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<title>AOL Real Estate Articles</title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/archive</link>
<description>Learn more about the trends that are driving the real estate market right now. Get tips and advice that relate to your needs, whether it be fixing your home up for sale, first-time buying advice or dealing with leases and roommates.</description>
<language>en-us</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Home sales jump in October, beating expectations]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Home-sales-jump-in-October-beating-expectations/20091123001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2 years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit. Home sales nationwide are now up nearly 37% from their bottom in January, data Monday showed, though they are still 16% below the peak in autumn 2005. At the current sales pace, there is only a 7-month supply of homes on the market and in some areas there are bidding wars. Joey Wilson, 53, and her husband made unsuccessful offers on 20 Las Vegas homes since midsummer before closing on a four-bedroom, $136,000 home this month.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-23 11:30:01.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Agents Say Decluttering, Staging Give Best Bang for Buck ]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Agents-Say-Decluttering-Staging-Give-Best-Bang-for-Buck-/20091113001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Nearly 1,000 real estate agents cast their votes on which do-it-yourself home improvement projects will help sellers get top dollar. HomeGain.com's 2009 Top 12 Home Improvements Survey Results showed that cleaning and de-cluttering was the easiest and most cost-effective way to make your home more appleaing to buyers. For as little as $100-$200, sellers could see as much as a 10x increase in their sale price. ]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-13 11:30:01.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Veteran Finally Gets Home of His Own]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Veteran-Finally-Gets-Home-of-His-Own/20091111002</link>
<description><![CDATA[Steve Sacre left home at 17 to join the Army. He spent five and a half years in the service, serving 12 months as a gunner on a jeep escorting convoys in Vietnam.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-11 11:30:01.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Only 5 percent plan to buy a home next year]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Only-5-percent-plan-to-buy-a-home-next-year/20091111001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Just one in twenty Americans say they plan to buy a home within the next year, and they're most likely to be 34 years old or younger and living in the South or West, according to a survey released Wednesday.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-11 11:30:01.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Home prices may be bottoming out]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Home-prices-may-be-bottoming-out/20091110001</link>
<description><![CDATA[The bleeding in the housing market seems to be stanched, at least temporarily, according to home price data released on Tuesday.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-10 11:30:01.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Saving their homes: Has Obama's plan helped?]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Saving-their-homes:-Has-Obamas-plan-helped?/20091106001</link>
<description><![CDATA[On June, CNNMoney profiled homeowners hoping to qualify for President Obama's foreclosure-prevention plan. Four months later, they checked in to see if their was any update.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-06 11:30:01.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Senate, House Votes Unanimously to Extend Homebuyer Tax Credit]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Senate-House-Votes-Unanimously-to-Extend-Homebuyer-Tax-Credit/20091105001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Recognizing that a weak economy still needs a government boost, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to provide the jobless with up to 20 weeks in additional unemployment benefits and expand a first-time homebuyer tax credit to include a far larger pool of people entering the dormant housing market.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-05 10:38:27.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[House Hunting When Your Credit is Fine, but Your Partner's Isn't]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/House-Hunting-When-Your-Credit-is-Fine-but-Your-Partners-Isnt/200911040001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Myrlin Hermes and her boyfriend, Jeremy Capps, knew the kind of house they wanted to buy in Portland, Ore, and had an idea of how much home they could afford.  Hermes, a novelist, has an excellent credit score of 765. Capps earns a solid living as a network engineer for Intel. Their mortgage prospects looked bright]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-04 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[L.A. Couple Charged With Torturing Mortgage Agents]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/LA-Couple-Charged-With-Torturing-Mortgage-Agents/20091102001</link>
<description><![CDATA[An L.A. couple in their 50s were charged with torturing two mortgage modification agents that they felt had scammed them in their efforts to avoid foreclosure.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-11-02 10:38:27.0 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Won't You Be Obama's Neighbor ...]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Wont-You-Be-Obamas-Neighbor-/20091029001</link>
<description><![CDATA[The street may be closed to non-residents, and you'll have to be nice to the Secret Service, but crime certainly isn't going to be a problem when it's you, Sasha and Meleah running the local lemonade stand. This hundred-year old, 6,000 square foot, 17-room house is located next door the Hyde Park residence of the Obama family in Chicago. The Obamas paid $1.65 million for the house next door in 2005.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-10-29 10:47 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Home sales rebound to highest level in 2 years]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Home-sales-rebound-to-highest-level-in-2-years/20091023001</link>
<description><![CDATA[WASHINGTON -- Home resales rose far more than expected last month to the highest level in more than two years as buyers scrambled to complete their purchases before a tax credit for first-time owners expires.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[ EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Former Lawyer Puts Her Passion to Work]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Former-Lawyer-Puts-Her-Passion-to-Work/200910230002</link>
<description><![CDATA[Kim Allman has a passion for helping people get out of sticky financial messes. She even left a high-salaried law career to do it. But does she walk the walk? Absolutely.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-10-23 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Mortgage Planning: Fixing Credit Report Errors 101]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Mortgage-Planning:-Fixing-Credit-Report-Errors-101/200910020002</link>
<description><![CDATA[Blake Allison prides himself on having excellent credit, so in an effort to preserve his 800+ score, he enrolled in a credit monitoring service. For a monthly fee, he is alerted to changes in his credit report. Through this service, Allison discovered an erroneous tax lien on his credit reports. The District of Columbia tax office reported unpaid property taxes. It took nearly one year to resolve the dispute and remove the lien from Allison's records]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-10-02 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[The Connection Between Credit Scores and Interest Rates]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/The-Connection-Between-Credit-Scores-and-Interest-Rates/200910020001</link>
<description><![CDATA[In July 2009, Catherine Calame, a 44-year-old marketing director from Bayport, NY decided it was an ideal time to refinance. Interest rates were low and she wanted to consolidate her original home loan and a home equity loan, moving them from a 30 year to a 15 year. Calame says her credit score, sitting pretty at 760, played a pivotal role in snagging such a great rate -- 4.5 percent over 15 years. "Even the attorney for the closing was impressed." Having a lot of equity in her home also helped -- it's worth almost four times the amount of the loan]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-10-02 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: 1 in 3 loan applications denied]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Report:-1-in-3-loan-applications-denied/20091001002</link>
<description><![CDATA[Nearly one in three borrowers who applied for a mortgage last year was denied as lenders kept their standards tight as the mortgage crisis accelerated, the government reported Wednesday. In its annual look at mortgage practices among lending institutions, Federal Reserve said the denial rate for all home loans was about 32 percent last year -- about the same as in 2007, but up from 29 percent in 2006. The denial rates for blacks and Hispanics were more than twice as high as the rate for white borrowers]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-10-01 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Same 4BR house -- wildly different prices]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Same-4BR-house----wildly-different-prices/20091001001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Imagine you're a mid-level executive living in Grayling, Mich., the "Canoe Capital of the World." You've received a job offer that pays twice as much in posh La Jolla, Calif., the seaside resort near San Diego. It sounds like a no-brainer, right? Not only will you earn all that extra money, you'll be enjoying some of the best weather in the United States.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-10-01 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Is This the End for Falling Home Prices?]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Is-This-the-End-for-Falling-Home-Prices?/20090929001</link>
<description><![CDATA[When a real estate market is experiencing falling home prices, everyone wants to know the same thing: 'Have we hit bottom yet?' Homeowners want to know so they can stop reading the latest real estate news with a bottle of antacids and a full shot glass by their side. Homebuyers, whether first-timers or seasoned investors, are looking for the right time to get the most for their money.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-09-29 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Wastefulness Re-Wired: Credit Lessons Learned the Hard Way]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Wastefulness-Re-Wired:-Credit-Lessons-Learned-the-Hard-Way/200908180001</link>
<description><![CDATA[Rodney Miller could tell you a little something about excessive spending. After graduating from Morehouse College in Atlanta, he landed a decent job and became "that guy" -- the one who seemed to have it all. "I was traveling, hitting various hot spots (i.e. Martha's Vineyard, Black Ski weekend, Cancun etc.) having fun and doing it up," says Miller, 40, director of business solutions for a law firm in Atlanta where he also resides. A nice apartment in the suburbs and two BMWs completed the picture.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-09-18 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Improvements That Get Your House Sold]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Improvements-That-Get-Your-House-Sold/20090917001</link>
<description><![CDATA[If your house has been sitting on the market since spring, you must be asking yourself what you can do to 'get it sold.' As any fan of the HGTV show by that name, you can either do one of two things or some combination of the two]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-09-17 EDT]]></pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Bank Exec Hosts Parties in Foreclosed Home]]></title>
<link>http://realestate.aol.com/article/_a/Bank-Exec-Hosts-Parties-in-Foreclosed-Home/20090911001</link>
<description><![CDATA[MALIBU, Calif. (Sept. 11) - A Wells Fargo & Co. executive who oversees foreclosed properties hosted parties and spent long summer weekends in a $12 million Malibu beach house, moving into the home just after it had been surrendered to Wells Fargo to satisfy debts, neighbors said.]]></description>
<pubDate><![CDATA[2009-09-11 EDT]]></pubDate>
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