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The Orlando Business Journal invites you on a photo tour of Storey Park, a new Lennar community with some fun and unique street names. Here’s the “storey” from Jim Carchidi.
You may know not to judge a book by its cover, but what about buying a house based on the address?
Lennar Homes’ Storey Park community, east of State Road 417 at Dowden Road, opened for sales in December. Work crews currently are at various stages of construction on 65 of the community’s 2,700 lots that will offer four different sizes of single-family homes as well as townhomes.
Aside from the activity, nifty new designs and inviting decor, Storey Park boasts more than a few stupendous street names.
I have three words for you: Science Fiction Lane. This hooked me. I own a home and had no desire to brave the horrors of moving – until I saw the sign that read Science Fiction Lane.
But the tale didn’t end with that fantasy. How does Mythology Street grab you? It might sound like an emo band name, but it makes a heck of an address. Writing out Mythology Street on a Christmas card envelope might inspire a twinge of envy. If anyone mails actual cards anymore.
Just down the road, however, there was a street sign to put all others to shame. Even in this neighborhood: Thriller Lane.
No. Way.
You don’t have to be a child of the ’80s or even a Michael Jackson fan to appreciate the awesomeness of this address.
Hey, I’m going to a Halloween party at the house on Thriller Lane, wanna go?
Yes. A thousand times, yes.
[Read the full article and view the Storey Park photo gallery]
If you’ve decided that 2016 is the year for you to become a homeowner, or even if you’re just considering it, this article from HousingWire offers some advice on how to improve your financial situation and save for a down payment.
New Year’s resolutions to improve your finances should be goals that are specific and measurable. For example, debt-to-income ratio is a huge deciding factor on credit scores and it’s one of the first things that lenders look at when putting your mortgage together. Lenders want to know how much debt borrowers have already accumulated compared against their income. The more debt the borrower has, the less of a loan they will be able to get.
Resolution: Pay off $150 of debt each month, or $1,800 over the year. A vague resolution to pay off debt won’t get you anywhere. Instead, resolve to pay off a specific amount of debt per month, or a specific amount of debt over the course of the year. Just be sure that your goal includes a dollar amount and an end date.
Resolution: Rather than spend less money, cut $50 per month off the grocery bill. The first resolution is admirable, but too vague to be meaningful. Spending less money is great, but how much less should you be spending? Where should you cut spending? The second resolution answers those questions and gives you a monthly measuring stick to see if you’re meeting your goal.
Owning a home has a lot of perks (goodbye pet policies!). But those perks come with a lot of responsibility. Between daily chores and preventative maintenance, it’s easy to forget a few things. Let’s refresh your memory! Here are seven frequently-forgotten tasks that will help you stay on top of homeownership.
These tasks are especially important for new homeowners, but veterans may be forgetting a few of these, too!
Buy a bunch of furnace filters. Changing your furnace filter regularly is one of the easiest ways you can save money (since your furnace will last longer) and improve your health (since the air you breathe will be cleaner). But remembering to pick up a filter from the hardware store every few months isn’t always so easy. Nip that problem in the bud by purchasing in bulk! Take a look at your furnace and write down the filter size, then order enough to last for a few years (the exact number you need will vary depending on the type of furnace you have).
Get to know your appliances. Just like cars and televisions, the appliances in your home have different life expectancies. For example, furnaces usually last for 15-20 years, but water heaters tend to start wearing down after 10 years. Plan ahead for their replacements. A new furnace can cost as much as $5,000, so a little heads up can really help!
Start keeping records. Every improvement or repair you make to your home – from adding caulk around your bathtub to installing a new roof – will increase its resale value. Make sure all of your hard work pays off by keeping track right from the start!
Beef up your insurance. Take a good look at your homeowners insurance policy and look for any relevant gaps (this is a situation where professional advice can be really helpful). Two areas of coverage to consider are flood and fire protection, which aren’t always included in standard policies.
Other tasks highlighted in the BrightNest article:
In December, RealtyTrac released its 2016 Rental Affordability Analysis, indicating that buying a home is still more affordable than renting in 58% of U.S. housing markets – despite home price appreciation outpacing rent growth in 55% of markets. This article from Kriston Capps of CityLab looks into the numbers.
If your New Year’s Resolution was to find better financial balance in 2016, especially when it comes to how much of your paycheck goes into your rent, you may need to consider moving, buying a house, or both. Happy New Year!
That’s the takeaway from a new report from RealtyTrac that predicts that buying will continue to be cheaper than renting in more than half of U.S. housing markets in 2016. New year, same deal: Census data released in December show that rental costs are rising nationwide while new housing starts are miserly, even though the costs of home ownership are still low in many places.
This trend will persist into 2016. Using rental data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, RealtyTrac predicts that buying will be a more affordable option than renting in 58 percent of markets, but that rents will outpace wage growth in 57 percent of markets.
“In markets where home prices are still relatively affordable, 2016 may be a good time for some renters to take the plunge into homeownership before rising prices and possibly rising interest rates make it increasingly tougher to afford to buy a home,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, in the report.
A new study by United Van Lines finds that Oregon tops the list of states that Americans are moving to. Other states at the top of the list include South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Texas and Washington. Here are the details from CNN Money’s Kathryn Vasel.
Americans are moving in search of cheaper places to live, more jobs, warmer climates and green space.
And it’s one state in particular that people are flocking to: Oregon.
Oregon was the top moving destination in 2015 for the third year in a row, according to a study of 123,000 moves from United Van Lines. Almost 70% of the interstate moves in Oregon were people moving to the state.
The number of people moving to Oregon has increased by 10% in the past six years.
Five of the 10 states with the highest number of inbound movers are west of the Mississippi River. The tech boom has played a big role in enticing new residents to the West Coast, but that’s just part of the attraction.
“We are seeing people drawn for lifestyle issues: more green space and looking for a lower cost of living,” said Melissa Sullivan, director, marketing communications at UniGroup, which operates United Van Lines.
But finding a home in Oregon’s biggest city has become more expensive. Home prices in Portland increased almost 11% in October from the same time last year, according to the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.
The South was also a popular moving destination last year, with South Carolina ranking second.
According to an informal poll here at our Lennar office in Charlotte, NC, “getting more organized” is the 2nd most common New Year’s resolution, following “getting in shape” as the most common. (Full disclosure: only 5 people were polled.) To assist those of us who are looking for more organization in 2016, especially at home, this New York Times article from Joanne Kaufman provides some helpful tips.
New Year’s resolutions tend to run toward the grand if not the grandiose. We make vows about shedding pounds and shedding toxic friends, about smelling the roses and living in the moment. And, of course, about cleaning out the attic (and the basement).
“When it comes to resolutions, people tend to be wildly overambitious,” said Julie Morgenstern, the organizing and time-management expert. “The trick is small, doable concrete resolutions that give you huge rewards in terms of time, energy and control.”
Here are a few specific tips:
Other tips include becoming a realist about time, and working from the inside out.
Lawn mowed once a week – check.
Trash picked up and toys put away daily – check.
Live in an apartment so you don’t have to do any maintenance – check.
Done with your home maintenance checklist, right? Not so fast. There’s more to keeping your home healthy and in good shape, whether you live in a house, apartment, condo or igloo. As we move into 2016, let’s look at some new habits for home maintenance to add to your goals for the new year.
Home maintenance, like vehicle maintenance, is one of those things that’s easy to put in the back of the shelf until the roof leaks, water is running from the washing machine or the hot water heater gives up the ghost.
According to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD), getting into the habit of checking how your home is aging on a regular basis will help keep your home “dry, clean, well-ventilated, free from contaminants, pest-free, safe and well-maintained.”
Water leaks and drips might seem annoying but inconsequential; however, water leaks need to be looked at right away and, at least twice a year if there are no problems. Dripping water from one single faucet can cost as much as $20 a year, which adds up to 10,000 gallons of water a year per household per year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The most common areas of dripping water are obvious – toilets running, shower heads or faucets dripping – and are easily fixed, if you know the right end of a wrench and screwdriver. According to the EPA, “a leaky faucet that drips at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons of water per year,” equal to 180 extra showers.
Some experts suggest maintenance needs to be done in other areas at least monthly, including:
Twice a year, change the batteries in all your smoke detectors and test them to make sure they’re working as they should.
Clean out your gutters in the fall once all the leaves are off the trees and in the spring after the tree blooms are gone.
If you’re considering owning a second home in a sunnier climate, this U.S. News article from Maryalene LaPonsie offers some valuable advice.
At a certain point, retirees get tired of the cold. Rather than spending their winters in Michigan, Minnesota or other northern states, they pack up and head to Arizona, Florida or similarly warm locations for a few months.
The key to making the snowbird experience work is to do your research upfront, experts say. They recommend you take the following steps before deciding to take refuge in the South every winter.
Be Prepared: Decide Who Will Maintain Your Second Property
Northern homes may simply need to be winterized and locked up before snowbirds leave for the South, but second homes in tropical climates like Florida need hands-on maintenance year-round. Vegetation will continue to grow, and landscaping will quickly become overrun if it doesn’t receive regular attention.
Cecilia Beach Brown, a certified financial planner with Lincoln Financial Securities in Annapolis, Maryland, says the easiest way to maintain a second property is to buy a condo or a home in a development with a homeowners association that will take care of exterior maintenance.
However, she cautions retirees to ask how fees are calculated and how quickly they have risen in previous years. “I had a client with a condo in Miami whose condo fees went from $400 to $1,200 a month [from when she moved in until she left],” Brown says. As people moved out of the development, costs were split among a smaller and smaller number of owners, dramatically increasing their annual costs.
Be Informed: Know Your Residency Options
One draw of Florida is that it doesn’t have a state income tax. But Peter Eckerline, a managing director with Merrill Lynch and founder of The Eckerline Wealth Management Group in Minneapolis, says retirees need to establish residency if they want to take advantage of the state’s favorable tax environment.
Every state has different requirements, so snowbirds need to ensure they meet the criteria of a resident and then apply for a driver’s license and register to vote at their new address. Just don’t be surprised if your previous state notices you’ve changed residency and decides to dig a little deeper.
“A lot of states have tax departments that check residency requirements,” Eckerline says. “They’ll look at your phone records. They’ll look at your travel. They’ll look at your church contributions.”
Be Organized: Embrace the Cloud
Maintaining two properties means twice as much paperwork to track. It also means making sure important documents are handy wherever you are.
“I’ve run into situations with snowbirds where they didn’t have their medical power of attorneys here in Arizona,” says Shanna Tingom, co-founder of Heritage Financial Services in Gilbert. That’s problematic if someone has an emergency and can’t easily get their hands on essential paperwork.
The easiest way to ensure important documents are easily accessible is to store them in a cloud-based application where they can be accessed by a computer or mobile device anywhere. However, some older Americans are more comfortable with paper records rather than digital ones. In that case, Tingom recommends putting copies of all important documents in an accordion file that can be carried back and forth from each home.
This interactive New York Times article by Michael Kimmelman, comparing the sounds of various architectural environments, sure sounds like a lot of fun. When you view the full article on The New York Times website, be sure to put on your headphones so you can hear the three-dimensional audio effects.
We talk about how cities and buildings look. We call places landmarks or eyesores. But we rarely talk about how architecture sounds, aside from when a building or room is noisy.
The spaces we design and inhabit all have distinctive sounds. The reading rooms at the New York Public Library have an overlay of rich sound. Your office may be a big room in a glass building with rows of cubicles where people stare into computer screens.
It may be sealed off from the outside, and you may think it is quiet.
Is it?
Often the sound of a place is so pervasive that we stop noticing what we hear. Or we think the sound could not be otherwise – that is, until we, say, turn off the buzzing overhead lights.
Sound may be invisible or only unconsciously perceived, but that doesn’t make it any less an architectural material than wood, glass, concrete, stone or light. It is shaped by design, albeit most architects rarely think much about it, except when their task is to come up with a pleasing concert hall or a raucous restaurant — and then acousticians are called in. That said, you don’t need to be a specialist to distinguish spaces according to the sounds they make.
We talk admiringly about green or energy-efficient buildings, with roof gardens, cross-ventilation and stairways that encourage residents to walk, because good design can aspire to improve public health. But we don’t talk nearly enough about how sound in these buildings, and in all the other spaces we design, make us feel.
Acoustics can act in deep, visceral ways, not unlike music (think of the sound of an empty house). And while it’s sometimes hard to pin down exactly how, there is often a correlation between the function of a place or an object and the sound we expect it to make.
So an expensive, solid wood door sounds better than an inexpensive hollow one, partly because its heavy clunk reassures us that the door is a true barrier, corresponding to the task it serves.
