Posts from — February 2007

I am a nut on saving money. When I’m planning to buy something, especially electronics, I shop around like crazy. I go to ridiculous lengths to save money and find a good deal. Like when Google released Froogle. I ate that money-saver up. I loved how you could compare retailers to find the best deal. It saved me from going from website to website and from store to store.

Well the other day I started looking for a good cell phone deal. I followed my usual tactic of checking websites and calling stores until I stumbled across WireFly. WireFly takes the Froogle approach in that, as far as I can tell, they don’t actually sell any products. They are a hub of information. It’s a conglomerate of every major cellular provider’s offers. It’s like walking into a store with phone kiosks from Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Alltel, Nextel, and U.S. Cellular – all of them competing for your attention.

Once on the site you have the option of searching for phones, basic service plans, family plans, accessories, ring tones or pre-paids. Going through the service plans they have a neat rating system. For each plan under each carrier they show J.D. Powers and Associates rating for the company’s customer service and value.

Browsing through their phones, they have some great deals on smartphones, especially the Blackberries. They have the usual set-up in that to get the good deals on phones you have to sign up for service. No surprise there.

Speaking of buying a new phone, I hate mail-in rebates. WireFly makes it easier with a semi-innovative feature. You can submit and track your phone’s mail-in rebates on their site. No mess with mailing in 16 copies of your various pieces of paperwork. Just submit your rebate online and wait for your check.

I love making decisions easier. I think that WireFly does a good job at doing just that.

Disclosure

I like to welcome those of you visiting me from the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by The Simple Dollar. If you like reading The Simple Dollar, then you’ll probably like WallerBlog – Simple Sinancial Advice. I like to blog about personal finances from a down to earth perspective. I don’t get into a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo investing advice that most of us will never use. The name says it all – Simple Financial Advice.

I invite you to take a look around and if you haven’t done so, subscribe to the Full Feed RSS. Again, welcome and enjoy!

The housing market went up and now the housing market is going down. Where should you invest in real estate? What areas will see appreciation?

Being in the business of real estate investing, I am constantly immersed in the state of the housing market. I love real estate and I love following its trends. One thing I’ve been watching are the predicted hot areas for 2007.

Overall the healthiest markets are in the southwest, home to 4 of the top 10. Another area of interest is upstate New York, home to 2 predicted hot markets in 2007.

I’ll admit that I’ve struggled a bit with publishing this article. Over the last several weeks I’ve been back and forth on whether I should publish it or not. As you can see, I’ve decided to go ahead and put it up. I don’t have all of the answers on this one, I’m just sharing the information that I have.

That being said, here’s the 10 Hottest Real Estate Markets in 2007:

10th Hottest Housing Market – Birmingham, Ala.

We start out in the deep south. The 234,000 people in this bustling metropolis should see an average appreciation of 4.4%

#9 – Fort Worth-Arlington

With a low median home price and an increase of available jobs, families are gravitating towards the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Increased demand for homes should move 2007′s appreciation rate to 4.4%

#8 – Baton Rouge

This has been a hot place in the past. In 2004 the median housing price jumped a staggering 13.9%. In 2007 look for housing prices to grow 4.5%

#7 – Rochester, N.Y.

Compared to the national average Rochester has a below average median income, however, as a percentage of the median home price it is very high. This unique combination will push housing prices up by about 4.5%

#6 – San Antonio

San Antonio has been a hot spot in the past and it will continue to be a hot spot in 2007. Look for appreciation rates in the neighborhood of 4.8%

#5 – Syracuse, N.Y.

Syracuse is similar to Rochester in the fact that the median income is very high in comparison to the median home price. Look for appreciation rates to hover around 4.8% this year.

#4 – Salt Lake City

This area was a surprise for me. Salt Lake City’s median income is very low in correlation to its median home price which could indicate that housing is overpriced. In addition, the crime rate is much higher that the other areas on the list. However, it is still predicted to have an appreciation rate of 5.4% .

#3 – Albuquerque

Albuquerque is another interesting place. With a predicted appreciation rate of 5.9% you would expect something special there. This spot has been hot in the past though.

#2 – El-Paso

I like El-Paso. For the most part, it is a good place to live. The crime rate is reasonable low and the public school system isn’t half bad either. The rest of the country seems to agree as the population continues to grow. This increased population has brought a demand for housing driving home prices up. I won’t be surprised at all to see a 7.1% appreciation rate this year.

The #1 Hottest Housing Market in 2007- McAllen, Tx

With a projected growth rate 8.5%, McAllen is the big winner. McAllen has been underrated for years and only recently has it been moving into the spotlight. People are beginning to see a future on this small border town. I think that McAllen, Texas will be the hottest housing market in 2007.

For more information check out CNN Money.