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All posts for the day June 12th, 2014

Ruby Dee, Legendary Actress and Activist, Dies at 91

Posted by danetteoneal1 on June 12, 2014
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Hollywood lost an icon on Wednesday night. Stage and screen legend Ruby Dee has died, a family member confirms. Dee was at her home in New Rochelle, New York and surrounded by loved ones when she passed. She was 91 years old.
The Cleveland-born, New York-raised actress and activist — winner of an Emmy, a Grammy and a Screen Actors Guild award, among others — was an icon on Broadway, cinema and television. With her husband and collaborator Ossie Davis, she was also a major figure in the Civil Rights movement.

Dee’s first film role came in 1949, in the musical drama That Man of Mine. She worked frequently with Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever) and earned an Academy Award nomination in 2007 for Best Supporting Actress for American Gangster.

She appeared in the 1979 TV movie Roots: The Next Generation, and costarred with husband Davis in their own short-lived show, Ossie and Ruby! in 1980. Her final film was the still-in-production crime drama King Dog, opposite Ice-T.

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65% of Americans own their own home:

Posted by danetteoneal1 on June 12, 2014
Posted in: Economy, Home Ownership. Leave a comment

This is the lowest rate in two decades, due mostly to a drop in young buyers. For Americans 35 and under, the homeownership rate is 36 percent, down from 38 percent last year…
Young Americans are putting off home buying at unprecedented levels. The home ownership rate for the Millennial generation age group has fallen to its lowest level since the U.S. Census Bureau started tracking home ownership by age in 1982.

The home ownership rate in the first quarter of 2014 for Americans 35 and under fell to 36.2 percent, dropping from 36.8 percent in 2013. Broken down even further, Americans in the 25-29 age group had the biggest decline in home ownership rates at 33.3 percent, followed by 47.5 percent for the 30-34 age group.

The truth about transfer taxes:

Posted by danetteoneal1 on June 12, 2014
Posted in: Economy, Home Ownership. Leave a comment

Real estate transfer taxes are state and local taxes that are assessed on real property when ownership of the property is transferred between parties. Although proponents say real estate transfer taxes are necessary to help fund state services, opponents view them as an unwarranted tax on home sales. The articles and studies in this Field Guide examine what transfer taxes are and their impacts on the real estate market, and provide resources on current transfer tax laws and initiatives. (F. Heller, Manager, Virtual Library and Archives)

Example: A 1% transfer tax on a home valued at $400,000 would amount to $4,000. First-time home buyers can be hit especially hard, as they have no equity from the sale of a prior home to help pay transfer taxes.

What others are doing
Not every state legislature believes in using transfer taxes. Fourteen states have remained free of real estate transfer taxes: Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
In Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon, taxpayer groups successfully worked with state REALTOR® associations to pass constitutional bans on transfer taxes.