President, First Lady Buy Retirement Home
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush have bought a house in the affluent Dallas neighborhood of Preston Hollow.
Accountant and family friend, Robert McCleskey, apparently purchased the house on their behalf. It has 8,500 square feet on a cul-de-sac with a half-dozen homes. Its market value is $2.1 million, and total estimated taxes on the property are listed at $43,984.
The neighbors include Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers, and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. T. Boone Pickens and retired Exxon Mobil CEO Lee R. Raymond also own houses nearby.
“If he moves next door, we’d love it,” Hicks wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “The Secret Service would make the neighborhood safer!”
Source: The Associated Press, Jeff Carlton (12/04/08)
Why Are Property Taxes Still Rising?
Property taxes continue to rise across the country, despite steep declines in home values.
Property tax collections across the United States rose 3.1 percent this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). That means state and local governments will collect more than $400 billion in property taxes this year—a record amount.
Most states have caps that prevent taxes from rising rapidly in boom times. The same laws keep taxes from plummeting when home values decline.
“Property taxes aren’t always popular, but they are a very stable tax, even in tough times,” says Thomas Gentzel, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Board Association.
Source: USA Today, Dennis Cauchon (12/04/08)
Housing Prices Fall Below Replacement Costs
Housing consultancy Global Insight reports that nationwide, housing prices are now 3.8 percent undervalued, based on total market value. It says values fell at a faster pace in the third quarter after stabilizing earlier in the year.
According to Global Insight’s calculations, prices are now 6.5 percent below their 2007 peak. They fell at a 6.9 percent annual pace affecting 241 of the 330 metropolitan areas analyzed by Global Insight. That’s up from 150 metro areas affected in the second quarter.
Contraction is most severe in the Southeast and Southwest with only the Pacific Northwest remaining overvalued, Global Insight says.
Home prices fell more than 10 percent in the third quarter in nine central California communities. The Central Valley communities of Merced, Stockton, and Modesto have seen property values fall to less than half their 2005 value.
Twenty-nine metro areas in California, Florida, and Nevada – at one time among the most overvalued – have seen price declines in excess of 30 percent. Similar steep price drops are occurring in Michigan, northeast Ohio, the southern metro areas from Charlotte to Atlanta, as well as in New England.
“Weak economic conditions and wary consumers continue to hold the housing market back,” says Jeannine Cataldi, senior economist and manager of Global Insight’s Regional Real Estate Service. “Although many areas are seeing home sales increase, it is largely due to foreclosure homes being snapped up at significantly discounted prices. As the inventory of these homes is removed from the market, prices will remain on a downward path.”
Source: Global Insight (12/03/08)
Buyers Want Flexibility Over Bigger Rooms
Smaller, versatile space space is trumping huge square footage among home buyers, according to the findings of at least one major home builder.
Designers at Beazer Homes are eliminating long hallways to open up plans. They also are scaling back master bedrooms.
“We found some masters were getting deeper, so the distance from the end of the bed to the dresser across from it was often more than five feet–a no man’s land. Instead, we’re tightening it up and putting that [square footage] somewhere else,” says Kent Goff, Beazer’s vice president of planning and design.
Preferred floor plans include a flexible space that can be attached to master to be used as either another bedroom or an office.
“[People] are looking for spaces that can be used in a couple of ways, depending on how they live their lives,” Goff says. “It’s all about usable, functional space, not just bigger rooms anymore.”
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (11/29/2008)
Modular Housing Qualifies for Green Certification
NAHBGreen verification is now available for modular homes, providing the green-building certification process to the sector that manufactures 20 percent of the country’s housing stock.
The Modular Green Approved initiative was introduced on Nov. 25 by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the NAHB Building Systems Councils (BSC), and the NAHB Research Center.
Modular Green is a new program provided by the NAHB Research Center, which also oversees the National Green Building Certification initiative for traditionally constructed houses.
Traditional homes are inspected onsite by NAHB Research Center-trained verifiers who examine the insulation, framing and other components of the building envelope –as well as the materials and products that help produce water efficiency, better indoor environmental quality and other hallmarks of green building.
While a modular or systems-built home is built to the same codes as a traditional, site-built home, the inspector can’t see behind the walls when it arrives at the building site, making the verification process more difficult. By ensuring that the house and its components meet green requirements in the factory through this new program, the rest of the inspection can be conducted onsite.
“Consumers have become wary of vague, unverifiable green claims,” says Bret Berneche, BSC Modular Council President and CEO of Cardinal Homes, a modular manufacturer in Wylliesburg, Va. “With this program, consumers can be comfortable knowing they are getting a product that is verified against a nationally recognized program.”
Because modular homes are factory-constructed, they make use of resource efficiencies that make them less costly to manufacture, meaning they are more affordable and environmentally friendly.
“This is a very important step for the industry as more and more builders rely on systems-built construction methods,” NAHB President Sandy Dunn said in a statement. “Modular construction helps builders reduce their overhead and go green with ease by assembling a significant portion of the home in the factory.”
Top Tax-Friendly Communities for Retirees
Spending the least amount possible on taxes is smart money-saving strategy for retirees.
To find the most tax-friendly places to retire, U.S. News & World Report sifted through more than 2,000 U.S. locales to find spots with low taxes and the amenities that are important to retirees like an economical cost of living, good recreational opportunities and attractive cultural amenities.
Here are the magazine’s top 10 communities:
- Billings, Mont.
- Cheyenne, Wyo.
- Doral, Fla.
- Henderson, Nev.
- Juneau, Alaska
- Manchester, N.H.
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Sioux Falls, S.D.
- Spokane, Wash.
- Stafford, Texas
Source: US News & World Report, Emily Brandon (11/25/08)
Study: Green Building Could Triple in 5 Years
A McGraw-Hill Construction study estimates that the value of green building construction could increase a possible 300 percent to as much as $140 billion by 2013.
Green Outlook 2009 observes that green building construction’s value has risen by a factor of five between 2005 and 2008, increasing from $10 billion to an estimated range of $36 billion to $49 billion.
“Green growth is phenomenal across the globe,” says McGraw-Hill’s Harvey M. Bernstein. “The business opportunities afforded by green building, even in the midst of a global economic crisis, are real and recognized by industry players.”
Green Outlook 2009 comes on the heels of two other highly positive McGraw-Hill reports: A September report predicted a major surge in growth and profits in green construction globally, while a second study in October concluded that green residential construction is continuing to trend upward despite the economic downturn.
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