TOUR OF HOMES
Lakewood Ranch’ss 17th annual fall Tour of Homes continues through Nov. 23 at 31 models by 15 builders in the 8,800-acre master-planned community.
“It is our major marketing event of the year,” said Jimmy Stewart, Lakewood Ranch’s vice president for sales. “It also kicks off the season with a full schedule of lifestyle activities. There is something going on every weekend — and during the week, even.”
Models are open from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is free.
133 MILLION UNITS
According to the 2013 American Housing Survey by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau, released Thursday:
• There were nearly 133 million total housing units in the U.S. in 2013, 87 percent of which were occupied. This represents an increase of 413,000 since 2011.
• About 65 percent of all housing units were occupied by owners in 2011; 35 percent were occupied by renters.
• As of 2013, the median size of all single-family detached housing units was 1,800 square feet with a median lot size of .25 acres (compared to .36 acres in 1973).
• Approximately two-thirds of all housing units used warm-air furnaces for heating; 12.1 percent used an electric heat pump; and 10.4 percent used steam/radiant heating.
• The most common cooking fuel is electricity (61.2 percent) followed by natural gas/propane (38.7 percent).
• Between 2011 and 2013, there was a slight decline in the number of homes experiencing moderate or severe physical problems (including plumbing, heating, and electrical). In 2013, there were nearly 2 million homes with severe physical problems and nearly 4 million housing units with moderate physical problems.
• About 10 percent of all households reported seeing signs of cockroaches within the prior 12 months.
• About 9 percent of households reported evidence of mice in the past year.
• Median monthly costs went down for all occupied housing units between 2011 and 2013. However, this masks the fact that while owner-occupants’ costs fell, the costs paid by renters increased.
• 27.7 percent of households do not have sufficient funds ($2,000) in the event of an emergency evacuation.
