Alexis Idone is so committed to buying organic that she recently went to three different stores in search of an elusive item: organic cotton balls. With organic food surging in popularity, retailers are now taking the concept beyond the grocery aisle. A flurry of companies are pitching organic furniture, linens, cosmetics — even so-called organic leather. But organic nonfood products aren’t as tightly regulated as food. And even if something is made with organic material, some industry experts say, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s 100% environmentally friendly.

Consumer sales of organic fiber for things like clothes and linens totaled $160 million in 2005, up 44% from the previous year, according to the Organic Trade Association, an industry group based in Greenfield, Mass. Demand is being driven by retailers all over the country who are introducing or expanding lines of “green” or “eco-friendly” products. Williams-Sonoma Inc.’s Pottery Barn is rolling out a new line of duvets, sheets and towels made with organic cotton this spring. Furniture and textile designer Q Collection will soon introduce a line of organic bedding for children. Retailer Gaiam has even added organic cotton shower curtains to its product line. The industry is catering to people like Ms. Idone, a 42-year-old creative director from New York. Besides the organic cotton balls, Ms. Idone also has her eye out for an organic sweater for her dog. “I don’t want chemicals going into my body or the environment,” she says. (more…)

The popularity of some finishes — paint colors, for example — simply depends on the cyclical comings and goings of fashion. Color fads are largely created by the industries involved, although clever marketing makes it seem like consumers are driving the demand. And since the prior color fad must be portrayed as unappealingly dated before the “new” colors can perk up sales again, successive color trends are intentionally extreme, running from pastels to primaries to whites to deep saturated tones, the better to differentiate what’s hip from what’s hopelessly passé.

New technologies bring other types of finishes to the fore. In the mid-19th century, for instance, raw brass, which tarnished to a clove-brown color if it wasn’t kept polished, was the usual material for hardware and plumbing fittings. In the late 1880s, though, the introduction of nickel-plated fittings quickly made tarnished brass obsolete. Despite nickel’s propensity to wear through to the metal underneath, it remained popular until the arrival of more durable chromium-plated finishes around 1930.

Chrome has had an exceptionally long popular run because of its ease of maintenance. Still, when earth-toned colors were being pushed during the 1970s, brass came back for an encore. This time, though, a clear lacquer coating was used in an attempt to keep it permanently shiny. Eventually, in their never-ending pursuit for fresh offerings, manufacturers also came up with artificially patinated finishes — brushed brass, antique brass, and the like — that tried to mimic the warmth of natural patination. (more…)

Two senior Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday they were considering legislation to restrict risky mortgage lending practices and protect borrowers after news that foreclosures in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector were rising. Lawmakers joined U.S. banking regulators and federal prosecutors in focusing on the widening problems in the subprime lending industry that provides mortgages to consumers with weak credit.

n the U.S. Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record) said he may offer a bill to protect consumers who were “victimized” by subprime mortgages they can no longer afford. “What I’m worried about is we may have as many as two million foreclosures in the next 18 months for mortgages written after 1998. And we may have to do something to protect these homeowners that could otherwise lose everything,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told Reuters. “It’s potentially $164 billion at stake.” On the other side of Capitol Hill, the chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee said he planned legislation that would restrict overly risky mortgages now that the subprime market is in turmoil. (more…)

search for : mortgage lending practice, foreclosures, subprime mortgage

About 10 years ago, a large Manhattan real estate firm bought an apartment building that contained a few rent-controlled units. Deregulated, those units would be worth perhaps five to seven times more on the open market — if the developer could nudge the remaining tenants down the road, that is. One of them, a senile older woman who had been living there for decades, refused to leave.

Landlords also may try to whack you extra for taking on a roommate or an extended house guest — even though federal housing statutes prohibit landlords from raising rents on tenants who do so. There are limits, of course, so you can’t pile in your whole extended family. What’s typical is two individuals per bedroom, plus one. So, up to three people (including children) can reside in your one-bedroom apartment before the landlord can jack up the rent or issue an eviction notice. If your landlord really gives you the creeps, consider buying renter’s insurance. The cost is minimal (maybe $10 to $30 a month) compared with what you might lose in repair costs and lawyers’ fees. (Read more about renter’s insurance, here.) Really fed up with your landlord? Extract your own pound of flesh by knowing the law. Example: Tenants in Chicago can collect twice the amount of their security deposits if they can prove that landlords stick rent checks and security deposits in the same bank account, says attorney Aaron Krolik. (Most banks can help you track down this information.) If that doesn’t work, Chicago renters can double their pleasure if their landlords blank on paying the stipulated interest on security deposits, currently 1.7% a year. (more…)

search for : apartment building, rent-controlled units, landlord, security deposit

Normally, I am turned off by real estate books with clever, cute titles such as “Prefabulous” by Sheri Koones. However, I am “turned on” by this great, new, beautiful book that completely changed my mind about so-called “prefab” homes, which are custom built in factories to the specifications of the buyers. A better name for the homes described and photographed in this beautiful book is “modular.” But even that term doesn’t fully reveal the many different types of homes that can be designed by your architect to fit a specific lot or adapted from plans found in catalogs. So called “manufactured homes” are not included in this book because they are covered by a separate building code.

Reasons for building a prefab home, rather than a “stick-built” traditional residence, are many. They include cost savings, fast construction time, greater energy efficiency, better structural integrity and improved warranties. Author Sheri Koones has compiled a photo gallery of dozens of prefab homes of all styles, located throughout the United States and Canada, which show the flexibility of prefab houses. Not only are the finished homes shown, but the factory construction processes reveal the exacting standards, including computerized, highly accurate machinery to save time and labor.

Unless you knew the homes pictured in this book were built in modules in a factory, trucked to the site and then assembled into unique, one-of-a-kind houses, you would never believe what can be done by setting the modules on foundations in one or two days. The largest home in the book was delivered in 15 modules, but most are much smaller. Lest you think modular prefab homes are only for low-income housing, the architect of the 40,000-square-foot Xanadu house for Bill and Melinda Gates in Seattle, James Cutler, now designs prefab custom homes for Lindal Cedar Homes. (more…)

search for : Prefabulous, modular, manufactured homes

I want to purchase a home that my parent own. It has a mortgage in the amount of $250,000 and has been appraised for $499,000. My parents want $200,000 out of it. Should I ask them to refinance and get the money they want and then just arrange to put the house in my name? Or should I purchase the home and give them the money? I want to put an addition on the property and would like to have money to do this without stressing out financially.

We have to analyze this from two points of view: you and your parents. I do not know what your parents paid for the property, but if they have owned and used it for two out of the five years before you buy it, they will be able to take the entire up-to-$500,000 exclusion. Since the price you plan to pay will not exceed $500,000, it would appear that your parents would not have to pay any capital gains tax. If your parents refinance the property, how can you be sure that they will get the $200,0000 they want? They currently own $250,000, which means that they will have to get a refinance loan in the amount of $450,000 in order to take out that amount of money. And even if their credit is pristine pure, I doubt that a lender would agree to such a large loan. Furthermore, your parents will have to be concerned about a gift tax. Currently, each of your parents gave give you (tax free) up to $12,000 per year. However, if they give you the house, that clearly exceeds the free gift amount and they must determine how this will impact on their own tax and financial situation (more…)

search for : mortgage, refinance the property

A look at a U.S. county map of population change from 2000 to 2005 reveals that most non-metro - or rural - counties grew at a slower rate than the national average. Half of all these places lost population. In Nebraska, 84 percent (56 out of 67) of the counties of under 10,000 residents lost population. Kansas lost 28,392 in non-metro population, Iowa 21,697, Illinois 18,673 and North Dakota 17,866. Almost all the farm communities in the Midwest experienced similar population stagnation or loss. According to Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol is now revitalizing many of these rural communities - and not just in the Midwest.

There are already about 100 U.S. ethanol plants in operation, up from 50 in 1999, and 78 more are under construction, reports Dinneen. They range from Texas and California to New York and Florida. They use corn, sorghum, soybeans and other crops to produce ethanol. Development of practical cellulosic ethanol production plants (from switch grass, corn stalks, municipal solid waste and other sources) is underway. “I’ve had the privilege of going out to grand openings of several ethanol plants,” says Dinneen. “Standing in front of 1,000 farmers who have invested in these plants; the excitement is palpable.” These farmers benefit in three ways: They get profits from the ethanol sales, higher prices for crops and the acreage they own becomes more valuable. In Iowa, land prices have risen about 60 percent during the 2000’s, according to a report from Iowa State economist Mike Duffy. Compare that with Iowa single-family house prices, which have risen only about 4.5 percent a year over that period, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight figures. (more…)