April 2006 - MND NewsWire

Information on March figures for both existing and new house sales were released this week and figures show a moderate slowing from similar data one year ago but with a gradual upswing from first quarter 2006 figures. This might indicate that "The Spring Market" is still alive and well.

New home sales of single family residential units in March of this year were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,213,000; 13.8 percent above the revised February figure of 1,066,000 but down 7.2 percent from the estimate in March 2005 of 1,307,000.

Existing homes also sold better and faster in March than in February, adding to the strong rebound noted that month according to figures released this week by NAR.

Just our opinion, but spiraling gas prices may present an abundance of unintended consequences when it comes to the housing market. Some of these repercussions could ultimately be healthy, but other will pose some serious problems for consumers and the industry.

The Effect on Suburbia

The Effect on Interest Rates

The Effect on Housing Construction

Two reports on new residential construction came out on Tuesday - one of which showed a slowing in new home construction and the other revealing a growing unease among home builders about the near term future of their industry.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its monthly joint report with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on March numbers of both building permits issued and actual housing starts. These were substantially below revised figures for February although still running higher than March 2005 numbers.

It's off topic from the green building/living topic we have been investigating, but maybe not so much.

The decision to buy a new home or an older home has many ramifications and energy efficiency and the impact on the environment are among them. While we continue to intermittently talk about new materials and new techniques, in building, we are going to pause to examine the pros and cons of buying a new house or buying old an old house.

In making a decision between an existing home and new construction there are a lot of factors to be considered:

Mortgage rates were up for the week ended April 6th and 7th according to the weekly surveys released by Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association respectively. However, Freddie Mac in its Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey recorded substantial rate jumps while MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey reported that rates barely budged.

Mortgage activity dropped for the week. The Market Composite Index which measures loan application volume...

Although we do not have the time to respond to all of the hundreds of remarks left in the comments section of this site, we do read each and every comment. That section, incidentally, is becoming a very vibrant blog with information being exchanged among readers and help given; it is a lot of fun to read. However, we recently noted several specific questions about the Internal Revenue Service's interpretation of the capital gains exclusion of profits on the sale of a personal residence. With April 17 approaching fast (April 15 falls on a non-business day) we would like to point those readers with questions about this beneficial tax wrinkle toward some free help.

Seems strange that a vacuum, a refrigerator, bicycle, even a 4 inch house plant from Home Depot, comes with a manual or at least a set of instructions (place in indirect light, water only when soil is completely dry) but a homeowner is pretty much on his own when trying to operate, maintain, and protect his largest and probably most complicated investment.

As with so many things today, the Internet comes to the rescue. We found dozens of websites from a simple search for "home maintenance". Several of those we reviewed provided excellent information that can fill in for that missing home owner's manual. Each of the three listed below has its place and we recommend checking them out and then book marking them for future reference.