Brentwood's 'green' building pays off in savings

Sometimes the subtlest things can help make houses energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

For instance, the more airtight homes are, the less power they use. So it makes sense to caulk around electrical boxes, along the base, "any place you see through," says Gerard Setti Jr., builder for Brentwood Homes.

The applications are not high-tech or revolutionary, says Bart Beasley, the company's area construction manager. Mostly, it involves "a little more time," he says. The builder adds extra two-by-fours for strength, puts up specially treated BluWood for mold and pest protection, and installs insulation behind tubs where it's hard to reach and almost impossible to add later on.

But the extra work pays off, as homeowners save 20-25 percent on power bills, says Beasley, who with Setti was on the job site one day recently in the Summertrees neighborhood on Johns Island.

Brentwood is not the only local builder focused on so-called "green" building techniques, but it is one of the most dedicated. In 2006, the company committed to constructing all its Charleston area homes to conform with the EarthCraft ecological, energy-saving program, says Ted Terry, general manager and vice president. "Energy savings can amount to $400 a year," he says.

This year, Brentwood expects to construct 250 homes in the Charleston area, and they all will meet the standards set by EarthCraft, an Atlanta-based program launched by that region's home builder association and a Georgia energy conservation company.

"We've come a pretty long way," Terry says.

In addition to Summertrees, Brentwood neighborhoods that meet the standards include Highwoods Plantation and Indigo Palms. So do homes that Brentwood is constructing in the Hunt Club west of the Ashley and Oak Terrace Preserve, a new community in North Charleston, says Karrie Britton, design planning consultant.

It's not just Charleston either. Brentwood builds in the Charlotte area, which does not have the EarthCraft program. But North Carolina does have a similar project called the Healthy Building Program, and Brentwood conforms to those criteria, Terry says.

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source: charleston.net

Place to call home

Purchasing a home for the first home is a big step for most people. It's a sizable investment that comes with the responsibility of maintaining the property. Some buyers live in one house their whole life. But typically, homeowners at some point relocate, maybe for a job change or to make more room for their growing family.

Carlton Place might be the type of neighborhood that second or third homebuyers are eyeing. "A lot of young families are looking for more house," says Kathy S. Jordan, agent for Prudential Carolina Real Estate's New Homes Division. Buyers have included young professionals and both local and out-of-town shoppers.

Rex Thompson Homes, which builds in the Charleston area, as well as Greater Columbia, is designing 84 homes in Carlton Place, located off Foster Creek Road in the upper fringes of Hanahan.

The ranch and two-story houses are valued from $161,900 to $249,900 and sized from 1,254 to 2,485 square feet.

There are 14 floor plans with three to five bedrooms; a two-story version has the master bedroom downstairs. One-story houses are the Sullivan, Sullivan with a bonus room, Port Royal and Lancaster. Two-story choices are the Pamlico, Camden, Awendaw, Lexington, Seabrook, Victoria, Brunswick, Sussex, Kiawah and Hemingway.

Houses come with a host of standard features including one- and two-car garages, garden doors on the patio and brushed nickel lighting. Depending on the floor plan, houses also can include tray ceilings in the master bedrooms, breakfast nooks, laundry space and bonus rooms that can be turned into studies or entertainment areas.

Carlton Place is less than a mile south of the Goose Creek city limits. It's a short drive to interstates 26 and 526, as well as to North Rhett Avenue via Tanner Plantation.

Sidewalks tie the community together. Buyers have wooded views, as well as the possibility of sizable oak trees in their yards.

There are a number of retention ponds dotting the subdivision. While located in a suburban area, Carlton Place has a natural feel because of the forestlike surroundings. Some of the lots are on Goose Creek Reservoir, which is like being on a small lake. That makes the neighborhood a draw even without traditional amenities, such as swimming pools and clubhouses.

"It's the trees," Jordan says. "We are right next to the (Goose Creek) Reservoir," she adds.

To visit Carlton Place from downtown Charleston, travel west on Interstate 26 to Remount Road. Take the east Remount exit and continue to North Rhett Avenue. Turn left on North Rhett and head into Hanahan. Once past the intersection with Yeamans Hall Road, turn left on Tanner Ford Boulevard. Follow Tanner Ford until it dead ends into Foster Creek Road. Turn right on Foster Creek and proceed for a couple of miles. Carlton Place is on the left, across from the existing St. James Estates.

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source: charleston.net

Housing relief reforms face uncertain fate in Senate

WASHINGTON — Thousands of Americans may lose their homes to foreclosure or face hefty mortgage payment resets, but Congress appears to be in no rush to offer help.

While the House has passed several major housing relief measures, the Senate hasn't managed to pass even one. On the eve of Thanksgiving recess, the House approved the most sweeping reforms of the national mortgage system in more than two decades.

Meanwhile, the Senate stalled legislation that would strengthen the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage programs, a key resource for consumers who need to refinance out of adjustable-rate loans with rapidly escalating monthly payments into affordable fixed-rate mortgages.

The FHA reform bill passed the House in September and had been approved by the Senate Banking Committee. But it was blocked from floor action by a small group of Republicans not sympathetic to federal involvement.

The FHA bill is important for high-cost housing markets nationwide because it raises the maximum mortgage amounts the agency can insure. It also would cut minimum down payments, and allow FHA to charge lower premiums to applicants with better credit histories and higher premiums to borrowers with less favorable credit backgrounds.

The bill was blocked Nov. 15 by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C., following a hold placed on it by Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.

Dole objects to FHA's plan to begin pricing mortgages based on credit risk starting in January, whether the reform bill is approved or not.

Dole is an ally of the private mortgage insurance industry, which would have to compete with a revived FHA in the low-down-payment segment of the mortgage market.

Coburn and DeMint argued the FHA reform proposal was too far-reaching to be rushed through the Senate before the Thanksgiving break.

The House-passed mortgage reform bill may face a similar uncertain fate in the Senate. Among other provisions, it would:

--Require every loan originator in the country to be registered and licensed in a national database and meet minimum educational and certification standards.

--Require all originators to make only loans whose terms are "appropriate" to the borrower. The borrower must have a "reasonable" ability to repay the mortgage and must receive a "net tangible benefit" from the loan in the case of a refinancing.

--Ban and punish "steering" of borrowers into higher cost mortgages than their credit histories actually merit. This is a problem that has been prevalent in home loans made to first-time and minority applicants, who often have minimal or "thin" national credit bureau files, but solid payment histories on rents, utility bills and other forms of credit that are not reported to the bureaus. Some loan officers also steer minority applicants into inappropriately higher-cost mortgages solely to reap higher fees, according to consumer advocates.

--Extend legal liability for toxic and predatory loans to Wall Street firms that securitize pools of mortgages into bonds. Under current rules, those companies often are insulated from suits over predatory loans, even though they may have been aware, or should have suspected, that borrowers had been abused.

--Clean up the appraisal field by prohibiting and punishing interference in valuations, especially brokers and lenders pressuring appraisers to "hit the number" needed to allow loans to close.

Banking and mortgage lobbyists sought unsuccessfully to remove or soften some of the bill's reforms before the House vote, but are in a position to block the legislation outright in the Senate.

Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., had promised his own mortgage reform bill, but has introduced nothing.

Most members of the House and Senate would likely agree the American mortgage system broke down between 2001 and 2005, allowing lax underwriting, bogus appraisals and fraud to trigger billions of dollars of losses and thousands of foreclosures. But when the questions turn to how to fix the system, the answers appear to rest with the Senate, where the message so far has been: Hey, what's the rush?

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source: charleston.net

Upscale waterfront living on Winyah Bay

GEORGETOWN — The southern extremities of this small coastal city, at once quaint and industrial, are opening up to new residential neighborhoods just as Georgetown County carves out a park and boat landing along the south bank of the Sampit River.

Realizing the potential from these changes, developer Harry Huffman has mapped out Craven's Grant on Winyah Bay.

The community is named for one of South Carolina's Lords Proprietors and for the scenic alcove that hugs Georgetown while separating it from beachfront resorts further north.

"It's a diamond in the rough," Huffman says.

Craven's Grant, a gated community in Georgetown's Maryville section south of the Sampit River bridge, has 292 inland and waterside home sites. There will be eight man-made ponds, a pool, tennis courts and a clubhouse.

About 80 percent of the lots sold in 14 months, says Huffman, who has built a few upscale communities in the Charleston area and has a house on Folly Beach. The project also got permitting approval for 200 boat slips on the bay and river, with direct access to the Intracoastal Waterway. There also will be available dry-stack slips.

Houses will be custom constructed, where buyers "pick the builder," he says. The predominant style will be raised, two-story Charleston single homes of 2,400 square feet or more. Prices of the 1/5 of an acre lots are $199,000 to $599,000, and homes including the land are expected to be in the $450,000 to $1.1 million range.

Huffman also will sponsor the Georgetown Freedom Boat Club, where homeowners can buy a $15,000, five-year membership with $600 a year dues to charter the club's boats.

Craven's Grant will be attractive to people who are water-oriented, who want homes on the river or marsh. There likely will be a share of older, retired buyers, he says.

Huffman, who bought and remodeled a downtown condo above a restaurant on Front Street, where he lives in Georgetown, says the area is "ready to explode" development-wise.

Craven's Grant is across U.S. Highway 17 from the new Georgetown County park and boat landing.

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Relaxing refuge

FirstCoast Homes plans amenities, 500 houses at its community in Cane Bay

The tree-lined route along U.S. Highway 176 north of Goose Creek is sprinkled with existing homes, small businesses and light industries, and one big complex, the new Cane Bay High School and stadium. But the surroundings won't be so rural for long.

A winding three-mile road just north of the high school marks the main artery through the Cane Bay development, where at least three major builders are just starting to construct what will be thousands of homes. One of these, FirstCoast Homes, is unveiling its new Sanctuary Cove at Cane Bay this week. The company is launching sales in the mid-priced neighborhood, which will have 500 homes.

Katie Varin, marketing director for Savannah-based FirstCoast Homes, says the neighborhood will benefit from the adjacent schools, which eventually will include elementary and middle schools, as well as a retail plaza. Sanctuary Cove at Cane Bay will have its own amenities center with swimming pool, volleyball court, sports court and clubhouse.

"We are planning for all sorts of buyers," she says. That includes shoppers who are downsizing to a small home, families with school-age children and retirees. The builder is so keen on the community that it designed 12 floor plans specifically for Sanctuary Cove at Cane Bay. "This is an all-new lineup."

Homes are priced from $176,990 to $224,990. Floor plans start at 1,521 square feet and run up to

3,111 square feet.

Models are the Tybee, Cumberland, Edisto, Capers, Dewees, Seabrook, Hatteras, Albemarle, Kiawah, Wilmington, Sullivan and Seaside.

FirstCoast Homes designed ranch and two-story houses with the modern family's likes and dislikes in mind. They include formal dining rooms, laundry rooms, two-car garages with extra space for a boat or extra storage and "stop-and-drop" nooks where homeowners can leave and pick up their keys, cell phones and other items when they go in or out.

Upstairs in some floor plans and downstairs in others, master bedrooms have oversized walk-in closets, space for accessories and separate garden tubs and showers.

Covered "lanai" patios are standard, screened-in porches are options. All of the homes are situated to have views of neighborhood ponds, woods and other natural settings.

While in the country, Sanctuary Cove at Cane Bay is not far from town. Goose Creek is about seven miles away, Summerville, eight and Moncks Corner, 13.

FirstCoast Homes' managers and salespeople took time brainstorming about what people really want in homes before rolling out the dozen novel models.

"We are really happy with all the new floor plans," Varin says. "It was really worth it."

To reach Sanctuary Cove at Cane Bay from downtown Charleston, take Interstate 26 west to the 199 exit for U.S. Highway 52 to Goose Creek. Follow Highway 52 to the traffic light at St. James Avenue (U.S. Highway 176) and turn left. Continue on St. James north across U.S. Highway 17A, where it becomes State Road. Stay on the highway past Cane Bay High School on the right. Take the first right, the entrance to Cane Bay. Follow the road for a little more than one mile. Sanctuary Cove is on the left.

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source: charleston.net