Energy Audit

First, my conclusion. An energy audit is well-worth the $100 cost.

I contacted CenterPoint, my natural gas provider to schedule the advertised most thorough audit which included an infra-red camera search of my house. It took almost a month for the appointment after my initial call and the audit itself took around 2 hours.


First, they set-up a fan in my front door to pull a vacuum on the house. Then went around with an infra-red camera looking for air leaks into the house and cold spots. I'm happy to report that my attic looked good (see my previous blog post about blowing hundreds of pounds of insulation into the attic).

Some of the problems they found:
- leaking or poorly insulated rim joists in my basement
- leaking cracks around dryer duct penetrations and exposed holes in the top of the cinder block basement walls

- leaking attic access covers
- leaking around my window trim
- cold exterior wall next to the garage

Many of these I fixed with caulk and spray foam. For the cold exterior wall next to the garage, I attached 2" foam insulation sheet to the wall. The leaking window frames - I gently removed a portion of the window trim and sealed the crack between the window frame and the wall before re-installing the trim, and I caulked around the attic access and installed paper-faced fiberglass insulation in the rim joist areas of my basement.


Time will tell but I'm pretty certain that we'll see a reduction in our energy bills.

Maple Grove Crime Reports

The City of Maple Grove website has a useful and user-friendly tool to research and locate crimes in Maple Grove.

You just select what types of crimes you want to research and the map comes up showing where and what types of crimes have occurred in the past 90 days.

FYI -- it looks like our neighborhood is one of the safer neighborhoods in Maple Grove.

http://gis.logis.org/MapleGrove/PIMAWeb/PIMAWeb.aspx

MN Encouraging Energy Conservation

Minnesota and CenterPoint Energy are experimenting with tiered energy prices with the hope that higher prices targeting the heavier users of natural gas will lead to more efficient usage...

Will it work?

http://bit.ly/MNTieredEnergyPrices

Mortgage Interest Deduction and Government Spending

The federal government is bleeding red. Is this news to anyone? Per the National Debt Clock, every man, woman and child in the U.S. currently owes just under $45,000 -- that means that a typical family of four such as mine owes $180,000 just because we're American citizens.



I believe and not just as a Realtor, that housing plays a crucial role in our economy - from employing construction workers to industries that supply the housing market (interior furnishings, building materials, ...), housing feeds into our ecomony in many large ways.



We need to look at all of our government spending to determine how we can not only balance our out-of-control budget but also start paying down some of our debt. More taxes aren't the answer so I am not outright in favor of eliminating the mortgage interest deduction (MID) which would add another $3000 onto the tax bill of a typical family with a $220,000 mortgage at 5% interest rate and a 25% tax bracket. We all need to realize however that NOTHING IS OFF-LIMITS -- no protectionism of our individual pet interests or prevention of self-sacrifice! To get us and U.S. through this crisis and yes, it IS A CRISIS, there will be plenty of sacrifice to go around.


Many other countries (notably Canada and the U.K.) have eliminated the mortgage interest deduction and lived to tell about it. It won't ruin the real estate or housing industry so it is something that should be considered but again, it would be something of a new tax. REDUCING SPENDING is key, not new taxes. Raising more money for government isn't the answer as this will just lead to bigger government and more spending. We should look at all areas of government spending for areas to cut so we can LIVE WITHIN OUR MEANS. There are ALWAYS reasons to spend more -- financial crisis and war just to name two. This doesn't work with my family budget and it shouldn't work with our elected and WELL-PAID elected officials.

Congresses deficit panel is recommending a limit on the MID, limiting it to 1st homes and up to $500,000 rather than doing away with it altogether.

It's time for our elected officials to make the hard (and sometimes unpopular) decisions we elected them to make. There will be short-term pain, discomfort and disagreement but our long-term survival as a nation depends on it.

Visit the U.S. National Debt Clock