Currently, misconceptions are present in the home buying industry, which delude buyers into thinking that more expensive homes are better. Although better is a subjective term, the problem remains: People are overextending their budgets on homes that they cannot afford and on homes that they cannot afford to maintain. The inability to properly finance homes stems from the fatigued economy and job market, and foreclosures become prevalent when home buyers can no longer afford payments. Although many may argue that the key to solving the problem of foreclosures stems from the economic means of financing the home, I argue that foreclosures can be solved at the root of the problem, architecturally in the way we design and produce our homes. Sustainable architecture can greatly reduce the amount of money people pay on utility bills and other types of home expenses, making sustainable architecture more economically beneficial to those with modest budgets. Through looking at the precedent of the ecoMOD project, led by John Quale of the University of Virginia Architecture School faculty, and more specifically at the systems used in the ecoMOD OUTin House, the solution to solving foreclosures will extend from the claim that houses can be made to be both affordable and sustainable. Affordable houses that are also sustainable will solve the problem of foreclosures because the buyers will be able to afford the initial price of the home, while also being able afford the costs of utilities and other maintenance associated with home buying. When buying a home, every homebuyer wants the best house for the amount they are willing to pay. Some homes are innovative and deemed better, but are not well-designed for the budget of the people ... ... middle of paper ... ...o solve itself. The lessons of the ecoMOD housing projects can be applied on a national scale in the way architects and builders think about the designs of the homes they are building. The key to solving foreclosures is to make the home affordable in the cost of the building and in the cost of its maintenance. People can stop overextending themselves financially once options for better and more affordable housing are more readily available. Sustainable architecture provides this linkage. Once the trends in housing produce sustainable homes that reduce the cost of utilities and maintenance, then people will be able to afford better homes without overextending their budgets, because they are already saving money in utility costs. The problem of foreclosures can be eliminated if the root of the problem, the home, is effectively evaluated and improved upon.
With 10 different principles of economics, one can apply in a decision to buy a house. One at the top of the list would be that of trade-offs for which an individual will encounter. Every single choice comes at a price especially when purchasing a new home. Such is the case when choosing to buy a home exhausting an individual of a sizable percentage of their sa...
As the lease of my apartment is coming to an end it had me thinking of achieving my own American Dream of home ownership but as I do my research I find the dream is far from coming true. I am sure that the issue of housing prices and rent rates are what most of us Bay Area residents talk about and debate. It is an issue that needs to be addressed by the officials of the area, city mayors, affordable housing committees, social justice activists,lawmakers, and even employers. Skyrocketing prices, low inventory, and investors’ bidding wars are not only pushing the middle and lower classes out of San Francisco and the Bay Area out but will completely eliminate them.
The new millennium brought with it a housing boom which had reached an unsustainable level (Pollock, 2011). Housing prices grew rapidly, and Baker (2010) noted a rise in house prices of over 70% from 1995 to 2006. For example, he noted average home prices in Los Angeles rose more than $400,000 over the period of 1995 to 2006 and approximately $519,000 in San Francisco. Prices around the country increased substantially as well (Baker, 2010). To encourage homeownership, banks promoted creative financing options (i.e. adjustable rate, interest only,...
To achieve the American dream is a great accomplishment that requires financial adequacy. Due to financial insufficiencies, owning a home can be difficult, if not impossible for many individuals of lower income. Economic fluctuations often cause inconsistency in housing prices and availability.3 The price of a home correlates to the cost and availability of materials, needed manpower and the duration of construction. These logistical obstacles need to be overcome if the American dream is to be attained by the majority.4 To engineer a faster, more cost effective means of production is a challenge, but for the solution to be well designed and well crafted is a far greater task.
It is often easy to castigate large cities or third world countries as failures in the field of affordable housing, yet the crisis, like an invisible cancer, manifests itself in many forms, plaguing both urban and suburban areas. Reformers have wrestled passionately with the issue for centuries, revealing the severity of the situation in an attempt for change, while politicians have only responded with band aid solutions. Unfortunately, the housing crisis easily fades from our memory, replaced by visions of homeless vets, or starving children. Metropolis magazine explains that “…though billions of dollars are spent each year on housing and development programs worldwide, ? At least 1 billion people lack adequate housing; some 100 million have none at all.? In an attempt to correct this worldwide dilemma, a United Nations conference, Habitat II, was held in Istanbul, Turkey in June of 1996. This conference was open not only to government leaders, but also to community organizers, non governmental organizations, architects and planners. “By the year 2000, half the world’s people will live in cities. By the year 2025, two thirds of the world population will be urban dwellers ? Globally, one million people move from the countryside to the city each week.? Martin Johnson, a community organizer and Princeton professor who attended Habitat II, definitively put into words the focus of the deliberations. Cities, which are currently plagued with several of the severe problems of dis-investment ?crime, violence, lack of jobs and inequality ?and more importantly, a lack of affordable and decent housing, quickly appeared in the forefront of the agenda.
In the world of the twenty-first century, the result of our intention to use natural resources which is non-renewable had spew more unwanted substances and energy into the environment than the earth is capable of digesting, and this had thrown the entire global ecosystem out of balance. Even worse when architecture now have been considered due to their tremendous impact on the environment both during construction and through their operation. Moreover, most of the green architecture we seen today do not actually touch the sensitivity of community history, culture and identity, and therefore it is not well adapt to the community.
The focus of this essay is to inform you about a pressing issue that has severe implications for the urban poor and to encourage you to take up action against this problem. The most serious of the issues the urban poor continuously deal with is housing and it has a multitude of far reaching affects on their daily lives. As a result, immediate action must be taken and I am calling on you to form a new policy that includes incentives for low-income housing construction and a green agenda to combat this issue.
Owning a home is a gratifying experience; as you reap the benefits of shelter, your mortgage payments and other personal investments in the home build equity, at least in a healthy market. The objective value of those investments depends on the housing market as well as the quality of the investment decisions. Careful planning, prioritizing, and ingenuity can promise a sound return on the investments one makes in a real estate property.
Buying and owning your home is part of the American dream. Although the dream itself has since changed, the home still remains the main focal point. Today owning a home doesn’t necessarily mean a house. People now buy duplexes, cooperative apartments, and condominiums. For some families it could take up to a couple of generations before it’s able to have the capabilities of buying a home. To many people it means a certain achievement that only comes after years of hard work. It is a life altering decision and one of the most important someone can make in their lifetime. The reasons behind the actual purchase could vary. Before anything is done, people must understand that it’s an extraneous process and it is a long term project.
The target is to stimulate alternative solutions to housing per se, a challenging pro bono project, to identify affordable, acceptable and innovative solutions to the urgent need to lodge the urban poor, using low cost, sustainable design, construction and operation principles. In this essay, we'll look at some unique, eco-friendly alternative housing ideas that provide low-cost urban housing for under-developed nations with high demography.
One of the key things for New Zealand’s future is sustainable housing. Sustainable housing insures that people have a roof over their head, and supports not only our NZ families, but also our tourist attraction and peoples appeal to our country. Our current home market system is failing, which means many people are not wanting or simply can’t manage with the way our housing system has basically crashed. The current ‘house crisis’ we are currently dealing with is a prime example of a system that needs a dire upgrade. To ensure that the market stays safe, we first have to make sure we don’t fish it out of the water and then suffocate it once we have it. The housing crisis has simply occurred because of these few reasons:
en designing for the public, architects and engineers must take into consideration the economic, environmental and social impacts of their design. The three categories; people, planet and profit are the fundamental principles of sustainable architecture. Architecture firm Cox Architecture joined an alliance with the architecture firm Architects 61 and engineering firm Arup to perfectly address the three categories of responsible design while also managing to create an entirely new category of bridge.The Helix, is the first of its kind. Located in the heart of Singapore's Mariana Bay, it acts as a cultural figurehead symbolizing the re-urbanization of Singapore's cultural centres. The Helix geometry is inspired by the unique and universally known shape of DNA. The purpose of the pedestrian bridge is to literally and figuratively connect the cultures of the region and provide a common ground which all could appreciate. The design was intended to be unique to the region and has been quickly recognized as a modern architectural-engineering masterpiece. This report will discuss the unique traits of the design that make the bridge architecturally and environmentally innovative. METHOD One of the main purposes of the bridge was to achieve a higher standard in sustainable bridge design. This was appropriately addressed by the efficient selection of materials and geometry. The entire structural system of the design consists of only stainless steel. A stainless steel skeleton was made economically possible due to the maximization of material function. The bridge behaves like two opposing springs, in which the outer helix transports the load to the base supports and the inner helix supports the deck. As each spiral has a...
In architecture, spaces are more or less defined by boundaries. A psychological phenomena directed to and brought out by the architectural environment can be described as experiential qualities. These affective qualities have the potential to bring out emotional response to architectural environments, which can be either conscious judgment or a sub-conscious mood changing effect.
I will be determining my research by describing each step as I go along. I plan to delve through the decision making process for first time buyers. I will also be evaluating the needs and wants of first time buyers. The aim is to show what people want the most when looking for a home. I will comprise this information by caring out a questionnaire. From these objectives my aim is to show if it is the right time to purchase houses in this economy. I also want to highlight the difficult process that is incorporated when trying to find the right home for first time buyers.
The city of Monrovia was not appropriately planned from its inception; therefore, houses are not properly arranged. Additionally, the houses are not affordable neither are the houses livable because of materials landowners build the houses with. However, my strategy is to build houses made from solid timbers and rocks. These materials, if judiciously used, will create affordable and livable houses for my city. Affordable and livable houses are apparently ingredients of an environmentally sustainable city. So, I will build houses that low-income families would be glad to occupy without necessarily considering the burden of excessive rent