Most Emailed Articles
Most Emailed Articles
With kitchens and baths becoming more complex, designers and builders must stay current on the latest recommendations for creating rooms that satisfy today’s changing consumer needs and lifestyles.
Companies that stand out share what’s made them successful.
Honoring the best business practices and the best design in the custom home market.
CertainTeed has diverted more than 24 million pounds of waste from being landfilled by incorporating a high-recycled content in its insulation product. ToughGard 2 Textile Duct Liner contains 75 percent recycled content — the highest of any textile duct liner in the market.
Existing-home sales were sharply lower in July following expiration of the home buyer tax credit but home prices continued to gain. Given the rock-bottom mortgage interest rates and historically high housing affordability conditions, the pace of a sales recovery could pick up quickly, provided the economy consistently adds jobs.
Nationwide housing starts inched up 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 546,000 units in July from a downwardly revised figure in the previous month. The gain occurred entirely on the multifamily side, with single-family housing production falling 4.2 percent to 432,000 units. Builders are seeing greater hesitancy among potential home buyers who are uncertain about what's in store for the economy and jobs going forward.
In some newly constructed housing developments home builders are including a clause in the contract demanding a 1 percent transfer fee to be paid to them every time the property is sold over the next 99 years. The fee isn’t for improvements or maintenance. It is just a payment to the builder, and not everyone likes it.
Homeowners are more pessimistic about the short-term future of home values in their local market than they have been in the past three quarters. One-third believe local home values have not yet reached a bottom, while 38 percent believe they already have reached bottom.
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