Home Prices Climb in 88% of U.S Cities

According to an article by Bloomberg, housing prices have been rising. The article says that this is because there are less foreclosures to buy and a lower number of homes up for sale. However the article also says that some of the areas are overvalued. So not all of the gains in price made recently are the truth. The median price for a single family home rose 12.5% to $207,300 nationwide. The highest gained percentages were in Sacramento, California, Punta Gorda, Florida and Las Vegas. The article stated that rising home costs and the difficulty to get financing for a home was holding buyers back. there are currently more buyers than sellers in the real estate market. The most affordable homes were found to be in Toledo, Ohio.

Rising home costs means that the cost of living will increase. The article mentioned that buyers are having a hard time finding loans. That could also be linked to the higher interest rates in my opinion. It's not good that some of the houses are overvalued. If the prices continue to rise, they will create a bubble that will eventually burst. That would be bad for the home market as well as the local economy. Hopefully, financing for homes will become easier to secure in the near future. (But not too lax, we don't want a repeat of the housing crash.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-06/home-prices-climb-in-88-of-u-s-cities-as-recovery-spreads.html

Payoff in Waiting to Collect Social Security

The cost of living increases almost every year. Many Americans have put off saving for their retirement, most plan to rely on the money they get from Social Security. Americans are able to collect money from Social Security when they reach the age of 62. However the amount of money that they receive increases if they wait a few years to collect Social Security. Because the cost of living will increase over the years, it makes economic sense to put off collecting Social Security at least until the age of 65. For people born after 1959, the full retirement age is 67. In the article an example was given of a man who would receive $12,000 at the age of 65. If he delayed collecting the benefits for one year, he would get an additional $820 per year. Since many people are relying on Social Security for the majority of their retirement savings, it makes sense that they should delay it. Especially since the cost of living will continue to increase.

I believe that if it is possible, people should delay collecting Social Security for as long as possible.  That way they get more money. I don't think that most people are willing to delay collecting social security for financial reasons. People who collect Social security will get a cost of living adjustment per year, but I don't think that extra money really helps because of inflation. So their best bet is to wait as long as possible. I know I would wait so that I could receive more money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/your-money/the-payoff-in-waiting-to-collect-social-security.html?_r=0

Social Security raise to be lowest in years

Due to the predicted low inflation rates, the COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) for Social Security will be historically lower than ever before. The increase is estimated at a 1.5% at this time. About 58 million retirees and disabled people receive Social Security. The increase will correspond to a average month increase of $17. This has caused the recipients to complain because they worry about wiggle room in their checks.

The low inflation rates are good because it means that the cost of living has not gone up very much. It is slightly bad for the people receiving Social Security because they will not get much of an increase. However they should be happy that there is an increase at all.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/13/social-security-raise-to-be-among-lowest-in-years/2975567/