Wanted: Home Builders for the Moon
Two months ago, NASA announced the broad outlines of its plan for an eventual lunar outpost on the moon built on the rim of a crater near one of the moon’s poles where there would be sunlight and Earth could be seen year-round. The outpost would serve as a base for lunar research and Mars exploration, and some envision an eventual platform for luxury hotels, astronomical observatories and helium-3 mining operations. NASA and its corporate partners are already building prototypes to test some unorthodox ideas, such as inflatable habitats. The metal-hulled modules used on the international space station typically weigh 30,000 pounds, which would be too heavy for moonships that are currently being planned to have a maximum payload capacity of only 13,000 pounds. Inflatable modules could get around that limitation. David Cadogan, research director at ILC Dover, said the modules would be compressed to fit a smaller space on NASA’s smaller spaceships, dropped off on the moon, and only then filled with air, equipment and all the comforts of a lunar home. Bigelow Aerospace already has lofted one inflatable test module into orbit and is gearing up to launch another one in April. Prototypes will be tested in Antarctica and other extreme environments on Earth. Twin giants of America’s space industry, The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin, are involved in planning efforts to start building a permanent moon base in 2010, but less conventional players include Illinois-based Caterpillar and allied companies that have been advising NASA on the dynamics of dirt and the challenges of moving heavy equipment over the lunar surface. (www.msnbc.com)
MSNBC.com (2/1/07); Alan Boyle
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Beyond Moscow, Dachas Make Way for Suburbia
A wave of homesteaders is transforming the forested environs outside Moscow’s city limits into the beginnings of suburbia, with billboards across the city advertising developments with names such as Navaho, Monaco, Chelsea, Sherwood and Barvika Hills. The super-rich who trekked out of the city first are now being followed by members of a rising middle class seeking cheaper housing in a cleaner environment. Helping fuel the trend is a real-estate boom that is driving up prices in the city by about 30% a year. New but bare and unpainted apartments in Moscow now start at about $250 a square foot, compared to about $100 in the suburbs. Detached single-family homes outside Moscow range from $500,000 to the tens of millions of dollars in the most exclusive neighborhoods, but to cater to the middle class, more modest townhouse developments have begun to appear in the past couple of years, with starting prices of around $300,000. Mortgage lending has grown to $6 billion annually, up from about $1 billion when Russian banks first started offering mortgages three years ago, according to government figures. The government has been pushing banks to lower mortgage interest rates, which currently stand at 11%. (www.washingtonpost.com)
Washington Post (2/14/07); Peter Finn
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The Incredible Shrinking Downpayment
From mid-2005 to mid-2006, according to a statistical sampling of a representative group of 7,548 home purchasers, nearly half of all first-time buyers financed the entire transaction, obtaining mortgages in the full amount of the home price. Another 30% put down 10% or less, and 20% put down 5% or less. The research was conducted by the National Association of Realtors®, using information on home transactions supplied by Experian, a major credit and realty data firm. The median downpayment of first-time buyers, according to the study, was just 2%. The highest loan-to-value ratios for first-time buyers were in the South, where the median mortgage amount was 100% of the sale price, followed by 99% in the West, 98% in the Midwest and 96% in the Northeast. A typical repeat home buyer nationwide invested a median 16% as a downpayment to purchase a replacement home, usually from the proceeds of a prior sale, and financed the remaining 84%. Besides high prices, a key reason for the relatively high levels of leverage being used by both first-time and repeat buyers has been the explosion of low-downpayment options by mortgage lenders and insurers in recent years. The unknown about minimal downpayment loans is how they perform in flat or depreciating market conditions. (www.washingtonpost.com)
Washington Post (2/10/07); Kenneth R. Harney
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Home Shoppers Do Their Hunting Online
About 80% of home buyers use the Internet to find a home, according to the National Association of Realtors®, and unless the nation’s 900 regional multiple listing services become more open, unified and technologically sophisticated, they risk being replaced by a Web search engine. In just the past few months, the Internet has been leveling the playing field and prodding the industry to adapt faster. Zillow.com, which created a stir last year by posting its estimated values of millions of homes across the country, has started showing homes for sale. In the past two months, nearly 32,000 people have listed their homes for sale. Trulia.com is asking real estate agents to post homes for sale and has introduced “heat maps,” showing the price and popularity of sales by state, county and neighborhood. Google.com is trolling for real estate agent listings for its classified-ads system, Google Base, and the Houston Association of Realtors® announced in December it would put all of its listings on Google. By the end of the month, from the national database of apartments.com, customers with cellphones with GPS technology can see a list of the 70 closest apartments from where they are standing. (www.usatoday.com)
USA Today (2/9/07); Noelle Knox
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Ten Home Products That Are Turning Heads in 2007
Advanced technology and everyday practicality played a role in many of the eye-catching home products on display in the exhibition halls at the International Builders’ Show in Orlando. A swipe of a finger opens the Kwikset biometric scanning deadbolt displayed at the show. The fingerprints of 50 users can be stored in the device that operates on four double-A batteries and will sell for about $200. TurboChef displayed a $7,495 Speedcook oven that will cook a 12-pound turkey in 42 minutes instead of four hours, and will shave an hour off the time it takes to bake an apple-cranberry pie. Taking instructions over the Internet, the Connect IO Intelligent Oven from TMIO is so smart it can keep your roast cool all morning and then cook it to perfection once you tell it to start from work or wherever. Kohler’s DTV Custom Showering Experience allows home owners to personalize their shower through a panel that resembles an iPod mounted on the bathroom wall. Home owners can angle numerous shower heads and adjust the temperature to their liking, and then save the scheme for future showers. Two new clothes washers from Amana feature antimicrobial component protection that resists mold, mildew and odor-causing bacteria. (www.downjones.com)
Dow Jones Business News (2/16/07); Amy Hoak
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A Streamlined Approach: New Products Aim to Save Space, Sanity
Going beyond the closet organization systems popularized in recent years, the 2007 International Builders’ Show found some manufacturers reexamining the toilet, the microwave and even the fireplace for ways to make them less bulky, more hidden and more pleasing to the eye. Learning that 80% of people have no designated place to perform basic laundry tasks, Whirlpool has created the Laundry 123 tower, a vertical metal box that can be placed beside or between the washer and dryer. It contains two oversize drawers for detergent and bleach and a shallow supply tray for holding dryer sheets and other small items. In some models, a retractable 10-inch rod pops out above the tray for hanging clothes. Inspired by the plasma TV, the Radium by Lennox is a ventless gas fireplace enclosed in a floating glass surface that hangs against a wall. The unit protrudes roughly 7 inches from the wall and is about 35 inches wide and 27 inches tall. Instead of a chimney venting to the outside, it uses a catalytic converter to clean the hot air as it leaves the top of the fireplace from the combustion chamber. Kohler’s C3 (cleanliness, comfort and convenience) toilet seats are being offered with built-in bidets that pulsate water in three temperature and pressure settings. A soft blue light illuminates the bowl at night. In some models, the settings are chosen via remote control or a panel on the side of the seat. Kohler’s Transitions seat allows adults and toddlers to use the same toilet without the hassle of adding or removing a separate “child-friendly” insert with each use. The seat fits elongated bowls. The smaller children’s ring is nestled into the regular adult ring. An adult can just lift the children’s ring and the lid lifts with it. (www.washingtponpost.com)
Washington Post (2/17/07); Dina ElBoghdady
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