Deadline Newsroom

Monday, July 7, 2008

Reexamine Your Risk For Flood

Are you aware that everyone lives in a flood zone? Do you know floods are the most common U.S. natural disaster? Do you understand that your home is more likely to suffer flood damage than fire damage?

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - Flood insurance is only mandated for properties in high-risk flood zones, but even if you live in a low- or moderate-risk area, you should bone up on the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

To help get you started, here's a quick primer on floods and flood insurance.

• Floods are the most common natural disaster in the U.S. If you live in a flood plain, your home has a 26 percent chance (more than one in four) of being damaged by a flood during the course of a 30-year mortgage, compared to a 9 percent chance (less than one in ten) for fire damage.

• Your regular homeowner insurance policy typically does not provide benefits for losses caused by a flood, yet the NFIP says one in four flood insurance claims come from areas with low-to-moderate flood risk.

• That's because while everyone does not live in a flood plain, everyone does lives in a flood zone, says the NFIP.

If you live in a low- to moderate-risk area made so by a system of levees, dams and dikes -- as Midwestern and Gulf of Mexico area residents have learned -- the risk may be reduced but it is not removed. Levees, dams and dikes are not impervious to nature's worst.

Flooding can be caused by heavy rains, melting snow, inadequate drainage systems, failed flood control structures and tropical storms and hurricanes.

Even if you have a hillside home and you think you are out of harm's way, there's a risk of mudslide or debris flow which is covered by flood insurance.

• The share of claims from low- to moderate-risk homes and the overall risk for flooding could increase. A recent U.S. Climate Change Science Program report "Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate" said flatly, global warming-spawned climate change is increasing the intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extent of weather events.

For example, 15 years ago, after the Midwest was previously inundated by what was pronounced a "100-year" or a "500-year" flood, some residents believed they'd seen the worse and dropped coverage.

This summer, uninsured homeowners got soaked.

• The term "100-year" flood doesn't mean there's a major flood every 100 years. It means a 100-year flood would have a 1 percent chance of occurring again in any given year and a 500-year flood a 0.2 percent chance.

• In non high-risk areas you could qualify for the Preferred Risk Policy that provides contents coverage beginning at $39 per year and building plus contents coverage beginning at $119 a year, according to the NFIP.

• If the relatively small premium doesn't get you to at least learn more about flood insurance, keep in mind, if you don't move fast you could lose. Once you decide to buy flood insurance, there's a standard 30-day waiting period, from the date of purchase, before a new flood policy goes into effect.

There is no waiting period provided:

The initial purchase of flood insurance is in connection with the making, increasing, extension, or renewal of a loan in a high-risk zone by a regulated lender.

The initial purchase of flood insurance occurs within one year of a flood zone map change.

• You could have to wait even longer for related coverage. Insurers in the Midwest currently have moratoriums on sewer and drainage coverage, which is part of your homeowner's policy, but can protect you from flood induced sewer and drainage problems. Moratoriums on selling disaster-related insurance coverage are common following a disaster.

• If you aren't required to have flood insurance and choose not to buy it, it's a good idea to have as much as $20,000 socked away for self-insurance. For just one inch of water in your home, expect an estimated $8,000 in damages, according to the NFIP's "Cost of Flooding" estimator. A foot of water -12 inches -- will cost you nearly $19,000.

• Residential NFIP coverage provides up to $250,000 of insurance to protect your owner-occupied home and up to $100,000 to protect your belongings. In a high-risk area, federally insured or regulated lenders will require you to have flood insurance for the amount remaining on your mortgage, or $250,000, whichever is lower. Renters can get up to $100,000 coverage for the contents of their home.

For more information, visit the consumer-friendly NFIP web site at FloodSmart.gov.

Also see the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) flood information Web site and FEMA's NFIP Web site.

• And don't forget storm and flood related news that really hits home in DeadlineNews.Com's "Storm Warning" section.

Forewarned is forearmed.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group -- DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Sunday, July 6, 2008

American Dream Deferred

Call it the "American Dream Deferred." Home prices are down, but not enough to offset shrinking incomes, higher interest rates, tight credit and the economic pressures of fuel and food costs.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - Yes, home prices are falling in virtually all major metropolitan areas. There's no question about it.

Unfortunately, buyers looking to cash in on those lower prices may have to postpone their dream of home ownership a little longer.

Call it the American Dream Deferred.

And it's not just because of tight credit.

Higher gas prices, higher food prices and the still high cost of shelter are all taking a toll on the American Dream.

After nearly two years of falling home prices, incomes still just are not a match for the cost of housing.

That's one of the major findings in the grim "2008 State of the Nation's Housing" report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

From the beginning of the housing boom in 1999, to 2006, when prices peaked, home owner incomes actually declined about 1.5 percent as home prices skyrocketed by 48 percent.

At current interest rates, the national median home price would have to fall 12 percent from the end of 2007 to make housing even as affordable as it was in 2003, according to the report.

That's not likely. Not only are interest rates up slightly since December 2007, so is the median price of homes -- believe it or not -- by 1 percent.

Before buyers can really return to market in droves, incomes, home prices and mortgage rates will have to cooperate. And even if they do, tight credit stands in the way of all but the most creditworthy home buyer.

The Harvard report says in 40 metros, prices would have to drop by more than 25 percent to roll back affordability levels to 2003.

During the housing boom, the dramatic run-up in home prices was fueled by buyer access to cheap financing and lax underwriting. That combination allowed borrowers to negotiate more competitively. And that, of course, drove up prices beyond true income-based affordability levels.

Is there a silver lining?

Yes. If you have good credit and can migrate to an already affordable market where home prices haven't skyrocketed, you've got a shot.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Friday, July 4, 2008

Duct Cleaning Often Unnecessary

Forget duct cleaning as regular maintenance. What the duct? Experts say only clear ducts of vermin infestations; clogging levels of dust or debris and substantial amounts of mold.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - Here's one less thing you have to regularly clean -- ducts.

There's growing evidence duct cleaning may be a solution in search of a problem rather than cure for what ails the air in your home.

Consumer Checkbook (subscribers only) research released this year says the dust you see in your ventilation ducts pretty much stays where it is. It likely won't become airborne unless disturbed -- say by duct cleaning. Under most circumstances duct dust is inert and harmless.

Federal and private health officials back up Checkbook -- an independent operation that rates services much like Consumer Reports rates goods -- and stop short of recommending against duct cleaning, but they also do not endorse the work as routine maintenance.

"Should You Have Your Air Ducts Cleaned?" the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency information on the subject says succinctly, "Duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems. Neither do studies conclusively demonstrate that particle (e.g. dust) levels in homes increase because of dirty air ducts. This is because much of the dirt in air ducts adheres to duct surfaces and does not necessarily enter the living space."

Likewise, a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report includes before and after duct cleaning test results from 33 homes in Montreal. It found no significant air quality or energy efficiency improvements. In some cases, particle levels increased immediately after a duct cleaning job. In other cases, particle levels went down after the cleaning but returned to previous levels within weeks.

Research also has not scientifically demonstrated the effectiveness of chemical biocides, "sealants" and other duct applications cleaning service provides may offer.

There are no chemical biocides registered by the EPA for use in internally-insulated air duct systems.

The EPA does recommend servicing for fuel burning furnaces, stoves or fireplaces before each heating season to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning. And you should regularly have fireplace and wood burning appliance fire boxes and flues cleared of potentially flammable sooty deposits and creosote, the by-products of incomplete combustion.

The EPA only recommends duct cleaning if:

• Ducts are infested with vermin (including rodents or insects), in which case you may also need a licensed pest control operator.

• Ducts are clogged with excessive amounts of dust and debris and/or particles that are actually released into the home.

• There is substantial visible mold growth inside hard surface (sheet metal) ducts or on other components of your heating and cooling system.

Beware of important considerations about mold detection in heating and cooling systems.

• Many sections of your heating and cooling system may not be accessible for a visible inspection, so ask the service provider to show you any mold he or she says exists.

• A positive determination of mold's existence can be made only by a certified microbiology expert and that may require laboratory analysis for final confirmation.

• If you have insulated air ducts and the insulation gets wet or moldy it cannot be effectively cleaned and should be removed and replaced.

• If moisture is allowed to remain for more than 48 hours or other conditions causing mold growth are not corrected, mold will return.

If you decide to go ahead and hire a duct cleaner, follow these EPA recommendations.

• Consider hiring National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA) members who are locally regulated, licensed or certified. Talk to at least three different service providers, get written estimates and only then decide if you want your ducts cleaned. When the service providers arrive have them show you the contamination that would justify having your ducts cleaned.

• Whenever possible, check duct cleaners' references with other customers and with local or state consumer protection authorities or the Better Business Bureau for complaints.

• Don't hire duct cleaners who make sweeping claims about the health benefits of duct cleaning, who say you need routine duct cleaning or who say they are certified by the EPA or other government agency. The EPA does not establish standards for, certify, endorse or approve duct cleaning companies.

• Do not allow anyone to use chemical biocides or sealants without a thorough understanding of the pros and cons outlined in "Should You Have Your Air Ducts Cleaned?"

• Get a written agreement outlining the total cost and scope of the job before work begins. Don't sign anything you don't understand.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Mind Your Star Spangled Manners

Even Americans who regularly pledge allegiance by flying the flag at home aren't always practicing correct flag etiquette. Here's how to mind your star spangled manners.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Given the long and bloody fight that culminated in the nation's independence way back in 1776, Americans still have a lot of patriotic U.S. flag flying to do in 2008.

We are still at war for independent, though not our own. We go to the polls this year to elect a brand new president for the nation -- though one is a little newer than the other. And there's always that good old American Dream.

It's not surprising then, that the 4th of July is one of the hottest flag flying days of the year, even though those who regularly pledge allegiance by flying the flag at home aren't always practicing correct flag etiquette.

The correct flag displaying and handling rites are outlined in United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10 -- in what amounts to codified patriotic behavior, rather than federal law.

Any law that imposes penalties for bad flag manners were nulled by a Supreme Court decision in 1990 which struck down as unconstitutional any fines or imprisonment for those convicted of mutilating, defacing, defiling or otherwise desecrating Old Glory.

That makes the code less of a legal mandate and more of a manual of customs for handling and displaying the Stars and Stripes. Hard-nosed patriots, however, still consider it sacrilege to disrespect the flag.

And, by the way, anyone can fly the flag wherever they live in the nation, according to the "Freedom To Fly The American Flag Act of 2005" enacted largely because some homeowner associations enforced architectural rules with near dictatorial dogma to stop some home owners from flying the U.S. Flag.

So, according to federal code, here's how to honor those broad stripes and bright stars as you fly them at home on Independence Day and on other flag flying days to come.

The Patriot's Guide To Flying The U.S. Flag At Home

• Many holidays are designated "flag flying days," but you can fly the flag everyday from sunrise to sunset. At night it must be illuminated.

• Do not fly the flag outside during inclement weather unless you use an all-weather flag.

• Do not fly another flag above the U.S. flag, or if the other flag is on the same level, do not fly another flag to the right of the U.S. flag.

• Fly the flag with the "union" (the blue field of white stars) at the peak of the staff (unless the flag is at half staff) when flying the flag from a staff projecting horizontally or at an angle from the window sill, balcony, or front of a building.

• When you suspend a flag over a sidewalk from a rope extending from a house to a pole at the edge of the sidewalk, hoist the flag, union first, from the building.

• When you display the flag over the middle of the street, suspend it vertically with the union to the north in an east and west street, to the east in a north and south street.

• When you display a flag horizontally or vertically against a wall or in a window, place the union uppermost and to the observer's left or the flag's right.

• Display the flag with the union down only as a distress signal.

• Fly the flag at half-staff (positioning the flag one-half the distance between the top and bottom of the staff) at times specified, often according to presidential instructions.

• When flying the flag at half-staff, it should be first hoisted to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The flag should be again raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day.

• Never allow the flag to touch anything beneath it, including the ground, the floor, water or other items.

• Never carry the flag flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.

• Never use a flag as wearing apparel, bedding, drapery, ceiling covering or decorative element. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.

• Never use the flag for advertising purposes. Don't embroider it on articles, print or impress it on disposable items.

• Don't use a part of the flag as a costume or athletic uniform. A flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firefighters, police, and members of patriotic organizations. A lapel flag pin should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

• Protect the flag from display, use or storage that will cause it to be easily torn, soiled or damaged.

• Never place things on the flag or attach marks, insignias, letters, words, figures, designs, pictures, or drawings

• Don't use the flag as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.

• Aged flags no longer fit for flying -- like those wind whipped ones often found on personal vehicles -- should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferable by safely burning it.

• How to fold Old Glory

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Free Credit Score, Credit Monitoring Services

A class action suit settlement gives consumers free access to credit scores, but not the most widely used score which still costs a few bucks to obtain. Still, the settlement comes with a useful free credit monitoring service.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - There's perhaps nothing more important than your credit report and your credit score when it comes to buying a home.

Lenders scrutinize both before approving -- or rejecting -- your mortgage application.

Before you apply for a mortgage, before you search for a home, you should know what's on your credit report and you should know the score.

That's because you may need to correct errors or make some adjustments to your credit habits to improve your credit, raise your score and increase your chance of landing the mortgage you need.

With a credit monitoring service it's easier to keep tabs on any corrections or changes you may need to make.

Now, both your credit report and your credit score are free -- with a few caveats -- thanks to a recently settled class action suit involving TransUnion. TransUnion, along with Equifax and Experian, is one of the big three credit reporting agencies.

Your credit report is your fiscal fitness report on your credit habits. It names your credit accounts, identifies them by type and tracks balances, credit limits, available credit, open-or-closed status and payments, all to reveal how well or how poorly you pay each account.

The report also documents your applications for credit as well as notices of liens, judgments and other "derogatory" remarks, remarks from the consumer, credit freezes, identity theft actions, dispute notices and other information.

And it contains your legal name, current and recent addresses and place of employment, Social Security number, date of birth, driver's license number, telephone numbers and other identifying information.

All the information on your credit report is also factored heavily into your credit score, a statistical analysis or numerical value placed on your credit behavior. Your credit score is commonly used to nay or yea your requests for credit. The higher the better.

Under the settlement, anyone who has ever had a credit report on file with TransUnion between Jan. 1, 1987, and May 28, 2008, is eligible to receive certain credit score and credit monitoring benefits. That's pretty much anyone with a credit card account or loan during the period -- some 160 million Americans.

The settlement says eligible consumers can select either a free TransUnion six-month credit monitoring service the company normally sells for $59.75 or a nine-month enhanced credit monitoring service that costs $115.50. Both services come with a credit score.

Under previously existing federal law, "The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003" you can already get a free credit report three times a year -- one from each of the three major credit reporting agencies (among others) ,Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

You can also get your credit report by calling, (877) 322-8228 or by writing Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105283, Atlanta, GA 30348-5283. Call first to determine what information you'll need to send.

If you obtain the free report from one company, say in January, another report from another company in May, and another from the remaining company in September, you've effectively set up your own free monitoring system to keep tabs on what's doing on your credit report.

However, consumer regulatory provisions don't give you a credit score, which will cost you $10 or more.

The new court settlement does include both a credit monitoring service and the TransUnion credit score in the deal, but TransUnion's credit score isn't the more widely used Fair Isaacs Co. (or FICO).

You'll still have to pay for the FICO score and you should.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Monday, June 30, 2008

Gas Prices Fuel Urban Desires

Global warming-spawned climate control was already making us reconsider where we should live. Now the cost of gasoline is also giving new meaning to "location, location, location." Even Santa Claus is moving to avoid North Pole melt.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Gasoline is putting the brakes on the choices you thought you had about where to live.

Scientists recently revealed how burning fossil fuels, like gasoline, contributes to climatic change.

Climate change can spawn severe weather conditions that force you to think twice about where to live.

It's not just the fear of the roof being blown off, burned away or snowed under.

Extra costs are associated with living in a natural disaster risk area -- more robust buildings, higher insurance premiums, higher home energy costs and disaster preparedness, to name a few.

Now, the cost of gasoline -- averaging $4 a gallon nationwide -- is further reducing the choices you have about where to live.

A recent Coldwell Banker Associates Report, "Interest in Urban Homeownership Fueled by Higher Gas Prices", found that the vast majority of sales associates' clients -- 78 percent -- said the rising cost of gas has increased their desire to live in the city instead of the suburbs.

More than 80 percent of them said that's because, with the higher cost of gasoline, the commute is just killing their household budget. They want to be closer to work centers or the public transit that can take them there.

Urban development, inline with mitigating global warming, is typically more compact, more densely populated with both people and destinations, more walkable and generally easier to traverse for less via public transit.

Urban cores also tend to be nearer job centers and community and cultural centers. From city center it's often a lot easier to get from Point A to Point B for a fraction of the cost of a gallon of gasoline.

It the Coldwell Banker survey, 75 percent also said the basic prospect of being able to walk to more places is a positive factor. And there's a positive health factor that comes with walking.

Coldwell Banker's survey also found an 84 percent spike in interest for properties with a home office, another indication of a trend towards telecommuting, getting out of those gasoline burners and having more money to spend at home and for the home.

Global warming-sensitive planners and developers as well as consumers, more and more often seek urban living-style development -- even in the suburbs -- for a host of reasons from a healthier, walkable, more energy efficient environments to cheaper development costs, less impact on the infrastructure and closer knit communities.

Coldwell Banker's survey wasn't the first to discover gas pains in suburbia.

DeadlineNews.Com
has long reported how the reliance upon gasoline to support suburban living is a questionable approach to the American Dream.

In 2004 DeadlineNews.Com reported in "Vote For Smart Growth":

The U.S. Census Bureau's "2004 American Community Survey" found that those who were in the market to buy a home were more likely to say they want to be in or near a city as opposed to living in a suburb or rural area.

The same year the chilling documentary "The End Of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and The Collapse of The American Dream" became an eye-opener about the impact the decline in oil supplies will eventually have on the American Dream -- especially the suburban version.

The documentary reveals the lifestyle many home buyers choose is one with a questionable future.

"The whole suburban project is the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. America took all its post war wealth and invested it in a living arrangement that has no future," says new urbanist James Howard Kunstler, Saratoga Springs, NY author of "Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape" (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, $14).

"The End of Suburbia" says the nation's reliance upon fossil fuels has been exponentially multiplied by the drive-everywhere suburban way of life Kunstler calls a "tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work. A land full of places that are not worth caring about will soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending."

The now four-year-old documentary says cheap oil, enjoyed for the past 150 years as the lubricant driving suburban development, is about to evaporate and virtually forecast what's happening in today's market.

"Within our lifetimes we are going to see the end of the Age of Oil, and the result of that will be the end of an American way of life" says Richard Heinberg, author of the new "Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World" (Consortium, $16.95). Heinberg is also a journalist, educator, and, at the time, core faculty member at the New College of California, a sustainable world institute in San Francisco, CA.

The documentary also said, just a year into the War in Iraq, that the war is but the first battle in a larger war to control what's left of the world's oil reserves in order to sustain a lifestyle fewer and fewer home buyers desire.

"Afghanistan and Iraq are the two opening engagements in what are bound to be a long series of wars and international contests over the remaining oil in the world, and over 60 percent of that oil is located in places where people don't like us very much," says Kunstler.

"We have to revive the idea of the city, the town. New urbanists have been criticized for being 'back to the future' but you have to pick up the threads of culture and history and carry them forward," said Peter Calthorpe , an urban designer, architect and founder of the San Francisco-based Congress for New Urbanism.

"The traditional American town and the great American city were fabulous forms of urbanism. The ultimate form, the classic American grid, both at the city scale and village scale, is pretty unique. It's just tragic the kind of environments we are creating when we compare them to what we used to build," Calthorpe said.

Indeed DeadlineNews.Com's "Builders Filling the Gap" revealed only in the last decade have new home builders become serious enough about infill housing, transit oriented development (TOD) and urban living to create special divisions devoted to the energy-dependent lifestyle.

They may be too late.

• See the series "Global Warming Hits Home" only available on DeadlineNews.Com.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

SF Shouts 'Solar!' From Rooftops

Add San Francisco's new solar panel rebate to existing incentives and the cost for a typical $30,000 photovoltaic system is slashed nearly in half. A $0.00 electric bill also boosts affordability.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - San Francisco just thrust solar power further into the limelight.

The city's Board of Supervisors recently voted to launch a citywide cash incentive program for rooftop solar panel power generation.

It's the largest municipal solar initiative in the nation.

That means you get money back -- and lots of it -- for installing rooftop solar systems to generate electricity.

The big news is that the city's solar panel incentive piggy-backs rebates onto existing state and federal incentives.

For example, an average solar system costs about $30,000 including installation.

With the maximum rebates available, San Francisco residents can get $6,000 through the San Francisco Solar Energy Incentive Program; $2,000 from federal energy tax credits and $4,500 from the state's California Solar Initiative.

That's a maximum total of $12,500 that can be rebated to San Francisco residents, leaving them on the hook for the remaining $17,500.

To help lower costs more, a community movement in San Francisco, called One Block Off The Grid, is coordinating a group buying effort to cut costs.

Also, a growing number of lenders offer special, low-interest loans for solar panel purchases and installation.

Rooftop solar panel installation also can be eligible for an Energy Efficient Mortgage.

What's more, solar panels can increase the value of your home.

Let the sun shine in.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Foreclosure Fallout: There Goes The Neighborhood

Foreclosures in your neighborhood don't just cost homeowners their homes -- as if that wasn't bad enough -- they also depress nearby home values and rob the tax base for as long as two years. A study says 44.5 million homes neighboring foreclosed homes will see property values drop by an average $5,000, but that's just a conservative estimate. (Originally published November 15, 2007. See the related story "Foreclosures Undercutting Social Benefits of Homeownership")

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Foreclosures in your neighborhood don't just cost homeowners their homes -- as if that wasn't bad enough -- they also depress nearby home values and rob the tax base for as long as two years.

The Center For Responsible Lending (CRL), which reported in "Losing Ground" that more than 2 million households will face foreclosure due to risky loans, now says the story doesn't stop there.

CRL's latest report, "Subprime Spillover" says for each of the millions of foreclosures on home loans originated in 2005 and 2006, the home values of more than 22 homes will suffer.

The study comes on the heels of a DeadlineNews.Com report"Foreclosures Undercutting Social Benefits of Homeownership", which reveals an increase in social turmoil due to foreclosures.

Studies have long associated home ownership with reduced crime, better educated kids, higher incomes, less reliance upon welfare, more politically active residents and even reduced teen pregnancy, among other benefits.

It's not surprising then that the positive effects of home ownership vanish with growing declines in home ownership, especially where there are concentrations of lost homes.

The CRT study, which focuses on some of the financials cost of foreclosures says:

• 44.5 million neighboring homes will experience devaluation because of subprime foreclosures that take place nearby.
• The total decline in house values and tax base from nearby foreclosures will be $223 billion.
• Homeowners living near foreclosed properties will see their property values decrease $5,000 on average.

In California, that will amount to about 8.4 million neighboring homes -- nearly 1 in 5 nationwide -- suffering lost value to the tune of more than $67.6 million (30 percent of nation's losses) in losses to home values and the tax base, in both cases, the most of any state in the nation.

In Silicon Valley, 325,479 impacted homes will generate $2.8 million in losses. The dollar amount is the 18th highest in the nation. The financial damage is probably going to be worse.

CRL concedes it used conservative estimates in both "Losing Ground" and "Subprime Spillover." The center based its findings on research that says a single foreclosure decreases nearby home values by an average 0.9 percent, but additional foreclosures have a cumulative effect. Each additional foreclosure on the same block strips home values by an additional 0.9 percent. And the impact is higher in lower-income neighborhoods, where a foreclosure reduces nearby home values by 1.44 percent.

Despite economic forecasts that insist the housing market's woes haven't or won't impact the general economy, CRL's report isn't the first to reveal economic fallout will indeed occur.

In October, ACORN released (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) released "Foreclosure Exposure 2: The Cost to our Cities and Neighborhoods," an analysis of data from private and federal sources predicting the potential economic impact of foreclosures on just 96 metropolitan areas.

The report says property owners, local governments, lenders and investors alike in the 96 areas stand to lose more than a combined total of $25 billion.

The dollar cost includes the economic impact as well as the cost of social degradation stemming from lost social services, under-funded education, and increased crime, among other social factors.

Property tax revenues, bolstered by home ownership, help provide city services but foreclosed properties shrink city and regional tax revenues, making it harder to provide good schools, police protection, code enforcement and other services.

"Foreclosures don't just hurt individuals and families, they hurt entire neighborhoods and communities, leaving homes abandoned and vulnerable to vagrancy and crime," ACORN reports.

Without breaking out the data by race, CRL says the foreclosure spillover effect will hit African American and Latino communities harder.

"We note that communities of color will be especially harmed, since these communities receive a disproportionate share of subprime home loans," CRL's report says.

In a "Foreclosure Exposure", a study of 172 cities, ACORN quantified the disparity.

CRL says, in general, 24 states and 42 counties will bear the brunt of foreclosure spillover, experiencing declines of more than $1 billion each in local house prices and tax bases.

States hit hardest will be California, New York, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Arizona, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Counties to be hit hardest will include Los Angeles County, CA; Cook County, IL; Kings County, NY; Miami-Dade County, FL; Queens, NY; Orange County, CA; Bronx County, NY; Broward County, FL; Maricopa County, AZ and New York, NY.

Related news:

• Foreclosures Undercutting Social Benefits of Homeownership
• It Takes Homeowners To Raise A Village
• Counseling, Homeownership Improves Lifestyle
• Home Ownership Improves Lifestyles

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Drizzle Forecast For Seattle Housing

Seattle's resilient housing market has managed to weather the housing crisis like few other cities in the nation. But a little rain could be about to fall on that parade. The city's housing market is beginning to show the same mixed-market conditions that appeared elsewhere before prices tumbled.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Seattle's resilient housing market has managed to weather the housing crisis like few other cities in the nation.

But a little rain could be about to fall on that parade.

The city's housing market is beginning to show the same mixed-market conditions that appeared in metros elsewhere before prices tumbled.

During 2007, well after home prices started slipping in many major metropolitan areas, Seattle's median price on single-family homes was up 7 percent. Condo prices rose nearly 11 percent in 2007, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

But by late last year, market strain was slowing sales, swelling inventories and depressing prices in the Puget Sound town.

This year in May, condo prices were up only 4 percent, compared to a year earlier. Single family home prices were down 2 percent, according the MLS.

Seattle real estate agents who report to RealtyTimes' Market Conditions say it's almost too close to call, but the market looks more and more like a buyer's market.

They also say prices are nearly flat.

Even after price declines, Seattle's median single family home price is nearly a half million dollars and, in today's inflationary economy, that gives edgy buyers sticker-shock.

Pending sales in May were down nearly 40 percent, compared with a year earlier for both houses and condos, according to the MLS.

With sales down, Seattle's inventory of homes has jumped by 40 to 50 percent, says ZipRealty CEO Pat Lashinsky.

But Lashinsky says that could be good news. Motivated sellers will lower prices further and give more buyers an opportunity to buy.
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

DeadlineNews Group Feeds East Bay Publishing

The DeadlineNews Group is the new real estate news service for Northern California's East Bay Publishing, which publishes the weekly online and in-print tabloids San Leandro (CA) Times, Castro Valley (CA) Forum and the online EastBayEveryDay.com.

SAN JOSE, CA - The DeadlineNews Group has begun providing a residential real estate news feed to East Bay Publishing, which publishes the weekly online and in-print tabloids San Leandro (CA) Times, Castro Valley (CA) Forum and the online EastBayEveryDay.com, with Fred Zinder as publisher in Northern California.

The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate editorial content and related consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house for news that really hits home.

The DeadlineNews Group is owned and operated by Broderick Perkins, a San Jose, CA-based journalist for 30 years who parlayed a career in old-school journalism into the contemporary digital news service.

Before establishing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins worked for 15 years as a daily journalist, primarily covering real estate, at the San Jose Mercury News. He began his career at the Gannett-owned News Journal Papers in his Wilmington, DE hometown.

Perkins covered housing as a member of the San Jose Mercury News reporting team that earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake, among many other consumer journalism awards.

Perkins has also written for the Wall Street Journal, Realty Times.com, Nolo.com and more than three dozen additional publications on- and off-line.

DeadlineNews Group is now serving...

• San Leandro (CA) Times

• Castro Valley (CA) Forum

...with news that really hits home!

Email editor@deadlinenews.com and put "We Need DeadlineNews.Com Content" in your subject line and get news that really hits home for your publication. See our mission page for our services and rates, but you could be eligible for FREE content.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

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Disclose, Disclose, Disclose

A good rule of thumb when it comes to whether or not something should be disclosed about a home for sale: "If you can't figure it out, don't leave it out."

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Sure it can be frustrating, exhausting and time-consuming to sell a home in today markets, but don't try to cut corners by failing to make the proper disclosures.

Not only is it illegal for you and your agent not to disclose certain material facts that can affect the value, desirability or salability of a home, most savvy buyers will quickly walk away if he or she suspects deceit.

If you lie by omission and get caught, not only can you face both local and federal charges, you'll still have a home to sell in a less-than-hospitable market. The extra time to sell your home and your day in court could stigmatize the property.

Of course, if you honestly don't know about an issue, or there's little if any chance you could have known, you obviously can't report it.

It's not a bad idea to get a home inspection so you do know. An inspection reveals your attempt at discovery, it will help you determine which items need repair or replacement (not that you are required to make certain repairs), you can use it to price your home and it's a good negotiating tool.

In any event, a good rule of thumb, when it comes to whether or not something should be disclosed: "If you can't figure it out, don't leave it out."

Otherwise, here's are some more specific disclosure tips.

• Each state has a different set of disclosure rules. Your local or state real estate association, as well as your real estate agent, has the proper forms. Both you and the buyer must sign and date the disclosure report to acknowledge delivery and receipt.

• Common items to disclose include, a noisy neighbor, trees uprooting the sidewalk, crime and proximity to busy streets, golf courses, equestrian trails and short term rentals, among a host of others. If you'd want to know, the buyer probably would too.

• Include any problems with construction or home systems. That includes problems with the foundation, roof, windows, doors, electricity, plumbing and the like. For a home improvement completed without a permit (which could itself stop the deal cold), get a permit and make sure the work is to code -- even if that means ripping out the old work and getting it done right.

Rather than reporting "repairs" -- which could imply a defect was permanently corrected -- explain what work you've had done. You called the electrician for faulty wiring at a junction box or you had a plumber fix a leak under the sink, for example

Likewise, you can tell the prospective buyer that you replaced the roof, installed a new water heater, added wind shear protection or installed a sump pump in the basement, etc.

• Disaster prone states often require sellers to disclose information about the home's proximity to fire, flood, earthquake and other hazard zones. It's not a bad idea to know if your regional climate is the victim of climate change, given today's earth-conscious buyer. Do disclose zoning, easement or local ordinance issues and the proximity to other natural hazards like mudslides, landslides, even noise, air and ground pollution, among others.

• Disclose insurance claims. Don't let the buyer discover insurance claims against the property when he or she applies for coverage. Give them a C.L.U.E (for Claims Loss Underwriting Exchange) report. Only home owners can obtain it, but buyers can make the deal contingent upon seeing a copy.

Available to property owners once a year for free from ChoicePoint, the report is a record of claims and claim inquiries on a given property. Insurers use the information to decide to issue a new policy, renew or raise rates.

• A federally mandated lead-based paint disclosure is required for all transactions if the home was built before 1978, but most agents advise making the disclosure for any property. The seller doesn't have to inspect for lead, but must give the buyer materials that discloses the hazards of lead-based paints and related consumer information.

• Among some miscellaneous disclosures that are required or should be considered includes the locations of registered sex offenders, housing market conditions, and, if they happened in the home, certain deaths and certain causes.

If the deceased won't walk into the light and you see dead people, you've got to report that too. Even if you haven't had any bumps in the night, but word's gotten around the house is haunted house, you've got to let the buyer know some ectoplasmic spirit already possesses the home.
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property • Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Climate Change, Home Location Intertwined

There may be no safe haven to consider as a location for your home when it comes to global warming. The first extensive government-sponsored North American focus on climate change paints a dire, almost doomsday scenario, but hey, Santa's moving from North Pole melt.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - When it comes to where you choose to live, be very careful what you wish for.

That river-side bargain, bay view dream home or desert adobe could, along with you, become a victim of climate change.

Just as inundated Midwestern communities along the Mississippi River were feeling the pain of flood plain living, a U.S. climate change study said they and others can expect more of the same.

Buy a home in the wrong location and, more and more often, it could be inundated, a real sweat box or not sufficient shelter from a perfect storm.

That's according to findings in a new report by U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.

The report "Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate", the first extensive federal report that focuses on North America alone, offers a bleaker picture for the nation than earlier reports that focused on the global impact of climate change.

Global warming, an increase in the atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, is on the rise, most scientists agree. When temperatures rise so do oceans and the incidents of drought and other severe weather conditions.

The study says global warming of the past 50 years has been largely caused by human activity that increases heat-trapping gasses. Activities include the increased use of fossil fuels, deforestation, even suburban sprawl and urban development.

Many types of extreme weather and climate event changes have been observed during the five-decade period and continued climatic changes are projected for this century.

The report says, in North America, 2006 was the second hottest year on record, with the higher latitudes of Alaska and Canada experiencing the greatest temperature anomalies.

Since the record hot year of 1998, six of the past ten years have had annual average temperatures that fall in the hottest 10 percent of all years on record for the U.S.

As the planet continues to fry, some critics continue to say global warming is a natural warming, man has nothing to do with it and, in time, global warming will pass. Still others continue to call it a hoax.

To the contrary, the report says expect changes in the intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extent of weather and climate extremes. It also says there is a 90-percent chance that the frequency and intensity of heat waves and monsoon like downpours will rise.

In general, geographically speaking, expect more intense hurricanes spawned by the warmer Atlantic Ocean; heat waves and drought over much of the nation, especially the Southwest; heavy downpours and floods in large basins like the Mississippi River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin (CA) River Delta.

That could mean heavy monsoon-like downpours that come every 20 years could return every 6 years; 100 and 500 year floods every 10 to 15 years; record hot days, typically experienced a few times every 20 years, could become more common every three or four years.

Some say there is no safe haven.

Even Santa Claus may have to move to avoid North Pole melt.

It only sounds funny.

The fallout can be catastrophic in loss of life, property and money. Climate change that spawns flooding or drought can affect the water supply over an expanse of neighborhoods and communities. Likewise, extreme cold and heat put a strain on the power grid. And wildfires thrive during dry weather.

The report says:

• Abnormally hot days and nights, along with heat waves, are very likely to become more common. Cold nights are very likely to become less common.

• With hotter days and more evaporation, precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent, but more intense. The recent Mississippi River Valley storms are an example.

• Sea ice is expected to continue to decrease and may even disappear in the Arctic Ocean in summer in coming decades. That will raise the sea level along shorelines, erode coastal areas and contribute to more, stronger hurricanes.

• Droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in some regions. Previous reports point to desert sprawl, with deserts' outer lying regions, nearer residential development, expanding and getting hotter.

• Hurricanes will likely have increased precipitation and wind. The Hurricane Katrina year of storms was a harbinger of this condition.

• The strongest cold-season storms in the Atlantic and Pacific are likely to produce stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights. During the winter of 2007, the city of Rome and nearby areas in upstate New York experienced more than 100 inches of snowfall.

The "Weather and Climate Extremes" report comes on the heels of other related reports from the same agency. Other reports discuss adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and the effects of climate change on agriculture, land resources, water resources, and biodiversity.

• More global warming news that hits home!

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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