Latest News From Viking Custom Homes

Color is as important to your home’s exterior as its interior. But exterior color is usually applied in the form of siding, trim, and roofing — a far more permanent investment than wallpaint or accessories. With a little color know-how, you can pick the perfect color scheme for your home’s exterior that reflects your tastes and your home’s architectural style.

Tour the Neighborhood
As you prepare to choose colors for an exterior, tour neighborhoods and note which colors catch your eye. Pay particular attention to homes that are similar in architectural style to your own.

Fitting In
Consider the context of your home and aim to blend in. If all the houses are white and you want a darker house, you’re better off with a midtone instead of a dark color. Use bolder strokes of color on smaller elements, like the front door or shutters. Harmony is more important where houses are close together. In neighborhoods with spacious lots or visual buffers of foliage, paint schemes can be more personalized.

Landscaping Cues
Take color cues from your landscaping. A house surrounded by woodlands may look out of place painted in pastels, but natural in earth tones. Sunbelt houses can wear bright colors; in a cold climate, bright shades can look cartoonish on a gray day.

Consider Climate
Take into consideration your climate and how the seasons play out in your region. Imagine your proposed exterior color in stark, snowy winter as well as in lush, leafy summer. Remember that colors intensify and look brighter in daylight on the outside of a house than they do on the small sample you’re likely to choose from.

Take it Outside
Look at your material samples outside in different lighting. You’ll want to get an idea of what the colors will look like in the shade, on bright, sunny days, and on overcast days, as well.

Consider Fixed Elements
Brick, slate, stone, and concrete are known as fixed, or given, elements because you cannot, or probably would not, change them. You could paint brick and vinyl siding, but doing so would only increase maintenance. In general, the foundation color should be the same or darker than the siding color.

Remember Roof Color
Unless you plan on replacing your roof, it should play a part in the color scheme. The size and impact of roofing can be as prominent as siding, so its color must relate harmoniously to the siding and trim colors to create a cohesive color scheme.

Pick the Right Roof Color
Pick a neutral, go-with-anythingroofing material.

Proportion
Factor in your home’s size. Depending on the proportions, you may want to emphasize or tone down certain features. Keep in mind that lighter colors tend to visually grow a home or feature, while darker colors shrink them. Bright colors call attention to features while neutrals let them fade into the background.

March 15, 2012 – The tally of housing markets showing measurable improvement reached 99 in March, according to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI), released today. Currently 33 states (including the District of Columbia) are represented by at least one market on the list.

The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months. The 99 markets on the March IMI represent a net gain of one from February, with 31 metros being added and 30 markets slipping from the list, due primarily to incremental softening in house prices. Notable new entrants on the IMI in March include Orlando, Fla.; Rochester, N.Y.; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin and San Antonio, Texas. Meanwhile, Anchorage; Iowa City; Washington, D.C.; and Jackson, Miss. all returned to the list as a result of recent revisions in their employment data.

“In March, 68 metros retained their status as improving housing markets, while 31 new markets joined the list and 33 states had at least one entry on it,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg. “Meanwhile, 10 states now have four or more metros on the improving markets list, with Texas’s 12 entries topping all others. The point is that economic conditions have been consistently strengthening in a diverse array of individual markets nationwide.”

“After five consecutive months of solid gains, the March IMI held virtually flat this month at just under 100 metros, while showing a significant amount of transition in terms of markets represented on the list,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “This is consistent with NAHB’s projections for a gradual but patchy recovery in which some month-to-month softening is likely, particularly in places where the measurable gains have been very small. The bottom line is that roughly one quarter of all U.S. metropolitan areas are showing signs that their housing markets have turned the corner, which is a very positive development.”

“With nearly 100 metros showing consistent improvement in local economic and housing conditions, more consumers are feeling confident enough to take advantage of the buyer’s market this spring,” said Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chairman of First American Title Insurance Company.

The IMI is designed to track housing markets throughout the country that are showing signs of improving economic health. The index measures three sets of independent monthly data to get a mark on the top improving Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The three indicators that are analyzed are employment growth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, house price appreciation from Freddie Mac, and single-family housing permit growth from the U.S. Census Bureau. NAHB uses the latest available data from these sources to generate a list of improving markets. A metropolitan area must see improvement in all three areas for at least six months following their respective troughs before being included on the improving markets list.

A complete list of all 99 metropolitan areas currently on the IMI, and separate breakouts of metros newly added to or dropped from the list in March, is available at: www.nahb.org/imi.

Article published on www.nahb.org

Americans overwhelmingly oppose any action by Congress to tamper with the mortgage interest deduction, but it could be eliminated or scaled back as Congress and the Administration are looking at tax increases in light of deficit concerns.

The consequences would be devastating for home owners, the housing market and the nation’s economy.

Please join us in the important effort to preserve the mortgage interest deduction.

Visit www.SaveMyMortgageInterestDeduction.com for information about this issue.

Upscale homeowners still want and demand a well-appointed living room. In moderately priced homes, however, the living room has evolved into a study or getaway space off the foyer. About a third of potential home buyers say they are willing to buy a home with no living room. Recent published articles indicate that the traditional space is being traded for more usable space in the main living areas, such as the family room and kitchen. Spend any time searching new home designs and you’ll be hard pressed to find a room labeled “living room”. I have only vague recollections of our living room from my childhood home because we were never allowed to go in it! Viking Custom Homes can help you find the right home to fit your lifestyle – with or without a living room!

The deeply depressed housing sector finally seems to have found its bottom — and may even be starting to bounce back.

A wide range of housing indicators — construction, home sales, prices — have stabilized in the past few months, although they remain at historically very low levels. And it looks as if construction activity in particular will pick up in 2012.

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Maury Harris, chief economist at UBS Securities, talks about the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence and the outlook for the U.S. housing market. The index climbed to 21 in December, the highest level since May 2010, from a revised 19 in November.
» Read More

Homeowners are balancing spaciousness with intimacy. The huge two-story rooms popular a few years ago are rarely being built today. In upscale homes, ceiling heights of 9 to 12 feet are typical. Only about 14 percent of homes in the United States are built with ceilings higher than 9 feet. In taller rooms, architects are using tiered treatments and woodplank ceilings to create more visually comfortable spaces. Viking Custom Homes can show you several ways to achieve that spacious feel without giving up livable square footage. The trending to lower ceiling heights also contributes to your new homes’ overall energy efficiency! New Home Design Trends courtesy of bhg.com