I also spoke to a Trustee of the Village about some issues that affect my wife and me. This was very rewarding because I received direct answers on what is currently being done to address my concerns. In the past I have written to Congressmen and women only to receive general answers. I am even more satisfied with our choice of towns because it looks as if we are getting in on the ground floor of something really good for the community. And within the next several years many of these projects should be finished while others are in progress.

1. Negotiate with builders. Don’t be afraid to ask builders for concessions such as steep price discounts, closing-cost waivers, luxury upgrades, free landscaping, free trips and free club memberships. Many builder-incentive packages are worth 10 grand and up! In some markets such as Boston, new condos are selling for 20 percent less than they were in mid-to-late 2005.

2. Negotiate with home sellers. Unlike the go-go market of recent years, offers of 5 percent to 10 percent or more under asking price will not be inappropriate. (See “selling tips” for some of the throw-ins that buyers are being offered.)

3. Educated timing. Read up on local — not national — market trends, religiously read for-sale ads, and get a sense of what’s moving and where, then be prepared to jump on bargains, especially as the last of the speculators are being flushed out of the market and for-sale inventories are at their zenith.

4. Avoid hot spots. Stay away from buying homes in neighborhoods that appreciated significantly above average home prices in recent years — especially if you’re moving for the short term. Once prices in these hot spots are corrected, these often see slower upward movement or remain flat after the overall market heads north again.

5. Modesty is the best policy. Consider more modest homes in well-maintained, established neighborhoods. By contrast, pricing and re-pricing on expensive homes, new homes and new condos make those products riskier during down cycles.

6. Flexibility. For maximum flexibility in pouncing on the right deal, get preapproved for your home loan.

7. Follow fundamentals. Just because a lender will advance you money to live or build beyond your means doesn’t mean you’re standing on sound fiscal footing. At year-end 2006, $330 billion of adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, were creeping upward. Avoid risky interest-only loans and ARMs, opting for fixed-rate mortgages instead. And learn from the recent past: Don’t assume housing will appreciate enough in the near term to cover your home’s rising interest payments.

Check out my home Buying experience.

AllFinancialMatters has ideas on house affordability.

Now I think things will settle down a little so I can plan some financial goals for the new year.

1. Pump more money into our retirement accounts. We want to max out our Roth IRAs as well as increase our contributions to our 401ks (my new 401k has much better options than my current one).

2. Create an emergency fund of at least 6 months of expenses in case of a job loss, injury or some other major financial incident.

3. Wipe clean all my student loan and credit card debt. Neither amount is high, but I have been paying my student loan for almost 10 years so it will be nice to close that account permanently. My wife and I have put a little money on a 0% purchase credit card for furniture, but we should easily be able to pay that off in the next several months.

4. Save enough to do home improvements. Our house we purchased is 40 years old. It is in great condition, but like all houses it has a lot of small projects that need to be done as well as one big one–rehabbing the kitchen (it is the original). We want to be able to complete this without borrowing money.
5. Start a roof fund. When we bought the house we were told the roof was 6 years old; it is actually 12 years old and probably only has about 5 years left. Therefore, we need to start saving now for that eventuality.
6. Start investing outside of our retirement accounts. We hope to have enough to begin investing our non-retirement money in 2007. Unfortunately we have not been able to do that because we were saving for a down payment for a house for a long while.
These are some lofty goals. We might not reach them all in 2007, but we sure plan on trying our best.

I hope we all can reach our 2007 financial goals. Good luck to you and have a great 2007!

Take a look at others’ goals on Consumerism Commentary.

Check out pfblog’s financial goals for 2007.

Check out 2million’s net worth.

Moneysmartz has some tools to help you with your financial goals.

Personal Finance Advice has this to say about 2007.

My wife and I are buying a home. We are changing our auto insurance to the new town; we changing from renter’s insurance to home owner’s insurance and finally we are adding short and long-term disability. We go through Erie Insurance and love it. By bundling all our insurance policies with them we save at least 5% on them all.

My wife has had the same agent for several years and he is extremely helpful so we really believe we are getting what we need.