An intruder broke into a Manitou Road home early Sunday, but fled after awakening the startled homeowner.

The incident took place shortly after 1:30 a.m., police said, when the flashlight-bearing intruder entered the home’s master bedroom where the residents were sleeping.

After the residents were jolted awake, the intruder fled on foot toward the Longshore Golf Course, which borders the home’s property.

The homeowner told police the suspect was about 6 feet, 3 inches tall and wearing a white or light polo-type shirt and dark pants. However, the homeowner was unable to determine the intruder’s gender or race during the fleeting encounter in the dark.

Police, assisted by a K-9 dog called to the scene from Monroe, searched the area for the suspect. The dog followed a scent through the golf course, but the track ended in a parking area near the Longshore Marina.

Westport police, who alerted police in area communities about the incident, continue to investigate the incident.

Luzerne County Controller Walter L. Griffith Jr. said Friday he will not pay bills unless funds are available in budget line items.

Griffith said various budget line items for special legal services are already more than $1 million overbudget, and he wants to avoid a budget deficit at the end of the year. Griffith said the county commissioners’ administration has to transfer funds in the budget when line items run out of money.

Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said a meeting is planned Monday with Solicitor Vito DeLuca to discuss Griffith’s stance on the budget. Urban said the county is not in jeopardy of running a deficit at year’s year end.

County commissioners in April agreed to sell delinquent tax liens to boost revenue in this year’s budget by about $3 million. The county needed additional revenue because it was not able to sell the former Valley Crest Nursing Home property in Plains Township.

This year’s budget included $4.4 million in revenue from selling that property.

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s housing market is “in transition” and resale and pricing will cool over the next year in a significant slowing from the boom years in the previous decade, Royal Bank of Canada said.

Robert Hogue, senior economist at Royal Bank, forecast in a report that resales in Canada would rise just 0.9 percent in 2011 to 451,200 homes, and remain unchanged in 2012.

“Flat resales trends would contrast starkly with average annual increases of 6.6 percent in the seven years that preceded the 2008 market downturn and recession,” the report said.

The national average home price is expected to increase by 4.4 percent to C$341,600 ($359,600), and then another 0.4 percent the year after, Hogue predicted.

“Going forward, we’re more likely to see very modest kind of growth in resales following an exceptional period between 2002 to just about 2007, 2008,” said Hogue.

“We’re more likely to see at least over the next couple of years, very flat activity and fairly subdued growth.”

Industry data showed second quarter overall sales fell 4.7 percent from the first quarter, partly because of a rush to buy in the first quarter ahead of tougher mortgage rules implemented in the spring.

Higher mortgage rates in April and May also pushed some homebuyers to the sidelines, while expectations of higher rates to come have also cooled the market.

TD Bank last week said resale activity and prices were poised for a “moderate correction” over the next two years, with prices and resales due to slow because of subdued household income growth and rising interest rates.

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; editing by Janet Guttsman)

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Nashville business operators break law to earn honest living <!––>

Posted on July 21, 2011

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By CHRISTOPHER BUTLER

Nashville-Davidson County resident Pat Raynor is a widow who wants nothing more than to make an honest living running her own hair salon — where she would serve clients out of her home.

To establish such a home-based business, Raynor remodeled her garage and prepared her new business for an official inspection from the Tennessee State Board of Cosmetology.

Raynor eventually had to give up her ambitions, because of a Nashville ordinance.

“All I wanted to do was establish a legitimate business for myself and follow the rules and regulations that a beauty shop owner is supposed to follow, so I could keep my profession professional — but I couldn’t do that because I was afraid that somebody was going to turn me in,” Raynor said.

According to a Metro Nashville ordinance, many people who already operate a home-based business — whether they are music studio owners, piano teachers, or people who engage in any other legitimate business — could be breaking the law by having clients inside. They are also at risk of having code enforcement shut down their businesses.

That is because Metro Nashville’s Code of Ordinances specifies that no one may serve clients or other patrons on their home property.

There are currently 13,000 individuals in the county who operate a home-based business. Many of those people do not realize that county officials consider them unlawful if they invite patrons or clients into their homes. Furthermore, Nashville is one of the few cities in the nation with ordinances that restrict home-based business owners that have clients, customers and patrons into their homes, according to officials with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

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Prices are making it difficult to get into the property market – but it’s not impossible, writes Anneli Knight.

Housing affordability has hit first-home buyers hard but with a pull back in interest rates and a slowing of property price growth, now is a good time to put a plan in place to get your foot in the door. And it helps if you’re willing to be creative.

Angie Zigomanis from research and forecasting group BIS Shrapnel says three years ago, Australia experienced record housing unaffordability, which has eased this year with lower rates and property prices. But the median house price is still an eye popping $600,000

”Affordability is pretty stretched, however it is not necessarily as bad as it was in 2008, when interest rates peaked at 9.5 per cent,” Zigomanis says.

James Rice, 28, and Bronwyn Morgan, 32, recently bought their own two-bedroom apartment on Sydney’s northern beaches. Photo: Fiona Morris

The new levels of unaffordability have meant first-home buyers have needed to adjust their expectations to meet the market. ”Rather than getting the same house in the suburb they are already renting in, they may get something smaller like the townhouse or move to a more affordable suburb, an outer suburb,” he says.

With a hiatus in house pricing and interest rates expected in the next 12 months, it is time to get organised. Zigomanis says: ”It is a good time to save up a bigger deposit without prices getting ahead of you.”

Last week Westpac’s chief economist, Bill Evans, went against the consensus view of most economists, predicting rates would fall 1 percentage point by September next year.

Bec Steward outside her one-bedroom apartment in inner-city Melbourne suburb, Prahran.

And with three-year fixed rates at about 7 per cent – similar to variable rates – first-home buyers may be encouraged to take the plunge.

EXPECTATIONS

Property and finance author Peter Cerexhe says young people have always had to compromise when it comes to purchasing their first home but says recent record unaffordability levels have been occurring at a time when people have higher expectations for how they would like to live.

”Twenty, 30 years ago, a young person buying a house was happy to have anything they could get and one day hoped to have a home like their parents,” he says. ”Ten or 15 years ago people wanted the type of home their parents might be in when they retired. We’re now in a period where expectations have been raised higher and first-home buyers want something better than their parents had.”

Cerexhe says these desires are being driven by the materialistic culture and renovation shows, and first-home buyers can make bad decisions if they’re on the lookout for a new kitchen and bathroom.

”The danger is that – particularly inexperienced people – if they want something shiny and new they’ll be tempted to buy in a place with poor capital growth, a place that will not be a good investment,” he says.

LAUNCHPAD

Cerexhe says first-home buyers in particular should approach their purchase as an investment, even if they plan to live in the property.

”The first property is almost always a stepping stone to something you truly could live in longer term. If you don’t get a good investment then you won’t be able to make the leap to a bigger home,” Cerexhe says. ”Wherever you buy, it’s not going to be where you end up, that’s the dilemma that faces first-home buyers. Indeed, they need to be looking to later steps and choose a first property that will give them a bigger deposit when they are older and earning more money. They will still need a whopping deposit to buy a house they’d really be happy with. The danger is to not look to the future,” Cerexhe says.

”Location remains the No.1 rule of real estate, not to be tempted to buy a shiny new property in a bad area. Do your research, find what the growth is like in certain areas and how that compares to other suburbs.”

James Rice, 28, and Bronwyn Morgan, 32, have recently purchased their first home: a two-bedroom apartment in Freshwater, a suburb in Sydney’s northern beaches. Rice says they kept the No.1 rule of real estate in mind.

”Location was crucial. The main concern was to live where we want to live and not be too far from work but also be close to the beaches. All the suburbs near the beach – they never seem to go down.”

Rice says the mortgage is costing the couple $200 more each week than rent in the same area and they’ve found it easy to cover this by curbing their spending on pubs and restaurants. ”We were spending at least $300 a weekend going out before,” he says.

”It really makes sense [to buy], we should have probably done it earlier,” Rice says. ”Our aim for the next three years is to pay as much off as we can, then we’ll reassess and try to buy a bigger apartment and keep this as an investment.”

Bec Steward is another first-time home-buyer with her mind to the future with her recent purchase of a one-bedroom apartment in Melbourne’s fashionable inner-city suburb, Prahran.

Steward researched a variety of options before making her decision.

”I had always planned to buy an apartment in the inner south-east but during the process I was just feeling a little disheartened by some of the prices of apartments so I did look at a house further out,” she says. ”But ideally, in five to seven years, I’d like to buy my second property and keep this as an investment – and with the inner-city location, I’ll get a really great rental return on that.”

Steward, 26, has been putting money into a savings account for four years since starting her job as an account executive in an advertising agency and has been living at home to boost her savings. ”Of my group of friends I’m the last to move out of home but the first to buy my own home. My family has really helped with that, I know that some of my friends couldn’t live at home with their family,” Steward says.

Steward managed to save a 10 per cent deposit for her apartment and her mother is acting as guarantor for a further 15 per cent of the purchase price.

”The deposit is all mine and she doesn’t have to give me any money for it. If I default on that they’ll knock on mum’s door but I’m really comfortable with the size of my repayments and, worst case scenario, if I do need to move out of the apartment then back home, just to get ahead, she’s happy with that as well,” Steward says.

PARENTAL ASSISTANCE

Mortgage broker Paul McCombe from McCombe Finance says parental assistance has become increasingly common. ”It’s getting harder for first-home buyers to get a deposit together with the rental market increasing and the cost of living going up as well. We’re seeing a lot of them using parental guarantees or non-refundable gifts from parents. It’s very rare you see someone who is a first-home buyer who has sufficient genuine savings.”

McCombe says parental gifts and guarantees help first-home buyers avoid the high costs of lenders’ mortgage insurance, which is paid on loans if the deposit is less than 20 per cent, and it also helps them secure a loan.

”It’s a hell of a lot harder for a first-home buyer to get a loan. The assessment criteria the banks are using is a lot tighter. The main reason for that is because there was an increased amount of defaults of first-home buyers after the global financial crisis,” McCombe says.

In the past 18 months, the banks have introduced a points-scoring system to assess home-loan eligibility.

”We’ve had applications in the past 12 months that have looked good on paper, met the bank’s published credit policy and yet the point-scoring system has caused it to fail,” he says.

In addition to being able to show regular savings and having a decent deposit amount, McCombe’s tips for improving your eligibility on the point-scoring criteria are to keep a clean credit report by paying bills on time and not applying for a number of credit cards; pay off personal loans; and always pay rent on time because lenders might request a rental statement.

ANTICIPATE THE EXTRA COSTS

Financial planner Sunshine Estivo from Omniwealth says first-home buyers should be aware of all the associated costs of buying a home, which can be as high as 10 per cent of the price.

”Because they’ve never had the experience of buying property, first-home buyers don’t know and real-estate agents don’t tell you, ‘By the way, have you got the extra 5 per cent for the stamp duty?’, and so forth.”

After stamp duty, the highest cost is generally lenders’ mortgage insurance, Estivo says.

”It’s an exponential scale, if you’re borrowing at 80 per cent [of the price of the property] it’s zero, at 85 per cent it might be 1 per cent of the purchase price, if you go to 90 per cent, it might be 3 per cent of purchase price. This is where it might be quite expensive to get into your first home,” Estivo says.

”Some banks will add the mortgage insurance to your loan as opposed to you having to have the cash upfront – it’s problematic because you end up paying a lot more for it [in interest over the life of the loan] but it’s beneficial because you don’t have to have that $5000 or $8000 upfront to get your property,” she says.

IDEAL DEPOSIT SIZE

”The ideal would be to have the 20 per cent deposit plus 5 per cent of costs but if you overlay that across the median house price of $600,000 then you’re asking the first-home buyer to have $150,000 cash, which is a lot of money.”

Estivo says the most important part of your financial plan is knowing you can afford the mortgage.

”It’s not just about having enough of a deposit. In the instance of having a $600,000 home, if you have a 5 per cent deposit you’ll have a $540,000 mortgage and can the person afford that?”

INVESTMENT PROPERTY SOLUTION

Property author and adviser Margaret Lomas says sometimes the best way to own your own home is to become a property investor first. Lomas says the earlier in your life you get your foot into the property door the better.

”These days if we choose to live in cities, property is going to be unaffordable at least into your 30s, maybe into your 40s. If you wait that long until you buy property you will be behind the eight-ball,” Lomas says.

”The dream of becoming a property owner is still alive but it needs to be tweaked a little. First-time property buyers need to understand it’s about getting on the property ladder in some way but it doesn’t have to be as an owner-occupier,” Lomas says.

”It’s much cheaper to rent than buy, so why not rent where you want to live, save the difference with what you would have paid for a mortgage, and become a landlord? You get a tenant to pay the mortgage for you where you get to benefit from the growth on that capital asset.”

Whether you buy your first home as a launchpad to your next one, or you start with an investment property, Lomas reiterates the importance of researching to find a good location.

”The best advice is don’t make it about the property. Make it about the area first and do that research, which uncovers whether or not potential growth exists.”