New Construction Content Index - Page 1

Buying, selling, financing, and furnishing your new home is a fun and exciting challenge. Look at the articles, columns, blog posts, radio shows and videos for advice on new construction home building. With these helpful home construction tips, building a new home is a whole lot easier.

**Should I Refinance My Mortgage?** Mortgage interest rates keep falling, now below 5 percent. Should you refinance your mortgage? It's more difficult to get a mortgage refinance in today's lending market, but it might be worthwhile to try to refinance your mortgage. Will it reduce your monthly mortgage payments? Will a mortgage refinance shorten the term of your loan? You need to determine why you want to refinance your mortgage to determine the best refinancing scenario for your loan.

**$8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit and Closing On New Construction** If you are buying a home as a first time home buyer or repeat buyer, the extended $8000 credit or the expanded $6500 credit should be of interest to you. But you need to be careful with timing. If you close too late, you might not be entitled to the credit. You must close and move into your new home before the tax credit expires. If you're still working on construction by the time the home buyer tax credits expire, you will not qualify for the $8000 first-time home buyer tax credit or the $6500 trade-up buyer tax credit.

Property owners are finding creative ways to fill vacancies during the recession. Over 70 percent of property owners have experienced higher vacancy rates over the past year. Recent vacancies are primarily a result of job loss and tenants trying to save money on rent by moving to a cheaper unit or doubling-up with roommates. Property owners are modifying credit policies to fill units during the recession. Owners are also lowering rent, relaxing pet policies and offering unit upgrades. Read the full press release below from Rent.com.

HUD Secretary Donovan and FHA Commissioner Stevens briefed leaders on the FHA's financial outlook today, in coordination with the release of its annual independent actuarial study. The study found the capital reserve ratio to be 0.53 percent of total insurance in force this year, well below the congressionally mandated threshold of two percent. The FHA holds $31 billion in total reserves today. Robert Ryan was introduced as the FHA's first-ever Chief Risk Officer. Ryan will focus on understanding risk to the FHA's insurance fund and develop policy responses that address that risk.

**Divorce Decree vs. Quit Claim Deed** You get divorced. You refinance your home. Your ex-spouse gives you a quit claim deed. End of story? Not so, says this reader whose ex-spouse wants half of the proceeds from the sale of the home 13 years after the quit claim deed and and 14 years after the divorce. Does the divorce decree trump the quit claim deed? Does the quit claim deed trump the divorce decree? What should the ex-spouse get in this real estate problem.

**$8000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended and Expanded: Questions and Answers** **UPDATE: (11/9/09) The new $6,500 tax credit for trade up buyers is effective as of the day the bill was signed, November 6, 2009, according to Sen. Isakson's office.** With the extension and expansion of the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit, lots of our readers are happy. But some are rather angry. Some of the people that would have benefited from the expansion of the tax credit have purchased homes and won't get the benefit of the tax credit. Others want clarification to see if they will qualify for the "new and improved" home buyer tax credit.

**Title Insurance May Solve Encroachment Issue** If you are buying a home and find out you may have a title problem, you should talk to the title insurance company to determine if the title problem can be insured over by the title insurance company. Many real estate properties have minor title insurance problems that are small enough that the title insurance company may be willing to give you peace of mind with coverage under the title insurance policy.

**Short Sale And A Full Price Offer** If you receive a full price offer for the sale of your home, can the lender still consider the sale a short sale? What if the full price offer covers all expenses and covers the entire amount owed to the lender, would the sale still be a short sale? This reader questions why a lender might under all circumstances consider a full price offer as a short sale no matter what.

$8,000 Tax Credit: Administration Calls on Congress To Pass $8,000 Tax Credit And Other Pro-Housing Measures. The White House supports three pro-housing measures including the extension and expansion of the $8,000 tax credit, continuing an expansion of the loan limits, and support for the Housing Trust Fund. These pro-housing measures were announced by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan at a press conference Thursday morning.

**Loan Modification Help: Why Lenders Are Slow To Provide Loan Modifications** Millions of Americans have applied with their banks to obtain a loan modification. They desperately need loan modification help. The loan modification process is taking an extremely long time. Now homeowners want to know how they can get a loan modification -- whether under the Obama Making Home Affordable Plan or not -- and why the lenders are slow to provide loan modifications. A new study is revealing some answers.