The eight-point jump was the first time the index has been above 50 since April 2006 and represented the biggest one-month gain since August and September of 2002, when the HMI recorded a similar increase of eight points.
The number of U.S. housing markets on the mend rose by five to a total of 263 in June, according to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI).
The Home Building Lending Improvement Act of 2013 would discourage lenders from calling construction loans whose payments are current and establish regulatory guidelines to allow the banking industry to restore lending for viable home building projects.
At Living Future's annual conference this month in Seattle, Jason McLennan and architecture firm BNIM founder Bob Berkebile launched the JUST label, an extension of the Declare label that addresses social justice and equity issues.
Home prices in March rose by 10.9 percent from a year earlier, the largest such gain in seven years, according to an index tracking home prices in 20 U.S. cities.
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 units in April, according to newly released figures from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Flawed, unnecessary, and costly regulations burden small home builders by raising expenses and slowing the home building process. These hurdles ultimately rob builders of time and money and pass on higher housing costs to consumer.
Recent studies strongly suggest a homeowner's utility expenses and transportation expenses can be meaningful determinants of delinquency, default, and prepayment.
The ranks of LEED certified homes would grow faster if builders appealed more to homeowner’s desire to save money on utilities, says Paul Fisette, a sustainable building expert at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
