December 18, 2008 - The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today expressed strong support for a plan put forth by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Sheila Bair to reduce foreclosures, noting that it would help to keep people in their homes and avoid further surges in the inventory of unsold homes.
“The FDIC plan to use TARP funds to bolster foreclosure relief efforts is a creative approach to help strapped borrowers on the verge of losing their homes,” said NAHB President and CEO Jerry Howard. “Effective foreclosure relief, along with a stimulus program that includes a meaningful tax credit and aggressive interest-rate buy-down program, are necessary to stabilize the housing market, prop up home values and turn the economy around.”
Under the FDIC proposal, lenders would agree to reduce the interest rate, defer some of the amount owed or extend the repayment period so that borrowers could afford to stay in their homes. In return, the government would guarantee that mortgage holders would be compensated for a portion of any losses should the home owner default on the reconfigured loan.
“NAHB believes that such an approach is essential in order to produce a significant reduction in impending foreclosures and commends the FDIC for its leadership in this area,” said Howard.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Fed Action Creates Best Interest Rates in 50 Years
The National Association of Realtors® applauds the actions of the Federal Reserve Board in lowering interest rates for home buyers and homeowners who need to refinance. This will significantly impact housing sales, home valuations, and the nation’s overall economy.
The Federal Reserve is purchasing large quantities of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities to provide support to the mortgage and housing markets.
“NAR has been aggressively calling for mortgage rate reductions, and the Fed’s action to slash interest rates, coupled with the actions by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Department of the Treasury, has driven down interest rates to make the dream of homeownership once again attainable for thousands of Americans,” said NAR President Charles McMillan.
Mortgage rates, which had averaged 6.3 percent in the third quarter, have recently fallen into the 4 percent range in some parts of the country. “That is the lowest rate in nearly 50 years and will bring buyers back to the market,” McMillan said. “We are pleased that the government heard our message and responded to our call for action.”
NAR has estimated that a one percentage point decrease in mortgage rates will increase home sales by more than 500,000 homes. “To boost the economy, it is critical to stem the rising tide of foreclosures and boost home buyer confidence in the housing market.” McMillan said. “Lower interest rates coupled with increased foreclosure mitigation are the key ingredients to stabilizing the housing market and preserving communities and homeownership.”
NAR continues to call on the federal government to maintain the higher loan limits passed in the economic stimulus bill earlier this year and to expand the $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers to all buyers and to eliminate the credit repayment requirement. “Together, all of these actions will stimulate and stabilize the housing market and begin an overall economic recovery,” McMillan said.
The Federal Reserve is purchasing large quantities of agency debt and mortgage-backed securities to provide support to the mortgage and housing markets.
“NAR has been aggressively calling for mortgage rate reductions, and the Fed’s action to slash interest rates, coupled with the actions by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Department of the Treasury, has driven down interest rates to make the dream of homeownership once again attainable for thousands of Americans,” said NAR President Charles McMillan.
Mortgage rates, which had averaged 6.3 percent in the third quarter, have recently fallen into the 4 percent range in some parts of the country. “That is the lowest rate in nearly 50 years and will bring buyers back to the market,” McMillan said. “We are pleased that the government heard our message and responded to our call for action.”
NAR has estimated that a one percentage point decrease in mortgage rates will increase home sales by more than 500,000 homes. “To boost the economy, it is critical to stem the rising tide of foreclosures and boost home buyer confidence in the housing market.” McMillan said. “Lower interest rates coupled with increased foreclosure mitigation are the key ingredients to stabilizing the housing market and preserving communities and homeownership.”
NAR continues to call on the federal government to maintain the higher loan limits passed in the economic stimulus bill earlier this year and to expand the $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers to all buyers and to eliminate the credit repayment requirement. “Together, all of these actions will stimulate and stabilize the housing market and begin an overall economic recovery,” McMillan said.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Fed Cuts Interest Rate To Historic Low - Details
RISMEDIA, Dec. 18, 2008-(MCT)-By cutting its benchmark lending rate to historic lows Tuesday and promising to combat the U.S. recession head-on and aggressively, the Federal Reserve served notice that more unconventional actions probably are ahead as it fights to reverse the nation’s economic woes.
The Fed pushed its federal funds rate from an already low 1% to a target range of 0 to 0.25%. This marks the lowest point ever for this target rate, which banks charge each other for overnight loans. The funds rate serves as a benchmark for a wide range of loans in the U.S. economy.
The Fed’s rate cut was larger than expected, and highly unusual, as the Fed usually targets a specific rate instead of a range. The move highlighted the Fed’s determination to act aggressively along with the reality that the U.S. recession is deepening rapidly.
Evidence of that came from the Commerce Department, which reported that housing starts fell 19% in November and 47% on a year-over-year basis. New residential construction has fallen to levels not seen in almost half a century.
On top of grim retail sales, mounting job losses and sagging exports, the U.S. economy is struggling on many fronts.
In theory, the Fed’s action should reduce the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses, since the prime rate-what banks charge their best customers-moves in tandem with the federal funds rate.
The prime rate typically influences rates for car loans, student loans, credit cards and other debt. With Tuesday’s cut, the prime rate is expected to fall to 3.0 to 3.25% from 4%.
However, despite the attractive rates, banks aren’t lending to most consumers and businesses. Weak financial institutions continue to hoard cash and build their balance sheets, with little appetite for risk in new loans. That’s worsening the economic downturn, especially since it hurts consumers, who drive almost two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
In a statement, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said: “The outlook for economic activity has weakened further … the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability.”
The vow to deploy “all available tools” sparked a rally on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 359.61 points to close at 8924.14, while the S&P 500 finished up 44.61 points to 913.18 and the Nasdaq added 81.55 points to end the day at 1589.89.
A senior Fed official, briefing reporters late Thursday on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, said that a rate range was chosen because the real federal funds rate-what banks actually charge-has been well below the Fed’s target in recent months.
The Fed’s statement said that “weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for some time.”
The Fed has little room left to maneuver on interest-rate policy now and will use other tools.
“They are saying that they have unlimited arrows. As the central bank of the United States, it is the only entity that can write checks on itself without limit, and that’s a very powerful weapon the Fed has against the downturn,” said Marvin Goodfriend, a former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond who’s now an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “It won’t work immediately, but if it is used aggressively, it will work.”
Chief among those other tools is to keep lending aggressively; the Fed’s balance sheet already has gone from about $800 billion to $2.2 trillion as it pulls out all the stops to confront the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke next can scale up existing Fed lending facilities or create new ones, Goodfriend said. The Fed statement said that the central bank was weighing the possibility of purchasing long-term Treasury bonds, which would drive down their yield and make other investments such as corporate and municipal bonds more attractive.
“The Fed did it before in the 1940s and it could do it again,” said Vincent Reinhart, a former chief economist of the Fed’s rate-setting body who’s now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy institute in Washington.
The Fed’s statement also said that it will extend credit to households and small businesses early next year. Other experts think that the Fed will increase its purchases of troubled assets to unclog credit markets.
“The Fed’s next step is to ramp up its purchases of various financial securities to bring down borrowing costs to households and businesses,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for forecaster Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pa.
The Fed already has become the buyer of last resort for financial products that aren’t moving in today’s frozen credit markets. It’s bypassed banks and is purchasing short-term promissory notes issued by big U.S. corporations, called commercial paper. It’s also announced plans to buy pooled car loans, student loans and credit card debt, collectively called asset-backed securities.
In another creative step to boost the housing market, the central bank also has been purchasing pooled mortgages-called mortgage-backed securities-and debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that the government seized in September. The senior Fed official said that efforts to purchase mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being ramped up.
The Fed will take additional aggressive steps along those lines in the weeks and months ahead, Zandi predicted.
“They will soon be buying long-term Treasury bonds and will then branch out to high-grade corporate bonds, private-label mortgage securities, asset-backed securities and, if conditions get particularly bad, corporate equity,” he said. “The Fed has the ability to purchase just about anything, and they will do so if they think it will help unfreeze credit markets.”
President-elect Barack Obama noted Tuesday during a Chicago news conference that the Fed has cut interest rates almost as low as possible. That makes it “critical that the other branches of government step up” and work to stimulate the economy as well, Obama said, underscoring his determination to push a massive stimulus program next month upon taking office.
“Look, we are going through the toughest time economically since the Great Depression, and it’s going to be tough,” Obama said. He reiterated that his program will save or create 2.5 million jobs and will work to spur an early rebound and long-term investments in a stronger economic foundation.
The Fed’s statement didn’t mention aid to Detroit’s Big Three automakers, but Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did in an interview on CNBC. He said that the Treasury was studying how best to provide the Big Three with a bridge loan that would sustain them in the short term and help them restructure toward long-term viability.
“We want to do it right,” Paulson said, adding that no one wants to see the consequences of a Big Three failure in the current economic circumstances. Up to 3 million jobs could hang in the balance, analysts say.
The Fed got a bit of good news Tuesday before its announcement, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation fell in November. The BLS said that consumer prices fell 1.7%, the second straight month with a record decline in inflation.
On a year-over-year basis, consumer inflation rose 1.1% from November 2007 to last month.
© 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
The Fed pushed its federal funds rate from an already low 1% to a target range of 0 to 0.25%. This marks the lowest point ever for this target rate, which banks charge each other for overnight loans. The funds rate serves as a benchmark for a wide range of loans in the U.S. economy.
The Fed’s rate cut was larger than expected, and highly unusual, as the Fed usually targets a specific rate instead of a range. The move highlighted the Fed’s determination to act aggressively along with the reality that the U.S. recession is deepening rapidly.
Evidence of that came from the Commerce Department, which reported that housing starts fell 19% in November and 47% on a year-over-year basis. New residential construction has fallen to levels not seen in almost half a century.
On top of grim retail sales, mounting job losses and sagging exports, the U.S. economy is struggling on many fronts.
In theory, the Fed’s action should reduce the cost of borrowing for consumers and businesses, since the prime rate-what banks charge their best customers-moves in tandem with the federal funds rate.
The prime rate typically influences rates for car loans, student loans, credit cards and other debt. With Tuesday’s cut, the prime rate is expected to fall to 3.0 to 3.25% from 4%.
However, despite the attractive rates, banks aren’t lending to most consumers and businesses. Weak financial institutions continue to hoard cash and build their balance sheets, with little appetite for risk in new loans. That’s worsening the economic downturn, especially since it hurts consumers, who drive almost two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
In a statement, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said: “The outlook for economic activity has weakened further … the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability.”
The vow to deploy “all available tools” sparked a rally on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 359.61 points to close at 8924.14, while the S&P 500 finished up 44.61 points to 913.18 and the Nasdaq added 81.55 points to end the day at 1589.89.
A senior Fed official, briefing reporters late Thursday on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, said that a rate range was chosen because the real federal funds rate-what banks actually charge-has been well below the Fed’s target in recent months.
The Fed’s statement said that “weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for some time.”
The Fed has little room left to maneuver on interest-rate policy now and will use other tools.
“They are saying that they have unlimited arrows. As the central bank of the United States, it is the only entity that can write checks on itself without limit, and that’s a very powerful weapon the Fed has against the downturn,” said Marvin Goodfriend, a former research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond who’s now an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “It won’t work immediately, but if it is used aggressively, it will work.”
Chief among those other tools is to keep lending aggressively; the Fed’s balance sheet already has gone from about $800 billion to $2.2 trillion as it pulls out all the stops to confront the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke next can scale up existing Fed lending facilities or create new ones, Goodfriend said. The Fed statement said that the central bank was weighing the possibility of purchasing long-term Treasury bonds, which would drive down their yield and make other investments such as corporate and municipal bonds more attractive.
“The Fed did it before in the 1940s and it could do it again,” said Vincent Reinhart, a former chief economist of the Fed’s rate-setting body who’s now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy institute in Washington.
The Fed’s statement also said that it will extend credit to households and small businesses early next year. Other experts think that the Fed will increase its purchases of troubled assets to unclog credit markets.
“The Fed’s next step is to ramp up its purchases of various financial securities to bring down borrowing costs to households and businesses,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for forecaster Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pa.
The Fed already has become the buyer of last resort for financial products that aren’t moving in today’s frozen credit markets. It’s bypassed banks and is purchasing short-term promissory notes issued by big U.S. corporations, called commercial paper. It’s also announced plans to buy pooled car loans, student loans and credit card debt, collectively called asset-backed securities.
In another creative step to boost the housing market, the central bank also has been purchasing pooled mortgages-called mortgage-backed securities-and debt issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that the government seized in September. The senior Fed official said that efforts to purchase mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were being ramped up.
The Fed will take additional aggressive steps along those lines in the weeks and months ahead, Zandi predicted.
“They will soon be buying long-term Treasury bonds and will then branch out to high-grade corporate bonds, private-label mortgage securities, asset-backed securities and, if conditions get particularly bad, corporate equity,” he said. “The Fed has the ability to purchase just about anything, and they will do so if they think it will help unfreeze credit markets.”
President-elect Barack Obama noted Tuesday during a Chicago news conference that the Fed has cut interest rates almost as low as possible. That makes it “critical that the other branches of government step up” and work to stimulate the economy as well, Obama said, underscoring his determination to push a massive stimulus program next month upon taking office.
“Look, we are going through the toughest time economically since the Great Depression, and it’s going to be tough,” Obama said. He reiterated that his program will save or create 2.5 million jobs and will work to spur an early rebound and long-term investments in a stronger economic foundation.
The Fed’s statement didn’t mention aid to Detroit’s Big Three automakers, but Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson did in an interview on CNBC. He said that the Treasury was studying how best to provide the Big Three with a bridge loan that would sustain them in the short term and help them restructure toward long-term viability.
“We want to do it right,” Paulson said, adding that no one wants to see the consequences of a Big Three failure in the current economic circumstances. Up to 3 million jobs could hang in the balance, analysts say.
The Fed got a bit of good news Tuesday before its announcement, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation fell in November. The BLS said that consumer prices fell 1.7%, the second straight month with a record decline in inflation.
On a year-over-year basis, consumer inflation rose 1.1% from November 2007 to last month.
© 2008, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Fix Housing First Coalition Seeks To Revive Housing & Economy
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is spearheading Fix Housing First, one of the largest coalitions of housing advocates ever assembled in the United States, to push for a housing recovery plan that will revive the economy.
“If we are going to successfully pull our nation out of recession, we must address housing first,” said NAHB President and CEO Jerry Howard.
Fix Housing First, which consists of more than 600 organizations, home building companies and manufacturers continues to add new members on a daily basis, is pressing for a major stimulus package to stem the decline in home values, stabilize financial markets and reignite consumer demand. To get the economy moving again, the coalition is urging Congress to support enhancements to the home buyer tax credit and provide below-market 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for home purchases.
“If Congress enacts a meaningful tax credit, coupled with an aggressive interest rate buy-down program, we are confident that these measures will help to stabilize home prices, prevent future foreclosures, restore consumer confidence and start creating jobs,” said Howard.
The coalition cites a similar plan that worked in 1975, when the nation was also in the midst of a recession. Congress then passed a short-term $2,000 tax credit for all new homes ($12,000 adjusted for today's median home prices) along with subsidized mortgage rates. The stimulus jump started the depressed economy and the effects continued long after the measure expired.
"Entering this holiday season, we saw a sobering loss of more than half a million jobs in November, and major job cutbacks among the nation's top employers are being announced daily," said Howard. "We need to put a stop to this dangerous erosion on Main Street before it grows out of control.”
Enzo Perfetto, a third-generation home builder from Cleveland, has gone from constructing 20-to-30 homes annually to just one this year as a result of the economic downturn. The situation is critical and getting worse, he said. “Home building generates American jobs. You can’t outsource the construction of a home. But these jobs won’t return until the credit freeze ends and our government addresses the housing crisis.”
"We are leaving no stone unturned in conveying to our government and the public the message that a housing stimulus is urgently needed, and that restoring demand for housing is the fastest and most effective way of reviving the economy," Howard said.
The housing stimulus proponents are calling for significant enhancements to the current $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers. Among the improvements:
- All primary home purchases between April 9, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009 would be eligible.
- The credit amount would be increased to 10 percent of the price of the home, capped at 3.5 percent of FHA loan limits, bringing the credit to a range of roughly between $10,000 and $22,000.
- The current recapture provision would be eliminated. Repayment would only be required if the home were sold within three years.
- The credit would be available at the time of closing, making it easier to be used as a downpayment.
The second component of the stimulus plan would provide qualified home buyers with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at 2.99 percent on contracts closed until June 30, 2009 and 3.99 percent on closings between June 30 and Dec. 31, 2009.
The coalition has also announced its support for continuing foreclosure prevention measures to keep people in their homes.
To help buyers in California and other high-cost markets, NAHB is also calling on Congress to permanently keep the FHA/Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conforming loan limits at $729,750. Under current law, the loan limits for high-cost areas will be reduced to $625,500 on Jan. 1, 2009.
Fix Housing First points out that 3 million home building-related jobs have been lost as a result of the slowdown in housing production, which represents $145 billion in lost wages and $4.9 billion in lost purchases. Deterioration in these jobs has now spilled over into virtually all sectors of the U.S. job market.
"Over the past two years, the new home construction market has experienced an unprecedented decline. This has led to major layoffs, lost business and production cutbacks by thousands of building product manufacturers and suppliers nationwide. Clearly, innovative and decisive government action is urgently needed to stem the decline and create positive traction in the housing market,” said Frank Cicero, Executive Vice President of Store Operations for 84 Lumber Company.
To learn more about Fix Housing First, go to www.fixhousingfirst.com.
“If we are going to successfully pull our nation out of recession, we must address housing first,” said NAHB President and CEO Jerry Howard.
Fix Housing First, which consists of more than 600 organizations, home building companies and manufacturers continues to add new members on a daily basis, is pressing for a major stimulus package to stem the decline in home values, stabilize financial markets and reignite consumer demand. To get the economy moving again, the coalition is urging Congress to support enhancements to the home buyer tax credit and provide below-market 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for home purchases.
“If Congress enacts a meaningful tax credit, coupled with an aggressive interest rate buy-down program, we are confident that these measures will help to stabilize home prices, prevent future foreclosures, restore consumer confidence and start creating jobs,” said Howard.
The coalition cites a similar plan that worked in 1975, when the nation was also in the midst of a recession. Congress then passed a short-term $2,000 tax credit for all new homes ($12,000 adjusted for today's median home prices) along with subsidized mortgage rates. The stimulus jump started the depressed economy and the effects continued long after the measure expired.
"Entering this holiday season, we saw a sobering loss of more than half a million jobs in November, and major job cutbacks among the nation's top employers are being announced daily," said Howard. "We need to put a stop to this dangerous erosion on Main Street before it grows out of control.”
Enzo Perfetto, a third-generation home builder from Cleveland, has gone from constructing 20-to-30 homes annually to just one this year as a result of the economic downturn. The situation is critical and getting worse, he said. “Home building generates American jobs. You can’t outsource the construction of a home. But these jobs won’t return until the credit freeze ends and our government addresses the housing crisis.”
"We are leaving no stone unturned in conveying to our government and the public the message that a housing stimulus is urgently needed, and that restoring demand for housing is the fastest and most effective way of reviving the economy," Howard said.
The housing stimulus proponents are calling for significant enhancements to the current $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers. Among the improvements:
- All primary home purchases between April 9, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009 would be eligible.
- The credit amount would be increased to 10 percent of the price of the home, capped at 3.5 percent of FHA loan limits, bringing the credit to a range of roughly between $10,000 and $22,000.
- The current recapture provision would be eliminated. Repayment would only be required if the home were sold within three years.
- The credit would be available at the time of closing, making it easier to be used as a downpayment.
The second component of the stimulus plan would provide qualified home buyers with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at 2.99 percent on contracts closed until June 30, 2009 and 3.99 percent on closings between June 30 and Dec. 31, 2009.
The coalition has also announced its support for continuing foreclosure prevention measures to keep people in their homes.
To help buyers in California and other high-cost markets, NAHB is also calling on Congress to permanently keep the FHA/Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conforming loan limits at $729,750. Under current law, the loan limits for high-cost areas will be reduced to $625,500 on Jan. 1, 2009.
Fix Housing First points out that 3 million home building-related jobs have been lost as a result of the slowdown in housing production, which represents $145 billion in lost wages and $4.9 billion in lost purchases. Deterioration in these jobs has now spilled over into virtually all sectors of the U.S. job market.
"Over the past two years, the new home construction market has experienced an unprecedented decline. This has led to major layoffs, lost business and production cutbacks by thousands of building product manufacturers and suppliers nationwide. Clearly, innovative and decisive government action is urgently needed to stem the decline and create positive traction in the housing market,” said Frank Cicero, Executive Vice President of Store Operations for 84 Lumber Company.
To learn more about Fix Housing First, go to www.fixhousingfirst.com.
Friday, December 5, 2008
No Radon Health Risks Uncovered in New Granite Countertop Study
Responding to unsubstantiated news reports raising concerns over radon radiation in granite countertops, the Marble Institute of America reported on Nov. 17 that in the largest scientific study of the product ever it did not find a single stone slab that poses a health risk.“Quantities of radon and radiation emitted by stones included in the analysis all fell well below average background levels commonly found in the United States,” the institute said.The study included more than 400 tests of 115 different varieties of granite countertops — including stones cited in media reports as being potentially problematic, the most common types of granite used in countertops in the U.S. and the more exotic stones that represent a tiny share of the market. The types of stones tested comprise about 80% of those used in domestic countertops.The study found that:1. Not one stone slab contributed to radon levels that even reached the average U.S. outdoor radon concentration of 0.4 picocuries per liter — one-tenth the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency level for remedial action within a home.2. The stones found to emit higher radon levels — though still well below average outdoor background levels — represent less than 1% of U.S. granite countertop sales.3. Not a single stone emitted radiation levels that even approached a radiation dose of 0.13 milliSievert per year, the level determined by the European Commission to be negligible for human health risk; the U.S. has no such standard. However, this European standard is just 30% of the 1 milliSievert per year annual dose limit recommended for the general public by the National Council for Radiation Protection & Measurements.
“Unlike some media reports of questionable scientific accuracy, this study evaluated a large variety of stones and used a number of complementary, well-established scientific techniques to assess the exposures that people could have to radon and radiation in real-world environments and to determine whether the presence of these specific stones could compromise consumer health,” the Marble Institute said.“Our study included detailed mapping of radiation emitted from various stones that had areas that we identified as being elevated above levels for typical granite countertop material,” said Dr. John F. McCarthy, president of Environmental Health & Engineering, the independent environmental testing firm that conducted the study.“We found that it’s easy to get what appear to be high readings of radon or radiation from a small fraction of granite countertops, but those readings do not reflect the actual risk to consumers because they do not assess the real exposure, only isolated, extreme measurements,” he said.“As with any other type of environmental measurement, assessing the real risk to consumers must take into account more than isolated readings from small spots on a countertop,” McCarthy said. “It must reflect real-world exposure scenarios and be interpreted using well-established principles of environmental health.”For a list of HBA member professionals who sell and install granite, use our "Find-A-Pro" search feature. Click on the "Find-A-Pro" button on the HBA Home Page; then, enter the word "granite" in the Keyword Search field. Click here for the HBA Home Page!
“Unlike some media reports of questionable scientific accuracy, this study evaluated a large variety of stones and used a number of complementary, well-established scientific techniques to assess the exposures that people could have to radon and radiation in real-world environments and to determine whether the presence of these specific stones could compromise consumer health,” the Marble Institute said.“Our study included detailed mapping of radiation emitted from various stones that had areas that we identified as being elevated above levels for typical granite countertop material,” said Dr. John F. McCarthy, president of Environmental Health & Engineering, the independent environmental testing firm that conducted the study.“We found that it’s easy to get what appear to be high readings of radon or radiation from a small fraction of granite countertops, but those readings do not reflect the actual risk to consumers because they do not assess the real exposure, only isolated, extreme measurements,” he said.“As with any other type of environmental measurement, assessing the real risk to consumers must take into account more than isolated readings from small spots on a countertop,” McCarthy said. “It must reflect real-world exposure scenarios and be interpreted using well-established principles of environmental health.”For a list of HBA member professionals who sell and install granite, use our "Find-A-Pro" search feature. Click on the "Find-A-Pro" button on the HBA Home Page; then, enter the word "granite" in the Keyword Search field. Click here for the HBA Home Page!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A Modest Home Remains National Norm
The typical American home, be it owned or rented, contains a median of 5.5 rooms, according to Census data.
The anatomy of the average American home, be it owned or rented, hasn't changed much in recent years, considering only 12 percent of the nation’s 112 million occupied housing units were built after the year 2000.
But data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this morning from the American Community Survey (ACS) does offer some insight into how the average Joe lives, and what new home builders are competing against in the resale landscape, which currently includes nearly 4.7 million units of existing inventory–an 11.2 month supply.
Currently, more than 69 percent of U.S. households reside in single-family homes, the Census reports, compared with 24.6 percent in attached units, and 6.3 percent in mobile homes or other structures. Slightly more than two-thirds (67.2 percent) of homes are owner-occupied, whereas 32.8 percent are rental units.
Big houses may have constituted the bread and butter of the housing boom, but they are not the norm in the bigger picture. In fact, the majority of U.S. residences (70.3 percent) contain just four to seven rooms, with a median overall room count of 5.5. Fewer than one in five housing units (17.4 percent) feature eight or more rooms.
Some 67.3 percent of housing units contain two or three bedrooms. The number of housing units outfitted with four or more bedrooms stands at 20.8 percent.
Roughly one-third (33.1 percent) of households have one car, whereas a slightly larger share (38.1 percent) have two cars. Only one in five households has three or more cars.
The average owner-occupied residence is home to 2.7 people (for rentals, that number is slightly lower, at 2.42). Only 33.9 percent of U.S. households now include children under 18–a reflection, no doubt, of an aging population with a larger percentage of Americans now entering retirement age.
[Original Release: http://www.builderonline.com/demographics/a-modest-home-remains-national-norm.aspx]
The anatomy of the average American home, be it owned or rented, hasn't changed much in recent years, considering only 12 percent of the nation’s 112 million occupied housing units were built after the year 2000.
But data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this morning from the American Community Survey (ACS) does offer some insight into how the average Joe lives, and what new home builders are competing against in the resale landscape, which currently includes nearly 4.7 million units of existing inventory–an 11.2 month supply.
Currently, more than 69 percent of U.S. households reside in single-family homes, the Census reports, compared with 24.6 percent in attached units, and 6.3 percent in mobile homes or other structures. Slightly more than two-thirds (67.2 percent) of homes are owner-occupied, whereas 32.8 percent are rental units.
Big houses may have constituted the bread and butter of the housing boom, but they are not the norm in the bigger picture. In fact, the majority of U.S. residences (70.3 percent) contain just four to seven rooms, with a median overall room count of 5.5. Fewer than one in five housing units (17.4 percent) feature eight or more rooms.
Some 67.3 percent of housing units contain two or three bedrooms. The number of housing units outfitted with four or more bedrooms stands at 20.8 percent.
Roughly one-third (33.1 percent) of households have one car, whereas a slightly larger share (38.1 percent) have two cars. Only one in five households has three or more cars.
The average owner-occupied residence is home to 2.7 people (for rentals, that number is slightly lower, at 2.42). Only 33.9 percent of U.S. households now include children under 18–a reflection, no doubt, of an aging population with a larger percentage of Americans now entering retirement age.
[Original Release: http://www.builderonline.com/demographics/a-modest-home-remains-national-norm.aspx]
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