Residents give HOA lifestyle seal of approval

Human mom milked for cheese
Tastes like cheddar, provolone

The vast majority, 71 percent of homeowner association (HOA) residents polled, said they are satisfied with HOA life, and 17 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their communities. Only 12 percent expressed discontent.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2010 DeadlineNews.Com



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Deadline Newsroom - Only 12 percent of community and homeowners association (HOA) residents expressed some level of discontent with their communities, according to recently released research commissioned by Community Associations Institute (CAI).

The vast majority, 71 percent, said they are satisfied with HOA life, and 17 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their communities.

For the 60 million people who live in the nation's 350,000 HOA communities, buying a home in an HOA community is a lot like buying a share in a closely held, publicly traded real estate holding company, governed by an ever-changing regulatory system and managed by volunteers -- the neighbors.

HOAs have seen their share of shoddy construction leading to nasty building defect litigation as well as poor management and disgruntled residents, but most residents are quite satisfied with how they operate.

"Americans have weathered difficult times, and that would normally create more negative views toward most institutions," Lincoln Hobbs, a member of CAI's College of Community Association Lawyers and president of CAI's affiliate Foundation for Community Association Research, said in a statement.

"That hasn't happened in the case of community associations. That says a lot about the dedication and skill of the vast majority of homeowner volunteers and professionals who govern and manage these communities."

You've got news...news that really hits home, right here: High Marks Given to Homeowners Associations




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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop.

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Finding the perfect neighborhood

Stripper stands-in at reunion

A home is not an island. The surrounding neighborhood is just as important because it can have a big impact on your lifestyle -- safety, available amenities, and convenience all play their part.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com


Unauthorized use of this story is a copyright violation -- a federal crime

Deadline Newsroom - A home is not an island.

The surrounding neighborhood is just as important because it can have a big impact on your lifestyle -- safety, available amenities, and convenience all play their part, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

NAR also says you can keep your home value buoyed if you find the right neighborhood.

And you can find the right neighborhood by getting information direct from the best sources -- rather than from second hand and often incomplete data bases professing to offer you one stop shopping for all your neighborhood checking needs.

• Make a list of the activities -- movies, health clubs, churches -- you engage in regularly and stores you visit frequently. See how far you would have to travel from each neighborhood you’re considering to engage in your most common activities.

• Check out the school district. The education department in your town can provide information on test scores, class size, percentage of students who attend college, and special enrichment programs. Even if you don’t have children, a house in a good school district will be easier to sell in the future.

• Check crime. Ask the police department for neighborhood crime statistics -- not only the level of crime, but also the type -- burglaries, armed robberies -- any trends of increasing or decreasing crime and the location of crime.

• Look for economic stability. Your local city or county economic development office can tell you if income and property values in a neighborhood are stable, rising or falling, the percentage of homes to apartments. Apartments don’t necessarily diminish value, but they can indicate transient populations. Check for vacant or blighted businesses or homes.

• Consider resale value. A local real estate agent or trade association can give you information about price trends, inventories, selling times and other information that can indicate how well your home's value will hold up.

• Hit the streets. Narrow your focus to several neighborhoods and do a "walk-through" of each. Pick a warm day when people are out and available for chatting. Look for tidy, well maintained homes, quiet streets and other indicators of neighborhood stability.

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group, including DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site, and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!

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Idahoans' Faith Boosts Home Values

Whenever Idahoans approve a new Mormon temple, the faithful seek to congregate nearby and that gives home values an extra boost.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - In Idaho, when they worship the ground they live on, falling home prices are history.

True story.

Call it the "Temple Effect."

In Twin Falls, Idaho, after they broke ground on a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, vacant lots around the temple site doubled in value and demand for housing surged, according to the Twin Falls Planning and Zoning Commission.

The same thing happened further north, in Rexburg, where a temple dedication is due in February this year.

Wherever Idahoans approve a Latter-day Saints temple, the faithful grab land nearby and flock to the area to buy homes.

There's really nothing mysterious about it. What appears to be a heavenly hedge against falling home prices is simply a matter of supply and demand housing economics.

Just as some home buyers want to live near good schools, the faithful like to congregate near the limited number of Mormon temples. Unlike those who visit Mormon chapels in the 13-million member church, only Mormons in good standing with the church are allowed full access to a temple.

But only four of the 124 Mormon temples in the world are in Idaho. Two older temples are in Boise and Idaho Falls.

Idaho Falls, by the way, had the nation's sixth fastest appreciating housing market in the third quarter, according to a federal home price index. The state of Idaho itself ranked sixth in home price appreciation among all the states in the nation.

Realtors can't use temples as a selling point because of the Fair Housing Act, but motels and other developers can boast a "view of the temple."

A temple's soaring spires are architectural eye candy and the Mormon faith is a powerful draw in Idaho, but the "Temple Effect" doesn't get all of the credit for rising home prices in the Gem State.

Natural resources, a strong economy and job growth in major population centers also help boost home values.

See The Video: "The Temple Effect"

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Smart Growth Awards Promote Smart Growth

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Smart growth isn't just about cutting back on sprawl and building high-density housing, but includes rebuilding existing communities and engaging its residents.

Take it from Manhattan, which joined Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Vermont and Barnstable, MA as the nation's smart growth leaders for 2007.

The accolades, the 2007 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement, are granted for innovative community development that protects the environment, preserves community identity and expands economic opportunity.

The Environmental Protection Agency sparingly doles out the awards to promote smart growth strategies, because such efforts help communities enjoy cleaner air and water, open space and critical habitat preservation, and redevelopment of vacant land -- qualities that make for a nice place to live.

Smart growth efforts also preserves community identity and expands economic opportunity.

Winners were selected based on how effectively they used smart growth strategies to improve their communities and how well they engaged citizens and fostered partnerships.

The details are available online on the EPA's Smart Growth Achievement page but here are some highlights revealing why the winning communities are smart growth leaders.

• The award for "Overall Excellence" went to the Housing Authority of Portland, OR. The agency created a public-private partnership to redevelop an isolated and distressed public housing site into New Columbia, where local residents engaged in design workshops and were employed for portions of the construction. The project increased the number of houses, including affordable units and maintained the neighborhood's ethnic diversity.

• For "Built Projects" the Seattle Housing Authority, similarly turned a dilapidated neighborhood into High Point, a mixed-use, mixed-income, and environmentally sensitive community. Using green building principles, High Point's more than 1,700 new units are expected to consume less water, electricity, and natural gas than the old community's 716 units. The new community includes new parks, a public library, and a health clinic. Retail space will come in 2009.

• The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB) got the nod for "Policies and Regulations." The independent, state-supported agency, promotes compact settlements surrounded by countryside, pursues affordable housing, land conservation, and historic preservation initiatives. Since 2002, VHCB investments have supported developing more than 3,000 affordable homes, the preservation of 44 historic buildings, and the conservation of more than 37,000 acres of farmland, natural areas, and recreation lands.

• Barnstable, MA created a development strategy for one of its seven villages, Hyannis, to encourage growth and development in the town center and reduce growth pressure on environmentally sensitive areas along the coast to win the "Waterfront and Coastal Communities" award. These policies have resulted in almost 100 new residential units (nine of which are for lower-income households), with nearly 150 more planned; 22,000 square feet of commercial space, with another 100,000 square feet planned; and more than 300 jobs.

• Manhattan shines in the area of "Equitable Development" thanks to its cooperative strategy to expand the housing and commercial options for central Harlem. Work in the Abyssinian Neighborhood Project area, once marked by vacant lots and abandoned buildings, employed comprehensive programs linked education, job training, and cultural enhancement; developed 200 affordable housing units, with an additional 200 planned; and created 15,000 square feet of commercial space for five local businesses. The project also increased access to public transit, created new green space, and minimized storm water runoff by reusing paved surfaces.

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Sidewalks, Trees And Fences

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom –The soft housing market has remanded you to your current home a little longer than you planned. Perhaps it's a good time to get to know some neighborhood issues you are more and more likely to encounter the longer your remain.

Sidewalks, trees and fences, for instance.

Why?

Rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and with so many variations, it behooves you to learn what rules apply to you and your home.

Not knowing the rules won't absolve you of liability if someone is injured because you thought your home maintenance responsibilities ended at the front door.

"It is very much dependent on each community as to what your responsibility is and it typically extends beyond your home," says David Hofmann a San Jose real estate attorney.

Here's what you should know about sidewalks, fences and trees.

Sidewalks

Sidewalk maintenance responsibility typically is spelled out in local ordinances. Most laws say if you are a property owner you must make sure passersby enjoy safe passage across walk ways adjacent to your property line.

The local public works or building department typically will respond to your call for an inspection of a deteriorating sidewalk, pathway or other public easement, but you could have to foot the bill. That includes labor, materials and the cost of any permit to do the work.

Often, in the course of its regular, periodic infrastructure inspections, your jurisdiction will inform you when you need to repair a walkway and give you a deadline. If you miss the deadline, you could be cited, leaving the jurisdiction free to do the work but send you the bill.

You also could be responsible for damage caused by events other than normal wear and tear of the sidewalk material, say tree roots that displace portions of the sidewalk.

Typically, the local arborist or public works department will care for trees that line the street or fill a median on either side of the sidewalk.

If a public works official must remove a tree that's damaging the sidewalk, however, you'll likely have to finish the job and level the sidewalk.

Trees

Speaking of those leafy green plants, it's illegal in a growing number of "green" conscious cities to cut down trees -- in some cases, even on your own property -- without prior approval. Fines can be a lot stiffer than the cost of pruning out-of- control tree growth.

Trees on or near your property line pose other dilemmas.

First, if the trunk of a tree is completely within your property boundaries its care is your responsibility.

A tree typically becomes community property shared by adjacent neighbors if the trunk stands on the borderline between the two properties. Then, both or all owners are responsible.

If your neighbor has a tree that has grown branches hanging heavy over your property, those branches could pose a threat to your property, members of your household or others. If so, your neighbor could be liable if limbs snap, fall and damage property or injure someone. The condition also gives you the right to trim your neighbor's tree branches back to the property line.

But here's the Catch 22 -- you can't work from the neighbor's yard without his or her permission and you'd better not injure or kill the tree because then you'll be liable.

The same applies to damaging tree roots -- you can cut them back, but doing so is often fatal for a tree. Making matters worse, the root shorn tree could fall and injure someone.

Even though you aren't legally required to do so, you should discuss the matter with your neighbor before you cut overhanging branches or troublesome tree roots.

The prune-without-notice approach is likely to generate tension headaches. The neighborly approach is to talk it out.
You should bring up the issue during pruning season when some nips and tucks are least likely to harm the tree.

The experts also say it's a good idea to contact an arborist or experienced tree surgeon before attempting to prune tree limbs or roots or simply let the experts do the job. Then liability for the tree's well-being falls on them.

If there appears to be no way to exorcise the offending branches or roots without harming the tree or the neighbor's feelings, you may have to seek mediation or a legal solution.

You also may have to resort to a little psychology to get your neighbor off the fence about a tree trim. Suggest he or she call their insurance company. The insurer may consider the policy owner negligent if there's a mishap and not cover an incident. Or the policy may have a large deductible for such claims.

In any event, attempt to get the neighbor to see how it will likely be much less expensive for everyone to deal with the tree now rather than wait for it to become an accident.

Fences

The responsibility for fences is somewhat more clear cut because fences have no branches to spread.

When you build a fence on your property, it's your responsibility should it begin to deteriorate and pose a hazard.

Fences on a property line shared by two or more neighbors belongs to all those who share the property line and all owners share an equal responsibility for keeping the fence in good repair. Likewise, neither can remove the fence without the others' permissions.

Local fence ordinances regulate the height and location of your fence. Typically you'll be restricted to a fence height of six feet in the back yard and often four feet out front -- including natural fences of bushes or trees -- if any fence at all.

Typically only a special zoning variance will get you a higher fence, say to shield your property from commercial operations or other disturbing activity.

There's little you can do about legal fences that don't meet your personal standards for aesthetics as long as the fence doesn't pose a hazard and it's not on your property. However, some communities will restrict the materials you can use, the type of fence you can build and, in the front yard, denote set-back requirements.

For more information consider legal self-help publisher's "Neighbor Law: Fences, Trees, Boundaries & Noise" (Nolo.com $26.99) available in paperback and as an e-book. Likewise available from Nolo, "Your Little Legal Companion: Helpful Advice for Life's Big Events" (Nolo $9.95) contains some related information.

For a Web site that can help you zero in on your jurisdiction's rules, try Findlaw.com's "Neighbors" section.

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Next-Door Celebrity Neighbors

by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom – Oprah's the girl next door? An Elvis sighting in the neighbor's backyard? "The Donald's" limo parked outside? You wish, apparently.

When Tallahassee, FL-based real estate magazine publisher Homes & Land (H&L) took the slow housing market as an opportunity to Hollywood-up it's marketing, it discovered Oprah Winfrey, Elvis Presley and Donald Trump were the most sought after next-door celebrity neighbor.

In your American Dreams.

H&L culled from callers to its "Homeline" telephone service center, a survey of thousands, each asked to name the celebrity they'd most like to have as their backyard fence mate -- dead or alive.

Overall, after Winfrey, Presley and Trump came John Wayne; Tiger Woods; George Clooney; Paris Hilton and Dolly Parton in a tie (wouldn't that cause a neighborhood uprising); another tie with John Travolta, Denzel Washington, Clint Eastwood and Bill Gates; Pamela Anderson; the most appropriate tie -- Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; tie, Tom Selleck and Julia Roberts; tie, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson; tie, Bruce Willis and Martha Stewart (when he destroys the block, she'll tidy up); tie, Robert De Niro, Warren Buffet, Frank Sinatra and Princess Diana (Frances); tie, Jennifer Lopez, Kenny Chesney and Richard Gere; tie, Hugh Hefner and Jack Nicholson (Viagra flows in the streets); Jennifer Aniston and Al Pacino.

H&L found when it asked for "celebrity" neighbors most of those polled chose movie stars as opposed to sports heroes, music makers or others in the public eye. Tiger Woods, for instance, was the only athlete to make an appearance on the top 20 list.

Winfrey and Washington, were the only African Americans in the top 20, which was dominated by white celebrities. Woods is interracial and considers himself "Cablinasian" a portmanteau he coined from his Caucasian, Black, American-Indian, and Asian ancestry.

Five singers topped the charts including Presley, Parton, Chesney, Sinatra and singer-actress Lopez, the only Latino in the group. There were no Asian entries.

Women wanted more celebrity women next door than male celebrities and chose Winfrey, Hilton, Parton, Travolta and Clooney as their top five.

Men chose all men, Presley, Wayne, Trump, Woods and Gates, as their top most sought after next door neighbor? Bonding, apparently, was more attractive to them than the opposite sex.

Pulling anecdotal comments out of the poll, H&L found that many of the men who did want Anderson next-door claimed they'd "have a nice view from my window."

They don't call them Andersen Windows for nothing.

However, one 50-something voter from California claimed he wanted to live next-door to the Bay Watch Babe because he "liked her politics."

He likely lives in the Central Valley's agricultural region where lots of packaged nuts are produced.

Elsewhere in the poll, Anderson, De Niro and Pacino received only male votes. Princess Diana and Gere had all female votes.

Most sought-after next door celebrity neighbors ranked by age group included:

• Twenty-somethings. Women chose, Reese Witherspoon, Usher and Johnny Depp. Men opted for Tyra Banks, Beyonce Knowles and Jim Carey.

• Thirty-somethings. Women chose Queen Latifah, Rachael Ray and Tyra Banks. Men? Ozzie Osbourne, Eva Longoria and Scarlett Johansson.

After leaving their 30s, men appeared to lose interest in having celebrity women next door.

• Forty-somethings. For women it was Matthew McConaughey and Dr. Phil (McGraw). Men chose Jon Bon Jovi and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

• Fifty-somethings. Women wanted Sean Connery, Ellen Degeneres and Harrison Ford next door. Men opted for Alan Jackson, Ernest Hemingway, and Sylvester Stallone.

• Sixty-somethings. Women selected Richard Gere, Barbara Streisand and Eleanor Roosevelt. For men it was Winston Churchill, Joe Dimaggio, Mohammed Ali and Sophia Loren. Good for her.

• Seventy-somethings. Paul Newman, Barbara Streisand and Bob Barker were women's choices. Mickey Mantle, Roy Rogers and Jay Leno did it for men.

• Eighty-somethings. Women wanted Jay Leno and Bill Graham. Men pined for Chris Matthews and Roy Rogers.

Hmmm…

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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