Archives

The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association's (SMACNA) new “Architectural Sheet Metal Quality Assurance Guide,” 1st edition, is a tool for evaluating exterior sheet metal building components—roofing systems, exterior walls, flashing, copings, etc.—during initial construction and for ongoing condition assessments and maintenance

Kevin M. McCarty, Florida Insurance Commissioner and past NAIC president, testified before Congress today on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The hearing, titled "The State of the Insurance Industry and Insurance Regulation," was held by the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. His testimony focused on the need to coordinate insurance policy to protect American policyholders and benefit U.S. markets and companies.

As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released an online training module to help local government officials take actions to increase their communities’ resiliency to a changing climate. The virtual training, which was informed by the National Climate Assessment released one year ago today, was developed with advice from EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee and is the latest addition to the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit announced in November 2014. It includes successful examples of effective resilience strategies that have been implemented in cities and towns across the country.

IBHS is conducting a major field research effort to study hailstones and hailstorms aimed at reducing property damage and improving weather forecast models and radar detection of hail. As part of this effort, IBHS is studying hailstorms in the Central Plains region in an attempt to better understand the characteristics of damaging hail.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 4.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 4 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 8 percent from the previous week to the lowest level since January 2015. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from one week earlier to its highest level since June 2013.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released the following statement on the tragic death of District of Columbia resident Lt. Kevin McRae, a 24-year veteran of the DC Fire and EMS Department, who died in the line of duty while battling a fire in a 7th Street NW apartment building in the Shaw neighborhood this morning. The Congresswoman placed a call to Lt. McRae’s wife to offer her condolences.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.54 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2015.  This was the lowest level since the second quarter of 2007.  The delinquency rate decreased 14 basis points from the previous quarter, and 57 basis points from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) National Delinquency Survey.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of the FBI’s Houston Field Office, Special Agent in Charge Lucy R. Cruz of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation’s (IRS-CI) Houston Field Office, the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) and Special Agent in Charge Mike Fields of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Dallas Field Office made the announcement.

Determining a building’s energy efficiency based solely on using predictive energy models and specifying certain design and construction attributes may be a thing of the past by the time the next generation of architects and engineers join the workforce. Communities and owners want measurable performance data: they want to know whether greenhouse gas emissions are lower, whether energy consumption has been reduced and even whether the building has achieved zero-energy usage.Models remain an important tool, but the actual data after the building is operational is what truly shows whether efficiency expectations have been realized.

An overwhelming majority of title professionals will be prepared for the Aug. 1, 2015, implementation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) rule, according to a survey conducted by the American Land Title Association (ALTA). The survey, conducted in April 2015, included title agents, underwriters, real estate attorneys and abstracters.

Many businesses are not prepared to respond to a man-made or natural disaster, especially small businesses since typically only have one location — the one that is damaged or destroyed. Therefore, disaster planning should be a critical part of every business’ operational objectives. As part of National Small Business Week, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is offering the top eight actions to help business owners get started on severe weather preparedness.

More than 5,500 individual buildings across the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico competed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's fifth-annual ENERGY STAR Battle of the Buildings Competition: Team Challenge. Together, the competitors saved more than $50 million in utility bills, cut their energy use by more than two billion kBtus, and prevented more than 250,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions—equal to the annual energy use of more than 37,000 homes. Competitors reduced their energy use an average of six percent, equivalent to an average savings of nearly $20,000 per building

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced that one of her oldest priorities, restoration of the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site in the Shaw neighborhood, is moving forward with the National Park Service (NPS) awarding a $5.6 million contract to Perini Management Services to begin the restoration project. NPS announced the contract is for the first phase of a three-phase contract. Woodson is the originator of Negro History Week, which today has become Black History Month, in February.

“Realtors® believe that images gathered by unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, can enhance the experience of buying and selling real estate. The FAA’s intention to study the safety of UAV flights that go beyond the line of sight of the operator could lead to important benefits in the real estate industry, particularly for agents who wish to market rural and large commercial properties.

The following is a statement by National Association of Realtors® President Chris Polychron regarding the Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act of 2015 introduced in the U.S. Senate today by Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, Ranking Member Patrick Leahy and Sens. John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, Chuck Schumer and Amy Klobuchar

The Modular Building Institute is pleased to announce the May 2015 Building of the Month recognition goes to Steel River Building Systems’ Lady Liberty Alliance Charter School in Newark, NJ. Lady Liberty Alliance Charter School is a 468-student, kindergarten-through-8th-grade charter school that chose to utilize modular construction in the creation of their permanent home.

Through its grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of $13.5 million in grant funding to help governments and nonprofit organizations switch to cleaner diesel engines. Local governments, tribal agencies and nonprofits can win grants up to $2.14 million each

Markets in 68 of the approximately 360 metro areas nationwide returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity in the first quarter of 2015, according to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI), released today. This represents a year-over-year net gain of seven markets

From left, Peoples’ Self-Help Housing President/CEO John Fowler, PSHH Development Director Rochelle Rose CFRE, Pacific Western Bank Executive Vice President and Regional Manager Tom Strait, and PW Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager Carl Dudley.