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Help New Home Owners Settle In With 'Caring for Your Home'
Put new home owners at ease with "Caring for Your Home: A Guide to Maintaining Your Investment."
Available at BuilderBooks.com, "Caring for Your Home" is a step-by-step "owner’s manual" that demystifies the anatomy of a house and explains the whys and how-tos behind critical maintenance tasks.
It contains a seasonal checklist and has sections devoted to yard care, exterior maintenance, roof care, interior maintenance, budgeting and more. It also includes tips on budgeting materials, tools and techniques to help your new home owners plan ahead, save money and maintain the value of their new homes.
"Caring for Your Home" is available in 10-copy bundles. Click "Caring for Your Home" to view or purchase it online, or call 800-223-2665.
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Help New Home Owners Settle In With 'Caring for Your Home'
Put new home owners at ease with "Caring for Your Home: A Guide to Maintaining Your Investment."
Available at BuilderBooks.com, "Caring for Your Home" is a step-by-step "owner’s manual" that demystifies the anatomy of a house and explains the whys and how-tos behind critical maintenance tasks.
It contains a seasonal checklist and has sections devoted to yard care, exterior maintenance, roof care, interior maintenance, budgeting and more. It also includes tips on budgeting materials, tools and techniques to help your new home owners plan ahead, save money and maintain the value of their new homes.
"Caring for Your Home" is available in 10-copy bundles. Click "Caring for Your Home" to view or purchase it online, or call 800-223-2665.
Fastest Growing Remodeling Markets Located Primarily in the Sunbelt
With the nation’s residential remodeling market fast approaching an annual volume of one-quarter of a trillion dollars, Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, noted several trends that are changing the industry at a time when it is poised to continue the steady real annual growth of roughly 3% characterizing the past 10 years.
The remodeling market has become increasingly dominated by home owners, who have been contributing about 75% of all remodeling expenditures, and 80% of that spending … …[ MORE ]
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Housing Snapshot
As expected, the Federal Resereve Board last week increased its Federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 2.5%, and banks followed by raising their prime rate to 5.5%. While one-year adjustable rate mortgages have been moving up some, the cost of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages continued to move down slightly. "We will probably see the ARM rise a little more over the next few weeks in anticipation of further rate increases by the Fed while the long-term fixed rates remain fairly flat," said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. "Mortgage rates remain historically low, which helps to maintain a robust housing industry. Looking forward, we continue to expect long-term rates will not rise very much this year, and that the economy will grow at a sustainable pace, and this should translate into a continued good atmosphere for housing." Remarks by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan on the U.S. trade deficit and a proposed fiscal 2006 budget deficit that trims discretionary domestic programs outside of homeland security by 0.7% brought some strength to the dollar at the end of last week and continuing into this week. The Bush Administration is proposing to reduce the budget deficit from 3.5% of the Gross Domestic Product currently to 1.7% by 2008. The Labor Department last week reported that the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% in January, down from 5.4% in December, and was at its lowest level since September of 2001. Lumber prices took a considerable leap forward last week, surprising many. The cost of framing lumber rose from $384 per 1,000 board feet to $404, according to Random Lengths, compared to $352 a year earlier. But the price rise was even more pronounced for plywood and oriented strand board; the panel composite price surged from $375 to $424 per 1,000 square feet. [ MORE ]
Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.63%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.14%
1-Year ARM: 4.25%
Housing Starts - Dec. 2004*
Total: 2.004 million
Single-Family Starts: 1.678 million
Multifamily Starts: 326,000
New Home Sales Dec. 2005*
1.098 million
Existing Home Sales Dec. 2005*
6.69 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate
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Discover how our Fixed Equity Loan offers a payment you can count on.
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