NBN Online for the week of June 15, 2009

NAHB Answers How to Pay Upfront Costs With Tax Credit

NAHB is providing answers to frequently asked questions from prospective first-time home buyers who qualify for the $8,000 tax credit and are seeking information on how they can get a loan to help cover downpayment or closing costs.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced on May 29 that the Federal Housing Administration will allow state housing finance agencies to provide second mortgages “monetizing” the tax credit so that borrowers can use the funds for upfront costs for the purchase of homes with FHA-insured mortgage loans.

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Small Businesses Have 5,000 Days to Reduce Carbon Footprint

Home builders and other business have 5,000 days — or about 13 years — to figure out how they need to change their businesses to create a greener economy and prevent global warming from reaching a point of no return for disastrous climate change, Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, told the NAHB National Green Building Conference in Dallas on May 9.

“This is not simply a drill,” he said. “This is the time to step up.”

House Bill Sets Right Approach for Affordable Green Homes

In testimony before Congress on June 10, NAHB praised H.R. 2336, the GREEN Act of 2009, which sets new green building and sustainability benchmarks for properties that get financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But NAHB President Jerry Howard also warned members of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity that H.R. 2454, the other major piece of climate change legislation now being considered in the Congress, includes requirements that conflict with H.R. 2336 — making the GREEN Act obsolete before it’s even signed.