For the First Time in Weeks, Rates Move Lower

On the heels of last week's decision by the Fed to keep rates unchanged, mortgage rates dropped slightly this week, after four straight weeks of increases.

“The Federal Reserve’s decision last week to maintain the current level of the Federal funds rate combined with the reduction in their forecast for growth triggered a 3-basis point drop in the 10-year Treasury yield,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “As a consequence, the 30-year mortgage rate declined 2 basis points to 3.71 percent. However, comments this week by several members of the Fed, including the presidents of the Richmond, San Francisco, and Atlanta banks, indicated that a June rate hike is still on the table.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending March 24:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.71 percent, with an average 0.5 point, dropping from last week’s 3.73 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.69 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.96 percent, with an average 0.4 point, falling from last week’s 2.99 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 2.97 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.89 percent, with an average 0.5 point, dropping from last week’s 2.93 percent average. Last year at this time, 5-year ARMs averaged 2.92 percent.

Source: Freddie Mac

Transform Your Junk Drawer (Without Spending a Dime)

Kick off your spring cleaning with this fun and easy organization project. A cluttered drawer full of junk quickly becomes neat and tidy with a little help from some basic household items and recyclables.

1. Gather small cardboard boxes, tubes, and even egg cartons, as well as glass jars, plastic bowls, and other trays and dishes handy for holding small items.
2. Take a look at your junk drawer to see what kind of odds-and-ends you need space for.
3. Cut the boxes down to a height that will fit inside the drawer. 
4. Cover the boxes in leftover wrapping paper.
5. Take everything out of the drawer and fill it with the paper-covered boxes, jars, and trays.
6. Group like items in each space.

Enjoy having everything you need right at your fingertips!

Wrong House Razed: Google Maps Glitch?

The owners of a tornado-damaged duplex in Rowlett, Texas, arrived home on Tuesday to find something unexpected: Their home had been leveled by a construction crew.

“I pull up, and — sure enough — it’s gone,” says Lindsay Diaz, one of the home’s owners. “There’s nothing left. …  How do you make a mistake like this? I mean, this is just the worst.”

Some media reports are partially blaming Google Maps. The site confused the two addresses and pointed the company to the wrong duplex, according to reports. The company had a demolition permit to tear down another duplex that was one block away.

Billy L. Nabors Demolition CEO, George Gomez, told the media that his crew made a mistake but then added it’s “not a big deal.”

City officials quickly fired back. “I think this is a huge deal,” city manager Brian Funderburk says. “The home owners were in the process of trying to figure out what it was going to take to repair their home and now they’re looking at rebuilding instead. I think this is a very big deal.”

The home’s owners, Lindsay Diaz and Alan Cutter, have filed a police report.

The couple owns both sides of the duplex. After a Dec. 26 tornado tore through the area, the couple said they had been waiting on insurance and a possible Federal Emergency Management Agency to decide on repairs of their home.

Source: “Company Says Demo Mistake ‘Not a Big Deal,’” ABC-WFAA.com (March 24, 2016)

San Carlos Hometown Days

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The rental market is going gray

Renters are looking a little older these days.

Rental applicants tend to conjure up images of recent college grads looking to start their life in the real world. But Millennials are facing increased competition from people who have already spent decades in adulthood, and may have better credit and higher income.

Since 2005, there has been an uptick in renters, with people in their 50s and 60s making up the largest chunk of the increase, according to a recent report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
In fact, the majority of all renters are currently 40 or older.


There are many reasons that the renter population includes a growing number of Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers.

The 2008 housing collapse that led to a wave of foreclosures has turned some people off to homeownership, according to Jon Spader, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. He added that the tight credit market can also hinder renters from securing a home loan.

Plus, not everyone wants to be a homeowner in their golden years, and the decision to trade a mortgage for a lease is about a new lifestyle, especially for empty-nesters.

"They are leaving their homes and renting in a much more urban-type settings from the suburbs to be part of the activities and be mixed in with people of all ages," said Tiffany Curry, a real estate agent in Houston. "It gives them something to do if the kids are gone, or their spouses."

The amenities that come in new rental buildings and their units are appealing to older renters. "They have everything they need in their building," she said.

Renting also gets rid of the responsibilities that comes with home ownership, which can become burdensome as owners age.

"It's about portability. They want to travel and don't want to be burdened by house payments and expenses and upkeep," said Cara Ameer, a real estate agent based in northeast Florida who in the past few years has seen a roughly 15% increase in boomer-aged clients looking to sell their home to become renters.


Some older homeowners are also cashing in on the recent rise in home prices.

"They want to take advantage of getting equity out of their home now, and not wait until they actually retire to move into the city and get a cool apartment," said Curry.

But it's expensive to be a renter right now. Rents have been on a tear recently as inventory remains tight and demand grows.

That reality that has hit home for Sharon Curry, 68, who sold her home in 2013 and started to rent. She accepted an unsolicited offer on her home near Orange County, California, thinking the $200,000 profit she walked away with would beef up her nest egg. Instead, rising rent is eating up her budget.

The rent for her one-bedroom apartment started at $1,670 in 2013. She's now paying $1,962, and she's worried it's going to continue to go up.

While she is currently working, she knows she can't count on having that income forever.
"I don't know how much longer I am going to be working, it's a conundrum."

How to Take Off a Door Knob With No Screws

A door knob with no exposed screws.

High-end door knobs and lock sets use a unique installation style that hides mounting screws from view. When you first look at this style of door knob, it appears as if it cannot be removed from the door. Knowing what to look for on the surface of the knob will lead you to the extra steps required to remove the lock set from the door. Performing the removal incorrectly could damage the door knob assembly and possibly the finish of the door.

1

Open the door. Look for a thin slot or a recessed hex-head setscrew on the lock side of the doorknob.

2

If the knob has a recessed setscrew, turn the setscrew counterclockwise with a correctly sized hex-head wrench until the door knob slides from the section of the knob body attached to the door. If the knob instead has a thin slot, push the end of a small flathead screwdriver into the slot and pull the door knob from the knob body.

3

Pull the rose cover off the knob body. Some styles of door knob will have another thin slot that requires a small screwdriver to free the cover from the door.

4

Turn each screw holding the knob body to the door with a Phillips screwdriver. Keep one hand on the outside section of the door knob to keep it from falling on the floor. Pull the screws from the door. Both sides of the knob will now be free.

Things You Will Need

• Hex-head wrench
• Small flathead screwdriver
• Phillips screwdriver

How Low Should You Hang a Ceiling Fan?

Ceiling fans require a minimum clearance from both the floor and ceiling for safe, effective performance.

Ceiling fans work on the same principle as the wind chill factor: A stiff breeze on a chilly day makes it feel colder to anyone standing out in it than the temperature displayed on the thermometer would otherwise indicate . A ceiling fan circulating air down from the ceiling can make rooms feel as much as four degrees cooler than the actual room temperature. Adequate downward airflow is the key to this effect. One of the factors influencing ceiling fan airflow is the distance of the fan from the ceiling above and the floor below. The vertical placement of the fan can also have potential safety consequences for taller occupants in a home with low ceilings. With most ceiling fans, the situation of the unit is determined by the length of the downbar that suspends the fan motor assembly from the ceiling.

Seasonal Rotation

Ceiling fans circulate air at low speed and high volume. The large paddle blades angled at a pitch between 10 and 16 degrees rotate slowly so papers are not blown around nor activities disrupted in the room. In the summer cooling mode, the blades turn counter-clockwise, pulling air along the ceiling into the fan and directing it straight down into the room to cool occupants. In the winter setting, clockwise rotation draws air up from the floor, displacing layers of warm air trapped at the ceiling out toward the walls, then down into living spaces to provide warmth.

How High Is Too High?

In cooling mode, at least eight inches of clearance between the fan and the ceiling is required to allow optimum airflow into the fan blades. For every two inches of ceiling clearance below this minimum, airflow through the fan decreases by as much as 25 percent. Most ceiling fans come with three-inch downrods that suspend the fan blades eight inches from the ceiling. In a room with a standard eight-foot ceiling, this leaves approximately 7 feet 4 inches of clearance from the floor.

How Low Should You Go?

While the National Electrical Code (NEC) standardizes ceiling fan installation issues such as junction boxes for proper support, the NEC includes no specific language stipulating ceiling fan height. Generally speaking, however, the code recognizes manufacturer’s standards for acceptable installation of products when these are backed by testing, inspection and product evaluation. If an installation conflicts with the preponderance of reputable manufacturer’s recommendations, it may be assumed to be in conflict with the NEC. Installation procedures provided by most ceiling fan manufacturers, as well as the recommendation of the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, state that fans should be installed so blades are suspended no lower than seven feet from the floor.

Alternative Installations

In rooms with ceilings too low to afford seven feet of clearance when the fan is suspended from a standard 3-inch downrod, “hugger fans” that mount directly to the ceiling, with no downrod, may provide sufficient space. However, because these units have less than the optimum eight-inch clearance from the ceiling, airflow and performance is decreased. As a final option to reduce the danger of contact with blades in rooms with low ceilings, large furniture such as tables may be positioned so that occupants of the room cannot walk directly beneath the blades.