Today’s modular homes look as good as their “site-built” or “stick built” counterparts, which are built from the ground-up at the construction site. However, modular homes are built in sections at a factory then assembled on-site.

Modulars shouldn’t be confused with “manufactured” or “mobile” homes, which are fully assembled at the factory before delivery. Modular homes are often only about two-thirds as expensive to build per square foot as their site-built cousins, although some owners say there is very little price difference when the dust and the home finally settle.

A modular home is placed on a premade foundation and is assembled and completed by local contractors. And just like a conventional home, your local planning department will need to approve blueprints and a local building inspector will still need to be sure the modular structure meets codes and requirements once assembled.

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Tighter credit is prolonging a deep slump in home sales, but a quarterly Wall Street Journal survey of 28 major metro areas shows that the surge in inventories of unsold homes is slowing.

Home sales and prices generally should bottom out around mid-2008, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, a research firm in West Chester, Pa. “The market will not revive quickly, however,” he says. “It won’t be until the turn of the decade before housing activity returns to more normal conditions.”

Home sellers need to be flexible on price and may have to spruce up their house to stand out against plenty of competition, including from builders desperate to shed inventory. Yet the picture varies greatly by region and even by neighborhood. The well-heeled can still get loans on attractive terms, and demand has held up far better for homes in desirable neighborhoods near city centers than for homes in more distant and humdrum suburbs.

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Real estate agent Caesar Parisi stands ready with effective advice on buying or selling Boca Raton FL condos.

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Experts say foreclosures could drag down already sluggish housing prices throughout entire neighborhoods.

Homeowners that are being foreclosed upon aren’t spending their Saturday afternoons mowing the yard, so those people who are cutting the grass, trimming the shrubs and fixing the gutters will suffer. In a national study published last year, two housing analysts found that for every foreclosure within one-eighth of a mile of a single-family home, property values decline by about 1 percent, and even more in dense developments.

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The water in your in-ground pool is crystal-clear, its finicky chemistry perfect. Yet every morning there’s less of it than the day before. A simple test for a leak involves filling a five-gallon bucket almost to the top, then setting the bucket in the pool so the rim is a few inches above the surface. Mark the water levels on both the inside and the outside of the bucket, and check the levels in 24 hours.

“In either case, once a leak has been confirmed, it’s probably wise to call in a professional to find the exact location and make the repair”, says Richard Panzella, the president of Aquaquality Pools and Spas. “If the leak appears to be in the lines between the filter and the pool, most experts will pressure-test them. We basically put each line individually under air or water pressure, and then use gauges to see which line is losing pressure. Once the leaking line has been identified, it can be repaired.”

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Real estate agent Caesar Parisi stands ready with effective advice on buying or selling a Boca Raton FL condo. Visiting the Delray Beach community? Contact Realtor® Caesar Parisi for information on buying or selling an Atlantic Grove Condo in Delray Beach Real Estate.

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Recently, the most common type of subprime loan has been an adjustable-rate mortgage known as the 2/28 ARM. Since mid-July, five of the six biggest subprime mortgage lenders stopped offering 2/28 ARMs. Suddenly, there’s a shortage of the type of mortgage preferred by about 60 percent of subprime borrowers.

A 2/28 subprime ARM has a low initial rate that lasts two years. After that, the loan resets, which means that the rate is adjusted upward or downward. At the first jump, the rate can conceivably climb 2 to 6 percentage points, causing monthly payments to skyrocket. (In practice, the first rate jump is usually on the smaller end of that scale, but it can keep rising every six or 12 months after that.)

In its place, some lenders offer 5/25 ARMs and 30- and 40-year fixed-rate subprime mortgages. In addition to that, there are “expanded approval” loan programs, which allow lenders to offer Fannie Mae-approved loans to people with blemished credit — but borrowers have to document their incomes, pay principal as well as interest, and, in most cases, pay mortgage insurance.

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Mold and dampness can directly damage buildings and their contents, but there are other repercussions, including a reduction in cash flow through lost rents or rental value and expenditures for remediation costs. When mold issues are uncovered in a building, whether residential or commercial, there is a perception that the structure has become unfit or unusable, and that can result in a loss of market value.

The chief concern has been with black mold. While less common than other molds, this one is more dangerous to humans because, given the proper environmental conditions, it can create multiple toxic chemicals called mycotoxins. These toxic byproducts exist in the spores of the mold, as well as in the tiny fragments that can become airborne. Of particular concern is the threat that humans will inhale and ingest these toxic spores. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are few case reports that toxic molds inside homes can cause unique or rare health conditions such as pulmonary hemorrhage or memory loss. A causal link between the presence of a toxic mold and these conditions has not been proved, the agency says.

For the last few years, insurance companies have become unwilling to write new policies and have been excluding coverage of mold from existing ones. Such coverage as is available is underwritten as part of a “stand-alone” environmental insurance policy. There has not been any significant increase in the availability of coverage for mold as more information on it has become available, according to the mortgage bankers team. Avoidance or reduction of mold risks begins at the moment the first sketch for a new structure is put on paper and involves proper selection and use of professionals, contract terms, contractors, subcontractors, design and engineering professionals, materials and construction techniques, as well as ongoing inspection, documentation and a complete moisture-management assessment plan.

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