There are too many things I want to talk about today so I'll throw a little of everything out for your consideration.

The Wall Street Journal has an article this week about a plan they are proposing to help stabilize housing prices by granting resident status to foreigners who buy homes here. It suggests that they would have to own the properties for five years and couldn't rent them out during that time. It's an interesting idea. How would you monitor whether or not they were rented? There are lots of details that would have to be worked out but I'm always happy to see people getting creative!

Kudos to Hazel Homes. Clients bought a home from them this week and they were a pleasure to work with from start to finish. They went above and beyond to make sure they exceeded my clients' expectations. They asked for the full home inspection report and proceeded to work to rectify every item on there, no matter how small and insignificant. Trust me, that is not standard and they deserve recognition for their excellence! If you're looking for new construction in Culpeper I'd highly recommend them!

And, a plague on the houses of dishonest lenders. In a separate transaction I have clients who have been working with a lender for two months who's lied throughout the process. The loan he guaranteed was "ready to close" is now dead and my clients are scrambling to find other financing. After everything that's happened around lending in the last few years, it's unconscionable that there's still no accountability for lenders.

Mortgage rates dropped significantly after yesterday's announcement by the Fed of additional intervention to get credit flowing. 30 year fixed rates can now easily be found under 5%. Add that to the $8000 tax credit and a lot of prospective buyers should be excited about what they can afford right now.

I've never wanted a house with those enormous ceilings. I love looking at them, but living in them and paying the utility bills to heat and cool them never made any sense to me.

According to the Wall Street Journal, I'm not alone. According to a recent article, between the added utility costs, wasted space and noise, these will soon be a remnant of the past.

If you're in the market to buy, this is one factor I'd keep in mind! What you buy now may determine whether you sell in the future! It will definitely determine how much you'll sell for and how quickly you'll sell.

More and more homeowners are electing to recycle as much of the material as possible when tearing down a house (deconstruction) or doing a major remodel. This Wall Street Journal article tells one homeowner's story.

In addition to helping save the planet, recycling what you can makes economic sense. Materials you can reuse in your new house can help reduce costs there. And, materials that are donated, say to a Habitat Restore, can provide a tax deduction.

There are a number of places locally to recycle these materials. Some operate for profit. Some, such as Habitat for Humanity's Restores are used to fund charitable organizations.

To find other businesses that help you recycle, check out this previous blog post.