If not, you may want to consider having them installed. These days, the world changes so quickly, things can become “normal” before we even know that they’re a thing at all. This article was written in St. Pete, Florida, but the changes they’re talking about are things that homeowners love everywhere nowadays — open concept floor plans and modern furnishings. It turns out these new things are having a surprising effect: home fires are spreading 10 times faster than they used to. It turns out, having a sprinkler system in the home makes a big difference; maybe the difference between life and death for you and your family.

One of the great things about owning a home is the ability to go out in the back yard, grab your favorite beverage, and watch the sky do amazing things. Over the next two weeks, Venus and Jupiter are converging, and you’ll have a chance to watch them get closer and closer. Tomorrow night is probably the best time to start, as they’ll form a perfect isosceles triangle with the moon, to give you a nice way to locate the two planets. The Washington Post provides some great instruction on how to watch them from your back yard, and what you can expect to see.

Later today, the Woodstock Institute is scheduled to release a report which claims that in the Chicago Area, women are less likely to receive a mortgage than men. But since the report isn’t out, it’s hard to say either how credible it is, or how much one can generalize from it — so, the search was on for more, better data! It turns out, there was a much broader, fairly detailed study published last October. The net result is that there does seem to be a bias that can’t be completely explained away by other borrower characteristics, so — women, choose your lender wisely!

Following on to yesterday’s article about changes in bond yields, mortgage interest rates, and the likely future of Fed decisions, it’s worth taking a look at this article by Consumer Affairs. It does two things well. First, it summarizes recent trends in mortgage interest rates for a variety of different types of loans; second, it provides slightly less technical insight into the direction that these changes are likely to take things. Of course, we don’t believe Consumer Affairs is better at predicting the future than anyone else, but it’s still worth exploring.

With bonds selling off, it’s possible that the Fed could ease off their plan to increase interest rates this summer. If the 10-year treasury yield goes over 2.75% anytime soon, and the Feds continue to hint at tightening monetary policy, then a repeat of the 2013 hit to the housing market could be in store. Of course, while the Fed generally does a good job of telegraphing their moves, the bond market does not. And everyone knows that market timing is a fool’s game. Interest rates may be higher than they’ve been over the last year, but they’re still historically low. Waiting may be a risky bet.

It’s hard to believe, but Spring is almost over — just two more weeks (well, to be honest, given the weather, it kind of feels like Summer is almost here). And while summer weekends are perfect for BBQ and swimming, let’s be honest, you want to get some work done around the house, too. Thankfully, we have that old stalwart, This Old House, which has provided a handy list of 28 projects that can get done over the course of a weekend. And with 28 to chose from, you’re sure to find a few that will meet your tastes and needs. 

Whether you do it yourself or contract it out isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference if you start down a road of remodeling, which is going to cost you more than it’s worth. So far this year, the average return on investment for remodeling projects is 63%. That’s right, the average project is worth 37% less in home value than the cost of doing the project in the first place. You can get some good advice on picking projects which pay for themselves in this article. But of course, end value isn’t the only reason to do a remodel, and if something is appealing to you, you shouldn’t necessarily avoid it just because the cash ROI isn’t as high as it might be for other projects.

This blog has been looking at home improvement from a few different angles recently, but there’s one that can stand to get a little more depth: taxes. As the market continues its recovery from the 2008 crash, many people are once again in a position where their homes are net assets. The good part of being a net asset is that when you sell the home, you’ll have made a profit — the bad part is that you have to pay taxes on those profits. This New York Times article goes into greater depth, but the upshot is this: save all your home repair and improvement receipts … forever.

Although the news on the mortgage front in the U.S. press has all been fairly rosy so far this year, this article from The Australian paints a slightly different picture of the U.S. market. It makes the valid point that a lot of people who took out interest-only loans before the crash are now reaching the end of the interest-only period — and many of them are starting to fall behind on payments. If you’re not yet in that boat, but are coming up to the end of your HELOC period, then given the current, really good rates, now might be the time to look into refinancing, before you get into trouble.

You may not think it’s that big of a deal — and because both downpayment requirements and interest rates tend to be lower, it can be really tempting — but lying on your mortgage application, even little white lies, is not a good idea. Most often attempted during cash-out refinance, 19% of all mortgage representations to Fannie Mae in 2013 were “occupancy fraud”. That’s where the borrower states that he intends the property as his primary residence, but actually intends for it to be a rental or vacation property. Not only is this very costly to lenders, but Big Brother is watching. Both Lexus-Nexus and, more significantly, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network keep tabs on such things.