Homeowners Get Tax Breaks in Housing BIll

Tax breaks for owning real estate are undergoing another shift, thanks to the Housing and Economic Recovery Act recently signed into law by President Bush.

The main focus of the bill was on its provisions to stave off foreclosures and to bail out mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. But there are also measures of interest to people with vacation homes, first-time home buyers or those planning to buy a home who haven't owned one in three years, and homeowners who don't itemize their federal tax returns.

Here's a rundown:

Home Buyers, Start Your Engines

If you were thinking of buying a home, start looking.

The latest data from the housing market shows that sellers, after months and years in denial, are finally giving in to reality and slashing prices.

There is a distance still to go. There may even be a lot to go. But the process, long delayed, is now well underway.

Homes You Can Buy for $195,000

In February, the median home price fell 8.2%, dropping from $213,500 in February 2007 to $195,900.

When the median price sank to $201,100 in January, we looked at what kind of house that sum would buy across the U.S. This time, we went on Craigslist (where home sellers and real-estate agents both post listings) to find out what approximately $195,900 can buy.

In Austin, a local market that’s relatively unscarred by the housing bust, $194,900 goes pretty far and can purchase a 2,436-square-foot home with four bedrooms and two and one-half baths.

Durham, N.C., is another market that has been faring better than most – while home sales slumped 16% in February from February 2007, the average home price in the area was up 3% in that time period, according to the Triangle Business Journal. We found a 1,616-square-foot house with three bedrooms, priced at $196,900.

Koohaas Transforming House

Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner—and former Russ Meyer script writer—Rem Koolhaas created 10 years ago one of the most amazing houses on the planet: the Maison à Bordeaux. This house is a wonder of engineering with moving walls, lifting bedrooms, platforms and automated windows designed to allow complete free movements to its owner, a man who has to move on a wheelchair after an almost-fatal car accident. Now, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are showing their film Koolhass Houselife across America, a fascinating movie about this living home that seems taken out of a science fiction movie. We talked with Ila about the house and their work around it.

Mobiles

Linda and Max Geiser, the design team known as Wallter install their new Wallter Mobiles in the modern parenting section of CA Boom. The mobiles are made from powder-coated stainless steel and come with decorative mounting plates. “It’s more attractive than hanging them from a cup hook stuck in the ceiling,” Max Geiser says. The biggest innovation: The pieces can be moved up and down the monofilament wires, allowing designs to fill spaces small (above a crib) or tall (in a stairwell). The Palm, shown here between the Geisers, is based on the abstraction of a palm trunk and fronds. The line consists of five shapes in five colors, each $70 to $125.

That's Entertainment

A falling dollar makes travel and other luxuries less possible, but sitting at home can be more attractive with reissued midcentury masterpieces and new designs for every budget.

Designer George Nakashima's straight-back 1948 walnut chair for Knoll was produced until 1954 and is now reissued with a walnut frame and hickory wood spindles. For $650 at Design Within Reach; dwr.com.

Two lounge chairs at De Sousa Hughes that premiered last month respond to a growing appetite for contemporary modern designs. The Lakeside Slipper Chair by Erik Hughes, left, a takeoff on the classic wing-back chair, can have custom upholstery on a standard walnut wood frame. About $3,250. The Lex Club chair by Ted Boerner is equally nostalgic yet modern and is available in a variety of fabrics and finishes for $4,235. Through the trade at www.desousahughes.com.

Ten Best Buildings of 2007

Over the last year, developments in sustainability, building materials, and computer-aided design have dramatically changed the field of architecture. Seizing the opportunity for experimentation, a number of architects have created surprising additions to urban and natural landscapes. The ten best buildings of 2007, which range from tiny homes to towering monuments, embrace the latest architectural thinking while offering poetic responses to local and global conditions.

In five new residential projects, architects subverted traditional domestic spaces with unusual materials, contorted forms, and porous boundaries between nature and structure.

Like them or not, condo group's rules are binding

I rent my condominium on corporate short-term leases. The homeowner's association recently amended the bylaws and limited leases to 12 months minimum, denying me the opportunity to do short-term rentals. What are my options?

Landlord's attorney James McKinley replies: Many condominium owners and homeowner's associations are concerned when the condominium units become increasingly non-owner occupied. This is especially true if there is a high rate of turnover in non-owner occupancy.

Many condominium owners living in their units believe excess non-owner occupancy and high renter turnover affects the quality of life and the value of the property.

From the outset, courts have recognized that condominium living is unique and involves a greater degree of restriction on the individual owners compared with other property owners.

Home inventory can avoid misfortune after a catastrophe

What is your stuff worth? That is a question the Insurance Information Institute, a Manhattan industry group, thinks everyone who has homeowners or renters insurance needs to answer.

"No home is immune from a potential catastrophe," said Jeanne Salvatore, a senior vice president and spokeswoman for the institute. "That's why a home inventory is so important."

Robert Owens, president of the Owens Group, an insurance agency in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., said people needed to be realistic about the replacement value of their personal property.

Owens said people tended to undervalue their property. "Do a mini-inventory," he said. "Look in your closets and try to figure out what it would really cost to replace all those suits and dresses."

Home buyers are best served by shopping around with a variety of local and national loan brokers

When home buyers need suggestions about where to find a good mortgage broker, they often turn to real estate agents, but, as with any recommendations, these referrals should be approached carefully.

Borrowers are often not aware that the biggest national and regional real estate brokerages, like Century 21 or Coldwell Banker, have mortgage brokerage operations of their own.

Mortgage brokers say real estate agents sometimes steer clients to in-house mortgage brokers without making such connections clear, thereby leading inexperienced buyers into costlier loans than they could have found if they had shopped around. "These business arrangements are not necessarily illegal," said Marc Savitt, president-elect of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, a trade group.

Lenders are required to disclose such relationships early in the mortgage process in good-faith-estimate documents.