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…)

I applied and was approved for a cash-out mortgage refinancing. The loan amount was for $260,000, which I expected to be enough to pay off the balance on my existing first mortgage, a home equity line of credit, a credit card balance and the loan’s closing costs. The lender provided me with a good faith estimate for estimated settlement charges of $3,617. On the day of closing, the closing attorney’s office called to tell me that I would need to bring a check to the closing for $5,029. After making some calls, I learned from an administrator in the closing attorney’s office that my existing first mortgage had a prepayment penalty.

I’m not with you on this one. A good faith estimate, or GFE, isn’t designed to show you the prepayment penalties on the existing loan; rather, it discloses any prepayment penalties on the new loan. It was your responsibility to know whether the existing mortgage had a prepayment penalty. The closing costs on a GFE are just estimates and are represented as such. Allocating loan proceeds with GFEs is never a good idea. It’s the HUD-1 Settlement Statement, not the GFE, that shows the actual settlement costs of the loan transaction. Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or RESPA, you had the right to request the HUD-1 or the HUD-1A one day before settlement. Here’s what the HUD Web site says about that statement: (more…)

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If your house has been on the market for quite a while (3 to 6 months), you may have already dropped your price and now you’re waiting for the buyers to rush in and make wonderful offers on this now-priced right property. And then it happens. The lone buyer does appear, like a bandit in the night and offers you even less than what you just agreed to. Quite a bit less — about 10 percent less. So on your $350,000 house, that you just dropped to $324,000, you now have an offer for $299,000. With a seller subsidy request of $5,000. At this point, your net is $294,000.

So how do you handle such a low-ball offer. Well, first of all — don’t panic, get angry or lose sleep. Especially, don’t reject the offer right off the bat and tell them to come back when they’re serious. Remember, it’s now a negotiation game and the buyer IS serious or he or she would not have made an offer. Several things have happened before this offer came in. The buyer, with his agent, has researched the market, walked through as many as 30 or 50 properties, conducted a study on the value of the property and written an offer for your house. Remember, you just won the lottery. They could have written on any other house, but they selected yours. So let’s get busy. First of all, do an analysis of your own goals and needs. How much do you really need to come out of this house to meet your goals of moving to your next home? What could you really live with and what amount are you going to counter. Remember this last point — what are you going to counter? This is assuming that you’re not rolling over and that you’re going to stay in the game. (more…)

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The strength of a homeowner association lies in the effective volunteer efforts of its members. While the heavy lifting often falls on the board of directors, committees can help lighten the load by focusing on specific tasks assigned by the board. There are two types of committees: standing and ad hoc. Standing committees exist indefinitely or until the board decides their purpose is no longer needed. Examples include Landscape Committee, Social Committee and Pool Committee.

The beauty of committees is that they can draw on specific member expertise, like a CPA that serves on the Budget Committee or an architect that serves on the Architectural Design Committee. Ad hoc committees do the same thing with the added attraction that the commitment time is limited. Committees are training ground for future board members. Since committees are called on to participate in board meetings to give reports, participation acquaints committee members with the board process. Proven and effective committee members are candidates groomed for board service. Whether a committee is standing or ad hoc, both should have a similar framework including: the purpose of a committee is to assist and advise the board in a given area of responsibility, a committee should consist of three or more members which may include a board member as a board liaison. The board president typically appoints the committee chairman. The chairman is the spokesperson for that committee, each committee should be provided a clear job description by the board that outlines expectations. A committee must obtain specific authority from the board to deal with any matter outside its job description. A committee cannot make policies or rules. Only the board is granted that authority. A committee may recommend a policy or rule to the board. If the board agrees with the recommendation and formally enacts it, the committee may or may not be given authority by the board to enforce the policy or rule. Enforcement authority is also under the discretion of the board. (more…)

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Light-emitting diodes were invented in the ’50s. They are semiconductor devices — a kind of computer chip — that give off light when current is applied to them. Depending on their chemical makeup, they can emit green, blue, red or white light. L.E.D.’s are now available with standard screw-type bases, so they can easily replace incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs in your home. They are also sold in “high-hat,” or downlighting, fixtures for the ceiling. The face of most L.E.D. bulbs looks like a circuit board and the light they put out resembles a cluster of brilliant dots, each about the size of an aspirin tablet.

L.E.D.’s produce about 70 lumens (the standard measure for light) per watt, whereas an incandescent bulb produces only 10 to 15 and the compact fluorescent, only about 35. Unlike compact fluorescent bulbs, L.E.D.’s have no mercury, an important environmental consideration because most bulbs end up in landfills. L.E.D.’s cost more than either conventional or compact fluorescent bulbs, but they last far longer. Whereas the average incandescent bulb costs less than a dollar and a compact fluorescent bulb can sell for a few dollars, some L.E.D.’s run as high as $90 a bulb. But L.E.D. lights are typically rated as having a lifespan of 30,000 to 50,000 hours. So an L.E.D. bulb can last for more than 10 years, if you use it 8 hours a day. Compact fluorescents are typically rated at 7,500 to 10,000 hours, and incandescents at about 1,500 hours. Rather than burning out as incandescent bulbs do, L.E.D.’s light output dims over tens of thousands of hours. L.E.D.’s are also more resistant to vibration than incandescents or screw-in fluorescent bulbs, and do not flicker or hum. (more…)

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I am a first time homebuyer. I have found a house that is approximately 35 years old, and plan to submit a contract shortly. I have been talking to my realtor about the need for a home inspection and she has not been very supportive of this. She has suggested that if I make the contract contingent upon my obtaining a home inspection, the seller may balk at signing the contract. What do you suggest?

Unless you are a professional contractor, you definitely need to retain the services of a competent home inspector. Your contract must be contingent on your obtaining a satisfactory inspection. This means that you will have X number of days (the number to be spelled out in the sales contract) to have the property inspected. If you are dissatisfied for any reason, you have the absolute right to terminate the contract and get your earnest money deposit refunded. In fact, many buyers give the deposit check to the broker, but add language in the sales contract that the check will not be deposited until the inspection contingency has been removed. There are two kinds of inspection contingencies; general inspection: here, if the buyer is dissatisfied with the inspection for any reason — in his or her sole discretion — the buyer may declare the contract null and void, specific inspection: under this arrangement, the buyer must provide the seller with a list of specific repairs to be made. The seller has a fixed number of days in which to respond. Let’s take this example: you list 8 items for consideration by the seller. The seller comes back in a timely manner and agrees to repair 6 of the problems, but not all of them. You then have a fixed number of days in which to either accept what the seller has proposed, continue negotiations for the remaining two items, or terminate the contract. (more…)

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“Today’s kitchen is more expensive than the living room,” says Christian Witt-Dörring, the Viennese decorative-arts curator and cultural historian. “You used to sit and work in the kitchen. Today, you put the kitchen in the living room so you can be with your guests.” Although luxurious designer kitchens can be had for less — at Bulthaup, one of Europe’s leading high-end retail design firms, a customer spends an average €30,000-€f40,000 to redo a kitchen — we wanted something special, from which you can take elements, or the full design, for your own kitchen.

Svenskt Tenn is one of the torchbearers of the Scandinavian design tradition, which seeks a balance between old-fashioned craftsmanship and modernist functionality. Founded in 1924 by pewter designer Estrid Ericson (”Svenskt Tenn” translates as Swedish pewter), the firm is closely associated with Josef Frank, the Viennese architect and designer who fled to Sweden in the 1930s after the rise of the Nazis. Known in particular for his textile and furniture designs, Frank oversaw the establishment of a joyful, but never frivolous, eclecticism.
Today, Svenskt Tenn is Stockholm’s most prestigious home-furnishings store, as well as the creator of highly regarded public and private interiors. In their design for our kitchen, Svenskt Tenn architect Martin Edvardsson and interior decorator Katerina Abrahamsson started by dividing the square room into a dining area and working area. “Square rooms are difficult,” says Mr. Edvardsson. “There is nothing to get hold of, and you have to center the furniture.” A significant portion of the budget — €64,500 — is spent on the basics: a set of Svenskt custom-designed kitchen cabinets, made of white-lacquered mahogany, with brass fittings and a stained mahogany top; a hearth-like island built around an Aga stove; and a Josef Frank sideboard. (more…)

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With the local real estate market uncertain and little free time, the couple are not eager to go through the work of selling their home and shopping for a new one. So Russell is using technology to test the market for him: He’s used a service by real estate web site Zillow.com to drum up interest in their home without officially putting it up for sale.

Zillow is typical of a new generation of real estate web sites that offer gee-whiz visual appeal and much more information than just property listings and cool maps. With customers demanding more accurate information and competition heating up among sites sporting more sophisticated and powerful technology, today’s real estate Web services are trying to do more of the heavy lifting around marketing and selling a property. “Things have changed a lot,” said Celia Chen, director of housing economics at Moody’s Economy.com. “Ten years ago you couldn’t go in and stick in a zip code to find out how many houses are for sale.” In addition to one-year-old Zillow, other sites include: Cyberhomes.com, a research and appraisal tool; Trulia.com, a real estate search engine; and Redfin.com and My-Currency.com, Web portals for buying and selling homes in select US markets . Zillow has generated the biggest buzz. Its “Zestimate” service, which uses proprietary algorithms to calculate an individual property’s valuation, was a hit on the cocktail circuit, as neighbors and acquaintances could gossip about house values. (more…)

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Nearly 80 percent of home buyers start their search on the Internet - soon they’ll have more to look at. On its Web site, the Peninsula on Indian River Bay development in Delaware has begun using high-quality, television news-style presentation to sell homes. On the site, viewers take interactive tours of the property, led by two on-line hosts, through different site “channels.” Even now, the economics are such that a development of 50 to 100 homes could afford a Web site like Peninsula’s, according to Varesko. And big real estate brokers, such as Century 21, Coldwell Banker (both part of Realogy) and Re/Max, are quickly ramping up.

Sites are already getting souped-up. “A year ago,” Young says, “we were telling all our brokers about the need to put more [still] photos on their Web sites.” Today, if your site doesn’t offer virtual tours, mapping technology, neighborhood guides and a video library of buying and selling tips, it’s nowhere. Young connects the whole trend to the YouTube phenomenon, where seemingly everyone in America is making and posting their own videos. Putting together even an elaborate site like Peninsula’s is not expensive. The project’s developer, Larry Goldstein, says it cost only about $50,000. As a matter of fact, compared to more traditional forms of marketing, such as newspaper advertising, the site is a bargain and more efficient. “Our market is so broad,” says Goldstein, “from New York City through New Jersey, Philadelphia and the D.C. area, so how do you pick and choose where to put your ad money?” (more…)

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In the past few weeks, the bodies have been piling up fast and furiously. Fallout from subprime mortgages - that is, home loans to borrowers with a blemished credit history - gone bad has wreaked havoc on the industry. Big names Washington Mutual (Charts) and HSBC have reported hits tied to their subprime business and there has been a nonstop barrage of bad news for major subprime lenders, including New Century Financial (Charts) and NovaStar Financial (Charts). Now the worry is what happens to the economy if enough homeowners go into default and to the financial markets if enough investors take a bath on mortgage-related securities.

As for foreclosures, they’re currently running 25 percent higher than they were this time last year, according to RealtyTrac. “We don’t have high unemployment, high interest rates or a slowing economy, but we’re seeing the number of foreclosure filings pushed above historic averages,” says Rick Sharga, a marketing exec for RealtyTrac. “You can’t underestimate the effect of higher risk loans.” Adding to the problem are jittery lenders who have suddenly begun to tighten their standards. “You’re seeing credit score requirements being increased. You’re seeing documentation firming up,” says Bob Walters, chief economist with Quicken Loans. “Fewer people will get loans and maybe rightly so.” The higher hurdles, while perhaps healthy for the long term, will cause a short- term credit crunch. Translation: delinquencies and foreclosures should rise, which will create more credit problems in a vicious cycle that will probably weigh on housing for the rest of the year. None of this is good news to investors in U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities, which now account for some 20 percent of the global fixed income market, the largest component. (more…)

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