Erika and Greg Tansey couldn’t afford the house they really wanted in Lake Oswego, an upscale suburb of Portland, Oregon, so they opted for Plan B: buying an outdated, dilapidated Cape and remodeling it. “The bathroom was so small that your knees hit the tub when you used the toilet. The hallways were narrow and dark. And the garage was basically falling over,” says Erika.

Erika and Greg started demolition in September 2005, with more significant plans than they’d first imagined: raising the roof, putting in an addition, doubling the square footage and reconfiguring the floor plan. Erika, 34, a freelance marketing consultant, and Greg, 35, a venture capitalist, budgeted $200,000 for their extreme home makeover. But the project took six months longer than expected, cost $80,000 more than planned and finished just as the bubble began deflating. By the time they finished this past August, they were exhausted but eager to share the lessons they’d learned. (more…)

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As the number of foreclosures rises, homeowners unable to make their mortgage payments are facing another growing threat: “foreclosure rescue” scams. State and federal authorities say they are investigating an increasing number of homeowner complaints about fraud and deception by companies that engage in lending to financially distressed borrowers seeking to avoid foreclosure. Several states have recently passed or are contemplating new laws to provide more protection against dishonest businesses trying to take advantage of already vulnerable homeowners.

The problem centers on foreclosure-rescue companies, which target homeowners behind on their mortgage payments through newspaper ads or fliers claiming services such as “fast cash,” “equity funding” and “no credit check.” According to some recent cases filed by consumers and regulators, the companies mislead borrowers into believing they can save their homes from foreclosure in exchange for a transfer of the title for a year or two. The companies promise borrowers they can stay in their homes by paying rent for that period, giving them time to catch up financially until they can buy back their property. (more…)

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Americans are involved in a new “space race.” According to the American Institute of Architects, Americans are making their outside spaces more and more elaborate - and more like their inside ones. The outdoor living room trend is a wholesale repackaging of the typical patio/pool area into something much more elaborate and comfortable. It goes way beyond lounge chairs and barbecues. Outdoor living rooms often resemble plush, luxurious parlors. They feature not only cushiony furniture, they even have entertainment centers with built-in plasma screen televisions and hi-fi systems.

The feature most in demand for these modern Edens is a fireplace. These not only infuse soirees with an atavistic atmosphere, they also make it possible for those in cooler climes to enjoy being outside for a greater part of the year. Part of the impetus for these spaces may have come from the decreasing tolerance for smoking. Hosts may abhor the smell of tobacco smoke, but they also want to be hospitable. Modern guests are used to retreating to the back yard to grab a quick coffin nail. Now they can do it in style. (more…)

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America’s housing market has started to slow down a bit, but southeastern North Carolina is still going strong. CNNMoney.com recently named Wilmington NC as one of the top 10 cities to buy a home. It ranked seventh nationally for potential real estate appreciation over the next five years.

Over the past five years home sales had hit record highs as low mortgage rates lured buyers. But the housing sector has lost steam this year as would-be buyers have grown more cautious amid high energy prices and rising interest rates. When asked what happens when mortgage rates and interest rates go up mortgage broker Karen Davis said, “Typically the market slows down somewhat. It takes a little longer to sell a house than it was 12 months ago.” One place realtors and mortgage brokers are not seeing a slowdown is in second-home sales. People are still buying vacation homes here. But unlike a year ago when many were buying purely as an investment, second home buyers now plan on living in their vacation home. (more…)

search for : Wilmington NC, top 10 cities to buy a home, rising interest rates, mortgage brokers

Conflicting data this week showed that the housing market, like a bull in the ring, is wounded yet still powerful. It takes an experienced toreador to discern whether the beast will succumb to the knife or come charging back. The course it takes may hinge on which matters more to buyers: falling interest rates [a big positive] or fear of falling prices [a big negative].

For now, at least, housing construction is clearly in a localized recession. The freshest evidence came on Nov. 17 from the Census Bureau, which announced that starts on construction of single-family homes plunged 14.6% in October, to the lowest level since July, 2000. On top of that, permits fell 6.3%, to the lowest level since December, 1997, indicating that construction could dip even further in the months ahead [see BusinessWeek.com, 11/17/06, “An Awful October for Housing Starts”]. (more…)

The cost of homeowners’ claims for damage due to lightning strikes is soaring because of the burgeoning number of high-end electronic items and appliances in the average home, insurers say.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. says that the cost of claims the company paid due to lightning strikes rose 77% between Jan. 2001 and July 2006, even as the number of claims fell in the period by nearly half. Some of the nation’s largest insurance companies, including State Farm Insurance Cos. and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., also say they’re experiencing a similar trend.

Insurers partly attribute the higher losses to the growing number of home-theater systems, plasma and high-definition television sets, game consoles and personal computers in the average American home — which all can be fried by a surge of voltage in a home’s electrical wiring that can occur from a lightning strike. Rising rebuilding costs are also a factor because in the worst instances, lightning torches the house either from overloading appliances or from a direct hit. (more…)

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James Andrew Ryan pleaded guilty to four counts of forgery involving fictitious quitclaim deeds. In each instance, Ryan went looking for what he judged to be run-down homes with unkempt yards. He wrote down the address and researched the owner’s name through county records. Ryan then forged the owner’s name on a quitclaim deed and finished it off with a bogus notary public seal. The phony quitclaim deed, showing the owner’s interest conveyed to Ryan, was then recorded at the Pierce County, Wash., auditor’s office.

The Ryan case may be the first known case of real estate fraud focusing of run-down homes coupled with bogus quitclaim deeds. The most common real estate fraud known as equity skimming, or rent skimming, typically includes a supposedly good-hearted investor looking to help a desperate homeowner. Instead, the investor persuades the homeowner into believing the investor will pay the bank a sum of cash to keep the mortgage from going into default if the homeowner “rents back” the home from the investor. The investor then runs off with two to three months of rent and sometimes even the title to the house. (more…)

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Fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages are the two main types of mortgages of the home-lending world. Let’s take a look at the differences. A fixed-rate mortgage is very straightforward. The borrower knows from the beginning what the interest rate will be for the entire duration of the mortgage, and the monthly payments due are likewise fixed. Simple.

Slightly less simple is the adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM. It changes from year to year, to reflect the interest rate environment. If rates are plummeting, your rate will also drop — and vice versa. ARMs typically have an extra-low “teaser rate” for the first year, as well as an upper limit, or cap. The amount that an ARM can rise each year is also limited, so that it won’t rise too quickly. Fixed-rate mortgages are good because they come with no surprises. But for this benefit, you’ll likely pay a slightly higher rate than you would with an ARM. Fixed-rate mortgages are good for people who enjoy stability. They’re also especially attractive during periods when interest rates are low, such as they have been in recent years. At such times, fixed-rate mortgages permit you to lock in low rates for many years to come. (more…)

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What happened to the American Chestnut tree? It was wiped out by blight from a fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica. The fungus was first discovered in Bronx Zoological Park, Bronx, NY in 1904 and spread throughout the entire range of the American chestnut reaching our mountains and destroying most mature tress by 1930s and just about all by the 1950s. The fungus was introduced by Japanese Chestnut trees imported into the United States in the late 1800’s.

There are two organizations working to restore the American chestnut to the forest: the American Chestnut Cooperators’ Foundation (ACCF) and the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF). The ACCF intercrosses 100% American chestnut trees selected for native resistance to the blight and seeks to develop a tree with natural resistance. The ACF has been working on breeding hybrids of American and Chinese chestnut trees since 1983. Trees are selected from each generation based on their ability to resist the fungus and have the characteristics of the American chestnut. The early hybrids were 50% American and 50% Chinese chestnut. Today there are trees that are 94% American. The goal is to have trees with no Chinese chestnut characteristics except resistance to the blight. (more…)

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A recent analysis of American commuting habits confirms what many weary workers already know: Commutes are getting longer. More Americans than ever are leaving home at 5 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. to beat the traffic. The number of workers who drive more than an hour to work rose more than 50 percent from 1990 to 2000, a study released last month by the Transportation Research Board found. One way to escape gridlock is to work from home. You’ll get more sleep, and you may be eligible for some tax breaks. The home-office deduction lets you deduct a portion of your mortgage interest or rent, utilities, insurance and even repairs to your home.

People who work from home because their employers don’t want to provide them with office space are eligible to deduct some of their home-office expenses. If your employer does provide you with an office or a cubicle, you don’t qualify, even if you work from home most of the time, says Keith Stanton, an enrolled agent in Nashville. Once you’ve established that you’re eligible for the deduction, you’ve got another hurdle to clear. Your home-office expenses are categorized as miscellaneous expenses on Schedule A of Form 1040. Those expenses must exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI) before you can deduct them, says Mark Luscombe, tax analyst for tax publisher CCH. (more…)

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