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A convenient location, good schools, well-maintained homes and a modest inventory of properties for sale: These are the traditional cues that homeowners and buyers look for to assure that home values will hold up in a neighborhood.

But whether values sink or stick is now dependent on an "invisible" factor: the mortgage balances of homeowners in the area.
Approximately one-third of all mortgage holders have a loan balance that's higher than the current value of their home, according to a recent government report on federal anti-foreclosure programs.

Homeowners in this unfortunate position are dubbed "underwater" borrowers.

As their tide of debt rises above what they could get from selling, these owners have less incentive to care for their properties, which depresses area prices further, finds the Congressional Oversight Panel's report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. And if they experience financial distress, underwater owners are more likely to lose the property to foreclosure, with the resulting empty homes adversely impacting prices up and down the block.


Spotting signs of home abuse

Sometimes it's evident that mortgage balances are sabotaging neighborhood values.

For example, John Sullivan, president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents, says he's encountered relatively new subdivisions that normally would still look fresh, with finishing touches being added, like additional landscaping.

Instead, lawns are scraggly, windows are dirty and other signs of home abuse abound.

Still, with one-third of all borrowers underwater, not all are found in new developments that already exhibit telltale signs of owners' mortgage misfortune.

In fact, says Khater, it's not until mortgage debt falls about 20 percent below a home's value that foreclosures start occurring with more frequency.


A matter of public record

Because neighborhoods cluttered with underwater owners are likely to see further value drops, Evan Feldman, an agent with ZipRealty in Wellington, Fla., says he tries to alert buyers to this threat: "I try to educate them as much as I can; I don't want them saying later, 'How could you not tell me this?'"

While it may seem that the size of a homeowner's mortgage is strictly between the homeowner and the lender, mortgage data are public record. County recorders or county clerks record a lien for the amount of a mortgage each time a loan is made.

Some counties offer these records online to the public. Users can search using a borrower's name, or by address or by securing personal identification numbers from other online tax records.

Although it may feel as if they're prying into neighbors' financial lives, homeowners worried about what's happening to values in their neighborhood can use these data as another indicator of what's ahead.

Online access is not available in all counties. Many still keep records at the courthouse the old-fashioned way, says Jacqueline Byers, director of research and outreach, National Association of Counties.

Remember, too, warns Byers, that mortgage balances recorded don't reflect amounts that borrowers have paid down through monthly payments or prepayments.

Consumers in counties not providing online access may find it too bothersome to dig through paper records. However, real estate agents often have the ability to get the data online through services that mine public records and sell it the information to subscribing real estate businesses, says Khater, who notes that his own company has a subsidiary providing just such services.

The dollar stabilised on Wednesday, aided by profit-booking in rallying commodity-linked and higher-yielding currencies, after being pushed to a 14-month low against a basket of currencies the previous day.

Traders said investors had been cashing in gains in the Canadian and New Zealand dollars, which hit their strongest levels in about 15 months this month, and in sterling, pushing them down about 0.2 percent against the greenback.

The move helped the dollar climb further off a 14-month low against the euro after the single European currency failed to breach a psychological barrier at $1.50 the previous day.

The dollar also got some support from profit-taking in Asian currencies, after markets in Brazil fell on a new government tax on foreign investments aimed at stopping the real from gaining.

The Bank of Canada killed talk of an early rate hike on Tuesday, warning that favourable economic developments were being undermined by the Canadian dollar’s strength and sending the currency down sharply.

The move spread to other pairs although comments from New Zealand’s central bank chief, Alan Bollard, that a high currency was not necessarily an obstacle to raising the cash rate gave the kiwi a brief lift. “The BOC’s commitment to keep rates low until well into next year weighed on rest of the (growth) proxies,” said Sue Trinh, currency strategist at RBC Capital in Sydney.

“Besides, stocks were also struggling, offering the U.S. dollar support and tempering its fall.”

The dollar index =USD was flat from late New York levels at 75.565, recovering from a 14-month low of 75.103 on Tuesday.

The Australian dollar retreated from Tuesday’s 14-month high above $0.9300 to $0.9223 AUD=D4, while the kiwi held steady at $0.7495, having lost 1 percent on Tuesday. It briefly rose as high as $0.7525 after Bollard’s comments.

The Canadian dollar CAD= steadied at C$1.0498 per dollar, after slipping to C$1.0517 and having tumbled 2 percent the previous day.

The euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.4916 EUR=. It hit a 14-month high of $1.4994 the day before.

The dollar has been under pressure this year as investors brace for record low U.S. interest rates well into 2010 and questions mount about its status as the world’s main reserve currency.

It has also been hurt by talk that it is fast becoming the new funding currency for carry trades, replacing or at least accompanying another low-yielder, the yen.

It slid 0.1 percent to 90.67 yen JPY=, with support seen around 90 yen and Japanese exporters expected to sell into rallies up to 91.00.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Janet Yellen said the time for tightening in the United States was still several months away, echoing the cautious mood among policymakers there about the pace of the economic recovery.

Policy makers worldwide are watching the dollar’s fall push up their own currencies to the possible detriment of economic recovery, with France joining Canada on Tuesday in expressing concern. But policy makers also want to see a correction in imbalances between exporter and importer nations which contributed to the global economic crisis, corrections which some say will require the greenback to fall.

Tohru Sasaki, chief FX strategist Japan at JP Morgan in Tokyo, expected more dollar weakness to come due to the U.S. current account deficit and lack of flows into the U.S. due to its low yields.

“It’s understandable if they are worrying about dollar weakness but it’s not easy to stop this trend because it’s not a speculative movement,” Sasaki said.

The dollar got some respite from softer stocks. Wall Street ended lower and Asian markets were in the red after disappointing U.S. housing and inflation data outweighed strong results from bellwethers Apple (AAPL.O) and Caterpillar (CAT.N). [.N]

Calyon noted the negative correlation between the dollar index and the S&P 500 is consistently high, meaning when stocks rise the dollar index is likely to fall, and this correlation meant earnings from U.S. firms would be as closely followed as U.S. data releases.

“Should earnings continue to beat forecasts the dollar is likely to weaken further,” Mitul Kotecha, Calyon head of global FX research, wrote in a client note.

The Bank of England releases minutes of its last policy meeting later in the day. At the meeting held on Oct. 7-8, it held rates at a record low of 0.5 percent and kept its 175 billion pound ($287 billion) asset-buying programme in place.

Sterling came under pressure on Tuesday after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said Britain was likely to return to positive growth in the second half of this year, but output would remain below its year-ago level for some time.

Sterling GBP=D4 steadied at $1.6385 after dipping to $1.6346 earlier. It has risen 4 percent in a week.

Choosing the right home equity loan for you is quite a tedious job, as there are various banks and financial institutions offering you home equity loans at different rates. It is up to you to compare the different home equity loan rates to find out which rate fits your budget best.

Although the lender sets the home equity loan rate, the interest rates are influenced by a number of factors like market conditions, demand for loans, competition, inflation, credit score, and the Federal Reserve. The amount you borrow from the lender, the available equity in your home, and the term of the payment of the loan also affect the home equity loan rate. The higher the demand for loans is, the lower is the interest rate.

It is better to go for the loan when demand is high. Of course, different banks and financial institutions quote lower interest rates to entice more customers to their establishments. If at all the amount of your loan exceeds the loan limits, you will be quoted a higher interest rate. If you opt for shorter loans of 15 or 20 years, you may save thousands of dollars in interest payments over the life of the loan, but your monthly payments will be higher.

Another way of getting lower rates is by giving a large down payment. The higher the down payment is, the better will be the interest quote. And of course, if you have a good credit with a monthly income far surpassing your monthly debt obligations, you will get a lower interest rate. Having a good credit score with a monthly income barely covering your obligations will not give you the lowest rates possible.

Whatever the home equity loan rate you choose, the rate is a fixed interest rate that gives you a peace of mind that your payment amount does not fluctuate with the rate fluctuations. While in a home equity line of credit, there is a variable interest rate, leading to fluctuations in the monthly payments as the rates change.

Home Loans provides detailed information about home loans, home equity loan rates, home equity loans and more. Home Loans is affiliated with Mortgage Origination Software.

Yang Huiyan, women are still comparatively young age, 27 years old, listed in Forbes magazine as the third richest person in China today. The crisis that hit the world economy helped beat her, but she remained firm occupies the main line of the richest men in China and Asia's richest woman. Who Huiyan and how success story? Here is his review.

The father's successor

Yang Huiyan is a lucky girl to have a father Yang Guoqiang. Name Huiyan gaining popularity since her father Yang Guoqiang gave majority ownership of the company Country Garden Holdings just before the company went public in the capital market.

His own father initially only a farmer and part-time construction worker in Guangdong Province, Southern China. Guoqiang success started when he began buying land and then develop the land and founded the company Biguiyuan (Country Garden) in 1997.

Guoqiang apparently wanted Huiyan, second daughter of three children as successors. This can be seen from the fact that Huiyan in adolescence is often invited to attend the board meeting. To establish the plan, the father sends her beloved daughter to college at Ohio State University in the United States. Huiyan graduated from the Department of Marketing and Logistics of the university in 2003.

Make IPO success Huiyan Millionaire

Since about the year 2004, Huiyan started managing his father's company at the time receiving medical care in the United States. In fact, he also brought a new management team from the U.S. to replace the old management team. Then in 2005, Huiyan received more than 58% ownership stake Country Garden from his father, just before the company completes initial public offering to the public.

Huiyan overnight become the richest man in China when Country Garden shares skyrocketed at the time of IPO to the public (IPO). Its shares soared 35% driven by good demand from retail and institutional investors. Country Garden had established a record as the largest IPO by a Chinese developer to raise funds worth 1.66 billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to 18:26 trillion.

Since then, the name Huiyan exploded in China and won great attention from the public. In fact, the video of her marriage with the husband who she met through a blind date had circulated on Youtube popular in 2006.

Global Crisis Hitting Exchange

Country Garden IPO success in 2007 can not be separated from the booming property sector at the moment. This is based on the expectation that real estate was going to become the backbone of China's economic growth. At that time, during the last 10 years China achieved an average double-digit growth of 12.2%, compared with the United States alone which only reached an average growth of 5% for the same period. China is a land favored by investors throughout the world.

Sadly, then real estate crisis since the end of last year hit the U.S. economy, and contribute to a negative impact on global stock markets. As an illustration, China's stock plunged as much as 60% and Hong Kong stock exchange fell by 50% in the year 2008. Surely this factor contributes to the destruction of wealth of the millionaires of China. The wealth of China's 400 richest billionaires dropped from $ 288 billion (3.2 quadrillion dollars) to only $ 173 billion (1.9 quadrillion). Meanwhile, the wealth of 40 richest people also slumped as much as $ 68 million or 57%.

Richest Asian Women Stay

In the year 2007 and, at the age of 26, Yang Huiyan steadily occupy the top ranks as the richest man in the Chinese version of Forbes magazine with a fortune valued at $ 16.2 billion (178.2 trillion rupiahs). Had he in the U.S., for example, the wealth would exceed Michael Dell (founder and CEO of Dell) and Steve Ballmer (CEO Microsoft). At that time, Huiyan also automatically listed as the richest woman in Asia. This year, also Huiyan 125 positions in the world's richest billionaires Forbes However, Country Garden shares fell sharply following the part that happens to weakening property sector, China. As a result of market capitalization due to blow down the company's stock, then the property automatically Yang Huiyan also drastically reduced. According to Forbes magazine, which hit a crisis resulting wealth destroyed his business for $ 14 billion (154 trillion rupiahs) or equal to 80 percent. However, even then, remain strong Huiyan put himself in line number 3 as the richest man in China, as well as the richest young women in Asia with a net worth of $ 2.2 billion (24.2 trillion). Same with Huiyan, billionaire-millionaire other Chinese also seem to swallow the bitter pill from the global stock slump.

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