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Housing Crunch Revives Old Cities; Sun Belt Booms, Northeast Blooms
Suburban cities in the Sunbelt and the Northeast are benefiting from home buyers' search for affordable housing, while some of the nation's oldest and largest cities are losing residents. Suburbs of Sun Belt cities such as Phoenix, Los Angeles and Las Vegas have experienced the most growth since 2000. Meanwhile, older cities in New Jersey, Connecticut and California that formerly had been in decline now are being revived as first-time home buyers, many of them immigrants, seek affordable housing in areas with easy access to major employment centers. One city that has experienced significant growth lately is San Antonio, which has claimed Dallas' slot as the eighth-largest U.S. city. Other major locales where growth has slowed or declined — such as Chicago, Boston and New York — have seen their populations expand into the suburbs. (www.usatoday.com)
USA Today (06/24/04) P. 1A; Nasser, Haya El; Overberg, Paul
Online Permit System Coming for Contractors, Builders
By March of next year, builders and contractors in Chattanooga, TN, will have access to an online system that will allow them to apply for permits, schedule inspections, renew licenses and submit project plans. The system also will let users check properties for permits and code violations. Builders and contractors approved the $10 permit fee that will be imposed to pay for the new technology. According to Associated General Contractors President Roger Tudor, the system will benefit both the city and the building industry by streamlining the permit process and helping to quickly add properties to the tax rolls. (www.timesfreepress.com)
Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN) (06/23/04) P. B8; Gang, Duane W.
Black Women Rushing to Buy Houses
Conventional mortgages to single black women in the metropolitan Atlanta area mushroomed 114% between 1997 and 2002, making the demographic one of the fastest-growing home buying groups in the region. While unmarried African-American males actually recorded the greatest mortgage growth locally, single black females purchased more properties. Unwed women were treated as a credit risk by lenders 20 or 30 years ago; but, today they are benefiting from a combination of independent incomes, low interest rates and automated underwriting systems that eliminate race and gender biases. (www.ap.org)
Associated Press (06/21/04)
Foam Home
Designers searching for ways to make inexpensive, earthquake-proof houses in Afghanistan are using expanded polystyrene, the same material used in coffee cups and packing peanuts. Builders have devised a building panel known as Thermasave that consists of a four- to 12-inch-thick core of expanded polystyrene fitted between two half-inch cement sheets. On a building site, the 120-pound, four-by-eight-foot panels connect like Legos. A Thermasave home can be framed in one-third the time required to erect a typical house made of sticks without the use of trained craftsmen. The new construction system will not only be employed for homes in Afghanistan but also for numerous residences set to be built in California and Texas over the coming few months. The nonprofit organization Shelter for Life International intends to construct 20 test homes this summer in Kabul, Afghanistan, with imported foam walls kept in place by wire mesh and hand-plastered with cement. Experts believe that a 226-square-foot house with walls that are 10 inches thick would need $523 in foam and $370 in concrete, compared with the $1,000 it costs to erect a typical mud-brick house. (www.forbes.com)
Forbes (06/21/04) Vol. 173, No. 13, P. 166; Armstrong, David
Construction Costs Seen Rising
Construction costs in the United States are expected to increase by 2.22% between the first and second quarters of this year, according to Turner Corp.'s quarterly forecast. The Dallas-based builder is reporting a rise in its building cost index from 631 in the first quarter to 645 in the second, driven by higher labor costs and the volatile steel and cement markets. "Although construction activity appears to be increasing, the overall competitive environment is counteracting some of the pricing pressure," notes Karl F. Almstead, a vice president at Turner. (www.upi.com)
United Press International (06/21/04)
Fitness: New Home Exercise Rooms Focusing on Yoga
A number of home owners are moving away from traditional fitness rooms in favor of yoga spaces — complete with mats, mirrors, balance bars, laminated wood flooring and fountains. Experts say many yoga aficionados are young transplants from the West Coast or South American and Asian countries, but older home owners with achy knees and joints also are interested in practicing yoga in the privacy of their homes. Yoga rooms are popping up in new homes, but owners of existing dwellings can incorporate them as well. Floor space and a mat are the only essentials, but some go as far as transforming dens and offices into what some call "Zen rooms." (www.ap.org)
Associated Press (06/21/04) Johnston, Lori
Less Heat on U.S. Insurers
While home owners insurance climbed 7.4% in 2003, the Insurance Information Institute is calling for growth of just 2.8% in costs this year. That gain, which puts the average premium at $608 per year, is the smallest in five years. The reasons behind the anticipated slowdown in the price of coverage include research revealed last month showing that "toxic" mold — which spawned $3 billion in payouts in 2002 — actually is not as big of a health risk as initially believed. Moreover, most states — 46, to be more precise — have relieved insurers of liability for mold claims; and frightened home owners who purchased terrorism riders have since calmed down. (www.businessweek.com)
Business Week (06/21/04) No. 3888, P. 13; Hempel, Jessi
Hanley Wood Enters the Consulting Industry
After five years of negotiations, publisher Hanley Wood has completed its purchase of the Meyers Group consulting firm. Hanley Wood, publisher of Builder magazine, does not plan to reorganize or eliminate any positions. The Meyers Group informs builders and developers of the latest happenings in the new-home market. CEO Jeff Meyers will remain at the helm of the California-based company. (www.baltimoresun.com)
Baltimore Sun (06/20/04) P. 7L
Lukewarm Response to a Liquid Asset
While many home buyers express initial interest in dwellings with swimming pools, they often change their minds when they take into consideration the amount of time and money that owning and maintaining a backyard pool requires — even when it is not in use. In general, pools increase the cost of a new home by $20,000-$40,000. Climate can play a role in buyers' attitudes toward pools. In warmer environments, for instance, they are part of the lifestyle, according to Gopal Ahluwalia, research director for NAHB; while in regions like the Northeast, pools are less desirable since they are in use only a few months per year. The buyers' family also can influence demand for a pool; many parents of young children prefer not to buy a home with a pool because of the risk of drowning. To avoid this potential hazard, experts recommend that home owners install high fences with secure, child-proof locks. Community pools can be an attractive alternative at condominium and new-home developments because maintenance costs usually are covered in condo and home owner association fees. Indoor pools, meanwhile, appeal to older condo buyers — who can use them for therapeutic purposes. (www.philly.com)
Philadelphia Inquirer (06/20/04) P. J1; Heavens, Alan J.
Nextel Offers Voice Memos Sent as E-Mail
Nextel Communications' new NextMail service lets users send voice messages recorded on their mobile phones as e-mail messages. The service, described by Nextel spokeswoman Cheryl Hawkins as "an evolution of the push-to-talk service," costs just $7.50 per month. Users simply key in the recipients' addresses at Nextel's Web site, select as many as 50 addresses on their phone screens, record the voice mail and send it as an MP3 file. No other cell phone provider offers the service at this time. (www.washingtonpost.com)
Washington Post (06/22/04) P. E1; Noguchi, Yuki
I'll Take Color Laser Printers for $500
Hewlett Packard recently rolled out an affordable color laser jet printer for small businesses. The $499 HP 2550L prints 20 pages-per-minute in black and white and four pages-per-minute in color. Users will shell out 12 cents for every color page and 2.4 cents for every black and white page printed by the machine. Though the HP 2550L offers good print quality, it prints slower than other color printers in the same price range. It is also fairly bulky at just under 50 pounds and holds only 125 sheets of paper at a time. Small businesses that want to link their printers to a network would be wise to spend $600 on the HP 2550LN instead. (www.smallbusinesscomputing.com)
Small Business Computing (06/21/04) Grevstad, Eric
Wireless Godsends for Businesses
Scores of companies want to bolster productivity through technology, and wireless capabilities will be among those adopted to achieve greater efficiency. Cellular phones, for instance, now link to the Internet, send e-mails and track stocks and bank accounts, among other tasks; and users might be able to connect them to their desktop computers sometime in the near future. Nextel Communications already offers phones that transfer data in real-time and let companies track the locations of their employees. Meanwhile, insurance adjusters are using Sprint's cellular service to handle claims in the field, find local repair shops and immediately cut checks for claimants. Furthermore, mobile workers will soon be able to access accounting systems, inventory and other back-end data located behind company firewalls with the help of IBM's Web Sphere. "The overarching goal is the true mobile office," says palmOne spokesman Jimmy Johnson. (www.businessweek.com)
Business Week (06/21/04) Crockett, Roger O.; Rosenbush, Steve
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