Lower Operating Costs Mean New-Home Buyers Can Afford More House
During New Homes Month in April, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is showing home buyers why they can afford a higher-priced home-if it's new construction. Using data from the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2011 American Housing Survey, NAHB found that buyers can purchase a more expensive newer home and achieve the same annual operating costs as an older, existing home. "Home buyers need to look beyond the initial sales price when considering whether to buy new construction or an existing home," said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. "They will find that with the higher costs of operating an older home, they can often afford to spend more to buy a new home and still have annual operating costs that fit their budget."
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North America Gets Its First Sustainable 'Active Home' - And It's in the American Heartland
Over the weekend, an open house was held in the suburbs of St. Louis, Mo. OK, there were lots of open houses over the weekend in the region. But one in particular stood out, for it featured the first "active home" in North America.
What's an "active" house? Basically, it's one that incorporates a comprehensive, exceptionally sustainable and green design inside and out. In 2011, an official list of Active House specifications were established, including a wide range of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly practices and guidelines.
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According to the 2012 National Association of Home Builders™ (NAHB®) "What Home Buyers Really Want" study, energy efficiency is the prime consideration for consumers when purchasing windows. The nationwide survey shows that ENERGY STAR® rated windows (89 percent of respondents), triple-pane insulating glass windows (69 percent of respondents) and Low-E insulating glass windows (67 percent of respondents) are the three top "essential/must have" and "desirable" types of windows identified by surveyed new and potential home buyers.
"This study illustrates the steady growth of energy efficient windows over the past several years with consumers," says Gary Pember, vice president of marketing for Simonton Windows. "As we look at these results we see that our company has been perfectly in tune with consumer demand. We focus on manufacturing energy efficient vinyl home windows and giving consumers a variety of insulating glass package options that can help reduce overall energy costs for their homes.
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Wonders, they never cease. Fannie Mae, one of the two big government-seized mortgage guarantors, just posted a record profit of $17.2 billion for 2012. Its cousin, Freddie Mac, earned $11 billion last year. That's just over four years since they essentially failed. (Combined, Aunt Fannie and Uncle Freddie, as wags like to call them, racked up more than $22 billion in losses in 2011, before the big snapback in the housing sector.)
The windfall puts a new twist on Uncle Sam's tricky business of somehow weaning the all-important, $5-trillion mortgage finance-guarantee business from government conservatorship.
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This new universal siding insulation is available in white EPS, or made of Neopor® from BASF, for a higher-performance option for contractors and homeowners.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Perennial Wood has been named a Green Certified Product by Home Innovation and Research Labs, formerly the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center. MORE>>
Got news? Send it to Rick@LBMJournal.com
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UPCOMING EVENTS
April 18-20 Lumbermen's Association of Texas & Louisiana (LAT) 127th Annual Convention, San Antonio, www.lat.org, 512.472.1194April 25-27 Kentucky Building Materials Association (KBMA) Annual Convention, Louisville, Ky., www.kbma.net, 502.245.6730 May 2 IDEAS Lumber and Building Material Trade Show, Somerset, N.J., www.lbmideas.org May 18-20 Do it Best Corp. May Market, Indianapolis, Ind., www.doitbestcorp.com,
888-DOITBEST
June 5-6 PCBC 2013, San Diego, Calif., www.pcbc.com
October 17-19 West Coast Lumber & Building Material Association (WCLBMA) Annual Convention, San Diego, Calif., www.lumberassociation.org, 800.266.4344
October 19-21 Do it Best Corp. October Market, Indianapolis, Ind., www.doitbestcorp.com, 888-DOITBEST
November 11-13 STAFDA Annual Convention & Trade Show, Las Vegas, www.stafda.org
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