Builder Cuts Down on Carbon Footprint

David Hall of Deltec Homes says his company doesn't believe in cutting corners when making its trademark round homes - and that attention to detail extends to the electricity used to power the company's plant. By year's end, Deltec will be using 100% renewable energy at its factory, making it North Carolina's largest private generator of solar power. Working with Sundance Energy of Mars Hill, N.C., Deltec has invested nearly $500,000 to install photovoltaic panels. On the flat roof, 273 black panels are angled to catch the sun's rays and convert that natural energy into electricity. Inside, the plant's 100 workers build up to two custom-made homes each day. The homes are shipped and assembled across the country, as well as in Canada, the Caribbean and Europe.

Click Here>>

Peer-to-Peer Lending Hits Its Stride

As the global credit squeeze leads banks to tighten their lending, a niche industry is emerging as the eBay of consumer loans: peer-to-peer lenders. With peer-to-peer lending, individuals, some of them with little or no collateral, seek loans from ordinary people looking to lend. Lenders compete with each other to make loans, often resulting in lower rates for borrowers - averaging 10% to 16% - than are available on unsecured bank loans. Typical loan amounts range from $8,000 to $20,000; on some sites, multiple lenders may fund a loan, each offering to lend $25 to $200 to a borrower.

Click Here>>

Along Ravaged Gulf, Young Architects, Nonprofits Lead Renewal

Looking like two small cottages stitched together, the Nguyen house in Biloxi, Mississippi, isn't obviously a prototype for the future. The house was built in several months by Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit that provides disaster shelter worldwide. It was intended to use new wind- and flood-resistance standards in innovative and affordable ways, and to employ ``green'' design and construction techniques that could be easily replicated. Its innovations are considerably less groundbreaking: It was completed in months almost entirely by volunteers. It's elevated 10 feet above the ground and includes an upgraded anchorage system. Still, this and six other projects in Architecture for Humanity's Biloxi Model Home Program are invigorating the city. The group is one of several tenacious nonprofits that are seeding a new kind of construction industry in the Gulf region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Click Here>>

Home Prices Up, Down, Depending on Source

In the past year, South Florida home prices have: A) Fallen 12.4 percent. B) Stayed flat. C) Risen 3 percent in Miami-Dade, declined 5 percent in Broward. Answer: All of the above, depending on which survey you believe. According to a widely followed national home price index released Wednesday, prices of homes in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties fell 12.4 percent in October from last year. The Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller index says the South Florida region posted the worst decline of 20 major metropolitan areas it follows. But Florida Association of Realtors sales data say median prices for single-family houses in Miami-Dade and Broward remained virtually flat at around $354,000 since October 2006 even as the number of homes selling plummeted. Palm Beach prices declined 5 percent. November numbers are out Monday.

And the federal government says Broward house prices as of Sept. 30 were down 4.7 percent from a year ago, while Miami-Dade's prices were up 3.45 percent. The discrepancies boil down to the very different methods the groups use to calculate their numbers. Each method provides a snapshot -- and only a snapshot -- in a very diverse real estate scene whose more than 1.2 million properties stretch from upscale waterfront communities and suburbs to inner-city neighborhoods.

Click Here>>

Consumer Confidence Registers Modest - and Unexpected - Gain in December

The nation's consumers grew slightly more confident in December despite underlying concerns about the health of the U.S. economy. The New York-based Conference Board said Thursday that its Consumer Confidence Index advanced to 88.6 in December from a revised 87.8 in November. It was the first increase since July. Wall Street expected a slight drop to a reading of 87.0, according to Thomson/IFR. Analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance had projected a stronger 87.5 showing. Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement that the gain in the overall index "was due solely to an increase in the expectations index." This reading, which measures consumers' outlook over the next six months, rose to 75.5 in December from 69.1 the month before.

Click Here>>

Signs Point to Credit Turnaround?

The credit crisis that walloped Wall Street this year shows no signs of abating in early 2008, but investors can take some comfort in the fact that the new year brings with it a battle plan. If the last half of 2007 is any indication, the U.S. economy will be shaky going into the first quarter. Housing continues to slump while credit markets remain tight, and that has some people wondering exactly how bad things could get next year. The biggest difference between the summer's market turmoil and now: Wall Street knows what it's dealing with. That has analysts more confident that major financial institutions battered by the subprime mortgage crisis will see their way clear. "What you're getting now is a rotation of the players with new chief executives, and their main priority is to not let this happen again and to fix things as soon as possible,'' said Chris Johnson, president of Johnson Research Group. "What you'll see over the next few quarters is more short-term pain, but at the same time, it is a damage control situation.''

Click Here>>

More Foreigners Buying U.S. Homes

Panden Rota, a Nepalese producer of fine rugs, is about to become a Manhattanite, the owner of a sumptuous apartment in the luxurious downtown neighborhood of Battery Park City. His primary residence will remain Katmandu, but his new home will allow him to spend more time at U.S. showrooms that display his rugs and with a brother and sister in New York. "I looked at many places, and I decided that a Manhattan apartment will always hold its value," he said. Rota is part of a growing wave of foreigners who buy second homes in the United States for work and play and as an investment. Cosmopolitan cities such as New York and Miami have long served as second homes for affluent and accomplished foreigners. But the trend is growing. One in five American Realtors has sold a home to a foreign investor in the past year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Click Here>>