Tom McHaffie Blog

20 Cities You Don't Want to Live In ... Yet - CNBC

2011-03-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

20 Cities You Don't Want to Live In ... Yet - CNBC

According to this survey....it's ALMOST time to buy a home in Indianapolis! The only negatives they could mention were a high crime rate and polution? I'm personally not feeling either of these are extreme for a city our size. Well...they did bring up the weather...but at least it's never boring! Yesterday it was 70 degrees in Indy, and 30 degrees in Chicago. Did Chicago make the list???...nope. I'm proud of our city and our State!

Thomas R. McHaffie and Company to build new O'Connor House

2011-02-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

Mother nature permitting, very soon we will be digging a basement for the new O'Connor House, a home for unwed women in crisis pregnancies. (See http://www.theoconnorhouse.org/ for more information). The new home is being funded by a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, under their affordable housing program. A bunch of people have been working for several years to make this grant, and this new home a reality, and I'm proud to have been a small part of that effort, and to have been chosen to build the home.

One of the major criteria of the FHLBI grant was that the project be a "Green" home. Therefore, everything about the site selection and design of the house was geared towards being as high on the Green Score-board as possible. The site was chosen because of its close proximity to necessary services, it's ability to allow for a solar orientation, and the fact that it was considered an "infill" site, having previously been home to another large structure that had been torn down. The homes mechanical systems and appliances are high efficiency, and designed for low consumption of power and natural resources. Construction materials used in the construction of the home have been selected because of their Green characteristics. And hopefully through careful management of all of these materials and systems during construction, waste on the project will be kept to a minimum.

This is a very exciting time for The O'Connor House mission, and it's exciting for me on several levels, to be involved. Please visit http://www.theoconnorhouse.org/ , to see how you can be involved too. There will be many needs over and above the bricks and sticks!

Vacation home sales rise

2010-04-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Read the following story for yet more proof that you need this custom Lake Cottage built on beautiful Klinger Lake in Sturgis Michigan....for the summer of 2010!!!

The Associated Press

updated 6:34 p.m. ET, Wed., March. 31, 2010

WASHINGTON - Vacation home sales recovered last year while investment property sales fell sharply, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Vacation home sales rose 7.9 percent to 553,000 from 513,000 in 2008, according to a recent survey by the trade association. Investment home sales fell 15.9 percent to 940,000 in 2009 from 1.12 million in 2008, the group said.

That bodes well in today's economy, as the country emerges from recession.

"The typical vacation home buyer is making a lifestyle choice," said National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun in a statement. He added that nine out of 10 buyers say they intend to use the property for vacations or as a family retreat.

Investment buyers, on the other hand, primarily seek rental income, he said. Six out 10 investors plan to rent to others, Yun added.

The market share of homes purchased for investment was 17 percent in 2009, down from 21 percent in 2008, while the vacation home share rose a percentage point to 10 percent.

The total share of second homes declined from 30 percent of sales in 2008 to 27 percent last year, according to the survey, which covered existing and new home transactions in 2009.

"First-time buyers were at record levels in 2009 with fewer sales of second homes," Yun said.

The median transaction price of a vacation home was $169,000 in 2009, compared with $150,000 in 2008.

The survey also found that half of vacation homes purchased last year were in the South, 21 percent in the West, 17 percent in the Midwest and 12 percent in the Northeast. Seven out of 10 were detached single-family homes.

Meanwhile, the median investment property sold for $105,000 last year, down 2.8 percent from $108,000 in 2008.

Tom McHaffie awarded Certified Green Professional (CGP) Designation

2009-04-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Indianapolis, April 28, 2009 – Tom McHaffie, of Thomas R. McHaffie and Company, Inc., recently became one of the select group of professional builders, remodelers, and other industry professionals nationwide who completed the course work required to earn the Certified Green Professional (CGP) designation. CGP graduates have knowledge of the best strategies for incorporating green building principles into homes.

The CGP program is administered by the Indiana Builders Association (IBA) Housing University in conjunction with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) University of Housing.

In three days of course work, the CGP curriculum incorporates a variety of information tailored to green building and business practices. The CGP curriculum incorporates training by leading building industry practitioners and academics on a range of topics, including strategies for incorporating green-building principles into homes using cost-effective methods of construction, and how green homes provide buyers with lower maintenance and good indoor air quality. Techniques are also discussed for competitively differentiating your home products with increased indoor environmental quality as well as energy and resource efficiency.

CGP program graduates are required to maintain their designation by completing 12 hours of continuing education every 3 years a portion of which pertain to green building activities.

The Indiana Builders Association is a statewide trade organization representing Indiana’s home building, remodeling and light commercial construction industry. Established in 1952, the IBA has over 5,000 members in 31 local affiliate organizations. IBA and its affiliates are associated with the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C.

Record Low Rates Hard to Ignore

2009-03-30T16:19:00.001-07:00

The following contains excerpts from an article appearing in "Nations Building News". It looks more and more like we're seeing the bottom of the rates...and the good deals, to me. Rates are at record lows, house prices are down...but on the rise!

"The housing market heard encouraging news last week on both mortgage interest rates and housing prices, suggesting that now is a good time for prospective buyers who have been sitting on the fence to make their move.

For the week ending on Thursday, March. 26, the average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to another record low in Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, hitting 4.85%. That was down from 4.98% the previous week and 5.85% the same time a year ago.

Freddie Mac’s weekly survey dates pack to 1971 for interest rates on 30-year mortgages. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.85% last week, down from 4.91% the week before and 5.24% a year earlier. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, attributed the latest downswing in mortgage rates to the recent announcement by the Federal Reserve that it intends to purchase Treasury securities over the next six months and a subsequent decline in bond yields. Nothaft said that there is about a two percentage point difference in today’s fixed rate on a 30-year mortgage and its recent peak of 6.63% last July. This amounts to a monthly savings of $225 in mortgage payments on a $200,000 loan, he said.

Statistics for February on both new and existing home sales, he said, which both climbed about 5%, indicate that “potential home buyers are taking notice of these historically low mortgage rates.” While no one can tell for certain just how low mortgage rates will fall, prospective buyers who are holding out for even further declines may be disappointed. John Koskinen, the interim chief executive of Freddie Mac, said that home loan rates are near their bottom and any further decreases are liable to be small, according to a Reuters report on March 27. Earlier in the week, on March 24, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's monthly House Price Index showed U.S. home prices rising 1.7% on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis from December to January."

INDIANAPOLIS IS #8 HEALTHIEST HOUSING MARKET FOR 2009

2009-02-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

The Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009
Builder, in conjunction with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, debuts its metric for determining markets with the best and least potential.
By:
Boyce Thompson

8. Indianapolis, Ind.
2008 total building permits: 7,004
Builders are still pulling permits at a relatively healthy rate in Indianapolis, despite a virtually flat job market. Unlike other major markets that have become multifamily-oriented, single family still accounts for two-thirds of home building activity. Ultra-affordable housing accounts for some of the activity—the median price of a home here is only $117,900, making it one of the most affordable markets in the country. As a result, home prices have declined only 4.5 percent in the last year. At the top of the market in 2005, builders in Indianapolis took down 15,619 permits, so activity is down 55 percent, slightly better than the national average. Unfortunately, the relative health of the market wasn’t enough to keep Davis Homes, one of the area’s largest private builders, from going out of business last year.

klinger lake aereal photo

2009-02-13T15:36:00.001-08:00

klinger lake aereal photo, originally uploaded by tom mchaffie.

Here's an aerial photo of beautiful Klinger Lake, near Sturgis Michigan. Less than a 3 hour drive from Indy. It features spring fed crystal clear water on 850 acres, which is big enough that us old guys have a hard time skiing even half way around it.

New Lake Cottage on Klinger Lake in Sturgis Michigan

2009-02-05T12:53:00.001-08:00

And here's the perfect cottage being built on Klinger Lake, just for you to start enjoying in the Spring of 2009! Built with quality and plenty of room for family and guests, the cottage features 5 bedrooms with the master on the main floor/a big open Family Room/Eating Area/Kitchen with a $1,000,000 view of Klinger Lake! Call or email Tom McHaffie for details (317-848-7003, tom@tommchaffie.com)

2009-02-04T15:22:00.001-08:00

Best Home improvements to make in a recession

2009-02-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/home-improvements-recession-lifestyle-real-estate_0129_home_improvements.html

Social Networking

2009-01-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

I heard a story about a guy who "twittered" a message while his plane was skidding off the runway at Ohare recently. I really didn't know what twitter was, but learned it was some kind of a system to send out updates on your "status" via your mobile phone. I figured it must be pretty important, if a guy chose this as what could have been his last act.

Then today I got an email from the Custom Home Builder site, talking all about Social Networking for builders, and specifically about all the national builders using twitter. I must say, I still don't get it...but I did get it (twitter) since it was free...same as this blog spot. I hope they're both worth more than they cost. Stay tuned!