US July new home sales surprise
Published by thelab on Tagged ArticlesWASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–New-home sales defied expectations and stopped sliding during July, making a modest increase that gave the beleaguered housing market a little good news.
Sales of single-family homes increased by 2.8% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000, the Commerce Department said Friday. June new-home sales fell 4.0% to an annual rate to 846,000; originally, the government said June sales dropped by 6.6% to 834,000.
The median estimate of 23 economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires was a 1.4% decline in July sales to an 822,000 annual rate.
Year over year, new-home sales were 10.2% lower than the level in July 2006.
Read the rest of this entry »
Florida’s Existing Home Sales Remain Slower in June 2007
Published by thelab on Tagged ArticlesDespite favorable mortgage interest rates, strong job growth and other positive economic conditions, statewide sales of existing single-family homes in Florida totaled 12,954 in June and were closer to activity levels in June 2002 — prior to the housing boom years — than June 2006 figures when 18,607 homes sold for a 30 percent decrease in the year-to-year comparison, according to the Florida Association of Realtors(R) (FAR).
Florida’s median sales price for existing single-family homes last month was $243,200; a year ago, it was $256,200 for a 5 percent decrease. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less. In June 2002, the statewide median sales price for single-family homes was $142,400, for an increase of 70.8 percent over the five-year-period, according to FAR records.
In May 2007, the national median sales price for existing single-family homes was $223,000, down 2.4 percent from the previous year, according to the National Association of Realtors(R) (NAR). In California, the statewide median resales price was $591,180 in May; in Massachusetts, it was $355,000; in Maryland, it was $312,683; and in New York, it was $239,000.
Real Estate For Beginners: Residential Property Taxes
Published by thelab on Tagged Articles
Whenever you own a piece of land, you will be taxed for it. Whether it is commercial property or residential property, there is still a tax to pay, whether it is for a village, town, city, county, or state. Most residential private property taxes are handled on the local level, going no higher than the county. Depending on the nature of the business, it may be handled by a variety of entities, including state and federal agencies. Each specific area and state has its own way of levying property taxes. This article is intended as real estate for beginners and will focus on property taxes as they relate to residential private property. Your Credit Union financial advisor can also provide a good deal of valuable information; call today to schedule your free consultation.
How property taxes are used. Each locale uses the revenue earned from property taxes for different purposes. It can be anything from road repairs and utility upkeep to firefighter salaries and emergency response. Most areas, however, use the money received from property taxes for school districts. Taxes are levied and then distributed to schools in a district according to the amount of money received from property taxes. This often puts homeowners in a bind, as most of them want quality education for children, but are reluctant to vote to pass measures that will result in a property tax increase.
Read the rest of this entry »
Green Building
Published by thelab on Tagged Articles
Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency of buildings and their use of energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal — the complete building life cycle.
Green building is sometimes known as sustainable building or environmental building. A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally.[1] Other commonly used terms include sustainable design and green architecture; however, while good design is essential to green building, the actual operation, maintenance, and ultimate disposal or deconstruction of the building also have very significant effects on buildings’ overall environmental impact.
The related concepts of sustainable development and sustainability are integral to green building. Effective green building can lead to 1) reduced operating costs by increasing productivity and using less energy and water, 2) improved public and occupant health due to improved indoor air quality, and 3) reduced environmental impacts by, for example, lessening storm water runoff and the heat island effect. Practitioners of green building often seek to achieve not only ecological but aesthetic harmony between a structure and its surrounding natural and built environment. The appearance and style of sustainable homes and buildings can be nearly indistinguishable from their less sustainable counterparts.
Green building is increasingly governed and driven by standards, such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
What is a Mortgage?
Published by thelab on Tagged ArticlesA mortgage is a method of using property (real or personal) as security for the payment of a debt. The term mortgage (from Law French, lit. dead pledge) refers to the legal device used for this purpose, but it is also commonly used to refer to the debt secured by the mortgage, the mortgage loan.
In most jurisdictions mortgages are strongly associated with loans secured on real estate rather than other property (such as ships) and in some cases only land may be mortgaged. Arranging a mortgage is seen as the standard method by which individuals and businesses can purchase residential and commercial real estate without the need to pay the full value immediately. See mortgage loan for residential mortgage lending, and commercial mortgage for lending against commercial property.
What’s a manufactured home?
Published by thelab on Tagged ArticlesManufactured homes often get lumped into the same category as other non-site-built structures. The truth is that each type of home is uniquely different from the other.
Manufactured Home: A manufactured home is built entirely in a factory under federal code administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which went into effect June 15, 1976. These laws cover single-section or multi-section homes and include transport to the site and installation. Regulations include design & construction, strength & durability, transportability, fire resistance, energy efficiency, and quality.
Mobile Home: The term used for homes built prior to June 15, 1976, when HUD code went into effect. Voluntary standards were previously in effect.
Modular Home: These homes are built to state, local or regional codes where the home will be located. Multi-section units are transported to sites and installed.
Panelized Home: A home built in a factory, where panels, windows, doors, wiring & siding are transported to the site and assembled. Codes are set by state or locality where sited.
Pre-Cut Home: The materials are factory-cut to design specifications and then transported to the site and assembled. Examples are kit, log and dome homes. State and local governments set standards for these homes.
Most homes sold from a typical manufactured home dealer will be either manufactured or modular homes. These two types look almost identical; the only difference is that modular homes are built to local codes, while manufactured homes are built to national HUD codes.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M READY TO BUY A HOME?
Published by thelab on Tagged ArticlesYou can find out by asking yourself some questions:
Do I have a steady source of income (usually a job)? Have I been employed on a regular basis for the last 2-3 years?
- Is my current income reliable?
- Do I have a good record of paying my bills?
- Do I have few outstanding long-term debts, like car payments?
- Do I have money saved for a down payment?
- Do I have the ability to pay a mortgage every month, plus additional costs?
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, you are probably ready to buy your own home.
United States housing bubble
Published by thelab on Tagged ArticlesThe United States housing bubble is the economic bubble in many parts of the U.S. housing market from 2001 to 2005, especially in populous areas such as California, Florida, New York, the BosWash megalopolis, and the southwest markets. A real estate bubble is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real estate markets. The housing bubble in these and other parts of the U.S. was caused by historically low interest rates, poor lending standards, and a mania for purchasing houses. This bubble is related to the stock market or dot-com bubble of the 1990s.
A housing bubble is characterized by rapid increases in the valuations of real property such as housing until unsustainable levels are reached relative to incomes, price-to-rent ratios, and other economic indicators of affordability. This in turn is followed by decreases in home prices that can result in many owners holding negative equity, a mortgage debt higher than the value of the property.
Bubbles may be definitively identified only in hindsight, after a market correction. The impact of booming home valuations on the U.S. economy since the 2001–2002 recession was an important factor in the recovery because a large component of consumer spending came from the related refinancing boom, which simultaneously allowed people to reduce their monthly mortgage payments with lower interest rates and withdraw equity from their homes as values increased.