Parents who want to give their kids a great gift should consider making a down payment on a house.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, a married couple can give gifts of $13,000 each, money or property, without requiring taxes of the giver or receiver. A married couple can give another married couple a total of $52,000 a year, if each member of the giving couple gives $13,000 to each of the receiving couple. This could be a healthy down payment!

Source: The Wall Street Journal, June Fletcher (11/27/2009)

Can you live entirely off the grid? It’s possible with a house designed specifically for zero net energy use. Local architects Scott Specht and Louise Harpman are developing just that: ZeroHouse, a house designed to operate with no connections to external sources of power or water. [Link]

“The off-grid model has the most challenges, so that’s the test case we designed for,” Specht said. “We think that the value is in the complete self-sufficiency, the absolutely minimal environmental and site impact, and the fact that this would be a model for what can be done — a ‘first adapter’ demonstration of the ultimate in green living.”

The architects consider Austin the best place to bring the ZeroHouse into the residential real estate market, becauise “Austin is the center of the new green economy.”

LovelyListing.com shows this interesting property at 507 Leland in Austin. Give me a call if you’re interested, I’d love a chance to show it!

Joe Biden is helping promote green jobs that stay at home, literally, through a proposal for a new program to boost energy savings for homeowners and help our environment, too.  The White House estimates greenhouse gas emissions could be lowered by up to 160 million metric tons by 2020.  Find more info in the Recovery Through Retrofit report.   The proposals here promote better information for consumers  with wider dissemination re energy cost savings & benefits, access to better financing options, and a training and certification program to enhance consumer confidence and promote job growth here at home. Read more about the report here.

From Coldwell Banker’s YouTube channel:

The S&P 500 had a 3.4 percent surge Monday, erasing the last of its 2009 losses, and the Dow was up more than 200 points. Leading the recovery:

A double dose of good housing news ignited the advance: Pending U.S. home sales rose more than forecast and had their second straight monthly gain, while construction spending rose unexpectedly in March after five straight declines.

More detail:

The rally came after the National Association of Realtors said its index of pending sales for previously occupied homes rose 3.2 percent to 84.6. That was well ahead of the 82.1 economists had been expecting and the second month of gains after the index hit a record low in January.

Separately, the Commerce Department said construction spending rose 0.3 percent, the best showing since a similar increase in September. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected spending to drop 1.5 percent.

Does this mean we’re out of the woods? Possibly not. David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, notes that the real estate market is still weakening and banks are still taking losses on loans. He says the question is whether we’re looking at a “V,” a dip followed by a surge, or a “W,” with another big dip ahead. What do you think?

The Austin American-Statesman reports that average Travis County home appraisals rose an average 3.8% this year – still an increase, but the smallest in five years. How real is this? Reporters asked local real estate consultant Charles Heimsath, who noted that appraisals are based on the previous year’s sales, and in 2008 most sales occurred while prices were still trending higher. However “next year, the appraisals will reflect the lower home values that people are currently experiencing.”

So while appraisals are higher now, sales prices for homes are actually dropping. This is all very localized, depending on the neighborhood.

If you’re selling your home, be sure you get complete information on trends for the area and your specific neighborhood. You don’t want to be chasing the market down. And you want to catch it when it starts trending up again.

If you’re a buyer, be sure to review market data before making your offer. Even though a home is more than just numbers, you want to make a wise financial decision.

This morning NPR featured a story about architectural photographer Julius Shulman, whose photographs of great L.A. homes are “so distinctive that they are consulted by movie designers, collected by museums and cherished by homeowners who commission them.” Shulman’s photos made the work of great architects, mostly in Southern California, visible. “Shulman’s focus is on the building — how it sits in its environment, the feeling it evokes.”

The Getty Research Center acquired Shulman’s archive. In 2005-2006, The Getty Center had a show called “Julius Shulman – Modernity and Metropolis.” They have a Julius Shulman Resource Page.

An article in the Austin American-Statesman talks about the increasing demand for “hybrid” homes (the term hybrid relating to an analogy with fuel-efficient automobiles). In a slow housing market, energy features can add value,especially in Austin, where

custom homebuilders like Ray Tonjes are adding energy-saving features like thicker insulation, sealed attics and ductwork, and dual-speed air conditioner compressors to meet customer demand for more energy-efficient houses. Some companies do nothing but green-built homes. And the city has the nation’s pioneering green building certification and education program, as well as an aggressive incentive program for energy-efficient appliances.

The article goes on to say that “a household can reduce energy expenditures by 50 percent just by using equipment such as more efficient heaters, air conditioners, water heaters, appliances and electronics and by using compact fluorescent lighting,” and mentions a BASF Corp. concept home that’s 80 percent more efficient. This is especially compelling given the potential for energy costs to increase in coming years.

How important is energy efficiency to you, as a home buyer? Or if you’re a seller, what energy features might you add to make your home more attractive in today’s market?

The American Institute of Architects found that home sizes are leveling off and buyers are choosing to migrate back to the cities. This effect is likely due to the population getting older – 3/4 of homes are forecast to be without children in 2025 – and the sense that high fuel cost for transportation will be a permanent fact of life. [Link]

When Sarene Byrne and her husband, Tom, sent the last of their three kids off, they concluded it was foolhardy to continue paying nearly $20,000 a year in property taxes on their 6 ½-acre property with its 6,100-square-foot house, pool house and barn in Crosswicks, N.J.

“We said, this is ridiculous, why do we have this house?” Ms. Byrne says.

“We really moved in order to downsize, to have a house that was really affordable, easy to take care of.”