On 19th May Funds centre published another article by Alice Lilley. The article can act as a quick guide for home sellers. She said that Most of the sellers go way beyond what they can afford in redecorating and renovating there houses when they plan to sell it off. Most o them think that doing so can help them in getting a higher price for there house. However this may happen in some cases but its not always the case. According to recent research from Direct Line Home Insurance, we have spent more than ?154 billion on DIY jobs that have actually lowered the value of our homes.
When planning to sell the house the owner should make sensible pound-to-pound basis redecorating. For example the right paint job – generally in neutral colors that will appeal to everyone – can add up to 10% to the final value of your home, Small touches such as window boxes and hanging baskets can make a home look cared for, covering worn sofas and chairs with large throws in a neutral colors Also don’t forget to clearing out clutter to make your home seem more spacious, stay on top of general household maintenance such as replacing broken light bulbs and showing the full value of your storage space by keeping cupboards, the basement and attic tidy too. Finally, make sure the house number or name can be seen from the road, and that your doorbell works.
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On Tuesday 29th May Funds Centre published an article by Sarah Modlock under the title “Sell in May and Go away?” but what does this statement really mean? It is an old adage ‘Sell in May and go away; don’t come back ’till St Leger’s Day’ which prompts investors to sell their stock in spring when the market is expected (by some) to dip for the summer. Saint Leger lived about 1400 years ago and lots of incredibly nasty things happened to him as part of his martyrdom.
His feast day is 2 October and it is from this point in the year that the custom says you should begin to invest again. In the US, it is called the ‘Halloween Indicator’ but adopts the same principle. For those that don’t believe in superstitions and look towards logic for explanation the reason for the dip of market may be that the investors loose all their ties in summer and go on a family vacation. (more…)
On Friday June 22 William MacNamara and Michael Hunter reported on Financial Times that by midday London equities were losing ground. This was for the reason of concerns of the investors over banks’ and managers’ exposure to sub-prime mortgage assets in the United States. By noon the FTSE 100 was trading 20 points lower at 6,576.0, a fall of 30%.
The financial sector was facing a worrisome situation when the Barclays share fell 0.9% to 722p. The Schroders was hardest hit losing 1.7% to ?13.29 and RBS fell 1.25 per cent to 633p.
The retail sector after a week of selling following tepid trading updates from Tesco and J Sainsbury left the sector looking undervalued. This forced the investors back into the game. by midday Tesco was leading the blue-chips, recovering 2.9 per cent to 434?p.while Wm Morrison rose 2.3 per cent to 293?p. Home Retail Group, the owner of Argos, rose 1.4 per cent to 445p and Kingfisher, the company behind the B&Q home improvement chain, was 1.2 per cent stronger at 232?p.
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John Stepek of MSN Money wrote on interesting article on June 20, 2007, that brought to light the fact that the government bond market is making big news. This is unusual for a section of news that hardly anyone ever sees.
The yield on a 10-year gilt (UK government bond) hit a seven-year-high of 5.5% last week while the yield on a 10-year Treasury (US government bond) was also on the rise.
This is important as the yield for government bonds is the foundation for all asset values. If you can receive because if you can get a 5.5% on a government bond which is virtually risk-free than you need to be able to get a better return on anything riskier.
This means that yields on everything have to rise. And for yields to rise, prices need to fall. (more…)
A story featured in the June 20, 2007 edition of Yahoo News indicated that fewer than half of all working-age adults are not saving enough for retirement. A survey of 5,000 people showed that only 49% were setting aside enough money for when they retire, a quarter of these people not having any savings at all. This figure is compared with last year’s findings, which showed 46% not having enough put away.
This also shows that the number of working-class adults headed for an easy retirement is 6% less than that of 2005. This means that many people who are currently employed could go into retirement living on less than 70% – 80% of working income.
Two-thirds of the people not saving are men, with 31% of woman making proper arrangements for retirement. The self-employed are also a high risk group with less than a third setting aside enough money to live off of when they retire. And a third of the people who did save a little bit said they did not know what their main income would be in retirement.
The June 24, 2007 edition of The Mail on Sunday featured on article on the presence of negative equity appearing more and more these days. Negative equity is a result of a homeowner’s mortgage being greater than the value of their property and is the result of borrower’s taking out new, bigger loans.
Lenders are also contributing to the trend by of (more…)
On the site of Yahoo Finance of UK ‘Alice Lilley’ highlighted Housing Market Crash. Its analyzed that the year 2006 saw a high rise of 9.9% in house prices until 1%downfall in December of the same year according to the most recent figures from mortgage lender Halifax
The latest Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors monthly survey reported a sharp drop in the pace of increase in new buyer enquiries in November, suggesting that the market upturn may be losing momentum. But according to most commentators these kind of surveys don’t prove anything in particular. For example, Estate agent Savills is forecasting 7% growth in 2007 on the other hand the mortgage lender Nationwide expects the prices to rise between 5% and 8%.
This will prove the predictions from the Council of Mortgage Lenders(CML) to be true. According to them the prices will rise about 7% in 2007 and 5% in 2008. On the other hand Howard Archer, a chief economist at Global Insight is also predicting a 6% increase in 2007. He said “Ongoing strong mortgage activity and a shortage of supply suggests that house prices could well see further buoyancy in the near term”. However, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors believes prices will climb by just 3% this year, while Halifax is forecasting a 4% rise.
Halifax concluded there results for the year 2006 from the strong growth in areas such as London, where the average price paid for a property hit £287,176 at the end of the year, and the South West, where the average home now costs £200,931 (more…)
According to an article in the June 21, 2007 edition of Daily Mail, there has been a widening gap between the rich and the poor in Britain and it’s said this may cause riots.
Sir Ronald Cohen has said that something must be done before the situation turns violent. The close friend of Gordon Brown also raised the spectre as it was shown that some of Britain’s richest were attacked by a powerful Commons committee by getting out of paying high taxes via a loophole.
Last week it was found that some entrepreneurs are paying a lower rate than their cleaners. Ordinary citizens are outraged that these wealthy entrepreneurs were receiving huge tax breaks. (more…)
An article in the June 21, 2007 edition of Telegraph compared the rankings of the video site YouTube to that of BBC.
In a study it was found that www.bbc.co.uk was ranked number one each week for the past two years. YouTube has held the second place since October of last year. However, YouTube is “rapidly closing that gap” says Heather Hopkins, vice president of Hitwise, the Internet Marketing Group.
While the BBC site continues to grow in amount of visitors, so does YouTube and YouTube is growing more than BBC. This only accounts however for hits on the homepage and not any clicks on links leading further into the site. (more…)
Holly Thomas wrote an interesting article in the June 20th, 2007 edition of the Daily Express. In it she writes how high income earners can take advantage of credit cards loaded with tailored services, such as organizing dinner reservations, holidays and special events. But the annual fee for these cards are hefty, going as high as 300 pounds.
But because interest rates tend to be high and there can often be no balance left at the end of the month, these cards should not really be used for borrowing. (more…)