Modest median price gains in new and existing homes, a stable interest rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage, decreased housing starts and a stable unemployment rate are some of the features of the 2007 housing forecast provided by major trade group economists as reported by The Inman News.

NAR chief economist David Lereah expects new-home sales to fall from 1.07 million units sold in 2006 to 975,000 units in 2007, which is an 8.7% decline. He cites decreased new home construction as a large contributing factor to this change. The median new home price of $238,400 in 2006 is expected to increase by 1.3 percent to $241,400 in 2007.

NAR also predicts that existing home sales figures for 2006 to end around 6.47 million units, which is an 8.6% decline from 2005. The 2007 forecast for existing home sales is 6.43 million units. The median price of existing homes in 2006 was $223,700 and is expected to increase 1.7% to $227,500 in 2007.

Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association predicts the interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages to stay around 6.5 percent, but mortgage originations to fall 14% to $2.1 trillion.

While Lereah predicts that the unemployment rate to stay at 4.7 percent, Duncan takes it higher and believes it may reach 5.2 percent by midyear 2007. However, he concurs with Lereah in predicting modest home price gains in new and existing homes for the coming year.

The housing forecast of The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is in line with NAR and the Mortgage Bankers Association. According to David Seiders, Chief Economist at NAHB, the year 2007 will see the housing market re-adjust itself once the housing demand stabilizes, leading to a healthy balance between supply and demand.

Looking at the state level, the California Association of Realtors (CAR) projects that the median price of California homes will end 2006 around $560,700, and will decline in 2007 to $550,000 — a 1.7% drop. The number of units sold in California will end 2006 around 481,200, and is projected to decrease 447,500 in 2007. CAR predicts that the unemployment rate will stay around 5.1 percent, although interest rates on the 30-year fixed mortgage may hover around 6.7 percent in 2007.

The overall housing forecast for 2007 made by these four major real estate trade groups is not at all bad. Home buyers and investors planning to go ahead with their real estate activities can fare better with the help of a good real estate agent.

The rainy season will come in few weeks later and you should check if your roof is in a good condition. If you have a large terrace and you don’t want the rain water makes it wet, install rain chain is a good idea. Rain chain will manage the rain water flows and make your terrace keeps clean.

Finding the right rain chain would be a difficult task but you can make it simpler if you directly visit RainChainLink.com. This online store specializes in selling rain chains with different materials, styles, and prices. They only choose the best materials to produce the rain chain such as aluminum, copper, iron and more. Thus, your rain chain will be durable even if you have used it for many years. About the style, this store is the number one in creating unique designs. You can choose the Japanese rain chain or rain chain cups with artistic and elegant touch.

One offer that you would love when shopping for rain chain at this store is the discount. They sell all products with low price to make your shopping experience here more exciting. When you order rain chain from them, they will make the process easy and ship it at no cost. To see their rain chain collections, you can go to their site anytime.

Everyone who has a home should try to make their home more comfortable because they will spend most of their time at home. Make a comfortable home is not really difficult but it can be so easy because you only need to rearrange your home and you can decorate it with the home accessories. You also can buy the curtains for your window so the sunshine will not enter your home easily and make your home feel so hot.

If you have a plan to buy the new curtains, drapes, hardware for your window you can walk out and visit the home accessories shops which sell the curtains you need. But, if you cannot find the best curtains, you probably need to buy the curtains from Curtainworks.com because this website provides the widest variety of beautiful curtains for you. The curtains, drapes, hardware for your window have great features because it can block incoming sunshine and reduce outside noise so you can sleep well whenever you want. The curtains are available in several price, styles, color, material, and brand so you have to find the best curtains.

Now you can get the extraordinary curtains which have great features so you should buy the curtains now and get a comfortable home.