should i buy a house now in india ?

Many Indians are finding it hard to decide whether they need to get their dream home now or wait till they make the jump to buy a house. Choosing a house is not easy, let alone financing it. There are lots of possibilities.

Here is a good article from outlook india. This was a long overdue article on the real estate market. Thanks to Arvind in bringing this article up in our blogs. This will surely help you make an independent choice whether you are ready to make the jump or not.
http://money.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?sid=10&cid=70&articleid=7978

My view is probably you really need not buy a house now. You can get a better deal later. In the mean time stay outside the expensive residential localities too otherwise you will end up paying too much on house rent.

Some good graphical representations in the above article.

http://money.outlookindia.com/MagIssueImg/31Dec08/Pg-42-salary-increase.jpg

http://money.outlookindia.com/MagIssueImg/31Dec08/Pg-40-credit-squeeze.jpg

The government policy too is one reason for the boom in reality prices. With more income even persons not really interested in getting a home buy it because of Tax benefits.

Good Article on Good Website Design Techniques

Well this is an old post. However I came across it recently and found the article really useful for designing websites that are appealing as user friendly.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/04/20/35-designers-x-5-questions/

It covers top design techniques and covers critical things you should double check with your website that is designed. Covers css, html, fonts etc.

Financial Turmoil explained

Check out the below blog for a visual representation of the reasons for the financial turmoil.

http://blog.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis/


Also below are some explanation for various terminologies as used in the US that are often quoted.

http://www.personalhomeloanmortgages.com/mortgage_faq.asp

What is a mortgage?
A Mortgage (also called a home loan) is a legal contract made between a lender and a borrower that uses property as collateral to secure the loan. The lender can take possession of the property if the borrower fails to pay the prearranged home loan payments.

What is a mortgage refinance?
occurs when borrower uses the money from a refinanced loan to pay off an existing home loan. Borrowers typically do this to extend their home loan period, apply for a lower interest rate, or to use some money out of their equity.

What is a home loan?
Home loan: see definition for mortgage

What is a home equity loan?
A is a type of loan that allows a homeowner to obtain cash loans based on the present value of their property minus the mortgage amount still left to be paid off. Homeowners often apply for home equity loans to pay for expenses such as home remodeling, debt consolidation, college education, and other long-term investments.

What is a home equity line of credit or HELOC?
Home equity lines of credit or HELOCs give homeowners access to an open line of credit, where only the outstanding balance accrues interest. HELOCs provide flexibility by allowing borrowers access to money on an as needed basis.

What is a second mortgage?
A second mortgage is a type of mortgage refinancing that allows you to acquire a second loan on your home in addition to your first home loan.

What is a reverse mortgage?
Reverse mortgages are loans that allow homeowners to transfer some of their home equity into cash. In contrast to traditional home loan mortgages, reverse mortgages do not require borrowers to repay their home loan until the homeowner no longer lives primarily at that residence, although he or she stills owns the residence.

What is a mortgage lender?
A mortgage lender is a financial institution that provides prospective homeowners with the funds over a long-term period to pay off their home loan mortgage. Borrowers are required to pay monthly installments to their lender which includes principle, interest, and additional lender fees. Examples, mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers.

What is the difference between a mortgage broker and a mortgage banker?
A mortgage broker is the middleman who helps match borrowers with lenders based on corresponding needs and standards. Mortgage brokers arrange more the 80% of all transactions between borrowers and lenders, yet mortgage bankers actually finance and distribute the largest portion of home loans compared to all other lenders.

What is a mortgage principle?
The mortgage principle is the amount of loan money that a homeowner borrows excluding the interest.

What does APR mean?
Annual Percentage Rate ( APR ) is the percentage used to figure out the total cost of your cash advance loan by taking into account all fees charged by your lender in addition to your loan principle and interest.

What does the word "naviscreen" mean?
Naviscreening is the concept of directly connecting (mortgage) buyers with regionally specific, prescreened, and competent lenders through the simple completion of a universal and secure form.

What is a fixed rate mortgage?
A fixed rate mortgage is a home loan with steady interest rates and monthly payments that do not change throughout the life of the loan.

What is the adjustable rate mortgage?
(ARM) have monthly payments that change periodically due to fluctuations in market interest rates.

What is an interest-only mortgage?
are loans that require the borrower to pay only interest on the principle in monthly installments for a fixed period.

What is an amortized mortgage?
Amortized Mortgages refers to loans that are paid in installments comprised of both principle and interest, and which is paid off (or amortized) over a fixed period of time.

How do you calculate LTV or loan-to-value ratio?
The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of your home is calculated by dividing the fair market value of your home by the amount of your home loan.

What are lender fees?
These fees usually range anywhere from 2 to 5 percent and may include, but are not limited to, things such as appraisal costs, document preparation, and application costs.

What is the Truth in Lending Act?
The Truth in Lending Act is a federal law that was enacted as part of the Consumer Protection Act. This law requires lenders to reveal all information to the borrower and detail all costs associated with the transaction.

Visit to Paris, France

Well we spent 3 days in Pari ! That's how Paris is pronounced in France. Well here there surely is more traffic than we have seen so far. It took us 1.5 hours where the normal travelling time was 40 minutes from the airport to the hotel.

We were at put up in the biggest business district in Europe, La Defense. That's where we stayed and had an official work day too. Check some photos. More later.

In Sweden : Good food and general comments

Sweden in general (9 million) seems to have more population than Denmark.
Temperature outside : 11 degrees. Cooler than Denmark. Just fine. Need a jacket.
Hotels are good. Here it seems unlike big luxurious hotels in US, the hotels are cost conscious. The finishing is not the best I have seen. However they are actually good enough and seems to be more sensible. It is better to stay in a hotel down town than outside the city. We stayed first two days outside the main town, to reduce travel time for the official meetings. More points :

Taxis are easy to get.
Roads have more people.
Very nice roads.
Left hand drive.
Good cars.
Side roads are neat and clean.
Currency : Swedish Kroner. Here both Euros and Swedish Kronars are accepted. However when they give the change, you only get Swedish Kroners.
1 Euro approx. 10 Swedish Krona
Taxis accept Credit Cards.
There are specific lanes for cycles here too.
Near Shopping centers the roads have people on the streets :-)
Fantastic People. A lot of people in general have migrated from different countries. You will also see people who have a lot of mixed nationalities. We met a waitress whose parents had parents who were mixed : jewish + swedish, african american + white and her boy friend is actually, Italian, Serbian parents.
Europe has a lot of languages. Each country has a diff language of its own. Danish, Swedish, Serbian, French, German etc. They are diff and each other can't normally understand the other. However it is written like English i.e it uses Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet.
THe food is in general bread, meat (beef, pork, chicken) and sea food.
Lots of historical buildings and many of the buildings have an ancient architectural look.
Lots of varieties of food present. We had food in a typical Swedish restaurant, Indian and then a Lebanon Restaurant. The Indian and Lebanon Restaurant were very good and enjoyable food. The other food was ok but we were getting a bit bored with the typical; European way of cooking food light.
Night life looks good. People are there on the streets even after 12 AM. We had a walk down the old town. Nice bridges and beautiful streets and old time architecture is seen in the buildings. Its not just concrete !

BTW hope you saw my previous blog on the football match.

Next Stop Sweden : Saw the match Sweden Vs Hungary

Well our next stop was Sweden : Sept 9 to 14.

We got to see the world cup qualifier round between Sweden and Hungary in Solna, Sweden. What a game. First half was getting boring. The second half was action packed. 2-1, Sweden won.
Sweden managed to score 2 goals. Hungary made a consolation "literally" last minute goal. I guess the whistle blew after 10 seconds or something.

Below snaps have our partner Thorir. Thanks for your fantastic hospitality you and your team at Inuit.

My take on Sweden latter.

Euro Tour : First Stop Denmark

Well, I had the opportunity to visit Europe as part of an official visit from our company to visit partners and customers. Will be blogging about the personal experience to various countries here.

Our first stop was Denmark : Sept 6 to 9 2008.

Will be blogging going forward on my European trip adventure, starting from Denmark. We will be going from here to Sweden, France, Italy,Germany, Portugal, Poland, UK.

Started along with Alex D Paul from Chennai to Denmark to Copnehagen. Reached Copenhagen at 11:30 AM. Immigration at Brussels, Belgium.
Flight from Chennai to Brussels took 11 hours. Brussels to Copenhagen : 2 hours.
Brussels has a nice airport. Similar to Singapore airport. Strange thing is the security checks here is lesser than India / US.

Afternoon, after lunch, we were joined by our partner here Martin of Draware.dk. The typical Danish food / lunch seems to be bread / burgers. We had a huge beef burger with some juice. People here donot drink water. Only beer :-) Pleasant climate. We went to the hotel at 3 PM. Its a 100 room hotel in a fantastic / post card green kind of surrounding. Too good. This hotel has just 1 lady at the front desk, no persons to help out with bags etc, all self service. The only strange thing is there is no elevator in this hotel. So we had to carry our suit cases 2 floors up.
Denmark in general (5 million) has very less population though.
Temperature outside : 15 degrees. Very pleasant, not cold.
Taxis are hard to get I guess.
Very less population.
Very nice roads
Calm traffic flow. People stick to the "max" traffic speed. If it says 40 max, then they do not go over 45KM/hr.
Left hand drive.
Good cars.
Side roads are neat and clean. Not that broad though. The main roads are 3+ laned. Roads are very straight.
There are specific lanes for cycles here. Also people go cycling and boating as a hobby on weekends to get some exercise.
Near Shopping centers the roads are not too crowded.
Fantastic People.
Can see Sweden from here on the coast. Denmark has over 5000KM of beach line (not necessarily straight though)!
Denmark is one of the 3 Nordic countries along with Sweden and Norway. Scandinvian countries include Nordic + Finland.
Lots of historical buildings and many of the buildings have an ancient architectural look. The scene from the hotel window, too go ! Like the botanical gardens in Ooty /or a golf course you can say.
Some other peculiar things : cars drive with the lights switched on. There is no way to switch if off. It seems that is built in to the system as it reduces accidents.
Sept was very good weather.

Checkout a few snaps.