“Everyone knows” that real estate prices across the entire country skyrocketed, came back down to earth, and then went even farther down. “Everyone knows” the entire nation’s real estate market is dead. The reality is that real estate prices only exploded and then imploded in a handful of cities and states. Most cities and states experienced moderate growth during the bubble years and then comparably moderate contraction. With most of the competitiont out of the market, now’s the perfect time for someone who’s serious about making money in real estate to become an agent.

You need your real estate license to get started. In most states you need to pay a hundred dollars and pass a test, but others require you take classes for several months. The day to day work of a real estate agent varies. Some agents are self-employed and essentially make their own hours while others work for a real estate broker at a firm. Whatever the case, real estate agents spend their days in some combination of taking phone calls from potential buyers and sellers, showing houses to potential buyers, and browsing the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

The income of a real estate agent differs widely, but according to the BLS the average agent earned $54,410 in 2008. More important than the local market is a real estate agent’s motivation. There are still over a hundred thousand agents out there taking home six figures a year. With enough time and talent, you could be one of them.

When wondering where this year is going to take the United States financially, many people are curious about what the interest rates are going to do. Although the banks and U.S. government are always unpredictable, economists have made their best predictions about what they think will happen this year with interest rates. With the government giving banks like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae money at .5% for the last 21 months, including December, economist believe that it will go unchanged for months to come. Many different organizations and economist have been polled, and the majority, including Reuters, believe that it will be in October of 2011. Surprisingly though, they are only predicting it to rise to .75% at that time. When the banks are getting charged more on the money that they are borrowing from government, they then have to charge the consumers more money to profit off of the loans, such as mortgages, so their interest rates rise as well.

Other things that will play an important role in Americas interest rates is the economies of some European countries, which are getting weaker each and every day. The weakening of the Irish economy is the first concern for us, and this affects Americas money markets. Then the Irish market will also affects the British economy, and these things combined can ultimately cause our interest rates to rise. Consumer should try to take advantage of these historically low rates if they can afford to at this point in time, since economists are predicting a future rise in rates. Although this is what the economists are predicting, the economical state of our country could change at any time, causing dramatic changes in interests rates. The local banks need to set their interest rates off of what they are borrowing the money for, in order to profit of the loans. Only time will tell what the interest rates are going to do this year.