Free Republic

Commuters who live in western Prince William and Fauquier counties can leave the driving to someone else come Dec. 17 when a new bus begins round-trip service from Haymarket to Arlington. The “OmniRide Haymarket Express” will make four trips in the morning and four return trips in the afternoon and early evening. It will run along I-66 between Haymarket and the Rosslyn Metro station. The trips will originate from the new park-and-ride lot on the northeast corner of U.S. 15 and Interstate 66. The Monday-through Friday service is meant to give workers an alternative to traveling by car. It’s the...

After this "reclassification" of intent, the State will probably appeal to the California Supreme Court. Gov. Jerry Brown was recently ordered by the state’s 3rd Appellate District Court to repay more than $331 million in funds the state illegally diverted from a national fund intended to help homeowners struggling with foreclosures from the housing crisis. Instead of complying with the court order, Democrats are pushing through a bill to legitimize the theft of funds. The Assembly already passedAssembly Bill 1829, which makes the statutory changes related to the National Mortgage justifying this theft. AB 1829 was passed on a party...

Glennon: Statewide property tax proposed by Chicago Fed By Mark Glennon - An audible gasp went out in the breakout room I was in at last month's pension eventcosponsored by The Civic Federation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. That was when a speaker from the Chicago Fed proposed levying, across the state and in addition to current property taxes, a special property assessment they estimate would be about 1% of actual property value each year for 30 years. Evidently, that wasn't reality-shock enough. This week the Chicago Fed published that proposal formally. It's linked here. It surely ranks...

The Illinois Tollway invited about 20 Hinsdale property owners to meetings Thursday, but at least 50 people showed up, including state Sen. Chris Nybo. The Elmhurst Republican asked tollway officials why they are not reconstructing Interstate 290/Interstate 88 interchange first, and then reassess whether the proposed widening farther south with two lanes in each direction is still needed to relieve congestion. "The tollway has not clearly explained why they need to expand this stretch to six lanes, instead of five, in each direction. That additional lane in each direction is a big deal for Hinsdale and Western Springs," Nybo said...

Renters came out winners under the new tax law. For over a century, the federal tax code catered to homeowners and treated renters like second-class citizens. Homeowners have been able to deduct interest on their mortgages and home equity loans, as well as property taxes. Meanwhile, everyone, including renters, footed the bill for these deductions by paying higher rates. The new tax law at last begins leveling the playing field between renters and homeowners. Millions of New Yorkers and Californians reap the benefits, because these states have among the lowest rates of homeownership in the nation, and renting is...

Before we get into the real estate ramifications portion of the GOP tax bill, let us recall and reiterate the fact that zero Democrats voted for a tax plan that cuts the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% to make American corporations more competitive and bring more taxable income home, simplifies the tax code and eliminates some deductions, trims other deductions, and does away with a personal exemption, all of which would result in around 48% of U.S. households receiving tax relief of at least $500, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The GOP tax bill has now...

Full Title: Fed-up Illinois homeowners consider moving: 'It’s not just the property taxes on my home; it’s all of them'...Some of those who are leaving Illinois say they’re frustrated with their tax burden and the state’s financial situation. After going more than two years without a budget, Illinois lawmakers passed a spending plan over the summer, one that involved a 32 percent income tax hike for residents. The state is still digging itself out of the financial disarray that accumulated during the budget impasse. A Forbes listing of the best and worst states for taxes in 2016, before the tax...

Least terns. A federal lawsuit. Greenpeace. Vandals. Industrious beavers. Angry homeowners. Bureaucratic delays. These were among the obstacles and setbacks that had to be overcome before the Creek Turnpike was built. At one point, the chairman of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority declared it a “total disaster” and exclaimed: “The Creek Turnpike in Tulsa, God only knows when that’ll be completed,” John Kilpatrick said, as reported by the Tulsa World’s Wayne Greene on Oct. 19, 1990. “If we had it to do all over again, we wouldn’t do that project,” the exasperated Kilpatrick said after federal bureaucrats held up construction of...

It should be the obligation of older citizens to try to improve the prospects for their successors. But, here in California, as seen in a new report issued by the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, we seem to have adopted an agenda designed to make things tougher for them.Millennials everywhere face many challenges. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that, even when working full-time, they earn $2,000 less than the same age group made in 1980. Nationwide, a millennial with a college degree and college debt, according to a recent analysis of Federal Reserve data, earns about the same as...

BREWER, Maine — When Ken and Jo-Ann Arbo moved into their home in Eddington 22 years ago, they thought they found the perfect place to live.“I hunt right there. I fish out there. I snowmobile out there,” Ken Arbo said of the woods and fields near the couple’s home. “That is why we moved out there.”Now the Arbos face the real possibility of moving again.Their Lambert Road home is within the path of the controversial I-395/Route 9 connector, a proposed two-lane road from Brewer to Eddington meant to ease heavy truck traffic and improve safety on nearby routes 46 and...

The United States could lower carbon emissions from electricity generation by as much as 78 percent without having to develop any new technologies or use costly batteries, a new study suggests. There’s a catch, though. The country would have to build a new national transmission network so that states could share energy.“Our idea was if we had a national ‘interstate highway for electrons’ we could move the power around as it was needed, and we could put the wind and solar plants in the very best places,” says study co-author Alexander MacDonald. Several years ago, MacDonald was curious about claims...

Fannie Mae, the federally sanctioned mortgage giant, has just announced a new program that shows that they learned absolutely nothing from the last real estate meltdown. This new program, called "HomeReady" in a fit of hopeful and wishful thinking, reduces loan underwriting standards. It's designed to allow "underserved" individuals the opportunity to buy a home - focused primarily on low-income and minority borrowers. Other than the last group of under qualified borrower-friendly loans and regulations from the mid-2000s, it's the stupidest real estate loan idea that I've ever seen. The new loan "features" reduced credit score requirements and allows borrowed...

PAGEDALE, Mo. This spring, officials in this tiny city near St. Louis ordered Valarie Whitner to replace her siding; repaint her gutters, downspout and foundation; and put up screens or storm covers outside every window and blinds or curtains on the inside. And that was before the list of demands moved on to her roof, fence and yard. Ms. Whitner, 57, who works nights at a hospital, said she and her longtime partner felt swamped beneath the costs of paying for the city-mandated repairs and for fees, fines and court costs, which her lawyers say included at least $2,400 in...

A judge has sided with a Missouri couple whose purple backyard playset prompted threats of fines – and even jail -- from the homeowners association, according to Consumer Affairs. Marla Stout said the Raintree Lake Neighborhood Homeowners Association told the family they failed to get the color approved and that the purple hue did not conform in the neighborhood, the website reported.

The U.S. homeownership rate fell to 63.4 percent in the second quarter of 2015, according to the U.S. Census. That is down from 63.7 percent in the first quarter and from 64.7 percent in the same quarter of 2014. It marks the lowest homeownership rate since 1967. "It is now just five-tenths from the record low seen in 1965 in data going back also to 1965," noted Peter Boockvar, an analyst with The Lindsey Group. "All the governmental attempts (certainly aided and abetted by many players in the private sector) at boosting homeownership has gotten us to this point in...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Several California lawmakers and community assistance groups are calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to repay more than $331 million in funds intended to help homeowners struggling with foreclosures that the state siphoned off to help deal with its budget crisis. A Sacramento County judge found that the governor and state Legislature unlawfully diverted most of a fund that was part of a $25 billion settlement between five major banks and nearly every state in 2012. Brown's attorneys argued the state had the discretion to use that money in the state budget. But the judge sided with...

Some 5.4 million homes, or 10.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, were still in a negative equity position, or "underwater," in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to CoreLogic, as their owners owe more on the mortgage than the home is currently worth. This is down considerably —18.9 percent, from a year ago—but it still keeps these borrowers from putting their homes on the market, because they would lose money. .. Additionally, of the 49.9 million U.S. homes with a mortgage, approximately 10 million (20 percent) have less than 20 percent equity, and 1.4 million have less than...

Dear Mona,It seems like homeownership is a common data filter in the social sciences. But nearly everyone I know who “owns a home” is paying a mortgage. How many “homeowners” have actually paid off their houses?John, 34, Mount Vernon, Washington Dear John,Your question is an important one, not only because home ownership can have big consequences for the economy, but because 56 percent of all the housing units in America (that includes trailers, apartments and houses) are owned by the people who live in them.According to last year’s American Community Survey, one in three of those owner-occupied housing units doesn’t...

Flag flap: Indiana veteran, wife battle homeowners association over Old Glory Posted: Oct 28, 2014 3:16 PM CST Updated: Oct 28, 2014 3:17 PM CST Bob Willits, 82, of Greenfield, Ind., insists he'll fight a local homeowners Association over the American and POW/MIA flags outside his home. FOX News - An elderly veteran and his wife say there's “absolutely no way” the flagpole outside their Indiana home is coming down, despite threats from a homeowners association — and a local prosecutor intends to back them in court if necessary. Bob and Judy Willits insist they intend to fight multiple letters...

America’s wealth is concentrating in fewer hands, and while the rich are getting super rich, the once vital middle class is nearing extinction. [SNIP] But today, after decades of expanding property ownership, the middle orders—what might be seen as the inheritors of Jefferson’s yeoman class—now appear in a secular retreat. Homeownership, which peaked in 2002 at nearly 70 percent, has dropped, according to the U.S. Census, to 65 percent in 2013, the lowest in almost two decade. Although some of this may be seen as a correction for the abuses of the housing bubble, rising costs, stagnant incomes and a...