New home communities in Houston are affordable, the homes energy efficient, and the communities beautifully designed with many amenities such as community pools and greenbelts. New homes can be purchased from the low $100s on up, and most are an exceptional value. Houston is a rapidly growing city, and one that is looked upon in admiration by millions around the world.

Chateau Woods, an LGI Homes' community in North Houston featuring affordable, quality-built new homes.

Chateau Woods: Chateau Woods, from LGI Homes, is a reasonably-priced community that offers an outstanding lifestyle. The community is a close-knit one, and is considered the best of Montgomery County living. Homes within the Chateau Woods community are stylish and offer some of the best values in Houston.

The community is considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity thanks to its ideal location—close to the big city, yet offering a serene and peaceful lifestyle. Homes are built on oversized lots and residents enjoy walking trails that wrap throughout the neighborhood. Homebuyers and investors can expect to pay from the low $100s to the high $100s for a new home in Chateau Woods.

Bayou Oaks at West Orem: Bayou Oaks at West Orem is another fine Houston new home community which is gated, offering its residents peace of mind. Bayou Oaks at West Orem can be found just off of Highway 288, and it offers convenient access to everything Houston has to offer. The homes in the community are stylish, the community charming and it is situated close to many highlights of the city, such as the vibrant downtown and Houston Galleria. Homes in the community begin in the $100Ks.

Rancho Verde: Rancho Verde is a charming community that is wonderful for young families and is considered a good investment. The community offers areas for the children that include parks and a community playground. Children and adults will both enjoy the community swimming pool and Rancho Verde’s community center. Residents of the community can take advantage of nearby shopping, dining and entertainment. Children will attend school within the Channelview Independent School District. Rancho Verde offers stylish homes that start from just under $100K.

With a new home in Dallas, Texas under $200k, your mortgage payment would cost less than your rent.

Dallas has some of the most outstanding Texas new homes, which offer an above-average lifestyle rich in community amenities and involvement, all at exceptional prices.

Deer Creek: Deer Creek is an exceptional community that offers some of the finest and best-priced homes available in Fort Worth, Texas, all from noted builder LGI Homes. The community is family-oriented, and offers a peaceful escape from the city, with the luxury of all the city has to offer just minutes away. The community is spacious, with homes built on oversized lots. Residents enjoy wonderful community amenities that include a neighborhood playground and a residents-only pool.

Each home built by LGI Homes features thousands of dollars worth of upgrades, like rounded corners, brushed nickel hardware and fixtures, vaulted ceilings and custom built cabinets. LGI Homes features five floor plans at Deer Creek, including the Rio Grande, which is a three bedroom, two bath, single family home that features 1,130 sq. ft. of living space, and starts at just $117,900. The home includes a utility room, dining room, family room, large walk-in closet in the master and a master walk-in shower and garden tub. All homes in the community also feature quality appliances that include a refrigerator and front yard landscaping, a fully-fenced backyard, and a generous homeowner’s warranty.

Falcons Lair: Falcons Lair features homes priced from $157,000 to $217,000, all of which are built by Standard Pacific Homes. The community is master-planned, and is located just minutes from Mesquite Municipal Golf Course, Mesquite Rodeo, and two city parks. Residents enjoy two lush greenbelts. Families with children will enjoy the Mesquite Independent School District which is known for its quality education.

Standard Pacific Homes offers eleven floor plans in the neighborhood. Their Hamilton plan is a three bedroom, two and a half bath, two car garage home, that features 2,902 sq. ft. of living space. The home features a game room, study, family room and dining areas.

Paloma Creek: Paloma Creek is another outstanding community that offers affordable homes and a quality lifestyle. Ashton Woods is the builder and they offer new homes from $130,000 to $211,000. The community is conveniently located just east of Denton on Highway 380 and is in close proximity to entertainment, shopping and dining. Ashton Woods offers 15 new home floor plans which include their Dover plan, a four bedroom, two and a half bath, two story single family home with 2,984 sq. ft. and priced from $179,990. The home features an upstairs game room, a master suite with large walk-in closets and a separate family room.

There are tons of new housing opportunities in New Jersey, you just have to know where to look!

New Jersey has four regions. The most populated—and where millions of immigrants entered the US, is the Gateway Region. From here, it’s a very easy commute to New York City or Jersey City.

The Jersey Shore is most popular because it has some of the most beautiful beaches in the US. There are numerous family-friendly beaches, but the nightlife in Atlantic City is the best in the state, too. If you’re looking for New Jersey new homes here, be aware that as a beach community, it can get pretty crowded during the summer months.

The Delaware River region in Western NJ, on the other hand, has the most undeveloped areas in the Garden State while having easy access to neighboring large metropolitan areas like Philadelphia. The Skylands Region is one of the most rural areas, filled with lakes and river, as well as farming communities and country roads.

Why move to New Jersey? Here are some of the reasons:

All the counties in New Jersey are classified as metropolitan areas. If you’re a certified urban dweller, you will enjoy living in this state a lot. The percentage of urban population here is very high; almost 90 percent of residents can be found in living in a city. It means that no matter where you choose to live, you’ll enjoy the amenities of urban living.

There are New Jersey new homes that are very affordable. You don’t need to be a millionaire to own a home in the Garden State. You can have a starter house, for example, for less than $250,000. If you wish to have a summer home, you can buy one as well!

There are many high-paying jobs here. If you live in New Jersey, you won’t need to go out of state to find work. There are a number of high-paying jobs here, especially those in the pharmaceutical and research and development areas. In the last ten years, the job growth rate was more than 16 percent.

We have made our move and are enjoying our life in our New Jersey new home. NJ is love; once you decide to move here, you’ll feel the same too!

This outdoor patio features a firepit built around the existing pool.
Image source: sonoranlandesign.com

Fire pits and water features are the trending upgrades to outdoors this season. More and more homeowners are redesigning their patios with year-round comfort in mind. Here a few improvements to make your patio a favorite.

1. Fire pits and fireplaces are very popular now, as temperatures get cooler, for their ambiance and warmth in the evenings. Installing a pre-fabricated version of an outdoor fireplace or barbecue will save you the expensive of having one built. Some kits only require a couple of hours for installation for outdoor ovens and stone-look fireplaces.
2. A grill is a must-have for your space. A custom-built version is nice, but you can save money with a portable barbecue that you can find at a store for as low as $100 (if you opt for a charcoal grill) or as high as $4,000 for a high-end gas grill.
3. Houston’s evenings are certainly nice enough to enjoy eating and entertaining outdoors. You’ll need more than a table and chairs to seat everyone, so you might consider adding benches or even an outdoor living room set. Be sure that whatever you choose is durable enough to withstand the elements.
4. Choosing low-maintenance landscaping such as native plants that require minimal watering, is a good idea so that you need not spend the bulk of your free time working in your yard as opposed to enjoying it. You can avoid the need to seal your patio floor by choosing pavers, which will save you time and money, For a deck, composite boards never require painting.
5. Adding an awning to provide shade so that you can enjoy your space even in the warmest of days in the summer. You may consider putting up a pergola or planting leafy trees to shade you outdoor room from the sun.
6. Enclosing your new favorite room with a fence will make the spot feel more comfortable; just be sure not to make your wall so high that it blocks the beautiful view from your favorite easy chair.

See also:
Great Homes for Sale in Houston
The Housing Collapse has Affected Appraisals
Is Now the Time to Buy a New Home? Yes!

A home energy usage audit can help to identify excess power usage and help you to cut back.

Don’t be too eager to replace your air conditioning system. The problem may be a leaking air duct, an AC filter that is so thick or dirty doesn’t allow air to move through, or improperly installed attic insulation.

You may take advantage of opportunities offered by you local utility company to foot the majority of your bill for a professional to evaluate any problems in your home causing a waste of energy. Any issues that your AC system to be overworked in order to compensate for inefficiencies can be found and corrected.

An energy audit is used to check your home’s envelope, identifying areas such as gaps in walls, around windows and doors, and cracks that are allowing your cool air to escape. You will be notified of quick fixes that can slash your energy bill. These include installing shade screen to high sun-exposed areas and switching from incandescent lights to more energy-efficient alternatives.

The audit goes so far assessing the potential value of changes in your home. Although a room may be too warm because of a window’s sun exposure, attempting to compensate for this by ramping up the AC is more expensive than simply installing as exterior shade screen; the auditor can tell you if this is the case.

The auditor should provide you with a list of recommendations for your home once he has wrapped up his assessment. The repairs and upgrades are optional, with the most common recommendations being replacing or fixing attic insulation, sealing leaky AC ducts, replacing ductkwork and AC filters.

Sterling Lakes is a new home community by LGI Homes located in the Houston suburb of Pearland.

Maybe the gain can be attributed to the city’s low cost of living or maybe it is because Houston is a major energy capital, home to many oil and gas companies. Everything is bigger in Texas including big businesses! In fact, Houston is second only to the Big Apple for the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered within their city limits. The city is also the site of the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, and Johnson Space Center, NASA’s principal control and training center for manned spaceflight.

While moving to Houston comes as an easy decision for many people, selecting the right neighborhood into which to move to can be a hard decision. If you are a recent graduate or a young and upcoming professional you might consider West University Place, located just 15 minutes from downtown Houston. This is also a great place to move to if you are in the healthcare field, as this community is situated just one short mile from the Texas Medical Center. It’s also very close to Rice University.

For a young urbanite that craves to be in the center of the action, consider Eastwood. This Houston neighborhood is filled with bungalows, Craftsman, and Mission-style architectural homes perfect for the young professional, whether single or with a young family. Located just three miles from the skyscrapers of downtown and the Theater District, this urban oasis is a hop and a skip from all the entertainment Houston has to offer. A new line of Houston’s Metro Rail connecting Eastwood to downtown will be complete in 2012, making this area even more convenient and “user-friendly.” Best of all, houses in Eastwood cost 50 percent less than comparable ones in Montrose or the Heights.

If you are married with a family you may want to purchase a home in The Woodlands. This planned community is located just 27 miles north of Houston. The neighborhood has upscale malls, large business parks, corporate campuses, an outdoor music pavilion, hotels, a convention center, and a hospital. And if you want to leave behind the hustle and bustle of the city, The Woodlands boasts 6,000 acres of protected green space; the commercial districts are completely separated from the residential areas to help protect the rural feel. There are also 200 miles of walking and bike paths, and 125 large and small parks.

So, if you are looking at the many homes for sale in Houston, Texas rejoice in this fact: whatever you want, whatever you need, Houston has the right neighborhood for you.

Homebuilder Lennar Corporation saw a concerning 65% drop in profit in the second quarter of the fiscal year. Yet, despite declining home deliveries and orders, Lennar still did better than expected by helping itself in areas outside of homebuilding. Rialto, a Lennar division that invests in distressed real-estate, has done extremely well and is a major part of the reason Lennar expects to be profitable this year.

Here are some of Lennar Corp.’s numbers: For the quarter ending at the conclusion of May, the firm had a profit of almost $14 million down from near $40 million – this represents a drop of fourteen cents a share, from 21 to 7. Lennar’s revenue fell just over 6.1%.

Gross margin on home sales declined to under 20%, but this still remains among the top in the sector. Orders were less than hoped for and new-home deliveries fell to slightly under 8%.

The housing market is, no doubt, a very challenging one. There was no sign of a spring selling season; yet, Lennar Corp, was still able to perform well and experience a fifth consecutive profitable quarter. The results Lennar turned in were better than most could expect during the slowing housing climate.

The nation's largest banks are being accused of hampering the housing market by making the qualifications for home loans too strict.

The 10 largest mortgage lenders in the nation denied 26.8% of all mortgage loan applications in 2010. That figure is a 3.3% increase from the 23.5% denied by the same institutions the previous year, according to an analysis of mortgage data filed with banking regulators conducted by the Wall Street Journal.

Lenders were expected to tighten lending standards after the loose conditions that led to the inflation of he housing bubble, however, there is the argument to be made that – with the current state of our housing market – it should be easier for qualified buyers to obtain a mortgage rather than more difficult.

In part, loans are more difficult to obtain because entities such as Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration are being pressured to avoid more losses. When the companies combined account for 9 out 10 of the nation’s home mortgage loans, it becomes clear why obtaining a mortgage can be a difficult feat.

The percentage of denied mortgage applications has been higher in the past, even during the latest housing boom. During the height of the housing boom in 2007 the rejection rate was 32.5%. The percentage was so high because loan officers and brokers were testing to see just how loose the bank’s lending standard were.

Within the data analyzed by the Wall Street Journal were the percentages of both borrowers who wanted to refinance their homes and loan applications to purchase a home. The percentage of refinancing applications denied was 27.2% that was higher than the 24.4% denied the previous year. The percentage of loan applications to purchase a home that were denied was 19.9%, an increase from the 18.2% the previous year.

Banks argue that the tighter lending standards are a responsible move, as evidence, they show that the number of new homeowners with delinquent payments as decreased. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency only 0.3% of mortgage loans backed the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2009 have had three consecutive missed payments. That percentage is down from the 2.6% recorded for 2000.

As dismal as the housing market has looked in the recent history, there are number of indications that now may be a good time to buy. Homes have become affordable than they have been in years. When the uncertainty of the foreclosure issues in this nation begin to come into focus, we should see a return to normalcy in the market.

So what might the future hold? Let’s examine factors that will direct local markets over the next several years:

by gardener41 via Flickr

Unfortunately, overall things haven’t improved all that much. Some states are showing a bit of recovery from problems, like California, but others are still struggling, and even those markets that weren’t affected as much by the housing distress are now having issues as their sales are fairly flat.

It begs this question; is this really the best time to buy a new home? That answer is “yes”, emphatically, and I’m going to give 4 reasons why.

1. Interest rates are very low. In many states mortgage lenders have rates as low as 3.99%; that’s phenomenal! Sure, many of them have tightened standards for giving out loans based off the crisis but if you can qualify for one you’ll be sitting pretty.

2. Even though 51% of all home sales nationally are of foreclosed homes, that’s not really such a bad thing. Some of the foreclosed homes were never lived in, while some of them were lived in for only a short period of time. Also, it means that in many states home sales are starting to outpace the rate of foreclosures, and that means that there will be a bigger demand for new homes at some point.

3. Home builders are still building new communities. We’ve read about homes being built in Texas, New York, California and many other states with the expectation that there will be buyers for those homes, and there seems to be. Those buyers that qualify for the low mortgage rates are finding that they’re able to get great deals on new homes as opposed to buying pre-existing homes, as well as negotiate for options and amenities that might have cost too much in the past.

4. Home builders are also offering deals you’ve never imagined before. For instance, Toll Brothers is offering up to $4,000 in airfare and vacation accommodations if you purchase a home in one of their communities in Florida. Other home builders are offering major discounts and free upgrades as enticements. Frankly, this is probably one of the best times in history for a buyer to feel special.