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In some newly constructed housing developments home builders are including a clause in the contract demanding a 1 percent transfer fee to be paid to them every time the property is sold over the next 99 years. The fee isn’t for improvements or maintenance. It is just a payment to the builder, and not everyone likes it.
Five years after the devastating hurricanes that ravaged New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast, many organizations have stepped in to help rebuild the city, placing emphasis on resilience, sustainability and economic prosperity. Through USGBC’s LEED green building certification program, hundreds of homes, schools and commercial buildings are being rebuilt to be high-performance, resource-efficient, durable and healthier places for the people of New Orleans who occupy them.
Bolstered by favorable interest rates and low house prices, housing affordability remained near its highest level nationwide for the sixth consecutive month since the series was first compiled nearly two decades ago. 72.3 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the second quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. The index for the second quarter was slightly more affordable than the previous quarter and almost equaled the record-high 72.5 percent set during the first quarter of 2009.
Homeowners are more pessimistic about the short-term future of home values in their local market than they have been in the past three quarters. One-third believe local home values have not yet reached a bottom, while 38 percent believe they already have reached bottom.
A majority of the nation’s home builders have been offering incentives this summer to boost their sales in a generally cool marketplace. Some builders are using incentives to fill the void now that the May 1 deadline for signing a sales contract to qualify for the home buyer tax credit has come and gone.
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