My husband and I installed a pressure-treated deck about 15 years ago. We did not know then what we know now about the chemicals and carcinogens that were used in the manufacturing process. We installed a second redwood deck on a back portion of the house about eight years ago. We’re now interested in tearing out the pressure-treated deck and replacing it with redwood for one consistent look and maintenance plan.

More than 70 years ago, Karl Wolman invented a system to infuse wood with preservatives. Wood is placed in a large cylindrical tank, and the tank is depressurized to remove the air. Then chemical preservatives are pumped into the tank under high pressure, forcing the liquid preservative deep into the wood. Incisions are often cut in the wood to allow the preservative to penetrate deeper. The result is a wood product that will not rot or decay for more than 20 years, even under the most extreme conditions. The most common preservative used to treat wood was chromated copper arsenate, or CCA. The arsenate part of the formula refers to arsenic, an extremely toxic chemical. Concerns over safety have led to the voluntary discontinuation of the manufacture of CCA-treated wood for residential use by the industry, although CCA will continue to be used in some industrial applications. (more…)

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Here’s how “Building Your Own Home For Dummies” (Wiley Publishing, 2005) puts it: “If you’re in no hurry to move your project forward and are willing to invest the time to figure out all the ins and outs of the process and make the right choices, then an architect may be unnecessary. But if you work for a living, are raising a family, or don’t have the slightest inclination to take the time to figure out design, construction and building codes, then an architect will be a welcome addition to your custom-home team of professionals.”

Here’s a passage on the subject from “The Well-Built House,” (Houghton Mifflin, 1992) by Jim Locke, the contractor who ran the project in Tracy Kidder’s renowned book, “House” (Houghton Mifflin, 1985): “The chances of your house’s [plans] fitting graciously on your lot are poor. People often tell me they look at plan books and hundreds of designs and don’t find one that fits them.”

That’s so true: Before Dave (my husband) will let me meet with any architect, he insists I look at house plans online. I spend three days — hours at a time — without finding anything compelling. There are elements I like: a portico here, a breakfast area there. But because we may spend more on this house than anything we’ve ever done in our lives, just kind of liking something doesn’t seem good enough. (more…)

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Don’t count on home equity to come through with a significant portion of retirement funding, cautions a new report by Fidelity Investments. According to the study, home values underperformed stocks and bonds over every five- and 10-year period from 1963 to 2005. Home values have been slightly above the returns on treasury bills during the same time, according to the report, “The Equity You Live In: The Home as a Retirement Savings and Income Option.”

Over the more than 40-year period, real compound returns on stocks outpaced that of residential real estate, according to the study, with 5.95% average annual returns on stocks compared with 1.35% in realty. A dollar invested in stocks in 1963 would have compounded to $12.36 by 2006, while the same dollar would have grown to $1.79 in real estate. The median price of new homes in the United States has risen since the early 1970s, with an average annual appreciation rate of 5.9% since 1963. But there have also been sharp corrections three times during the time period. It’s one thing if the homeowner is able to “ride out” the sharp downturns; it’s another if they’re considering the home as a potential retirement asset in the near future, the report said. That said, for many Americans in or approaching retirement, home equity is the largest nonpension asset they can draw on for lifelong income, the report said. And there are plenty of Americans who plan to — and perhaps need to — tap their home equity in retirement, according to an accompanying survey of more than 1,400 retirees and preretirees. (more…)

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Homeowners with troubled credit histories are finding it harder to get mortgages or refinance homes because softening in the housing market is making lenders less likely to handle riskier loans. Several lenders of subprime mortgages — used primarily for home equity loans and for people with spotty credit — have shown signs of trouble after the housing bubble popped and more homeowners began defaulting high-interest mortgages.

The shifting market is prompting investors to demand higher standards for loan approvals. Loans for 100 percent of a property’s value required a minimum credit score of 580 last year, but now require at least a 600 score, said David Zionts, owner of Connecticut Mortgage Lenders LLC. A high-value loan with no income verification could be had last year with a credit score of 620 a year ago but now needs a minimum score of 640, he said. “Some consumers are being squeezed out of the market,” Zionts said. “Some of the more forgiving guidelines are beginning to go away.” Credit scores are formulas kept by national credit bureaus and used by lenders and credit companies to determine if a consumer is creditworthy. Scores drop when customers fail to pay installment loans on time or have a high income/debt ratio. Most lenders consider scores above 700 to be a sign of good financial health and scores below 600 to be risky and a reason to increase the interest rate on a loan, according to Fair Isaac Corp., which invented the FICO credit risk score. (more…)

search for : subprime mortgage, home equity loan, Credit score

While the subprime lending industry’s woes have kicked up dust in the past few weeks, observers say the problems underlying the bad news have been percolating for much longer. In December, the Washington, D.C.-based Mortgage Bankers Association said 12.6 percent of subprime mortgages were 30 or more days delinquent in the quarter ending in September, compared with 4.7 percent of all mortgages.

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Ellen Schloemer, director of research for the Durham, N.C.-based Center for Responsible Lending, said about a quarter of subprime loans sold since 1998 have gotten into trouble at some point, although they didn’t always go into default or foreclosure. Still, she said the housing boom and the large number of lenders led many of them to approve loans that clearly weren’t sustainable. “It was a disaster waiting to happen and people were looking the other way because there was money to be made,” Schloemer said. (more…)

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A central heating system is a very easy thing to visualize. A furnace uses electric coils or the combustion of fuel to heat the air within it, and a fan then pushes the warm air through a series of tubes, called ducts, into the individual rooms. As the fan pushes air out of the furnace, it also needs to draw more air in, so a return duct is also provided within the heating system. The return duct pulls air from the house and directs it back to the furnace, where it is re-warmed and redistributed in an endless loop.

One of the first things the heating contractor will take into consideration is the overall energy efficiency of the home, as well as the remodeled space. Homes with good insulation, good windows and doors, and a low amount of air infiltration is simply easier to heat, and as a result, the ducts serving each space can be smaller. Homes with poor energy efficiency require larger ducts to overcome the heat loss and keep the spaces sufficiently warm.

The next consideration is the furnace, which needs to be of sufficient size to provide an adequate amount of heated air for the volume of the home and amount of heat it’s losing. If the furnace is large enough, then a new duct run can typically be added to the system pretty easily. If the furnace is too small, then you need to either upgrade the size and/or efficiency of the furnace or improve the home’s energy efficiency through better insulation, better windows, or other means. (more…)

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Homethinking.com is a site designed to help home buyers and sellers select a real-estate agent. It aims to help consumers target the most active and the most recommended agents through a combination of consumer reviews and Homethinking.com’s ranking system. “The agents who do the most work usually get the better price,” says Niki Scevak, founder of Homethinking LLC, based in New York. An agent who is actively buying and selling homes in a particular area may be able to get a seller a sales price that is 10% higher than someone who has sold only a few homes, he says

Homethinking.com uses a computer model to rate agents (those who sell more homes and receive positive reviews are ranked higher), so a search for real-estate agents in a particular city will first list agents who sell the most homes and have gotten the highest number of positive reviews from site visitors. (With the exception of agents listed in the “Sponsored Profiles” box — those agents have paid for their spots.) Homethinking.com shows the average asking price and price range of an agent’s listings and if the information is publicly available, the asking price, number of bedrooms, address and map location for each property. For an agent’s sold properties, the site notes the original listing price, final sale price, month and year sold, number of bedrooms, address and map location. (more…)

Worried that something is seriously wrong with the crack in the basement? Stop fretting and get advice. Home inspectors don’t work only for buyers; you can call one anytime to get an educated opinion about whatever keeps you awake. For $250 to $350 on average, an inspector will look over your home’s structure and systems. Find one in your area at ASHI.org, the Web site for the American Society of Home Inspectors, which also has a virtual home-inspection tool so you can see what a typical checkup covers. Interview a few pros to make sure their field experience matches the type of home you own.

The housing boom has lifted home values 51 percent over the past six years. For most of us that means that if our house was destroyed, insurance would pick up only a portion of the cost to rebuild. For the underinsured, the average shortfall is 21 percent, according to one firm that tracks building prices. Even if you bought a guaranteed replacement or an extended replacement policy, you could still face too-low coverage caps. (For more on being adequately insured, read the story here.) To see how much coverage you need, have a contractor estimate the cost of rebuilding. And don’t forget to check your contents coverage, which is often inadequate. Water is your home’s biggest enemy, and your regular policy won’t cover all types of damage. If you live in a floodplain, you need flood insurance (contact the National Flood Insurance Program at 888-379-9531 or floodsmart.gov). You’ll pay $1,000 a year on average if you live in an area that’s susceptible. (more…)

I am quite disgusted with the home inspection industry. Before buying my home, I hired the inspector who was recommended by my agent. First of all, $350 is a lot of money to pay someone just to flush the toilet and inform me that there are rust stains on the bottom of the kitchen sink. What’s more, the inspector referred me to a structural engineer just because of a tilted foundation pier in the crawlspace. Couldn’t I perform my own basic inspection with some sort of checklist and then, if an item appears faulty, call a licensed contractor?

As for your suggestion that you perform your own home inspection, ask yourself if you have the experience and expertise to evaluate the wiring in a circuit breaker panel, to review the conditions of a forced-air furnace, or to ascertain whether a fireplace and chimney are properly constructed and in operational condition. Ask yourself if you are prepared to crawl through an attic or foundation subarea and whether you would recognize the various construction defects that would pertain to roof framing, seismic reinforcement and ventilation. Additional examples could fill several pages and still not comprise a complete list. Despite your recent disappointment, there are many highly qualified home inspectors who can provide detailed, comprehensive defect disclosure for home buyers. Rather than draw conclusions about the entire home inspection industry, buyers should try to find an inspector with many years of experience and a reputation for thoroughness. Don’t simply rely on referrals made by your agent. (more…)

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Unlike the original Seven Wonders, which primarily stem from ancient times, Georgia’s “Seven Natural Wonders,” as they are known, date back millions and millions of years to Mother Earth’s prehistoric times, with only one exception. The list of Georgia’s Seven Natural Wonders came about when state librarian Ella May Thornton of the Georgia State Library in Atlanta compiled the first list of Georgia’s natural wonders in response to an inquiry by a journalist. Thornton’s list included the natural formations of Stone Mountain, Okefenokee Swamp, Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Warm Springs, Jekyll Island Forest and the marble vein in Longswamp Valley in Pickens County.

If you’ve ever seen the 300-million-year-old Stone Mountain then you know that it truly has earned its place on the list of Georgia’s Seven Natural Wonders. A smooth behemoth rising to almost 1,700 feet above sea level at its summit, it is the world’s largest piece of exposed granite. At seven miles in circumference around its base and two miles long, Stone Mountain, one of the South’s most endearing icons, is flat-out imposing. A 3-acre carving of Confederate heroes Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis highlights part of the mountain. Visit www.stonemountainpark.com or call 800-401-2407.

My favorite of Georgia’s wonders is Tallulah Gorge between Rabun and Habersham Counties near Tallulah Falls in the northeast Georgia mountains. During the late 19th and early 20th century, during Georgia’s heyday of tourism, the series of waterfalls and gorges created from the flow of the Tallulah River were so glorious that they were once known as the “Niagara Falls of the South.” Georgia Power Co. dammed the falls in 1912 for construction of a hydroelectric faculty. Tallulah Gorge, breathtakingly scenic in any season, is about two miles wide and a thousand feet deep. Visit www.gastateparks.org/info/tallulah/. Call the park directly at (706) 754-7970 or for reservations directly at 800-864-7275. (more…)

search for : Stone Mountain, Okefenokee Swamp, Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Warm Spring, Jekyll Island Forest, Longswamp Valley in Pickens County

“Out of sight, out of mind” is a phrase that can certainly be applied to the heat duct system that runs under your floor or through your attic. But just because you can’t see the ducts — and there still seems to be heat coming out of the registers — doesn’t mean that your heating system is working as well as it could. And since your heating system is typically the single biggest energy user in your home, small problems with the duct system have the potential to translate into big dollars being wasted each month. There are four basic steps that you’ll want to undertake in this order: inspect, repair, insulate and clean. Any or all of these steps can be taken by the ambitious do-it-yourselfer, or can be hired out to the pros.

The first step in the process is to inspect the system, which is going to mean some crawling around. With a strong light source — preferably a cordless one so you don’t have to worry about dragging cords behind you — work your way along each of the ducts. Look for areas where joints have come loose, or where support straps are missing, sagging or otherwise not providing adequate support for the ducts. This is especially important with flexible ducts, as large sags or kinks in the ducts can impede air flow. Pay particular attention to the joints where the ducts come together — the tape used to seal the joints can come loose over time, allowing air leaks to occur that waste heat. Since the joints may be partially or completely covered with insulation, it’s a good idea to have the heat on while you’re making your inspection. Feel along the ducts for air leaks, and also listen for any sounds of escaping air. (more…)

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Winter’s finally given the rooftops their first dusting of snow. But if every falling flake made you wonder whether your roof would survive another season, it’s time to consider these points, brought to you with help from the Department of Energy and roofing-material manufacturers. You need to know which kind of roof you have — flat, sloped or peaked — and what weight it will bear. This will determine the most appropriate roofing material. (Asphalt shingles aren’t right for a flat roof, for example).

Metal roofs, common long ago, are making a comeback — in steel, aluminum and copper, among other types. To reduce the corrosion rate, steel is galvanized with a zinc or zinc/aluminum coating. Metal is available as traditional seam-and-batten roofing, tiles, shingles and shakes. New metal roofs last two to three times longer than asphalt. Wood shakes look different on every roof. But in addition to a distinctive appearance, they can help insulate your attic and allow your house to breathe, circulating air through small openings under the felt rows on which the wooden shingles are laid. Traditional roofing tiles are made from clay. They are durable and low-maintenance, save energy and are environmentally friendly. Because the longevity of a tile roof also depends on the quality of the subroof, manufacturers are working to improve flashings and other aspects of the underlayment system. (more…)

search for : roofing-material manufacturer, appropriate roofing material, Metal roofs, wooden shingles, roofing tiles

Instead of refinancing to get their hands on quick cash, many homeowners are finding themselves in financial trouble with little or no equity in their homes, and are walking away and letting the lenders foreclose. According to RealtyTrac, the nation’s leading online marketplace for foreclosed properties, 318,355 properties entered some stage of foreclosure nationwide during the third quarter of 2006, a 17 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 43 percent yearly increase from the third quarter of 2005. But the news is not all bad. Foreclosed properties have turned into a windfall for savvy investors.

Johnson and a partner bought a foreclosed property for $39,000, using financing from their credit cards; then with the title in hand, went to the bank and took out a $40,000 loan for an extensive rehab. A short time later, the home appraised at $115,000, $35,000 more than they had invested in it. Johnson’s next move was to try another technique, he sold the equity in the home to a new investor, then used the cash he got to buy another foreclosed property. How did Michael Johnson find the properties he ended up buying? He established relationships with some of the lenders in town, letting them know he could step in and take foreclosed properties off their hands. He also regularly goes down to the country courthouse to review foreclosure notices, then spends a lot of time doing research. In addition to determining the stability of properties that have been foreclosed on, he also has to take the amount of delinquent taxes and other charges into consideration. Recent reports indicate that four percent of all homes sold in the U.S. will eventually end up in foreclosure. And when a foreclosure is imminent, lenders are willing to be creative in order to avoid a prolonged legal process and unfavorable public relations.
(more…)

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A Wall Street Journal analysis of 1,000 recent home sales shows that Zillow’s “Zestimates” often are very good, frequently within a few percentage points of the actual price paid. But when Zillow is bad, it can be terrible — off the mark by more than 25% on one in 10 homes. In one case it was off by $2 million. Zillow, based in Seattle, operates a Web site that offers free estimates and other online tools for real-estate buyers and sellers. It draws revenue from online advertising.

Zillow’s estimates come from a proprietary computer program that takes into account sale prices for nearby homes that appear comparable, the size and other physical attributes of the home, its past sales history and tax-assessment data, says Stan Humphries, vice president of data and analytics. Zillow tends to work best for midrange homes in areas where there are a lot of comparable houses, he says. It is less accurate for low- and high-end homes because there are fewer of those and thus less data available from comparable sales, known as “comps.” Values of rural homes are hard to gauge for the same reason. Partly for that reason, none of the Web sites can offer 100% coverage of U.S. homes; Zillow says it has estimates on about 57% of all homes. (more…)

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Federal investigators have uncovered what’s described in court documents as a multimillion-dollar mortgage scheme involving real estate prices, in a case that industry leaders believe could have wide implications. The scam, uncovered by the Internal Revenue Service, concerns more than 60 real estate transactions in Minnesota, all of them involving Jill Lehn, a former mortgage loan closing agent in Prior Lake.

Between December 2004 and August 2006, Lehn prepared loan documents that overstated the purchase price of properties and then concealed overpayments from lenders, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota. In December, she pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud and money laundering in U.S. District Court, and is awaiting sentencing. The scam allowed buyers to pocket the difference between the actual purchase price of the property and the inflated mortgage amount. Lehn was the buyer in a half-dozen of the transactions. In all, buyers netted more than $3 million in fraudulent payments. (more…)

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As interest rates rise, more homeowners are falling into foreclosure. That is what is prompting the wave of bargain-hunting investors now descending on courthouse auctions across the country. “It’s just crazy. We have 100 houses [at auction] each week, when we used to have 10 or so,” says Elaine Began, a deed clerk in Macomb County, Mich. Three years ago, the Montgomery County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office was “lucky to get 50 people to an auction,” says Laura Wright, a foreclosure clerk there. Today, 120 often show up. Some may be sorry they did. Novices face a host of risks.

The process usually begins when mortgagees fall three months behind on payments. The lender sends a default notice to the homeowner and to the county. If the homeowner can’t pay up, a foreclosure date is set. County officials handle the auction and use the proceeds to pay off the mortgage and any other debts secured by the house. Leftover money goes to the foreclosed homeowner; leftover debt, in some cases, is the new owner’s responsibility. The mortgage lenders typically bid up to the remaining principal amount plus any foreclosure fees. Their goal is to recoup what they are owed, either from investors bidding more or by buying the home and reselling it. Foreclosed homeowners sometimes join the bidding and win the auction, even though they don’t have the money, effectively delaying their eviction until another auction is held. Investors can get in the game before or after auctions, too. They can try to buy directly from homeowners beforehand or from lenders who win the auction. (more…)

search for : interest rate, foreclosure, Foreclosed homeowner

The U.S. housing market has not reached bottom and will likely not begin to recover until the middle of this year, three housing economists said this week. The weakness will extend to existing-home and new-home sales and housing starts as well as to home prices, which are likely to show their first full-year decline nationally since records have been kept, the economists told home builders at their annual convention here.

The biggest problem the housing market faces is “a seriously large inventory situation,” said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, which is hosting the International Builders Show here this week. Seiders said the housing boom in 2004 and 2005 produced at least 400,000 more housing units than demand could support, and builders are having to push hard to move those homes off the market. Seiders said, though, that he believes home sales did hit bottom in the fourth quarter and that housing will make a “gradual recovery” over the next two years. He said housing could actually begin to make a positive contribution to economic growth again starting in the second half of this year. (more…)

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When asked about the “dismal science” and what exactly economists do, most people think they study money. In fact, economists use various analytic tools to predict behavior. But, the public is partially correct because the majority of economists’ predictions deal with financial matters. When economists talk about new houses, for example, their focus is invariably on the factors that determine housing prices, such as mortgage interest rates.

In a recent interview, Rayo discussed their research on happiness as it applies to the purchase of a new house, an enterprise that most buyers find is fraught with emotion. Before you fall off your chair guffawing, insisting that you know happiness when you see it and that some pointy-headed economist couldn’t possibly say anything that would be helpful, listen up. You’re likely to find that much of Rayo and Becker’s research resonates with your own experience. Rayo began our conversation on a philosophical note. “What is happiness, exactly? Much of what we call ‘happiness’ is relative and based on comparison,” he said. “We are always comparing what we have to something else. But, we’re not anticipating that no matter what we have we will always be comparing it to something else. In fact, we’re not even aware that we are doing this.” (more…)

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Probably the biggest advantage that comes from having a good credit score is being able to get lower interest rates on loans. The reason you have a good credit score is because you know how to manage your credit wisely. You pay back your loans and make payments on a timely basis. Lenders know by your credit score that you’re less of a credit risk–you’re less likely to default on your loan, so they’re more willing to give you a cheaper interest rate. And the lower your interest rate, the lower your monthly payment. In essence, having good credit saves you money.

As a result of your good credit score, the more freedom you have to shop around–for loans and for lenders. You can shop around for more types of loans since you qualify for more. You don’t have to go with the first one you find. It’s better to shop around for the loan that best suits your financial goals and your individual situation. For example, let’s say you just accepted a new permanent position and were moving with your family. You want your kids to grow up there and didn’t plan on moving. You might go with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. But, in contrast, let’s say you wanted to invest in a rental property and needed some flexibility in payment. You might then go with an option ARM that allows you to make different types of payments at different times. (more…)

search for : manage your credit, default on your loan, good credit score, 30-year fixed-rate mortgage

Renting a home — apartment, condo, townhouse or single family — is the first real estate transaction for many residents. About one third of residents in the U.S. are still tenants in a country dominated by homeownership at 67 percent. The Deed of Lease lays out the responsibilities and rights of both the landlord and the tenant. Even though a landlord owns the property, some of his or her rights to the property are limited once the house is rented to another person. While he may have the right to enter the property as the owner, for instance, it’s not at will. Most leases spell out how the landlord may gain access to the house.

The Landlord Maintenance clause makes it clear that the landlord is to keep the property in good repair and “tenantable” condition. Pretty much that means keep the appliances working, plumbing flowing and electricity safe. Equally important is the Tenant Obligations clause, which stipulates that while the landlord is there to keep the house tenantable, the tenant is supposed to take care of the daily routine stuff, such as: use appliances as directed; furnish and replace light bulbs; maintaining caulk around tubs and showers; and promptly reporting in writing any defects, damage or breakage. If a tenant does the notification and the landlord doesn’t fix it, there may be the opportunity for the tenant to institute the “repair and deduct” regulations in the state to repair the unit and deduct those repairs from the rent. (more…)

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Your real estate agent or lawyer may add a few steps here or there. Through it all, keep in mind that while there are common milestones in most home sales, there’s no such thing as a “routine” real estate transaction. Each one usually has a few twists or turns – some little and some not so little. The basic steps are designed to protect buyer and seller from surprises that end up sending the deal badly off the rails.

You also need to take responsibility for keeping the process running smoothly. Even though you’re paying fees to an attorney and a mortgage broker – and the agent is getting a fee from the seller – these folks are working on multiple transactions and things sometime slip through the cracks. As you proceed, ask how long each step should take. You (usually) don’t need to badger these players to keep things moving. But if you haven’t heard back at various stages along your timeline, call and find out how things are going. (more…)

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Chimney Rock Park owner Dr. Lucius Morse says his family’s decision to sell the 996-acre park to the state of North Carolina for $24 million is about posterity. Morse recalled attending one of the park’s Easter sunrise services where a minister said: “The Morses don’t own the park, God does. They are just stewards of the land.” “And of course I assured him we felt the same way,” said Morse, whose family has owned the mountain landmark, a land of imposing rock cliffs and cascading waterfalls, for more than a century.

Residents of Hickory Nut Gorge in Rutherford, Henderson and other counties have spent months writing letters to newspapers and state leaders calling for the state to buy the park. That came after the family in July hired Sotheby’s International Real Estate to market the land for $55 million, believed the highest asking price for a piece of land in state history. The state will buy the land with $15 million the General Assembly appropriated last year plus grants from the state’s Park and Recreation, Natural Heritage and Clean Water Management trust funds. A private donor contributed $2.35 million for the purchase. Although officially anonymous, most of that money came through the Conservation Trust for North Carolina from the Stanback family of Salisbury, a state official said. Fred and Alice Stanback were among dozens of residents who attended Monday’s ceremony. (more…)

search for : Chimney Rock Park, Sotheby’s International Real Estate, Conservation Trust for North Carolina

A big part of every real estate transaction involves taxes: You pay transfer taxes when you buy, property taxes when you own and more transfer taxes when you sell. There are also taxes on income earned from investment real estate and even capital gains taxes, though infrequently for the sale of residential property.

The good news is that while real estate is taxed, there are also big real estate write offs — mortgage interest is usually deductible, property taxes are deducible, depreciation is deductible for investors, when property have been owned for at least a year long-term and lower capital gains rates apply and if you you’ve sold a property that you used for two of the past five years you may be able to deduct up to $500,000 in profits if married and up to $250,000 if single. (more…)

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I am a single female and have owned my home for 10 years. I have a very low interest rate. For the past 10 years, I have not claimed my mortgage interest as a deduction. I have never met the threshold of the standard deduction. I recently heard that I should be able to claim my mortgage interest, regardless of whether the standard deduction is more beneficial. Also, this past year I’ve had new windows and siding put on my house. I’ve seen articles that I might be able to get a small credit for the improvements. Is this true?

If your mortgage interest combined with other itemized deductions — certain medical expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, state income taxes withheld and paid, real estate tax, personal property tax and charitable contributions, for example — exceed the standard deduction, it will be beneficial to itemize your deductions. Note that the standard deduction has increased every year, so a review of the potential itemized deductions from the prior three years could result in the ability to itemize those deductions and claim them on an amended return. It just depends on the actual amounts for each year. (more…)

search for : mortgage interest, adjusted gross income, standard deduction

At the University of Maryland a few years ago, an architecture student undertook an unusual master’s thesis project: the functional and aesthetic redesign of a strip shopping area in suburban Maryland. The goal was to transform a low-density, auto-dominated, formless agglomeration of buildings, roads and parking lots into a more attractive, denser, pedestrian-friendly spot with housing and work space, as well as shopping. His thesis was timely and relevant because the American suburbs are littered with thousands of generic, aging shopping complexes, large and small, that cry for transformation.

Built decades ago, some are physically run-down, suffering from wear and tear and lack of upkeep. Many are economically unviable, having been configured in ways that no longer meet today’s retail needs and design standards. Others sit in locations that, because of steady population growth or infrastructure improvements over time, have increased greatly in value. These complexes often have the capacity for substantial alteration or expansion incorporating newer, more intense, more diverse uses. The master’s thesis exploration, although hypothetical, was not purely theoretical, as evidenced by recent Washington Post news reports of two older, very different kinds of shopping complexes slated to be transformed — although the headlines spoke of “overhaul” and “face-lift” rather than transformation. (more…)

“Let every house be placed … in the middle of its plat,” said one of America’s best-known city planners, “so there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields, that it may be a green country town, which will never be burnt and always wholesome.”It’s a tribute to the framer of this dictum that modern city planners still fervently adhere to it. The trouble is, it was made by William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, around the time he laid out Philadelphia in 1682. A lot has changed since then, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at our planning codes.

Essentially, setbacks are reserved areas on each edge of your property — like margins on a page — that you’re not allowed to build upon. The idea is to help ensure William Penn’s ideal of houses spaced well apart, with usable land on all sides. Given the long historic trend toward higher land prices, smaller lots and bulkier houses, however, many suburban setback requirements no longer make sense. Today’s typical 5-foot side-yard setbacks, for example, serve mainly to mandate sunless, useless slivers of land between houses. Yet rather than doing away with these vestigial separations altogether, moribund planning codes stubbornly cling to them, stymieing the growth of more intelligent arrangements. (more…)

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People are saving at the lowest level since the Great Depression, and that could be a problem for the millions of baby boomers getting ready to retire. In fact, the Commerce Department reported Thursday that the nation’s personal savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1 percent, the worst showing in 73 years. The negative rate means people are spending all of the money they have left after paying taxes _ and then some. They are dipping into savings or increasing their borrowing to finance current spending.

The young and the poor have the most trouble saving. Some 42 percent of people 18 to 49 said they are likely to spend more than they can afford. Among those with household incomes below $30,000, some 45 percent said the same. The 1 percent negative savings rate in 2006 followed a 0.4 percent negative rate in 2005. There have been only four years in history that the savings rate has fallen into negative territory. The other two were 1932 and 1933 during the Great Depression. During the Depression, when as many as one in four people were out of work, households were exhausting savings in order to pay the rent and buy food. (more…)

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We have been in the same rental house for the past eight years. Last Monday night, we were awakened by a strange noise in the kitchen, and discovered that the kitchen was on fire. My wife and I got our kids out first, then the dog, and everyone is OK. We also managed somehow to get the garden hoses out and fight the fire ourselves, and managed to put a good deal of it out before the firefighters arrived. However, there is severe damage to the house, and smoke and soot damage to our belongings. The cause of the fire (per the fire department report) was the dishwasher. It got stuck in the dry cycle, and evidently heated the wiring to the point that it started a fire behind the dishwasher.

Well, first I am sure you now understand why you should have had renter’s insurance. If you did, then you would submit a claim to your insurance carrier and they would have covered your claim and made you whole, providing for your alternative living expenses as well. Your insurance carrier would most likely seek reimbursement against the landlord for your losses, as the cause of the fire was not any negligence on your part. Of course, this is all moot because you don’t have a renter’s insurance policy that I believe every tenant should carry to protect them in these unfortunate circumstances. Since you don’t have renter’s insurance you should try to make a claim directly with the landlord’s insurance carrier. (more…)

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