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In this article, the NAHB takes an inside look at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest American Housing Survey, focusing on the nation’s aging housing stock and how it impacts the U.S. housing market going forward.
The American housing stock continues to age, especially as residential construction continues its modest rebound after the Great Recession. According to the latest 2013 American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of owner-occupied homes is 37 years old, compared to only 27 years old in 1993.
The age of housing stock is an important indicator for the housing market going forward. Aging homes require remodeling and renovations, as these structures are, for example, less energy-efficient than new construction. This aging trend signals a growing market for remodelers, and it also implies additional demand for more new construction over the long run.
Approximately 2/3 of owner-occupied homes in the U.S. were built before 1980, with 40% built before 1970. Homes constructed after 2000 account for just 17% of the owner-occupied homes. And newly built owner-occupied homes constructed after 2010 only make up 2% of the housing stock according to the 2013 AHS.
The impact of the aging housing stock can be seen in the age distribution of owner-occupied homes. The share of housing stock that is over 34 years old in 2013 has increased significantly. It was 57% in 2013, but only 41% in 1993 and 46% in 2003.
In contrast, the share of new construction in 2013 (i.e. owner-occupied houses less than four years old is 2%) is notably smaller than in 1993 and in 2003, when 6% of homes were built within four years. Clearly, the smaller share of new construction, together with an aging housing stock, represents an opportunity for builders and developers, as housing demand is steadily increasing over time.
Can the people you count among your Facebook friends actually affect whether or not you’re able to get a loan? The answer seems to be “no” – according to this article from Bankrate (thank goodness). But there are financial reasons to be careful about information you share on social media.
Reports surfaced last week that Facebook had secured a patent that could allow creditors to use your social media connections to determine your creditworthiness. Facebook declined to comment on the patent, but there’s very little to suggest it has an underwriting solution in the works. For starters, the patent is actually old – it was filed in 2012, 2 years after the social network bought it as part of a bundle of patents from the now-defunct Friendster.
As the patent reads: “When an individual applies for a loan, the lender examines the credit ratings of members of the individual’s social network who are connected to the individual through authorized nodes. If the average credit rating of these members is at least a minimum credit score, the lender continues to process the loan application. Otherwise, the loan application is rejected.”
But even if the social network did launch this, it’s highly unlikely that many (or really any) lenders would use it. Your friend’s credit score would be of no interest – or use – to a lender, unless said friend was co-signing on the loan in question.
While you probably don’t need to watch who you friend on Facebook from a credit scoring perspective, that doesn’t mean you should be careless about what you share on social networks. Employers are getting in the habit of Googling prospective employees, so you want to make sure that nothing too risque or polarizing pops up in their search results.
Fraudsters also have been known to use social media profiles to guess passwords or learn the answers to a financial account’s security questions. They also can use the info you share online to complete identity packages, known as Fullz, that get sold on the black market. Mysterious line items, like fake addresses or unfamiliar trade lines, are a sign that identity theft is occurring.
For those who are choosing where to live in their retirement years, there are many who decide to stay in their existing homes, or move to a new home within their area. But there are some very good reasons to think about a bigger move for retirement – to a different city, a different state or even a completely different time zone. This article from MarketWatch highlights a new survey that ranks the healthiest and most affordable retirement destinations.
Ask retirees what their priorities are in retirement, and you’ll hear one message loud and clear: they care about their health.
That led nearly two in three middle-income retirees ages 47 to 75 to say that good health is “extremely important” to a satisfying retirement, according to a survey from the Center for a Secure Retirement. And conversely, health problems are Americans’ No. 1 concern in retirement, with 72% of people 45 and older saying it is their biggest worry in retirement, according to Merrill Lynch’s Retirement Survey.
So it makes sense for retirees to pick somewhere they can live the healthiest life possible. To that end, an analysis released Monday by the Bankers Life Center for a Secure Retirement revealed the healthiest cities (that are also affordable) for retirement.
Seattle snagged the No. 1 spot on this list thanks to its all-round high rankings: It finished in the top 10 in five of the eight health categories measured (health care, environment, social health, activities and transportation). Plus, it offers plenty of outdoor activities and relatively affordable home health care.
Minneapolis/St. Paul ranked No. 1 in the study for the amount of social and emotional support seniors reported and No. 3 for the civic and volunteer opportunities offered. Plus, it has one of the nation’s best park systems.
Denver residents are the healthiest in this study, as they have low levels of heart disease, obesity and cancer. That may be due, in part, to the plethora of outdoor activities the city offers, which can be enjoyed often thanks to the 300 days of sunshine a year.
Portland, a green city with one of the country’s most active running scenes (there are more than 200 5Ks held each year within 25 miles of the city) and top-notch health-care options like the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital, lands the No. 4 spot on the list.
Baltimore, home to Johns Hopkins Hospital (a top 5 hospital in 10 different specialties), Mercy Medical Center and UM Medical Center, gives its residents access to world-class health care. There are also plenty of opportunities for lifelong learning at nearby colleges and libraries.
In this article from Bankrate, senior credit card analyst and reporter Jeanine Skowronski offers some helpful advice for ways to take control of your spending, while improving your credit in the process.
This will probably come as no surprise, but I’m a big fan of using a credit card as your primary payment method.
First off, they offer better fraud protections than cash or debit cards. They also offer a bunch of ancillary benefits – such as extended warranties, purchase protection and, more notably, rewards points – that can save you money over the long haul.
But how can you get these rewards and stay on top of your bills?
Reaping these rewards hinges on paying off all – yes, every single one – of your purchases by a statement’s due date.
That way, “you get the benefit of earning rewards and enjoying the aggressive fraud protections without having to worry about interest or any negative impact to your credit scores,” says John Ulzheimer, formerly of FICO and Equifax.
Remember: Revolving a big balance negatively skews your credit utilization ratio – essentially how much debt you are carrying versus how much (collectively and on each individual credit card) has been extended to you. Amounts owed make up 30% of the popular FICO credit score.
To ensure I don’t rack up an uncontrollable balance, I utilize one very special trick: I pay my credit card bill at least once a week via a linked debit card account.
Doing so helps me stay on budget because it keeps me constantly abreast of how much money is in my bank account. I’ll skip over buying a new shirt, for instance, if I know I won’t have enough funds to cover the purchase by the end of the week.
It also allows me to monitor my statements for suspicious charges or spot inaccuracies.
Even those who don’t use their credit card regularly should try to make multiple payments each month.
Doing so helps ensure that any big purchases you make don’t inadvertently get reported to the 3 major credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – and wind up impacting that aforementioned credit utilization ratio.
“Credit card issuers update the balances on your credit reports only once per month. And, the balance they report to the credit bureaus is your most recent statement balance,” Ulzheimer says. “By paying the bill periodically throughout the month, you will minimize or even eliminate any balances showing up on your credit reports, and that’s great for your credit scores.”
Those in credit card debt can save with this strategy, as well.
Parenting resource website Fatherly has published a list of the 25 Best U.S. Cities For Kids To Play Outside. More than just a count of the number of playgrounds, the list is based on several factors, including access to parks, a city’s walkability and its weather. Topping the list is Boston, followed by cities including Minneapolis, Denver, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Sacramento, Baltimore, Chicago, San Diego, Miami and Washington, DC.
Everything from suburban sprawl to the rise of video games and social media to a hyper-competitive educational environment have conspired to put real downward pressure on how much outdoor play kids get, and the result is obvious: The CDC says the percentage of overweight or obese children in this country has doubled in the last 20 years, and there’s plenty of evidence that kids gain more weight during summer break.
Fatherly’s 25 Best U. S. Cities For Kids To Play Outside takes a close look at the state of play and play spaces in America today. The report includes a data-driven ranking taking into account everything from parks access to the rate of violent crime, plus insights from some of the leading thinkers on play science and playgrounds.
Playgrounds in the U.S. are experiencing whatever the opposite of a renaissance is. But they matter – according to a report by the play advocacy group KaBoom!, kids who live in a neighborhood without one are 26% more likely to be obese. The other 74% are just more likely to be bored and irritable.
The number of parks a community has can be misleading, since the more meaningful statistic is the one illustrating how many people can access those parks. An even more meaningful number? .5 – that’s how many miles away a park should be to ensure it’s within a 10-minute walk for young kids and busy parents.
For some of us, being a child and dreaming about becoming an engineer probably has something to do with riding around in a choo choo train. But others have big dreams about how their careers in engineering can have a profound impact on the world of tomorrow. This article from Fast Company highlights a special summer education program sponsored by NYU Polytechnic’s School of Engineering, which invited middle school students to learn together and work together to build model cities of the future.
This summer, while other seventh graders were playing Minecraft, one small group of middle school students built tiny cities in real life, complete with working smart cars, prototypes of universal Wi-Fi, and miniature working windmills.
The Science of Smart Cities, a free four-week class at NYU Polytechnic’s School of Engineering, teaches local New York students how to build sustainable urban infrastructure and then lets them work together to design model cities of the future.
The students started with simple experiments with balloons and string but quickly moved on to building working solar chargers and generators from scratch. In a week about infrastructure, they experimented with better ways to build landfills. Another week, they built model cars with automatic braking and lane detection.
As the students built out their miniature cities, they carefully considered how each piece of infrastructure could interact with what was next to it, creating optimal systems. One group of students, for example, built algae towers to support their city’s transportation system, to save space, cut production costs, and reduce the city’s carbon footprint.
It doesn’t matter how much you try to keep a clean home, you’re always going to have to take some extra steps to keep it as clean as possible. This especially applies to those families who have kids anywhere between the approximate ages of “newborn” to “teenager about to leave for college.” This article from BrightNest points out nine things around your home that could probably use a more frequent cleaning than you might have thought.
When it comes to cleaning, your kitchen counters and bathroom sink get a lot of love. But what about the rest of your home? If you have a weekly “cleaning routine” that generally never changes, you’re probably skipping over some under-the-radar areas.
How often do you look up? If it’s been awhile, take a gander at your ceiling. If you just see a few cobwebs, you’ll be okay wiping the ceiling down with a broom covered in an old t-shirt. Little more going on up there? You’ll need a ladder, sponge and an all-purpose cleaner.
Then there’s your refrigerator. First, toss everything that’s past its prime or questionable. Read labels! Everything else, place in a cooler so it stays fresh. Remove your shelves, and place them in the sink to cool. (Washing them with hot water when they’re cold could crack them.) While they’re cooling, scrub down the sides of the fridge with an all-purpose cleaning or a homemade mixture of equal parts baking soda and water. Scrub any tough spots with a sponge and rinse away the cleaner with warm water. Then, scrub down your shelves in the sink with the same cleaner. Dry the shelves thoroughly, replace them and restock and organize your food.
Every few months, remove all of the items from your cabinets including any liners. If there are crumbs, vacuum them away first. Then wipe down the inside of the empty cabinet with dish soap and water. Let the cabinets dry completely, and then organize your items back on the shelves. Note: If you’re cleaning pantry cabinets, now is a good time to check out expiration dates.
While you’re showering regularly, your shower curtain is acquiring a nice layer of soap scum. If you have a cloth curtain, it can be washed as part of your regular cycle. Toss it in the washing machine and add some detergent. Dry it completely, and then hang it back up. If your curtain is vinyl, you can still use your washing machine – it just needs its own load.
Doorknobs are one of the nastiest places in your home due to the number of bacteria-covered hands that touch them daily. Grab an all-purpose disinfectant spray and a dry cloth, and spray the entire doorknob. Wipe the spray away with your cloth. Focus on the doors that see the most action in your home like the kitchen, bathroom and front door.
It seems easy enough. You hammer a nail into a wall, you hang the picture on the nail, you take a few steps back, and you look up at the amazing job you just did, incredibly proud of all the hard work you’ve just put into hanging the most beautiful picture in your home. And then you notice that the top left corner of that picture is approximately 3 feet higher than the top right. Then, after adding seventeen more holes in your wall, you seriously consider hiring a professional picture hanging company. But thankfully, this article from Mother Nature Network offers some tips on how to hang your pictures right the first time.
You may think that hanging a picture is pretty straightforward, but there’s more to it than just eyeballing a spot and hammering in a nail (though many a husband would doggedly disagree). There are a few techniques that the pros use that can make your picture hanging endeavor so much easier – and help you avoid putting multiple holes in your wall.
First, find the center. Your picture or group of pictures should be centered on the entire wall or over a piece of furniture. Using a tape measure, find the midpoint on your wall and work off that as your center. This is especially important if you plan to hang a group of pictures. Also, be sure to leave about 5-6 inches from your pictures to the nearest wall or furniture when you are planning where your artwork should go. This will avoid your wall looking too crowded and cluttered.
To get an idea of how an entire gallery wall of pictures will look, trace your pictures onto brown butcher block paper. Then affix each piece of paper to the wall using painter’s tape. This way, you can rearrange how things look without worrying about a zillion little picture holes and you can get it just the way you want it.
Once you’re ready to hang your picture, make sure you’re using the proper hardware. A picture hanging nail and hanger kit will hold a picture more securely (and will leave less of a mark on your wall) than just a nail.
Then decide on the picture height. Hang the picture so that the center of the picture is eye level for the average adult. The bottom of the picture should be no more than 4 feet off the ground.
If you’re thinking of selling your home, you may have some ideas about things you can fix up or even modify to increase your home’s selling price. But before you convert your garage into an extra bedroom, or choose the colors for repainting your walls, this article from U.S. News highlights six renovations that could hurt your home’s selling price, or keep it from selling as quickly as you’d like it to.
When people renovate their homes, they often factor in whether those renovations will add to the resale value. While few homeowners recoup the full cost of home renovations, updated bathrooms and kitchens, plus other improvements, can help you sell your home more quickly, and for more money. The added bonus is if you do the renovations while you live in the home, you get to enjoy the renovated spaces for at least a little while before it goes on the market.
But some renovations can actually damage your home’s value. These supposed improvements not only add nothing to your bottom line, they may make your home less attractive to potential buyers and bring down its value.
According to Remodeling magazine’s 2015 Cost vs. Value report, the home renovations that bring the greatest return when you sell are a new entry door (which brings you 101.8% of what you spend on the national average), the application of manufactured stone veneer (92.2%) and a garage door replacement (88.4%). The ones with the smallest return are a sunroom addition (48.5%), a home office remodel (48.7%) and a bathroom addition (57.8%).
The value of some features varies by geography. A swimming pool, for example, is more desirable in Florida or Hawaii than in Minnesota or Maine, but even in Florida some buyers might not want the added maintenance cost.
Some homeowners see converting a garage as a cheaper way to add more living space than building an addition – and it is. But many buyers would prefer a garage, especially in cold and rainy climates. “That room will always feel like a cold garage,” says Sabrina Booth, an agent with Redfin in Seattle. “A garage is much more valuable than an extra room in Seattle.”
In older homes, combining smaller rooms in the public living space might add to the value because today’s homeowners like large, open spaces. Eliminating a powder room, however, is a bad idea. And turning a bedroom into a master closet or combining two bedrooms to create a large master suite may not pay.
If you love color, paint the walls of your home all the hues of a rainbow – and then paint over them in a neutral color when you’re ready to sell the place. Be aware that aqua appliances or neon tile may not appeal to most buyers. “Everybody has an opinion about a color. Nobody has a strong objection to neutral color,” Booth says. “Even though they can paint over it, their impression of the house is negative.”
