Subprime crisis worse than we thought... The Shire, an Oregon housing development based on Tolkien's Hobbit village, is in foreclosure.
posted on Aug 4, 2008 - View this thread

The New York Times article, Rethinking the Country Life as Energy Costs Rise , is just one of many articles documenting the apparent demise of suburbia. Unlike the notable Atlantic article which focused mostly on the mortgage bubble (previously), these more recent articles are beginning to focus of the rising cost of gas and transportation in general. (Previously) Is this the beginning of The End of Suburbia as predicted by the curmudgeonly James Howard Kunstler? (Discussed previously here and here.) Or are Americans simply readjusting their lifestyles to fit current economic limitations?
posted on Jun 25, 2008 - View this thread

A positive energy building is one that produces more power than it consumes (yes they have been around for a while). The Masdar Headquarters in Abu Dhabi – due for completion in 2010 claims that it will be the first to do this on a substantial scale (mainly thanks to use of solar energy). David Fisher's spectacular “Dynamic Architecture” building in Dubai will aim to achieve the same goal using wind. Scaling up on the ambition stakes France has pledged all of its new housing will fit into this category by 2020.
posted on May 22, 2008 - View this thread

The Giant Pool of Money. This American Life teams up with NPR News to explain the Housing Crisis.
posted on May 11, 2008 - View this thread

How far away from work do you live? How much of your pay gets used up to get you to and from work, get you around town, and pay for where you live? As gas and food prices continue to rise, "affordability" has become a more critical notion for everyday Americans. The Center for Neighborhood Technology developed their Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, which aims to help better inform renters and owners about the relationship of transportation options to where one lives.
posted on Apr 28, 2008 - View this thread

Disclosing victim status could mean being denied that housing is even available. Women strong enough to flee their homes and their abusive situations were more likely to be denied housing outright, something that did not happen to people not disclosing.
posted on Apr 24, 2008 - View this thread

Will States Respond to the Foreclosure Crisis? Their headline is that 1 in 33 homeowners are projected to face foreclosure in the next two years. But I found the stat that neighboring homes will lose $356 billion in value a rather staggering number to swallow for those not facing the threat of foreclosure.
posted on Apr 17, 2008 - View this thread

Last month, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals: you cannot sue Craigslist for housing ads that violate the Fair Housing Act. Full decision (PDF); summary and analysis. This week, Ninth Circuit: you can sue Roommate.com for housing ads that violate the Fair Housing Act. Full decision (PDF); summary and analysis. The difference? Roommate.com facilitates the violations with its insidious check-boxes. It all hinges on how the courts interpret a section of the Communications Decency Act, a question that the Supreme Court may have to settle.
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread

Rent Vs. Buy Myths That Ruined the Housing Market
posted on Mar 21, 2008 - View this thread

Chattel houses were very small houses, built by freed slaves or plantation workers, that could be dismantled quickly and moved in the event they were fired or unable to pay property tax to the plantation owner on whose land the house stood. Examples in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad l Sunday 25 March 2007 marked 200 years to the day that the British Parliament passed an Act to outlaw the slave trade in British colonies.
posted on Mar 9, 2008 - View this thread

The sub-prime mortgage crisis is giving way in some places to crime ridden McMansion ghettos, perhaps the beginning of a larger long term trend in demographics: "many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay."
posted on Feb 29, 2008 - View this thread

How I built my house for £4,000
posted on Feb 20, 2008 - View this thread

The Subprime Primer. [via] An entertaining, lo-fi, comic-book style explanation of the complex Subprime Mortgage mess.
posted on Feb 17, 2008 - View this thread

Moving houses but don't want to buy bulky furniture? Get a Casulo.
posted on Feb 13, 2008 - View this thread

Livin' Large - To hear the Lou Dobbses and Bill O'Reillys of the world--not to mention politicians ranging from Ron Paul to Hillary Clinton--the middle class of America (however you define that term) has never had it so tough. Between credit squeezes, out-of-control immigration, rising costs of education and health care and everything else, it's all darkness out there for those of us who are neither millionaires nor welfare cases, right? (A video presented by Drew Carey and reason.tv)
posted on Feb 5, 2008 - View this thread

Affordability for first-time home buyers in the UK has fallen by 351% over the last 10 years. Never fear; through a deal with the Hyde housing association, Paramount Homes and Scandinavian partner Skanska, Ikea has introduced the BoKlok into the British housing market. These prefab homes will start at just £70,000 (including a voucher for some free furniture) and will probably be built on the fringes of London, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. Previously
posted on Jan 30, 2008 - View this thread

Some see an economic apocalypse. Others see an err.. economic apocalypse. But have no fear! A solution is at hand.
posted on Dec 13, 2007 - View this thread

You have to make sure that St. Joseph is facing your house, if you face it out, the neighbor's house across the street will sell instead. "We buried our little gem under the for sale sign just like we were supposed to do. On October 4th, yes the 4th, just 24 hours after we buried him, we had a showing and after several counter-offers back and fourth, we finally signed a contract on October 19th!!!!! 7 months after the house was sitting and not getting any bites at all and after 1 day, its sold!!! I have complete and utter faith." America's desperate homesellers and realtors are turning to St. Joseph, Your Underground Real Estate Agent.
posted on Nov 18, 2007 - View this thread

Remember the Town Disney Built? -- 50% of the homes in Celebration, Florida are up for sale. A failure of corporate-owned and -planned Community™? or just a fallout of the bursting of the housing bubble? And whither New Urbanism?
posted on Oct 4, 2007 - View this thread

Build your dream home. Answer a page of questions and real fortune-tellers on a steady diet of tea leaves and tarot cards will show you the house of your dreams.
posted on Sep 28, 2007 - View this thread

Rents are up in San Francisco. CraigStatsSF can tell you by how much over the last year. (coming soon: NYC, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, and more. What neighborhoods are hot? (Heatmaps are cool). Firefox is your friend.
posted on Sep 14, 2007 - View this thread

What's the link between:
1) the quickly-growing number of American homeowners becoming unable to pay their mortgages after their ARM's reset (a trend nicknamed "ARMageddon" -- applicable in the UK too), which is translating into soaring foreclosure rates, and in turn forcing at least 60 US semi-shady mortgage brokers to go belly-up in the past year (i.e. the "subprime meltdown"), and...
2) the recent implosion and impending financial bailout -- which may become the biggest since the Long Term Capital Management fiasco of 1998 -- of two Bear Stearns hedge funds which dealt in mortgage securities? [more inside]
posted on Jul 11, 2007 - View this thread

That dream home isn't shaping up the way you'd hoped? Build one from scratch! You could start with a lovely thatched hut. Here's some more. Here's an African one. No vegetation up there where you live, above the Arctic Circle? You can build an igloo. For somewhat warmer areas, a yurt. No Asian import for you? There's the tipi. Need more space? A longhouse is just the thing. For more substance, a sod house. Even better - adobe. Have a look at these "Cave" houses. More ambitious? Build a castle. Whatever you put up, you'll probably need an outhouse. Unless you live on a boat.
posted on Jun 29, 2007 - View this thread

Trulia Hindsight merges real estate data showing the year properties were built with animated maps (US Only). Search for your town by name; here's mine.
posted on May 29, 2007 - View this thread

Should you buy a house, or rent? (caution, flash & NYT) The answer is, of course, it depends. One of the biggest factors is how well the housing market will do after you buy. [previously: 1, 2] [via]
posted on Apr 11, 2007 - View this thread

Meet Franklin, the Fair-Housing Fox. Says HUD: "Just as McGruff the Crime Dog represents the fight against crime, Franklin, the Fair Housing Fox, will symbolize the nation's efforts to end housing discrimination." And also, apparently, really, really bad web-page design.
posted on Apr 10, 2007 - View this thread

BubbleFilter: Real Estate Roller Coaster. [via] US Home prices adjusted for inflation plotted as a first-person ride on a roller coaster. Keep your eye on the bottom right-hand corner for the corresponding year. Don't worry about the dramatic ending. I mean really, how bad could bad get?
posted on Apr 3, 2007 - View this thread

One man's pocket change is another man's $3 million dollar home. Today, 3 previously homeless families were handed the keys to homes located on one of Hawai'i's priciest streets: Kahala Avenue. Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto has so far chosen 4 native Hawaiian families to live rent free for up to 10 years, making good on a promise made back in November 2006. Obviously, Kawamoto's motives are suspect, as his record as a landlord has been rather tainted. And his approach to alleviating 4 family's homeless situation doesn't solve any systemic problems or go very far in providing long term solutions to homelessness. But for now, it's a feel-good story, and the start of an interesting sociological experiment...
posted on Mar 23, 2007 - View this thread

If you continue to wait, you may never be able to afford to get into the housing market. The National Association of Home Builders wants you to buy a home now. Should you wait? No, no, no, no! Via Housing Panic.
posted on Dec 1, 2006 - View this thread

The Specter of Recession in 2007. With the US housing bubble falling for the first time in over a decade, oil traders are dumping inventories (and driving down prices) in fear of a US-led global recession brought on by the end of the biggest housing bubble in history. Previous.
posted on Oct 4, 2006 - View this thread

miniHome: "What is it? A cottage? A Trailer? A Home? All of the above. Technically, the miniHome is classed as an RV - or recreational vehicle (yes, it is on wheels!) but it is designed to work as a comfortable, year-round dwelling in extreme climates. While we see it as the future of sustainable housing and urban infill, it is ideally suited as a ski chalet, cottage, vacation retreat, guest cabin, a place for the kids or family - basically as a luxurious yet simple home-away-from-home." Welcome to life off the grid in Ontario.
posted on Sep 30, 2006 - View this thread

Building with the Intermodal Steel Building Unit: It's cheaper for overseas shippers to dump the containers in the United States rather than return them to their place of origin. Tampa Armature Works with St. Petersburg Neighborhood Housing Services Inc. have started recycling them into affordable, hurricane-resistant housing in St. Petersburg, Florida. Bob Vila was there to document it (flash video). Previously on MetaFilter, a brief history of the steel boxes.
posted on Sep 16, 2006 - View this thread

Houseblogs.net is an aggregator of home renovations blogs, created by our own Jeanmari and hubby DIYer. The 340 member blogs range from This Old Crack House to a couple converting a missile silo. Featured stories include the people who found a secret room in their house, and a community section has more good home renovation advice than you could shake a wrecking bar at. A nice place for inspiration and commiseration for owners of older homes.
posted on Sep 10, 2006 - View this thread

Little Citadels. "Dine, shop, live, work, and be entertained in a unique and alluring environment," says the Time Warner Center website - all without ever stepping outside your gleaming Manhattan skyscraper. San Jose's Santana Row, which at first glance seemed no more than a Beverly Center you can live in, is now being compared favorably to urban European living. And MGM-Mirage's new, mysterious and costly ($7 billion!) Project CityCenter brings the trend to Las Vegas - with gambling, of course. They're not Arcosantis - and they don't, as yet, require an Oath of Fealty - but by all accounts they're thriving. What do they have in common? Wealthy tenants, megacorporate sponsors, and a shared desire to integrate efficient, conspicuous consumption into every aspect of civic life. Paolo Soleri may have been right after all - maybe he just forgot to account for the effects of capitalism.
posted on Aug 28, 2006 - View this thread

The "D" stands for Demolition. In an attempt at building awareness of Detroit's rotting, decaying neighborhoods(as if one needed further awareness), the Detroit Demolition Disneyland project finds long-abandoned, neglected structures that the city has failed to demolish and paints them with Tiggerific Orange paint.
posted on Feb 15, 2006 - View this thread

The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own
posted on Jan 5, 2006 - View this thread

Portraits of Home: A set of 55 wonderful pictures relating to housing issues in greater Minnesota. This comes from a "Photography Exhibit Documents the Housing Challenges Facing Minnesota's Working Families".
posted on Nov 30, 2005 - View this thread

Mansions fit for a commoner "... moving into a bigger house was not something to be questioned, but something to be accepted, an axiom of American life."
posted on Nov 28, 2005 - View this thread

Lustron House "We were revolutionizing a whole industry," said Richard Jones, former Lustron vice president of sales. "We were saying with our house: 'You put down a hammer and a saw and pick up a wrench.'" Though radical in its use of porcelain enameled steel, the Lustron house — a one-story, gabled-roof ranch with a bay window and side porch — looked much like other postwar-era dwellings. Behind its traditional façade, however, lay the hopes and expectations for a new era in American housing.
posted on Sep 8, 2005 - View this thread

This might be the only time in your life you get to hear this because the finance industry survives soley on large-scale ignorance, so listen very closely. There is NO housing bubble in the US. NEVER invest in actively managed funds. Financial lamers do better than financial jocks (and almost everyone else). .

Sadly however most of you won't have the mathematical knowledge to differentiate the advice backed by several Nobel laureates and world-renowned academics from the "advice" of any of the thousands of horny little evangelists spruking their financial "theories" for profit or fame.
posted on Jun 20, 2005 - View this thread

The Global Housing Price Bubble is bursting. Prices are already declining in Australia and Britain. The Economist has another story that outlines how a global bursting of this bubble could be deleterious to the world's economy. The bubble is bigger than the stock market bubble of the late 90s. Will there be a smooth landing or will spending collapse when it cannot be funded on housing price gains?
posted on Jun 16, 2005 - View this thread

Styrofoam + Ceramic Spray = Profit Instant Housing
A styrofoam house sounds like a really stupid idea but, when the styrofoam is sprayed with a special ceramic spray called Grancrete (pdf), it becomes twice as strong as structural concrete.

It is also cheap, $10 a square foot to build a house as opposed to $150 a square foot for a regular home. And, where regular concrete can take up to three weeks to fully cure, Grancrete dries in a single day.

The potential impact of this product for developing countries and natural disaster prone areas could be truly incredible.
posted on Apr 20, 2005 - View this thread

How did I get here, Sarah?
posted on Mar 31, 2005 - View this thread

Build a huge house for only $782?! Low-cost housing for the masses! Unfortunately, you have to travel back in time to build houses for less than $1000. How many of these homes are in your town or on your block? (courtesy of J-Walk)
posted on Mar 16, 2005 - View this thread

Houses of the Future - houses made of cardboard, steel and clay.
posted on Nov 23, 2004 - View this thread

Hurricane Ivan VS soy sprayed house that wouldn't look bad in Star Trek. Results of the match: house wins ! Proof proved that if you build to last, the building lasts ...but if you don't for whatever reason.... More info on the building here
posted on Sep 18, 2004 - View this thread

The Toronto Healthy Houses is "off the water grid." Potable water via rainwater collection; all other water use via black- and grey-water recycling. The home-builder will be living in one of the homes and will sell the other. These houses also provide their own electrical energy. Times, they are a-changin': the Healthy Homes are being developed using research funding from the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation, which is becoming very active in finding better ways to build affordable, efficient, liveable housing.
posted on Aug 20, 2004 - View this thread

Your Tax Dollars At Work! What better way to help the homeless find housing and employment than through a website? Surely the Internet is the solution to all society's problems.
posted on Jul 21, 2004 - View this thread

Could this revolutionize architecture? A robot that can "print" a 2,000 sq-ft house in one day without the use of a single human hand. What sort of effects will this have on the future of houses?
posted on Jun 7, 2004 - View this thread

Bobst Boy gets evicted. Sort of. Steve Stanzak is an NYU sophomore who supplemented his living expenses by living in the Bosbt Library. Stanzak has been blogging about this, and after his weblogging was discovered by NYU administrators, he was given housing for the remainder of the year.
posted on Apr 26, 2004 - View this thread