Next Stage of Green Building Industry: Water Efficiency

Over the next five years, water efficiency and conservation will become critical factors in green design, construction and product selection, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's latest SmartMarket Report. Architecture and engineering (A/E) firms, contractors and owners report that water efficiency is rapidly becoming a higher priority than other aspects of green building, such as energy efficiency and waste reduction.

According to the United Nations Environmental Program, buildings consume 20 percent of the world’s available water, a resource that becomes scarcer each year. Efficient practices and products provide significant opportunities for the A/E industry to respond to this trend and build high-tech, low-water-demand projects that will turn the tide on the water crisis and create the conscientious buildings of tomorrow.

The report covers involvement levels and growth opportunities over the next five years, as well business benefits, motives and obstacles encountered in this advancing market.

Highlights include:

• By 2013, 85% of industry reports that water efficiency will be an extremely important aspect of a green building.
• Owners are especially committed to water-efficient practices, with 42 percent reporting that more than three-quarters of current projects incorporate water-efficient designs; 50% expect to incorporate water-efficient practices in at least half of their building portfolios by 2013.
• Business benefits are the key growth drivers as companies focus on the bottom-line. Primary motivators include reducing energy use (87%) and reducing operating costs (84%). Respondents report that on average, applying water-efficient designs and products lead to 15% less water use, 10-11% less energy use, and an 11-12% reduction in operating costs.
• Increased government regulation and the desire to lower energy costs are also expected to trigger faster adoption of water-efficient products and methods. Seventy-three percent of respondents are motivated by energy cost increases, while more than two-thirds expect to respond to regulations on wastewater runoff (69%) and water efficiency (68%).
  

For additional information on housing in your area contact bill.swanson@cbshome.com.

Omaha Summer Arts Festival this Friday, Saturday & Sunday!

The festival celebrates its 35th year June 26th through the 28th and is is located in the heart of downtown Omaha on Farnam Street from 10th to 15th Street.

This downtown event will feature art, entertainment and atmosphere featuring 135 of the nation's finest visual artists, two stage of continuous entertainment including national performers and a hands-on children's fair.

All this fun and excitement is bound to make any festival-goer hungry! Luckily the Taste Fest will offer an incredible variety of restaurants sure to please all taste palates. This year's featured cuisines are mexican, greek, barbeque, traditional festival faire, which includes hamburgers, hotdogs and funnel cakes.

Be sure to keep a look out for Bill who will be sure to be by the buffalo burger stand!

Location! Location! Location!

Real estate agents warn against buying a good house in an undesirable area, saying location trumps all. But because the price is often so appealing, it is a way for buyers to get some of what they want without spending a fortune.

As a curator of exhibitions for the New-York Historical Society, Kathleen Hulser is passionate about the past. She craved an antique home, but with her salary, she knew she would have to compromise.

That compromise is a freight train that blasts by just a few feet from her four-bedroom 1839 summer house on the Housatonic River in Cornwall Bridge, Conn.

It appears at 7:30 a.m. almost every day. “The house shakes,” Ms. Hulser said. “It rattles the pots and pans.” She bought the house last August for $255,000, reduced from $375,000, after it had been on the market for 10 months. “Without the train next door,” Ms. Miller said, the house would have cost double. “It made it much more affordable by putting up with that,” she said.

Indeed, she finds the train appealing. “The conductor always waves,” she said. “It almost counts as a charming defect.” The train is not roaring through hourly; it runs on average once a day, at most twice.

Bill Swanson is an agent with over 20 years experience at CBSHome Real Estate, an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha, Nebraska. For any and all of your real estate needs, email Bill at Bill.Swanson@cbshome.com or visit http://www.billswanson.com/ today.

FREE FAMILY SUMMER CAMP

Looking for something fun for the Entire Family? Visit Bass Pro Shop’s free family summer camp.

Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, through July 5th, Bass Pro Shops will host a free Family Summer Camp.

Each of these days there will be ten different 30 minute workshops about hiking, camping and fishing basics. Other workshops include bird watching, archery, animal identification, plants & insects, and even how to make campfire S’mores.

Kids will earn a free collectable pin for every workshop completed.

Every Saturday and Sunday stores will be offering free craft activities for the kids including decorating a fishing bobber, making key chains, designing their own birdhouse, creating plaster animal tracks and painting a souvenir wooden lure for Dad.

For more information and for a full schedule of activities visit www.basspro.com.

Metal Roofs Offer a Better Option to Homeowners Looking to Save Energy & the Environment

Recently, the U.S. Secretary of Energy encouraged Americans to paint their roofs white, in an effort to reduce global warming by both conserving energy and reflecting sunlight back into space.

A white roof is a good idea, but a highly reflective metal roof is even better. New technologies allow even darker colored metal roofs to absorb less heat through the use of highly reflective pigments that reflect solar energy.

In addition to energy savings, metal roofing is cost effective, more durable and longer lasting than most other materials. A metal roof can last a lifetime -- the average life of a non-metal roof is 17 years, often requiring repairs throughout its life.

No matter the kind of roofing style, there's a metal roofing style to match. Today's metal roofing looks just like common roofing material such as asphalt shingle, clay tile, cedar shake or slate. In addition, as opposed to non-metal roofing material that begins to deteriorate as soon as it's exposed to the elements, a metal roof will never deteriorate, and can withstand most everything Mother Nature throws its way.

The time is right for homeowners to choose a better roofing system that provides both long and short-term savings. The Stimulus Package signed in February 2009 states that homeowners who make energy efficient updates to their home, including the installation of a painted or coated Energy Star labeled metal roof, may be eligible for a tax credit up to $1,500 per home.

For more information on homes in your area or to find out the value of your current home contact bill.swanson@cbshome.com.

Good News in the Housing Market - Recovery is Underway!

The big economic news for housing last week was all about sales.

Housing sales and pending sales contracts are up, dramatically in some markets, and a rebounding real estate sector could soon start stimulating the broader economy.

Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that essentially the worst is over, the housing market is stabilizing, and we're heading out of recession in the second half of the year.

Pending home sales jumped by 6.7 last month. That was the third straight month of significant increases, and the highest pending sale total for any month in the past seven years. In a handful of major markets, closed sales also are moving up sharply.

Low prices nationwide, combined with mortgage rates at near-record lows, have pushed the National Association of Realtors' Affordability Index into record territory. In April the index hit its second highest market ever, based median household income and the monthly payments needed to buy the median cost home.

On the mortgage front, applications to purchase homes continued to rise last week -- up by 4.3 percent -- according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

However, with the good news comes a dose of reality. It's becoming increasingly clear that low mortgage rates are not going to be around forever. Average thirty year fixed rates took their biggest jump in half a year last week on bond market jitters.

So, if you are seriously considering getting off the sidelines - now that prices are back to pre-boom levels in some markets and sales are on the upswing, jump in sooner rather than later, if you want the lowest mortgage rates.

Bill Swanson is an agent with over 20 years experience at CBSHome Real Estate, an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha, Nebraska. For any and all of your real estate needs, email Bill at Bill.Swanson@cbshome.com or visit http://www.billswanson.com/ today.

Parking Space in Boston Sells for $300,0000

A real estate agent says a resident of Boston's upscale Back Bay section plunked down $300,000 to own what is believed to be the priciest parking space in the city's history.

Several residents of a building on Commonwealth Ave. bid for the coveted space, driving up what had been the original asking price of $250,000.
Prime parking spaces are very difficult to come by in the neighborhood near the Public Garden.

The winning bidder was not identified. The Globe reported that the seller of the parking the space is also trying to sell a two-bedroom suite in the building for $2.5 million.

Luckily, here in Omaha $300,000 not only gets you a several parking spots but it also comes with a 4 bedroom/3bath home!

For more information on how much house you can buy contact Bill – email bill.swanso@cbshome.com today!

The Future of Fannie & Freddie

Congress took its first step last week on a mission that could totally reshape the American mortgage market.

A House financial services subcommittee held the first hearing on what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the failed, trillion-dollar mortgage giants that are now operating under direct federal control.

The ultimate answers are likely to determine the types of loans and interest rates that home buyers will have in the future. That's because Fannie and Freddie have dominated the real estate market for decades, writing the rulebook on everything from loan sizes, credit requirements, downpayments and underwriting standards.

Among the idea floated at last week's Capitol Hill hearing were a “utility” concept, where Fannie and Freddie might be merged into a single, privately-owned, federally-regulated superstore for mortgage money.

The model would be along the lines of the water, power and sewage utilities we see all over the country, but there'd just be one mega-utility to fund mortgages. The utility concept was first proposed last year by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. The Obama Administration has not spoken out publicly on it yet.

Another idea floated at the hearing was to broaden the mortgage menus of whatever agency or agencies replace Fannie and Freddie to include types of mortgages they currently can't touch -- especially jumbo home loans and commercial real estate mortgages.

Frances Martinez Myers, representing the National Association of Realtors, said jumbos and commercial real estate loans are suffering in the credit crunch and need more support. Commercial and investment property owners in particular, said Myers, find themselves unable to refinance because there is neither a private nor public secondary market for their loans at the moment.

The Mortgage Bankers Association came to the hearing with a white paper listing various alternative futures for Fannie and Freddie, including turning them into a government-owned version of the FHA and Ginnie Mae, but targeted on conventional mortgages.

Without endorsing any particular alternative, the MBA also suggested consideration be given to a private “cooperative” model, in which banks and other mortgage industry players would pool their assets and provide secondary market services in addition to mortgage originations.

Under this scenario, the federal government would provide back-up insurance against “catastrophic losses” that exceed the private cooperative's capital and pledged assets.

Where's the debate over Fannie and Freddie headed? Look for Congress to hold more exploratory hearings this year. Then, maybe as early as next year if the recession is over and the market is healthier , the Obama administration might begin drafting its preferred solution - which almost certainly will not involve total privatization.

It's Duck Season! No - It's Wabbit Season! NO! Duck Season!

Why adopt a duck?

In addition to the unimaginable excitement of seeing your own duck race with 49,999 others, you will also have the satisfaction of knowing that your $5.00 donation will help feed families in need right here in Omaha, NE.

The Food Bank began the "O! What a Duck Race!" as a way to raise funds for The Food Bank. We wanted to create a fun and free community event that increased the awareness of hunger in our community.

The Food Bank is a non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce hunger in Nebraska and western Iowa through community collaboration, making the best possible use of all available resources. Food is distributed to people in 77 Nebraska counties and 16 western Iowa counties.

You can purchase your ducks beginning tomorrow morning at the kick off events at the following times and locations:

8am - Noon: Baker's 156th & Dodge

11a - 1:30p: Panera Bread, Saddle Creek & Dodge

11a-1:30p: Old Chicago, Shadow Lake Towne Center

If you would like more information about the race and the calendar of events leading up to it visit http://www.owhataduckrace.org/index.htm/.

Spread the word that July 25, 2009 is a FREE Family Festival that features games and activities for the whole family and the racing of 50,000 ducks!

Bill Swanson is an agent with over 20 years experience at CBSHome Real Estate, and also a lifelong Omaha resident. For any and all of your real estate needs, email Bill at Bill.Swanson@cbshome.com or visit http://www.billswanson.com/ today.