Behold the house of the future. It’s just like the house of the past, only with some subtle nip-and-tuck work. Across the U.S., home builders are redesigning houses using a set of strategies they call "value engineering" – the art of building a house on the cheap without making it look cheap.
The struggling furniture industry is getting some much-needed cushion from some unlikely sources. Who’d have thought that things like "reclaimed" wood, bike rims and bourbon barrels might help the struggling sector pull through the recent retail sales funk?
The struggling furniture industry is getting some much-needed cushion from some unlikely sources. Who’d have thought that things like "reclaimed" wood, bike rims and bourbon barrels might help the struggling sector pull through the recent retail sales funk?
Few borrowers read every line of the avalanche of paperwork that comes with a mortgage, and even the most well-intentioned consumer might have difficulty understanding all costs associated with their loan — and how it compares with what other lenders are offering.
As the lousy economy makes large homes tough to maintain – and the tight credit market makes them even tougher to sell – the rules for remodeling are undergoing their own extreme makeover.
Foreclosures in many parts of the country re at near-record levels, and recent declines in both property values and employment mean that more homeowners will land in foreclosure this year.
