St. Charles County, Missouri real estate has one more hurdle to overcome in this already challenging real estate market. Real Estate agents and buyers may be finding it more difficult to search for property that has recently been threatened by flooding.  Winfield, MO, a town just north of St. Charles county, has been faced with the swelling Mississippi River and several levee breaks which are threatening their town.

But if the football players at Francis Howell Central High School have anything to say about it, the town will survive.  Last week several team members rallied together to fill and place sandbags to shore up the levees.  The charitable teens decided it was just as much of a workout to lift 50 pound sand bags rather than weights in their gym, and much more fullfilling.

“We were going to be working out anyway,” said Devon Doll, a 17-year-old who plays cornerback for FHC. “We just wanted to come out and help.”

According to the National Weather Service the river is due to crest today, Monday June 23, however, more rain is in the forecast for this week.  If need be, the football team, will probably report for duty again in the future now that they have a taste of helping people truly in need.

Twenty-six-year-old Crystal Lopez was uncomfortable accepting a condo in downtown Atlanta as a wedding gift from her fiancé’s parents two years ago. But “when people are that generous, it is very hard to say ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ ” the telephone-sales executive says.

Still, she says the down side was clear after the wedding: “The in-laws felt like they could influence the decision making” on matters from the couple’s finances to what paintings hung on the walls. One day Ms. Lopez walked into her kitchen to find her husband’s grandmother rearranging the cabinets.

Not only did “I feel like I had no financial stake in my marriage, I felt like my in-laws didn’t have any confidence in my ability to be a wife,” says Ms. Lopez, who recently divorced.

Deciding whether to accept a big financial gift from Mom and Dad when you’re in your twenties can be difficult, in part because of uncertainty about strings that may be attached. And the situation is particularly sensitive for couples offered a gift by one set of in-laws or the other.

To head off possible conflicts, “spend lots of time discussing your expectations in advance” of saying yes, suggests Richard Shadick, a psychologist and director of the counseling center at Pace University in New York.

Is It Really a Gift?
One important consideration is to find out if the “gift” really is a gift. Gifts that are laced with strings can quickly become “an employment contract or a curse,” says David H. Diesslin, a financial planner in Fort Worth, Texas. For example, a client couple of his asked their child to build an addition in return for the down payment on a home. “They wanted their room to be closer to the grandkids,” Mr. Diesslin explains.

Some people may actually mean their “gift” to be more like a loan or even an investment — giving them a stake in the real estate you are buying or a business you are starting. You obviously need to understand that from the start and weigh the offer accordingly.

If parents think they are making an investment, they may expect a more active role in managing it, say financial planners.

Often the gift is money, and it’s important to find out if the gifting parents have ideas about how they’d like you to spend their gift — and what would disturb them. Perhaps they want to help you pay for the wedding, but not spring for a lavish honeymoon in Fiji.

‘Hidden Expectations’
Even if the gift isn’t earmarked, “there may be hidden expectations,” says Mr. Diesslin. To find that out, ask questions such as: Do you mind if we take this money and use it for a vacation? What about a car? Or come right out and ask them what their expectations are.

If the gift is from your parents, your spouse may be reticent to speak up for fear of appearing ungrateful. So after you find out what the gifting parents expect, the two of you should discuss the matter privately before responding, suggests Dr. Shadick.

If you decide that accepting the offer may create more problems than it would fix, “you might want to just say ‘I appreciate your offer but we are going to do this on our own,’ ” says Judy Heltzel, a financial planner in Salem, Ore.

Another option, to avoid feeling beholden for a large gift and to clarify the relationship, she says, is to agree to accept the money only as a loan that you will repay on a regular schedule with a reasonable rate of interest.

If you are accepting money as a loan or as an investment, you should draft a written agreement, says Jennifer S. Wilkov, the author of financial guide “Dating Your Money.”

Check this Mortgage Calculator for payment Information

Ms. Wilkov says you might even want a written agreement for a true gift: If the gifting parents have expectations, you can get them in writing and if they don’t have expectations, you can get that in writing too.

By Diana Ransom
From The Wall Street Journal Online
April 19, 2007

U.S. home prices dropped 1.4% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, the first year-over-year decline in national home prices since 1991, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday.

A year ago, home prices were rising at an 11.5% pace. Prices have been falling for the past three quarters.

The Case-Shiller indexes cover three geographical areas. The national index is released quarterly, while the 10-city and 20-city indexes are released each month.

The 10-city Case-Shiller price index fell 1.9% year-on-year through March, while the 20-city index dropped 1.4%. The 10-city index has fallen nine months in a row, while the 20-city index has fallen for eight straight months.

All three Case-Shiller indexes show continued deterioration in home prices. Prices were falling or rising slower in most U.S. cities.

The national decline “is reaffirmation of the pullback in the U.S. residential real estate market,” said Robert Shiller, chief economist for MacroMarkets LLC, and co-inventor of the index.

“This fall is consistent with the ongoing trend that has developed over the past year,” wrote Goldman Sachs economists, who said they believe the Case-Shiller index is the best gauge of home values. “We remain comfortable with our forecast of house prices falling by 5% over 2007.”

Falling home prices have squeezed many borrowers who have been able to extract equity from their homes or refinance their loan to avoid a sudden increase in mortgage payments as their adjustable-rate loan reset.

As a result of falling prices, foreclosures are rising nationally, especially in regions with a weak economy, such as the Midwest, and in the bubble regions of Southern California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona.

Thirteen of 20 cities in the Case-Shiller index have seen falling prices in the past year, led by Detroit (down 8.4%) and San Diego (down 6%). Home prices rose 10% in Seattle, 7.4% in Charlotte, N.C., and 7% in Portland, Ore.

Prices in Phoenix and Las Vegas, Nev., have fallen the furthest from their peak. After growing at a 49.3% pace in September 2005, home prices in Phoenix are now down 3% year-on-year. In Las Vegas, price gains went from 53.2% in September 2004 to negative 1.6% in March 2007.

Among other major cities tracked by the index, home prices are down 4.9% in Boston, down 4.8% in Washington, down 3% in Tampa, Fla., down 2.4% in Cleveland, and down 2.3% in San Francisco. Prices fell 2% in Denver, 1.9% in Minneapolis, 1.4% in Los Angeles and 1.1% in New York.

In addition to the price gains in Seattle, Charlotte and Portland, prices rose 2% in Atlanta, 1.6% in Dallas, 1.3% in Chicago and 1% in Miami.

The Case-Shiller index is considered a superior gauge of home prices compared to the median sales-price data released by the Commerce Department or National Association of Realtors, because it tracks multiple sales on the same property and is therefore not influenced by a different mix of homes sold in a period.

Unlike the price index produced by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the Case-Shiller index does not include refinancings. And, also unlike the OFHEO index, it includes homes with mortgages larger than the conforming limit of $417,000.

The OFHEO index for the first quarter will be released on Thursday. Through the fourth quarter, home price gains had slowed to 5.9% year-on-year from 13.3% a year earlier. The OFHEO purchase-only index (which excludes refinancings) had risen 4.1% year-over-year.

Lehman Bros. economists said their forecast for a 0.5% gain in the first-quarter OFHEO price index remains on track. That would put the year-over-year gain at 4%.

By Rex Nutting
From MarketWatch
June 01, 2007