NOTE TO WOODARD EDITORS: THE COLUMN WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE THIS WEEK, BUT WILL RETURN WITH THE REGULAR COLUMN FOR RELEASE JAN. 25. THE FOLLOWING REAL ESTATE COLUMN BY EDITH LANK IS AVAILABLE AS A SUBSTITUTE THIS WEEK. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION. -- CREAT

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Renting Vs. Buying a Home Home sales are on an upward swing in most areas of the country, but the growth is slow. A key reason for the continued sluggishness of the home-buying market is the mindset of many prospective buyers that prices have not yet reached bottom. They are …Read more. Removing Homeowner Benefits Is Counterproductive When candidates for public office support the elimination of modification of certain homeownership benefits as a cost-cutting means, that action could cost them the election. Several recent studies have shown that an overwhelming majority of …Read more. Negotiating Real Estate Commissions As home sales continue to rise, questions about real estate commissions become more frequent and important to buyers and sellers. The most common question: What is the standard rate of commission in today's market? There is no standard rate of …Read more. Demand for Jumbo Mortgages Rising Applications for large mortgages are exceeding the number for modest mortgages in today's market. Mortgage bankers funded $26.6 billion of jumbo loans during the third quarter of last year. That's a 30 percent gain from the same period during the …Read more.