It’s been a rocky road for one of the country’s most expensive and illustrious mansions, and if houses could talk, the Versace Mansion on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach would tell you the story of the joys and disappointments of its 83 years.
Owners of small businesses who have successfully overcome adversity are invited to apply for the 19th annual Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Award.
BB&T-Oswald Trippe and Company and BB&T Bank coordinate and sponsor the program to recognize successful small businesses as well as to share their stories as models for other entrepreneurs.
WCI Communities recently announced the successful public sale of 6,819,091 shares of WCI common stock, at a price of $15 per share. WCI has begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WCIC.
By Bob Vila
If the heat of summer has already gotten the better of you, there are a number of ways you can keep your cool. Many cost little or nothing and rely only on a change in habits. Others are a bit more technical and require an investment, but will pay dividends for many summers to come. Here are some beat-the-heat suggestions for keeping cool at home during these dog days of summer.
Trees, umbrellas, awnings and arbors covered with vines or outdoor fabric all create shade. So does a big straw hat.
Turning on the oven to broil burgers or boil water for pasta generates heat and moisture. Cook outdoors if you can; if not, opt for lighter meals that don’t need a lot of cooking time.
Catch a breeze where you can, and use fans when you can’t. If you live in a place where the nights are cool, use window fans and whole-house fans to bring in the cool air. Don’t own a fan? Open the windows on the upper and lower floors to create what’s called the “stack effect” — as warm air exits the upper level, it will draw in cooler air at the ground level. Turn fans off and close the windows when the sun comes up.
If you live in a place where the nights are warm and muggy, use ceiling fans and floor or table fans to move air across your skin. Keep in mind that indoor fans make you more comfortable, but only when you’re in the room to feel the breeze they create. To save electricity, turn them off when you leave.
If your air-conditioning system’s ductwork has not been checked for leaks or undergone leak-sealing improvements, complete this work as soon as possible. Leaks can diminish system performance in both cooling and heating modes by as much as 40 percent. Another way to improve system efficiency is to have ducts insulated if they are located in unconditioned areas like crawl spaces or attics.
Ducts are not the only things that need sealing. The average house is like a sieve: Air leaks in and out from dozens of places. It’s important to air-seal your home to keep cool air in and to prevent warm, humid air from entering and condensing on cool surfaces. Begin in the attic, using caulk or foam sealant to fill gaps around recessed lights, bath vents, ducts and other wall and ceiling openings. Then add insulation. It, too, will help prevent attic heat from moving to the living space below.
Move on to the basement or crawl space. Make sure windows and vents are shut during hot, humid weather. Seal around hatchways and bulkhead doors, and also look for small gaps around perimeter joists (the framing atop the foundation walls). By sealing under your home, you’ll slow that stack effect and retain cool air in your home longer.
Whether it’s water or refrigerant, evaporation consumes energy and can be used to cool the air. Kids who spend the day running through a sprinkler know this. So do desert dwellers who wear cotton — cotton wicks moisture from your body, speeding evaporation and making you feel cooler.
Evaporative coolers have reappeared in big-box stores and online this summer. They are simple machines that blow air through wetted pads. As the water evaporates, it cools the air. These units do not cool to the same degree as an air conditioner, but they can lower the temperature 5 degrees or more, depending upon the relative humidity and temperature. Evaporative coolers perform best in dry climates, but some homeowners who live in humid regions use them to stay cool outdoors on patios, decks and screened porches. Evaporative coolers must be filled with water and cleaned regularly.
Make sure your air conditioners are properly sized for the spaces you’re cooling. An oversized window unit, for example, will cool the room quickly and turn off without performing its dehumidification duties. If it doesn’t run long enough to lower the humidity, you’re going to feel clammy and uncomfortable, even when the temperature is relatively low. A room that’s 80 degrees with 20-percent relative humidity feels like 78.6, while 80 degrees with 90-percent relative humidity feels like an oppressive 85.6. Refer to this Energy Star chart to find the right size air conditioner for you.
For the same reason, it’s just as important to avoid an oversized, central air-conditioning system, not to mention the fact that you pay more for higher-capacity equipment. As you update or renovate your house, reevaluate your air-conditioning system. If, for example, you add insulation and air-seal your home, your existing system, once correctly sized, may now be oversized. Contact your HVAC service provider to calculate your home’s current load (demand during the hottest days of the year). If it isn’t a match with your equipment and the unit is an older model, consider one of today’s high-efficiency units. They are much more efficient, making the payback relatively short.
Check filters and either clean them or replace them, depending on the AC equipment you’re running. If you own a pet that sheds, check filters frequently. Outside, prune vegetation growing around your outdoor compressor. Other tasks, such as clearing condensate tubing and cleaning coils, should be handled by a trained-and-certified HVAC technician on an annual basis.
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Bob Vila is the home improvement expert widely known as host of TV’s This Old House, Bob Vila’s Home Again, and Bob Vila. Today, Bob continues his mission to help people upgrade their homes and improve their lives with advice online at BobVila.com. His video-rich site offers a full range of fresh, authoritative content – practical tips, inspirational ideas, and more than 1,000 videos from Bob Vila television.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.
The Aurora Awards, recognizing the best communities, home designs and interior merchandising, were recently presented during a black-tie gala celebration in Orlando as part of the Southeast Building Conference, the largest building industry trade show in the Southeast.
Cape Coral’s largest home, at 5832 Armada Court, recently sold for $5.3 million. The property sold for $5.1 million and the furniture represented $200,000 in the sale, making it the second highest residential real estate transaction this year in Lee County, according to the Multiple Listing Service.
This Southern plantation-style home is rich with tradition, style and elegance. There are five bedrooms, five full and two half-baths under more than 7,000 air-conditioned square feet. Frankly, my dear, you won’t give a damn that it’s three flights up as you ride the elevator to the third-floor private apartment.
D.R. Horton’s Southwest Florida Division has opened the Landings at Coral Creek, a townhome community located one mile north of the Boca Grande Causeway to Gasparilla Island. These three-story townhomes offer between 2,275 – 2,431 square feet of living space, three-car tandem garage, elevator, impact glass, metal roofs and brick pavers starting in the high 200s.
Shell Point Retirement Community has broken ground on the first custom home design that will be offered in the community’s new neighborhood, The Estuary.
Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed mortgages fell this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.20 percent, down from 4.26 percent at this same time last week.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fluctuated between 4.18 and 4.28 percent early last week, leveling out near the current rate on Friday.
“Last week rates were fairly flat as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke reiterated his commitment to scale back the Fed’s stimulus program, provided that economic fundamentals continue to improve,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “This coming week there are limited data releases or news events on the calendar, so we expect rates to remain essentially unchanged.”
Additionally, the 15-year fixed mortgage rate this morning was 3.29 percent, and for 5/1 ARMs, the rate was 3.23 percent.
What are the rates right now? Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state.
*The weekly rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.
As the weather warmed up this spring, so did the national housing market, shaking off a relatively sluggish start to the year to register the highest annual rate of home value appreciation in any second quarter since 2004.
The U.S. Zillow Home Value Index rose to $161,100 as of the end of the second quarter, up 5.8 percent year-over-year and 2.4 percent from the first quarter, the largest annual gain since August 2006 and largest gain in any quarter since the fourth quarter of 2005. National home values rose just 0.25 percent during the first quarter.
Additionally, not only did the pace of home value appreciation quicken in the second quarter, but the recovery also fully took hold nationwide. Markets in some areas of the Northeast, Midwest and Southeastern U.S. that had previously been slow to turn the corner began to appreciate, which helped boost the overall national market. All of the top 30 largest metro areas covered by Zillow experienced annual appreciation as of the end of the second quarter, and all have hit their bottom. Metros with the largest annual gains in the second quarter included Sacramento (29.5 percent), Las Vegas (29.4 percent) and San Francisco (25.5 percent).
Home values are expected to rise another 5 percent over the next 12 months, according to the Zillow Home Value Forecast. Of the 30 largest metro areas, 29 are expected to show home value appreciation in the next year. Metros expected to see the highest appreciation rates through June 2014 include Sacramento (18.9 percent), Riverside, CA (16.6 percent) and Phoenix (11 percent).
Only the New York metro is expected to show home value depreciation over the next 12 months (-0.8 percent). One possible explanation for expected depreciation (however slight) in the New York metro area is because New York is a judicial foreclosure state, with all foreclosures requiring judicial review before completion, which can lengthen the foreclosure process. Because foreclosures take longer to work through the system, they continue to drag home value appreciation rates down, according to Zillow economists. This could also help explain why large metro areas in other judicial foreclosure states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, are expected to show only modest appreciation over the next year.
As home values continue to rise along with mortgage interest rates, and different kinds of buyers and sellers enter and exit the market, the landscape is expected to change.
“The U.S. housing market as a whole is currently not experiencing a bubble, but in many places it sure must feel like one, with some markets experiencing annual home value appreciation approaching 30 percent. Homeowners are feeling a sense of whiplash after years of depreciation, but this kind of market behavior won’t last,” said Zillow Senior Economist Svenja Gudell. “Investors are starting to pull out of some markets and regular buyers are coming back, and more inventory is slowly but surely coming on line, both of which will contribute to slowdowns in appreciation. Additionally, in some overheated markets, rapid home value increases coupled with rising mortgage rates will lead to housing prices and financing costs outpacing local income growth, which will also contribute to a moderation of the market. Combined, all of these factors will help the market in the second half of 2013 and beyond normalize and become much more steady than it has been in these past six months.”
In the rental market, national rents fell in the second quarter compared with the first quarter by 0.5 percent, to a Zillow Rent Index of $1,282, the first quarterly decline after nine consecutive quarters either increasing or remaining flat. Year-over-year, national rents rose 1.6 percent as of the end of the second quarter. This is a significant annual decline in the rental appreciation rate, which at its peak stood at 6.2 percent nationally in September 2012. This development combined with rising home values is another contributor to investors exiting some markets, as they had often bought for-sale inventory to convert into for-rent properties.
Foreclosure rates also fell in the second quarter compared with the first quarter. A total of 4.96 out of every 10,000 homes nationwide were foreclosed upon in the second quarter, down 0.7 homes per 10,000 from the first quarter and down 1.6 homes per 10,000 year-over-year.
For further analysis visit the Zillow Research Blog here.
Your credit report is essentially your financial report card. It serves as a way for banks, insurance and lending companies to gauge your credit-worthiness and whether you’re likely to miss payments or default on a loan. It’s also common for landlords, employers and government agencies to check your credit before approving an application or confirming a transaction.
But, do you know where the information on your credit report comes from and how it impacts your overall credit score? It might help to know the next time you’re tempted to take out another credit card or just pay the minimum on your balance.
Here are the five most important things that make up your credit score:
Paying your bills on time helps you avoid late fees and also helps your credit score. A good payment history shows lenders you have a record of paying on time. And the longer you have that, the better. Late or missing payments negatively affect your score, as do any collections, foreclosures or bankruptcies. Payment history usually pulls the most weight in your credit score calculation, so it’s important to stay current in this category.
It’s not a good idea to use up all your credit. By using most of your credit, or getting close to your credit limit, you can negatively impact your score. A good policy is to keep your credit card balance within 30 percent of your limit. In other words, if your credit card limit is $5,000, charging more than $1,500 can be risky even if you pay off the balance on time. Keeping your debt low shows lenders that you’re likely able to afford monthly payments and possibly take on more expenses.
How well have you managed your credit accounts over time? Having a longer credit history helps your score. Lenders want to see that you’ve kept a good track record over a long period because someone with little or no credit history is more financially risky because it presents more of an unknown. This means that keeping that credit card you’ve had for a while open can help your credit (as long as you keep the balance low or at zero by paying on time every month).
Showing that you have a record of paying different types of debt helps your credit score. And different types of credit or loans can impact your score more or less. A healthy mix of credit includes credit cards, home loans and auto loans. Credit consisting of only one type, such as credit card accounts, won’t help your score, so diversity is important when it comes to credit accounts.
Having lots of credit inquiries within a short time lowers your score because it shows you’re actively searching for more credit, which makes lenders nervous. However, when you check your own credit or when an employer does, it won’t impact your score.
The major components of your credit score consist of your payment history and amount of debt. By knowing how the items in your credit report are weighted, you’ll have a better idea of the factors impacting your score.
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Written by Becky Frost, Senior Manager of Consumer Education for Experian Consumer Services. Experian Consumer Services offers credit monitoring products like freecreditscore.com™, which has resources and calculators that help you understand how credit can impact your life. Credit is an important component when buying, renting or refinancing your home.
This article is provided for general guidance and information. It is not intended as, nor should it be construed to be, legal, financial or other professional advice. Please consult with your attorney or financial advisor to discuss any legal or financial issues involved with credit decisions.
Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.
