 |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Homes News
By Times staff writer Making all new homes accessible by wheelchair?In Santa Monica, Calif., officials are considering a proposal to require that new homes and those undergoing major renovation be made wheelchair accessible. The requirements would include wider doorways, entrances without steps and placement of electrical controls and thermostats at heights accessible from wheelchairs. Advocates said adding the features would cost $600 at most and would appeal to an aging population. But builders say the costs could run into thousands of dollars and make home ownership unaffordable for many buyers. The Santa Monica City Council is paying for a consultant to study the proposal's feasibility. It would be the first such mandatory building code in the nation covering private homes. The National Association of Home Builders said the free market should settle the matter, and builders would respond to buyer demand. Rhode Island requires carbon-monoxide detectorsRhode Island has become the first state in the nation to require that most houses contain at least one carbon-monoxide detector before the houses can be sold. The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires the detectors in existing single-, two- and three-family homes, existing summer homes, new homes with natural-gas utilities and apartments or rooming houses built or converted to residential use before 1976. The law requires at least one detector on each occupied level of a home and within the immediate vicinity of all bedrooms. When a home is sold, the seller must arrange for an inspection by a fire marshal within 60 days of the transfer, at a fee of $30, which goes to local fire departments for fire-prevention activities. The Rhode Island Association of Realtors estimates that the law will affect about 10,000 people who are ready to sell their homes this year. Detectors cost between $30 and $70. Deaths from carbon monoxide are rare and have been declining, officials say. An average of 534 people died per year from carbon monoxide poisoning between 1993 and 1997, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about two-thirds of them from car exhaust, the rest from consumer products such as improperly vented furnaces, heaters and fireplaces. The gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless, and symptoms of poisoning are similar to those of the flu: headache, nausea and fatigue. Loan guaranties on VA mortgages increasePresident Bush has signed a bill raising the loan guaranty amount on VA mortgages nearly 20 percent, from $50,750 to $60,000. This increase, the first since 1994, will allow veterans to borrow up to $240,000 toward the purchase of a home. More than 29-million veterans and service personnel are eligible for VA financing. The VA home loan guaranty program, created under the GI Bill in 1944, encourages private lenders to offer favorable home loan terms to qualified veterans. The government guarantees 25 percent of the mortgage loan amount, enabling veterans to borrow up to four times the guaranty ($240,000) with no down payment. - Information from the Associated Press and the Providence Journal was used in this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
|
