Are You Making the Most Out of Your MID?

A home mortgage interest deduction allows taxpayers who own their homes to reduce their taxable income by the amount of interest paid on the loan which is secured by their principal residence.

As the national map indicates. New Jersey residents have been high among the one third of all taxpayers who take the largest deductions from the program. Further down, you can find a town by town breakdown within NJ showing which parts of the state benefit the most.

Foreclosures Decline Nationally But NJ Backlog Still 2nd Highest

According to Housing Wire, the nation’s supply of homes in some stage of foreclosure fell 23% in March, declining from 1.5 million housing units a year earlier to 1.1 million distressed properties, CoreLogic said in a new report Tuesday.

While foreclosure filings were dropping year-over-year, the number of completed foreclosure actions actually rose 6% from February to March. Still, the overall trend is for foreclosures to continue to decline. From the years 2000 through 2006, the nation averaged roughly 21,000 foreclosures per month. Since the onset of the crisis, CoreLogic estimates 4.2 million homes have been lost to foreclosure,

The states with the highest foreclosure inventory rate based on the percentage of all mortgaged homes includes Florida, which boasts a 9.7% foreclosure inventory rate. New Jersey comes in second with a 7.3% foreclosure inventory rate, while New York, Maine and Illinois maintain foreclosure inventory rates between 4.4% and 5%.

10 Ways to Have Earth Day Every Day

From the new Managing Editor of Treehugger.com:comes a reminder that you don't have to spend a lot of money to make a difference in transforming your environment:

Housing Recovery Now 56% Back to Normal

Trulia's latest gages of the housing market are all showing encouraging signs of a steady recovery. Averaging these three back-to-normal percentages together — construction starts, existing home sales and the delinquency-plus-foreclosure rate — the housing market is now 56% of the way back to normal, up from 54% in February and 43% six months ago in September, writes Trulia in a blog post.

One year ago, the market was only 33% back to normal – so the last year has been a significant recovery, says Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.
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Home Prices Soar at 8.1% Annually Highest in 6 years.

January was the second consecutive month-over-month increase in house prices and the eighth consecutive year-over-year increase.
According to the most recent release by Standard and Poor’s Case-Shiller 20-City Composite House Price Index rose by 0.1% on a not seasonally adjusted monthly basis and the 10-City Index rose by 0.2% on a not seasonally adjusted monthly basis. In the 12 months ending in January 2013, house prices rose by 8.1% according to the 20-City Composite Index and 7.3% according to the 10-City Composite Index.

 Year-over-year house price growth has been generally widespread. House prices have risen on a not seasonally adjusted 12 month basis in each city tracked by the 20-City Composite Index

Pet Owners Fighting Housing Bans With "Nuclear Option"

Pet owners who move into apartments or condos have to deal with all kinds of restrictions. Many ban pets altogether or have weight limitations on dogs. Other large new projects allow pets when they first open, but clamp down later when homeowner associations takeover. When the original owners move, they may not even know that they can't transfer all their "grandfathered" rights to the new owner or renter.
Exceptions were often made for Service Dogs owned by the blind or severely handicapped.
Now, legal precedents have expanded the Service Dog rules to include the emotional support of  "Assistance Animals."  Faced with choosing between their dream home and their forever pet, dog owners are beginning to resort to a "Nuclear Option."
While it can't hurt to have a doctor's note prescribing the need for the animal, Americans With Disability(ADA) and Fair Housing regulations state that

When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work.

This option for Emotional Support Animals (ESA) could conceivably be applied to almost any animal.

The owner can be charged for actual damage done by the animal, but they may not require the applicant to pay a fee or a security deposit in order to keep the animal.

If this process becomes seriously abused by pet owners, we can expect pushback from the owners of multifamily homes and apartment complexes. Since Fair Housing regulations are federally mandated, appeals of the substantial fines may ultimately wind up in the Supreme Court.

Budgeting for Fossil Fuels

This is the top section of an informative new infographic illustrating the reality of the world's past, present, and future use of fossil fuels.

Sequester Eve, and All Thru the Housing Market....

(The original use of the word dates back to the 14th century and defines it better than the common "jury room" usage we use today. According to Meriam Webster: Origin of SEQUESTER Middle English sequestren, from Anglo-French sequestrer, from Latin sequestrare to hand over to a trustee, from sequester third party to whom disputed property is entrusted, agent, from secus beside, otherwise; akin to Latin sequi to follow.)

 The real estate market is seeing a noticeable turn-around in the past few months, but the impending sequestration could have a significant impact on jobs, incomes and ultimately the ability of potential homebuyers to close on a home.

(Collage courtesy Newseum) The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose to minus 32.8 in the week ended Feb. 24 as the share of Americans with a positive view of the world’s largest economy matched the highest since March 2008. In spite of this encouraging news, the housing market is once again at risk.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) reportedly guaranteed 23 percent of all mortgages last year, but because of sequestration they can expect job cuts and ultimately less processing of loans, refinances and properties in major distress--all of which need attention for a recovering housing market.

 Federal funding most at risk would be this year's Community Development Block Grants and HOME programs, which may be reduced by 10 to 25 percent. The HOME program helps develop low-income housing.

In the New Jersey area, families who were affected by Superstorm Sandy are bracing for deep cuts to their programs and aid, according to Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD).

The Patch has just introduced an interactive chart showing the effect of the sequester on jobs in each county. Essex and Morris counties are predicted to take the hardest hit. Job losses created by the sequester would put a damper on th e housing market too. “Borrowers need to be employed to close on their home loan, Craig Strent, CEO of Maryland-based Apex Home Loans, tells Olick. “As a quality control measure, lenders call a day or two before closing to verify an individual is still employed. If a loan is denied during the process due to the borrower losing their job, they are likely to lose their loan lock as well,

Where Homes Can Be Bought for Less than $600/month

Taken together, lower home prices and cheap mortgage rates have made homebuying much more affordable than just a few years ago. And given that real-estate values in many traditional retirement spots — like Florida and Arizona — have fallen even harder than the national average, Americans who are ready to retire are in a particularly favorable position. To that end, U.S. News & World Report has compiled a list of 10 places where retirement homebuyers can purchase property for less than $600 a month. In putting together our list, we obtained median home-price data from the National Association of Realtors for 159 metropolitan statistical areas throughout the country. After subtracting a 20% down payment, we plugged the remaining figure into a mortgage calculator using a 4.24% rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage. We then looked for places that would make desirable retirement destinations and where monthly mortgage payments totaled less than $600.

Urban Homesteading in the 'Burbs

When you look at some of the issues that motivate homeowners to turn their front yards into gardens, it's surprising that more folks don't do it.

Some backyards are either paved or just too small and shady to support a garden. Some folks resist conforming to the dominant cookie cutter lawn culture and need to express their creativity.

In the southwest, a green lawn may get you a fine, but in most of the rest of the country it takes courage to plant anything more lush than an ivy patch.

Urban Homesteading has grown up from being part of the counterculture movement of the '70's to embrace many suburban lifestyles.

Now, some New Jersey towns like Bloomfield and Maplewood are looking to clarify fuzzy ordinances to specifically allow for expanded front yard gardens as well as backyard chicken coops to support the trend towards a more self-sufficient lifestyle. They may model their proposed ordinance after that of their upscale neighbor,  Montclair, which for years has had a number of productive chicken coops scattered around the town.  Where to draw the line? Rabbits, goats, and pigs all have their own fans. Even New York City in now taking steps to legalize porkers as pets.

Living Large by Thinking Small

Small is the new big when it comes to micro-living. If you think a tiny home would crimp your way of life, check these out via HouseLogic.com. Here are three homes with curb appeal that feel like much larger homes. The home pictured here is only 500sq. feet and has a garage.  In western Canada, they call them lane houses. The trick is that each place maximizes space to compliment the resident’s lifestyle.

NJ Dems Dump On New DEP Flood Maps

When Gov. Chris Christie signed emergency regulations adopting FEMA’s advisory base elevation maps as the rebuilding standard, a number of prominent Democratic state senators and local political leaders promptly questioned the move as a knee-jerk reaction to Hurricane Sandy that would be ultimately detrimental to shore residents hoping to rebuild.(Click on map to enlarge) Contractors that costs for an effective "house raising" for a smaller home would be in the 45k to 60k range. Because of federal reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program to move toward increased flood insurance rates that reflect actual risk, families who rebuild their properties in a manner that does not conform to base flood elevations will see significant premium increases.

FICO Credit Score SNAFU's

As many as 42 million consumers have errors on their credit reports, and around 20 million have significant mistakes, a Federal Trade Commission study of nearly 3,000 credit reports indicates in a report released today,

Not all of these errors will impact your ability to get credit, however. About 13% of study participants saw their FICO credit score change once a mistake on their credit report was fixed, and those changes were big enough to potentially result in better credit offers for 2.2% of participants. The Consumer Data Industry Association defended this 2.2% rate, saying in a statement that overall, the report "shows that 98% of credit reports are materially accurate."

But since the three biggest credit bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion -- maintain credit reports for about 200 million consumers, the 2.2% error rate still means millions of Americans are being denied loans or given higher-priced credit due to errors on their reports, said John Ulzheimerpresident of consumer education at SmartCredit.com and a former manager at FICO.

Code Red for Nemo

As this weekend's megastorm approaches, it's a good time to register with Code Red. Just fill in the appropriate information to be notified by your local emergency response team in the event of emergency situations or critical community alerts. Examples include: evacuation notices, bio-terrorism alerts, boil water notices, and missing child reports.

The township pays for this service, and it is used only to distribute official emergency notifications