NBN Online for the week of August 8, 2005

(Plain Text Version) for full graphical version, click here.

In This Issue:

Front Page
New Standard Nears for Air Conditioners, Heat Pumps
Subscribe Your Employees — You Could Win a Digital Camera
Staten Island Downzoning Bid Violates Fair Housing Act
Layouts for Living
Floor Plans: Gothic Renovation Goes Modern
Coast to Coast
New Rules Could Cut Cheap Loans to High-Risk Borrowers
Politics & Government
Builders Battle Anti-Housing Moves Around the Country
Economics & Finance
30-Year Mortgage Rates Crawl Upward for Fifth Week
Tips
Builders’ Tip: How to Easily Expand Circular Holes
Business Management
Custom Builders to Gather at New Orleans Symposium
Construction Safety
Uncoupling of Hydraulic Excavator Buckets a Hazard
Cost of Workplace Injuries Soars to $49.6 Billion
Education
Education Calendar
Research
Tech Package Shows How to Improve HVAC Systems
Easy Energy Upgrades Can Save Fistfuls of Dollars
Environment
Endangered Species Delisting Proposed for Pygmy Owl
Legal
Ask the Lawyer: About Arbitration Clauses
Building Systems
Software Correctly Sizes HVAC for Concrete Homes
Cement Scarfs Up Dangerous Roadside Pollutants
Labor
Project CRAFT Grads Advance in the Granite Business
Building Products
Prize-Winning Dogs Set High Standard for Reliability
TV
NAHB-Produced Shows on HGTV & DIY — This Week
Endowment
Centex Homes Announces 24 Scholarship Winners
Association News
Maryland Association Sends Tools for Tsunami Relief
Henry Bachara, NAHB/FHBA Life Director, Dies at 81
NAHB Fall Board Meeting in Reno Sept. 7-11
Save on Dell™ Computer Products
Save More With BuilderBooks.com Rewards
Calendar of Events

Top Story

New Standard Nears for Air Conditioners, Heat Pumps

The Department of Energy (DOE) is requiring new residential air conditioners and heat pumps manufactured after Jan. 23, 2006 to operate at a 13 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency rating). The new standard is 30% more stringent than the current requirement for an energy efficiency rating of 10, which has been in effect since 1992.

The department made its decision last year, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected efforts of the Bush Administration to lower the new standard to a SEER 12.

With the support of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI), NAHB challenged the SEER 13 standard when it was first proposed by DOE at the start of 2001.
[MORE]

Lumber Prices Provided by Random Lengths

Framing Lumber Composite $ 365 down $ 8
OSB Composite $ 282 down $ 1
Southern Pine Plywood Composite $ 475 down $ 10
With Permission from: RandomLengths.com

Layouts for Living

Floor Plans: Gothic Renovation Goes Modern

Alban
Towers and Villas

Developers:
Archstone-Smith
(www.archstonesmith.com)
Encore Development (www.encorehomes.com)

Architect:
Torti Gallas and Partners (www.tortigallaschk.com)

When Alban Towners first opened in 1929, it was the largest rental apartment-hotel in Washington, D.C. And it was striking.

Its Gothic-revival arches and buttresses echoed the Washington National Cathedral across the street. It was a popular and frequent destination for the nation’s out-of-town glitterati — among them, Frank Sinatra and Bette Davis, who stayed in its hotel suites for the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy.
[MORE]

 

Subscribe Your Employees — You Could Win a Digital Camera

Sign up three or more of your employees for Nation's Building News and you automatically will be entered in a contest to win a Sony digital camera.

There have been four winners already — the most recent winner is Robert Poole, of Poole's Plumbing, Inc. in Raleigh, N.C. — and you could be next.

To subscribe your employees to Nation’s Building News and be entered in the "Make Your Business Click" contest, visit our contest subscription page by clicking here

[MORE]

Staten Island Downzoning Bid Violates Fair Housing Act

Home builders in Staten Island, N.Y. have made it clear that recent downzoning proposals there may violate the Fair Housing Act. As a result, local officials have begun to reconsider the use of downzoning as a means of maintaining exclusive communities and have taken the recent downzoning proposals off the calendar.

[MORE]

Housing Snapshot

Interest Rates  
  30-Yr. Fixed: 5.82% 15-Yr. Fixed: 5.38% 5 Yr. ARM: 5.30%
  1 Yr. ARM: 4.47% Libor (3 months): 3.76% Prime: 6.25%
Housing Starts*  (June 2005)
  Total: 2.004 million Single: 1.667 million Multi: 337,000
Home Sales*  (June 2005)
  New: 1.374 million Existing: 7.33 million  
Median Home Prices  (June 2005)
  New: $214,800 Existing: $219,000  
* Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate

 

Sponsored by
McGraw Hill
Construction

 
 
> Find and manage projects right from your desktop.
> Get your company listed in the new McGraw-Hill Construction Directory.
 
 

Sponsored by
Freddie Mac

 
 
> CEO Richard F. Syron says, "Don't weaken GSEs' ability to expand homeownership."
> Freddie Mac has helped over 44 million families invest in themselves. Learn how.
 
 

Sponsored by
NAHB

 
 
> Registration is Now Open!
> View the 2006 exhibitors
> Sign up for our mailing list