Perhaps it will help to remember a few basic rules about real estate:

• Buying real estate was never about becoming a millionaire overnight;
• Buying with nothing down is a game that infrequently works out, particularly now when lenders are tightening their requirements for making loans;
• If the rental income on a piece of real estate covers (or more than covers) your costs, it can be a great deal over the long haul, as prices and rents rise.

Here's a great truth about investing: You don't have to buy at the very lowest price and sell at the very highest price to make money.

Baby Boomers Should Plan Now to Avoid Outgrowing Their Homes

What can you do to promote your future aging in place - whether you are renovating your existing home, building a retirement home, or buying into an active adult community?

First, you should read up on universal design as it applies to aging in place (see references below). If you are buying an existing home or one that is in the process of being built you might be able to negotiate some of these improvements into your purchase contract. Or you can choose to look elsewhere.

Some of the obvious steps are:
- Wide doorways and hallways
- No changes in levels (unless they are ramped) between rooms
- Ramped entry(ies) to your home
- Tall toilets and grab bars in bathrooms
- Non slip floors
- No glare, contrasting lighting and paint
- Lever style handles instead of doorknobs
- First floor master bedroom (or the option for that)
- Provision for future elevator (if building or remodelling)
- Kitchens and major appliances on the main floor
- Kitchen counters at varying heights to fit a range of users

Building in universal design principles now will save you time and trouble, and allow you to age in place. Incorporating universal design principles in new construction can add about 5% to the cost, an enormous savings compared to the 30% of a home’s value retrofitting can cost. Most people tend to think they are 10 years younger than they actually are, so Topretirements urges buyers to carefully consider universal design and incorporate it now.

Get ready for real estate rebound

While the market may not exactly boom in 2009, there are a number of factors that may signal a dramatic improvement over the next 12 months.

1. The real estate cycle - it goes down, but then back up again - always.

2. Pent-up demand has been building.

3. The credit crunch will ease from massive federal programs.

4. Inventory and days on market are starting to decline

5. Demographics -
Baby boomers born from 1946-1964 are most likely to buy a second or a retirement home between the ages of 50 and 60.

While builders have cut back substantially on the numbers of new homes being built, an increase in future demand and a limited inventory will result in higher prices.

The question is not whether there will be another real estate boom -- there will be.

The real issue is how long it will be before it starts?

President-elect Barack Obama signaled a clear desire to use a significant portion of $700 billion in financial bailout funds to avert foreclosures.

Obama's insistence that reducing foreclosures is a key component of the rescue fund came during a Chicago news conference to introduce New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as his commerce secretary nominee.

Key congressional Democrats have also demanded that the financial rescue money be used to help homeowners. The program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Under the proposal, the Treasury Department would seek to lower the rate on a 30-year mortgage to 4.5 percent, Scott Talbott, a vice president at the Financial Services Roundtable, said Wednesday. That's about one percentage point below the current rate of 5.6 percent.

The department would do so by purchasing mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Talbott and other industry sources said.

While details of the proposal are in flux, the program could be similar to the effort announced last week by the Federal Reserve to purchase up to $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities from the two mortgage giants, Talbott said.

The Treasury Department is strongly considering the proposal and could announce a decision as early as Monday, industry sources said.

Is housing about to pivot and turn? Put these two items together:

1) The Housing Affordability Index reached 141.1 in the most recent release. This was the highest in at least six years. This will move even higher next month due to a drop in fixed mortgage rates to the current 5.75%.

2) The U.S. Treasury is considering a plan to drive mortgage rates down to as low as 4.5%. They would accomplish this by purchasing mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Would low housing prices and a generational low in mortgage rates prove too tempting to home buyers and cause a mini boom in housing and begin to clear inventory?

I'd vote yes, the turnaround is soon. There is a lot of demand waiting on the sidelines, prices are low, mortgages are low... What else do you need.

Texas Residential Real Estate Cycles

Real estate business cycles are about cyclical fluctuations of quantities and prices of construction, sales, permits and inventories of real estate properties.

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University has an ongoing research program monitoring several Texas real estate business cycles.

Average prices of homes sold in Texas display sea¬sonal variations with peak prices in June and a price trough in January.
• The 12-month moving average price of homes sold shows steady price growth rates during the last two decades.
• The state’s residential market has experienced variable home price appreciation since 1992, but no price declines.
• The seasonally adjusted average price of homes sold rose from 4.1 percent in July 2007 to 4.8 percent in December 2007 despite the declining growth rates of homes sold over the same period.

Conclusions.

1. The business cycle analysis of home sales and home prices reveals that Texas homeowners may continue to enjoy moderate home price appreciation.

2. Texas real estate business cycles are characterized by long expansion periods - followed by short contraction periods.

An increasing number of Americans are concerned that the current economic crisis will leave them further behind on their retirement plans, according to a new survey.

The 2008 Bank of America Retirement Savings Survey, which polled approximately 1,000 people across the country, found that 60 percent of Americans are spending less than they were three months ago as a result of the current economic climate. But even with this decreased spending, 51 percent of the general public and 40 percent of those categorized as “affluent” also are saving less, with approximately one in five citing that they’re saving “much less.”

Craig Averill, personal retirement solutions executive for Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), said the survey findings “underscore how deeply troubled Americans are about their retirement savings and financial well-being.” Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed named “the impact of economic turbulence on retirement savings” as the financial issue that concerned them most.

“Today’s economic conditions are clearly having a significant impact on Americans’ near-term financial behavior, causing many to be, or to believe they are, in a less secure position to work toward their long-term retirement goals,” Averill said “Based on this survey, it appears that many Americans are not fully able to save what is needed to retire as they had planned, and some are tapping into their nest eggs to meet more immediate financial needs.”

Eighteen percent of those surveyed said they had withdrawn retirement account assets prematurely. The leading reasons for the withdrawals were near-term financial obligations, such as credit card debt and mortgage payments, with 22 percent citing a recent job loss.

When Bank of America polled people in March, 53 percent of the general public said they were behind in their retirement planning or had not started at all. This time, 62 percent had that response.

The survey was conducted for Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America by Braun Research, which used random-digit dialing methodology to reach 1,000 people between the dates of Nov. 5 and Nov. 12. Of those 1,000 people, 750 were considered “representative Americans” and 250 were labeled as “affluent,” meaning they had investable assets between $100,000 and $3 million.

Texas’ real estate foreclosures declined during the month of November, and are also down compared with the same month last year.

Nationwide, foreclosure filings fell 7 percent from October postings but rose 28 percent compared with the same month last year.

California, Florida and Michigan saw the most foreclosure activity in November

Sam Zell Predicts Spring 2009 Housing Recovery

Financial mogul Sam Zell, beleaguered owner of the Tribune Co., which declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, told an Israeli business conference Sunday that the U.S. real estate market will be in recovery by spring 2009.

Zell pointed out that the U.S. population is growing and with fewer than 600,000 building starts in 2008, a million fewer than any of the last 10 years, demand for housing will rise.

Zell blamed the current crisis – at least in part – on ill-considered decisions.

"We are living through our first Blackberry recession where, literally, information is instantly disseminated around the world and people, in effect, respond to it, perhaps, often without any particular caution or attention,” he said.

If you’ve ever contemplated retiring to a warm and sunny climate, now is an opportune time to sell your home and move south.

First, interest rates are historically low making home buying more affordable than ever. The Federal Reserve has cut rates in an effort to stimulate the economy. Low interest rates mean qualified buyers can obtain larger mortgages making expensive homes more affordable. Despite the current real estate market, homes priced and marketed right are selling.

Second, selling now allows you to take advantage of the favorable tax treatment on the equity in your house. For example, most couples qualify for the $500,000 exclusion from capital gain on the sale of their principal residence. This tax break may be taken away in the next few years, as the government struggles to fund huge unfunded obligations including health care and retirement pensions, massive deficit spending, a weak economy and lower tax collections. Why not extract your home equity now while this tax benefit still exists?

Third, the cost of living is lower in the south. For many years, retirees have fled to the Sun Belt to improve their quality of life, lower their cost of living and reduce their taxes burden. In high tax areas, state and local income taxes combined with property taxes can amount to nearly 20 percent of household income. Moreover, we believe this burden may increase as government struggles to offset lower tax collections by increasing local property and income taxes. Unfortunately, not only will taxes increase but your property values will erode. This is due to the fact that as a larger share of borrowers income is required to pay tax increases, there is less to repay mortgage loans.

Last, you’ve heard and know it’s a buyer’s market. Many lots and new homes are available at extremely low prices in great places to live. In addition, building cost are lower and you can build an extremely beautiful home at a very reasonable cost.

Now is the time to get the dream home and more relaxing life style you’ve earned. Take advantage of the current circumstances-low interest rates, favorable tax treatment, affordable, great places to live with lower taxes and costs of living. It is a buyers market but you won’t benefit unless you act.

A sense of history, some basic economics, common sense and just a dash of congenital optimism leave me convinced that 2009 won't be all bad.

Here are five good reasons why 2009 could, if you make the most of it, be good for your financial health.

1 This will be a good year to invest in stocks.
No one can tell you exactly when or where the market will bottom. But most business-cycle experts agree that the bottom will be found sometime this year, and that it probably won't be too far below where the market is today.
So a smart strategy will be to put some money in the market today, and keep doing it over the course of the year. If you're still shaken over massive losses from last year, this may be hard advice to swallow. But the biggest mistake you can make as an investor is to ride the market down, lose faith, pull out and miss the upturn.
Even in the Great Depression, the market bottomed out in 1932, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at 41, down from a peak of 381 in 1929. By 1937, it had climbed back to a respectable 194. That didn't make investors whole. But for those who stayed in, it certainly soothed the wounds.

2 It will be a good year to invest in real estate.
This one's a bit trickier, since real-estate prices are "sticky" on the downside. Homeowners don't like to admit that the value of their pride and joy has fallen by 30%. So they'll put their house on the market at an inflated price and hope some fool will bite.

3 Americans will learn to live within their means.
Around our house, the crisis is already having a salutary effect. Our teenagers suddenly seem to understand that unlimited dinners out with friends aren't a birthright, and that blue jeans don't have to carry triple-digit price tags.

Multiply that by 300 million, and you have a nation that has rediscovered that you can't spend what you don't earn. Houses are no longer ATMs, and credit cards no longer come with each day's mail.

4 President Obama will have a historic opportunity to reshape public policy.
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's CEO conference in November, Mr. Obama's chief-of-staff-designate, Rahm Emanuel, said the words that have become his team's rallying cry for 2009: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
The Obama team is busily preparing a stimulus package that, when all is said and done, will total between $750 billion and $1 trillion -- far larger than any fiscal stimulus in the history of the world. And with the economy still sliding downward, it's a good bet few politicians will want to stand in the way.

That will give the new president an opportunity to do things his predecessors could only dream about. Roads will be rebuilt, schools will be refurbished, medical records will be computerized, and windmills will be constructed, all across the land.

5 Your (federal) taxes won't rise.
Never mind those campaign calls for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Truth is, no politician is going to push for general tax increases in the midst of a severe recession.
Well, that's the sweet secret of the current crisis.

While the American people are learning to live within their means, the new American government has discovered an unlimited (for now) line of credit. The United States may have led the world into this crisis, but the world now seems more than willing to lend us unlimited amounts of money to lead the way out.