learn more, visit his blog, DHA Supplements Guide, today! 

Just because you're renting a house doesn't mean that you shouldn't take some of the same care in choosing the house that you would in buying a house. Sure, you're probably not going to live there as long as you would if you were buying the house. It's still going to be your home, and you want something that you a) enjoy and b) can afford. In this article, we're going to take a look at the best ways of finding the right home for your budget and needs and also what you need to do when you rent a house to protect yourself.

First off, you don't want to be spending more in rent than you can afford. That's fairly easy to figure out. Anything over 30% of your take home pay is going to feel like a stretch. The worst feeling is to sign a lease and then realize a month or so later that you hate the house only because the rent payment is cramping your style. So, if you make $3,000 per month in take home pay, you don't want to be paying more than about $1,000 for rent. Ideally, you should be paying a little less than that.

Finding houses with the Internet is fairly easy. There are tons of websites that you can use to find rentals. Just Google homes for rent in your area and you should come up with a bunch. Drive around and take a look at the houses, then call the owner or property manager and see if you can take a look inside.

Astute property managers and owners won't rent to just anybody. They want tenants who can pay the rent and who will take care of the property. So, when you actually meet the person, you might not want to be wearing an old t-shirt and flip-flops. You might want to dress a little nicer. Also, you'll want to go ahead and make a list of your past residences over the past ten years, and your past places of employment. Giving this to the landlord up front makes a nice impression.

Once you find the house, inspect it before you sign the lease. You'll want to take digital pictures of anything that's worn or damaged. It's customary for landlords to take damage you do to a property out of your security deposit when you move. So, to protect yourself, you'll need to be able to prove you weren't the person who did the damage.

Lee Cole has been involved in the real estate business for over twenty years, both in sales and rentals. For more information about real estate, especially homes for rent in Snellville.