Now may be a good time to sell your house and lock in big profits. BusinessWeek says housing prices in many parts of the country are so high that people getting close to retirement should consider selling before the housing bubble bursts. It says real estate prices in some areas, including Fort Lauderdale and Miami, are so overpriced that a mortgage rate spike of more than 1 percentage point could cause home prices to fall.
For students, getting a credit card is easy. Learning how to use it responsibly can be tough. Capital One offers a primer for students on the benefits of credit cards and how to take advantage of them at capitalone.com/credit101.
The rise in stock prices is a paradox, Money magazine says. "Few investors seem to believe the upturn is for real, and yet they keep pouring billions of dollars into stocks." But it says stocks remain the best option for long-term investors, and today's combination of low inflation and low interest rates enhances the value of stocks. "There's no reason to race to get fully invested," Money says, "but it does make sense to begin moving cash back into equities little by little."
If you're thinking about getting back into the market, it doesn't have to be in the United States. Forbes says foreign companies are cheaper and have higher prospects for growth. It ranks the world's biggest and most important companies in its inaugural Global 2000. The list is available at forbes.com/global2000.
Jupiter Island tops Forbes.com's list of the nation's median home prices, ranked by ZIP code. Last year, the median price for a house in Jupiter Island was $5.6-million. A distant second was Aspen, Colo., where the median home price was $2.6-million.
