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Week of January 7, 2008
NAHB’s Monday morning briefing:
Just in time for the holidays,
NAHB-supported legislation on mortgage debt relief was approved by Congress on Dec. 18 and signed into law by President Bush two days later. The measure, which will help struggling home owners avoid foreclosure, is the latest positive step to be taken toward resolving the credit crunch and restoring balance to the nation's housing markets. [more]
2008 will bring improvements to the housing market [more]
Builder confidence remained unchanged for a third straight month [more]
An increase in FHA multifamily mortgage insurance loan limits [more]
Builders wisely put the brakes on home production in November [more]
Save the date for NAHB's annual Legislative Conference on April 30 [more]
Farewell to NAHB Life Director Robert Holmes, [more]
On the House | How to tell trends from fads
By: Al Heavens, Inquirer Columnist
Real estate educator Marcie Roggow often starts her classes by defining trends, and the one I sat in on at the recent regional Realtors' conference in Atlantic City was no exception.
Roggow defines a trend as a "any consistent pattern or change in the general direction" of something. For example, staging homes is a trend; leisure suits (remember them?) were, thankfully, a fad. (I know. I owned two of them.)
In his 2007 Trends Report, real estate educator Stefan Swanepoel writes that "some trends in the real estate industry evolve internally to meet a specific need, while others develop when new products or solutions are created to solve problems that may or may not exist."
Some shortsighted real estate agents still consider the Internet a fad, Roggow points out. Don't laugh. It's the same kind of thinking that ended the careers of many silent-film stars when talkies came in, and of radio actors when TV appeared.
Fortunately, I'd already sat through Roggow's seminar when I received the J. Walter Thompson agency's "Ten Trends That Will Shape Our World in 2008," so I was forearmed with expert tools of discernment.
Thompson is one of the world's largest ad agencies, so it should know what's up, right?
"Blue is the new green." Climate change has quickly become the driver of Environmentalism 2.0, and people worldwide understand that climate is all about the seas and the sky - both blue, Thompson says. Watch for "green" to become a subset of "blue," which is coming to denote the much larger emerging spirit of good-citizen ethics.
Want more trends?
List of Pa. legislators not seeking re-election
The list , so far , of state lawmakers who are not seeking re-election this year:
Senate
Democrats: Gerald J. LaValle, Beaver County; Connie Williams, Montgomery.
Republicans: Gib Armstrong, Lancaster; Roger A. Madigan, Bradford.
House of Representatives
Democrats: Lisa Bennington, Allegheny; Daylin Leach, Montgomery; Thomas C. Petrone, Allegheny; Thomas A. Tangretti, Westmoreland; Edward P. Wojnaroski, Cambria; Thomas F. Yewcic, Cambria.
Republicans: Bob Bastian, Somerset; Steven W. Cappelli, Lycoming: Arthur D. Hershey, Chester; Jerry L. Nailor, Cumberland; Steven R. Nickol, York: Ron Raymond, Delaware; Carole A. Rubley, Chester; David J. Steil, Bucks.
Thieves target construction equipment
By: Annie Tasker, The Intelligencer
A troubling trend has hit Hatboro where, in December, about $15,000 worth of copper wire and scrap metal was stolen.
“It's getting to be much more prevalent here, recently,” said Sgt. James Petrik of the Hatboro Police Department. “The scrap metal prices are up real high, copper wire in particular.”
Copper and scrap metal thefts have become commonplace in Bucks and Montgomery counties, where people have been swiping the materials from construction sites for years. In recent months, Hatboro has seen a spike in construction material thefts that authorities attribute to the increasing value of the materials. Market value for copper has skyrocketed from about 75 cents to more than $3 a pound since 2004, according to the Associated Press.
It's not just materials being stolen — around Christmas about $2,500 worth of tools were stolen after two construction trailers were broken into on South York Road.
Building plans not run of the mill
By:Freda R. Savana, The Intelligencer
For more than six years, Bob Showalter has hoped to build an office and retail center near his engineering firm on Butler Avenue, also known as Route 202.
He recently won approval of the borough's planning commission and expects to present plans for the 7,000-square-foot building at Tuesday's council's meeting.
The process has been a complicated one, largely because the less than 1-acre site where he plans to build is in a 100-year flood plain. In order to have the land usable he had to elevate the property — once the location of the Simon Butler mill — about 3 feet.
Once that was accomplished, he needed approvals from both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. Those hurdles have been overcome, said Gary Lucas, head of the borough's planning commission.
Supervisors say no to age-restricted homes
ByChris English, Bucks County Courier Times
While Lower Makefield has approved 521 age-restricted homes on its part of the big Octagon Center development near the Oxford Valley Mall, Middletown wants no more of that kind of housing.
At their Tuesday night meeting, the Middletown Board of Supervisors unanimously voted down a proposed zoning amendment that would have allowed age-restricted homes on the township's 48-acre share of the property being developed by the Matrix Development Group of Cranbury, N.J.
Middletown already has 1,177 age-restricted houses or apartments. This type of housing requires at least one occupant of each home to be at least 55 years old and allows no children under 19.
B of A, Countrywide Said to Be in Merger Talks
Bank of America is in talks to acquire Countrywide Financial, the troubled mortgage lender in which it has a $2 billion stake, people briefed on the situation told DealBook.
The two firms have held sales talks for at least the past week and a half, these people said. A price could not be learned, though at market open on Thursday, Countrywide’s capitalization was about $3 billion. An announcement could be made as soon as Thursday afternoon, but is more likely to be made Friday morning, these people said.
The negotiations mark an end to the independence of Countrywide, the nation’s largest lender and perhaps the biggest symbol of the shakeup in the mortgage market. The firm, founded by Angelo R. Mozilo, was among the most aggressive lenders to homeowners — extending loans even to borrowers with suspect credit histories, then raising interest rates.
