New Condos Online is pleased to announce the online advertising partnership with The Village at Riverstone in Coeur D'Alene. The Idaho Condo market is seeing a strong resurgence lately as resort style living is becoming popular with housing prices hitting record lows. Neatly set in the heart of the Inland Northwest where the Spokane River and Lake Coeur d’Alene meet, The Village at Riverstone is located in one of the most sought after areas in the country, known for its natural beauty and mountain lifestyle. The area includes a live lake featured as its centerpiece, a place for communal picnics and gatherings -- The Village at Riverstone is a place to really live.

This mixed-use, riverfront community is where people, life, and work are brought together to create a lifestyle that cannot be found anywhere in the U,S. This style of living breathes new life into living.  Residents live in their luxurious condominiums above Main Street in the midst of shopping, dining, entertainment, and outdoor life. Businesses thrive from the excellent location and the modern facilities designed especially for them. Other resort towns such as the Aspen Valley or Jackson Hole harkin back to the old style of popular resort towns where the cost of living and entertainment is through the roof -- Riverstone brings a new take on this style of living at a fraction of the price. Come check out Riverstone today!

Yesterday the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 3/4 of a point. This was a surprise cut and it is a huge cut. It was done to surpress the possibility of a recession in this country. Many people are left wondering, how does this cut affect me? Well for condo owners, it could directly help you if you are trying to re-finance a mortgage or if you have an adjustable ARM payment about to adjust. Your payment will now adjust to a lower rate than it would have and your payment will be directly lower. If you are a borrower with good credit, this may also serve as a good opportunity to refinance your loan or purchase a new home or condo. This i actually the best market I have ever seen to buy a condo right now. Prices are insanely low, and discounts and incentives can be found widely across the country. The only thing is that you have to have good credit and be able to come up with at least 10% down in the market to get a good loan.

The reason loan rates drop is because investors were buying up treasuries and bonds. This causes long term mortgage rates to fall. The Fed dopping rates to an affordable rate also makes a difference to millions of people with adjustable rate loans. It was generally a mistake to get those loans in the first place and now these people have the opportunity to lock into a good fixed rate loan.

The Fed dropping rate has a direct effect on people that have home equity lines of credit, including myself. These loans are generally ties to the prime rate which falls when the Fed funds rate falls. For someone with a $100,000 HELOC, this cut could drop their rate by close to $100 per month in some case which is huge for the economy and helps to prevent our country from slipping into a recession.

We at New Condos Online would like to announce that we have formed a strategic marketing partnership with The Athena Group in featuring "The 903" with our services. Located in Providence, RI  -- The 903 is located in this beautiful city that has drawn a thriving artist community with premier shopping and entertainment. The development offers the home owner a place to unwind during and find peace in an otherwise hectic world. Located centrally and close to many major freeways, you are minutes away from everything.

 This development is particularly exciting because of the careful attention to detail paid in the layout and the planning of the communal amenities. The pool plays a pivotal centerpiece to the layout of the project and offers a full 24 hour gym and a clubhouse with billiards and a comfy seating area with flat screens, a great place to go hang out for BB-Q's or getting together with your friends or neighbors. Another fun feature about this development is the addition of the theatre that boasts stadium style seating for you and up to 14 friends. "The 903" is a great place to come and unwind from the daily stresses of life and work, that's the reason "The 903" centers your life away from work as your time, and you place to live.

The Roaring Fork Valley near the picturesque towns you've vacationed in and dreamed about visiting all your life are becoming a huge site for new condo developments. I grew up in Basalt Colorado and Aspen and spent a good portion of my growth watching these somewhat small towns transform into hubs of vacation and retreat. The town of Aspen for example has been considered as a regal vacation getaway for the better part of 40 years but not since late 2002 did the real big and expensive condo development begin. Many older developments were razed and demolished with the demand of new and luxurious living.

 Basalt on the other hand has developed much more slowly but is seeing a very nice and well planned out stage in their growth; much of its positive development can be attributed to former mayor of Basalt, Rick Stevens. Mayor Stevens helped put together the "Riverwalk" development that shadows the Roaring Fork River, and played a key role in the gentrification and maintenance in the new and updated layout of the igneous terrain. While Basalt is seeing an increase in its condo developments, it still maintains its old-style charm by keeping Main st. a rustic yet desirable avenue to call home.

 NewCondosOnline is helping put Colorado and the Aspen Valley on the map by featuring the Aspen Shadow Rock development. I've seen this development and many more spring up making the valley a great place to visit and an even better place to live; not to mention the fact that it lies in a mountain range oppsite the eastern slope to Denver and Fort Collins, giving you all access to travel to Denver or the Western U.S. 

With the housing boom over the last 5-6 years, property taxes in local governments also rose. As housing values rose, so did association fees and local property taxes. The problem with this country is that governments take too long to fix things. As the market has cooled off quickly it could be several years before property taxes anre adjusted accordingly. In some local governments, property taxes doubled in the last 5 years and this is really putting the strain on some home owners. Especially in condos, where the homeowener do not own much land, the taxes need to be adjusted downward quickly.

"I either have to not pay my taxes or not pay my mortgage or stop eating and turn off all the utilities in order to make it, and that would be true even if I were still working, or darn close to being true," Gunyon said. "And I'm not the only person in this situation." source: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071223/taxed_out.html?.v=3&.pf=taxes 

All of us at NCO are calling for the goverment in all localities to look at this situation in a serious manner.

Here at www.newcondosonline.com we love the fact that the Federal Reserve just cut rates by 50 basis points. This is exactly what the economy and especially the housing market needed. This will allow mortgage rates to fall which should directly help the condo market right now. It will allow people to buy new homes and also make it easier for people to sell their current homes with more buyers being in the market.  All new home buyers care about is really the size of their mortgage payments. This rate cut will allow monthly payments to be lower and should encourage new buyers and help to stabilize the current market.

It will be interesting to see how this affects current mortgage lenders. Recently some have gone out of business and many have taken some of their loan programs off the market. With rates being lower, we may see some new programs come back on the market and less lenders leaving the market.  High prices condos which have been slow to sell recently might also get a boost, as this should also help the rates on jumbo loans as well.  Good Job Fed!   Long live the condo market!

I just read about a new LA luxury condo/hotel which is slated to be the tallest residential building in the west. I want to talk about this with you...where is this heading? Are height restrictions becoming more flexible? Because land is running out in some of the more desirable areas in not only the US but also the world, and the population is only growing, are city officials now taking a different view regarding condo development?

I asked a Top Producing Real Estate agent here in San Diego and a guru of the real estate market about her thoughts of the increase in verticalism of condos. She simply replied, "get used to reading about these types of developments." I have to agree with her. I plan on reading many more articles about taller new condo developments in and around the country. But, I ask you, when will it stop?

Your thoughts...?

I went to the SDAR (San Diego Association of Realtors) Trade Show today in Mission Valley, CA to help promote our soon to be launched, "Find an Agent" section.

All types of companies attended this show - termite control companies, health insurance companies, mortgage companies, and of course builders of condos and single family homes, and etc.  As I was walking around the trade show, picking up more things I didn't need to clutter my office desk, I was constantly being pitched on products.  And every product was the "best" the "only" the "leader" in their industry.  I was overwhelmed but interested to hear other peoples pitches.  I took a lot in and cracked a smile here and there.  I began to wonder how much of these pitches actually worked and how many people simply paid attention to the sales pitch because of the free coffee mug. 

What's your experience been?  Drop me a story - I'd love to hear one!

Morris and Raper Realtors recently appeared on a list of the top 10 Real Estate Companies in the Atlanta Metro. What is really impressive is that Morris and Raper did that by selling only new homes.

Morris & Raper is Atlanta's leading new home real estate firm. They specialize in the sales and marketing of brand new single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums.

Learn more about Morris and Raper at their website. www.morrisandraper.com

Preview over 30 condo profiles as well as townhome communities, condo conversions, and single family neighborhoods using their new home search tool.

We have all heard of infill development or re-development but a developer in Los Angeles has taken this to a new level.  The developer based in the UK paid $500 million for a former Robinsons-May Department Store in Beverly Hills. He plans to develop 252 luxury Los Angeles Condos overlook a famous country club.  This developer plans to model the complez after a famour condo building in London. A lot of people in the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills area are opposed to the development because a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is also going up next door along with other new development and people are concerned about the massive amounts of further traffic the development would cause. Los Angeles already has tons of traffic. We actually drove up there the other day for a meeting and it took 4.5 hours to drive 120 miles. The new developments does sound pretty incredible but I can hear all the shoppers crying. I wonder if this is a trend that we will continue to see. In the major cities, with less land being available, I would imagine that we will see this a lot in the future as developers will do anything these days to find the perfect spots to build their condos.

Source: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/

Well, this won't be the first blog to write about Lindsay Lohan receiving a FREE New York City Condo nor, will this be the last. Personally, I am shocked and embarrassed that this is such a headliner.

Does our country really need to know that a condo was given for free to Lindsay Lohan? Why do we care? Will this piece of information encourage you or someone you know to buy a condo in that same building? Why? I can understand publicity and to have a celebrity attached to a New York City condo. But why Lindsay Lohan? Personally, I think she's a B rated actor. She's been in rehab for drugs and alcohol and she's not even 21. She can hardly sing and her music videos are pretty pathetic. What a role model!

Why does our culture celebrate this kind of lifestyle? Why does our culture even care about this? You may say that I am not helping this cause as I am writing about it but I really want to get your opinion as to why this is news and that people really care?

Your thoughts...