The Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Dec. 11th on hopes that the credit crisis would be tempered from 4.5% to 4.25%. Markets were on the upswing up until the cut was announced because many investors were under the impression that the central bank, under pressure from all sectors of the economy especially real estate, would deliver a heftier half-point cut, which would have made it significantly less difficult for banks to borrow money from the Fed for their day-to-day transactions.

The White House has recently unveiled a plan to help mitigate the wave of foreclosures that have recently swept the US as reports continue to predict that an even greater number (some estimate as much as 2 million) of Americans are likely to default within the next year.

This plan involves the major US lending companies making an agreement to freeze the relatively low "teaser" interest rates that many Adjustable Rate Mortages are set up with, instead of allowing them to reset at their regular time, usually two years from the loan's issue.

As the sub prime mortgage debacle continues to play out across the United States, the Federal Reserve has opted to cut interest rates by half a percentage point, from 5.25. This cut makes all loans relatively cheaper, thereby encouraging a pantheon of economic activity to increase, hopefully in the troubled housing market.

Such tactics have been used with relative success in the past, most notably in 2000 when the US economy suffered a major downturn in the wake of the dot-com collapse.

The University of Texas, with its flagship campus in Austin, is one of the original eight Public Ivys, according to Richard Moll.

Moll coined the phrase in his 1985 book, Public Ivys: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities. The phrase has since come to include many more universities who offer an Ivy League education at a public university price.

Every March, thousands of music lovers and industry insiders flock to Austin to party, network, and discover the next great band at the annual South by Southwest Music Festival. The weeklong music blowout has been packing them in since it was founded in 1987. Austin was chosen as the site for the annual festival because of its abundance of unique clubs featuring country, folk, punk, reggae, jazz, and rock artists on a nightly basis.

The M-LEC, as it is called, has been created in order to restore investor confidence in some areas of the economy that are neccesary for credit to maintain its liquidity, or ease of transference from one entity (a bank) to another. This loss of liquidity comes in the wake of the discovery of high-risk, sickly subprime mortages that have been sold off in pieces, often in the form of supposedly secure money market funds to thousands of investors.

People talk about running the numbers before buying an investment property, but before doing that we need to discover what are the numbers and how do you get accurate numbers. Running the wrong numbers can make the difference of making $500 or losing $1000 per month. In this article we will go through the costs and factors to consider to make your investments successful.

Their are alot of real estate agents out their. When you decide to list your house here is a guide to how to select an agent that will provide you the best service and get the top value for your home.

1 *Agents that are rude. Sellers often pick these realtors under the mistaken impression that it will benefit them because they have a "tough agent".

Downtown Austin has been growing over the last few years. The city council and the community in general is pushing for growing the downtown into a live-work area with high density, shops downstairs, and living upstairs. The term is "multi-use" and it is pretty much the montra for Austin real estate. There are 10+ condo projects going up in the next couple years that cater to the different appeals of living in downtown Austin.

The first time you are getting a loan, it can be confusing what all is needed and how to start. This outlines the steps to getting a loan from picking a lender to closing.

1) Picking a Lender.
Comparing lenders can be daunting. All the components of a loan including the interest rate, origination fee, points, and other miscellaneous fees are hard to sort through.