1. Williamson-Marquette
   Year Established: 1857 – oldest home in the neighborhoodIcons & Landmarks: Yahara River bridges, Marquette and O’Keeffe schools, Machinery Row, Orton Park. Brick wall advertisements: Gardner’s Purity Bread, King Midas Flour, Madison Candy Company. Festivals: Waterfront, La Fete de Marquette, Orton Park, Willy Street. Retail: The Kitchen Gallery, Rick’s Olde Gold, MadCat. Restaurants: Eldorado Grill, Weary Traveler, Jolly Bob’s, Lao Laan-Xang, Willy Street Co-Op.Why It’s So Special: Known affectionately as “Wil-Mar,” the Williamson-Marquette neighborhood is a “forever ‘60s” kind of place. With one sandal-clad foot firmly in the past and the other in the present, Wil-Mar has established itself as more than a crunchy ‘hood. Whether you’re a young, hip urbanite or an old hippie, festivals invite everyone to celebrate, and residents depend on them to support the community. While we all love Wil-Mar for its eccentricities worn as badges of honor, businesses you won’t find anywhere else – Hempen Goods, Grampa’s Gun Shop, A Woman’s Touch, and Ford’s Gym – are weathering a shaky economy, proving that funky or not Wil-Mar marches to a healthy, here-to-stay beat.
2. Westmorland
   Year Established: 1916 – the first subdivision plat filedIcons & Landmarks: Beatty & Strang International Style House, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian House, Glenway Golf Course, J.H. Findorff & Sons’ “Lustron” steel-built homes, Midvale Community Lutheran Church, Midvale School and Community Gardens, Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Sequoya Commons, Stone Pillars at Westmorland Blvd. and Mineral Point Rd., Otto Toepfer House, Village Bar, the annual “Weed Feed” invasive species recipe fest, Westmorland Park.Why It’s So Special: The new library at Sequoya Commons, a condo and retail complex that woke up the sleepy west-side neighborhood, is the busiest branch in the city, and residents are fully engaged in community, environmental stewardship and revitalization. With a neighborhood association that goes back almost seventy years, there’s a deep-rooted sense of appreciation and belonging that crosses generations whether it’s eco-volunteering, attending social events, enjoying the bike path, donating to the neighborhood health charity fund that raises $12,000 annually, or simply gathering with friends in the park or coffee shop.
3. University Heights
   Year Established: 1893 – annexed by the city of Madison in 1903Icons & Landmarks: Olin House, home to the UW-Madison chancellor, the Gilmore House by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Bradley House by Louis Sillivan, the Elliott House by George Maher, Randall School, First Congregational Church.Why It’s So Special: Strolling through this neighborhood is literally a walk through Madison’s architectural heritage. Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, George Maher, Frank Riley, Alvan Small, and others made their mark here, popularizing the Prairie style and also furthering the Queen Anne, Georgian revival, Tudor and International traditions. And look no further than the street signs – marking roads such as Van Hise and Bascom – for proof that the neighborhood developed in tandem with UW-Madison in the early twentieth century.
4. Dudgeon-Monroe
   Year Established: How about 1909 when Madison’s first gasoline filling station was built at Spooner and Monroe streets? The Dudgeon-Monroe neighborhood Association was established in 1973.Icons & Landmarks: Budd’s Auto Repair, Edgewood College (and the Pleasure Drive that runs behind it), the Southwest Bike/Pedestrian Path (or Bicycle Beltline to the locals), the “mini-arboretum,” Blessed Sacrament, Temple Beth El and the Friends House, David Maraniss, the real Arboretum, Mallatt’s and Neuhauser’s pharmacies, Michael’s Frozen Custard and the Laurel, Orange Tree Imports, and Parman’s.Why It’s So Special: Are you kidding? Frozen custard, trustworthy car care, walkable, bikeable, pretty, practical, and politically active with a football stadium on one end and the home of the Madison Opera on the other. You’re surrounded by Vilas, Nakoma, and a cemetery with your own golf course. (Okay, you share the golf course.) You’ve got a good mix of businesses, outdoor recreation, restaurants, coffee shops, property tax bills and little red flags to help you get across Monroe Street. Life is good in Dudgeon –Monroe.
5. First Settlement
   

   Year Established: 1837 – Madison’s first residential settlement

   Icons & Landmarks: The Progressive magazine, the Isthmus newspaper, Essen Haus, Lake Monona, the State Capitol building, Café Continental, the Great Dane Pub and Brewing Co. (formerly the Fess Hotel), the Majestic Theatre, Marina condo building.

   Why It’s So Special: Whether it’s at the top of the Marina condos, a sidewalk table at Café Continental, or even the Capitol rotunda, the First Settlement ‘hood has some of the most amazing views in the city – all different, all special. Cosmopolitan in some parts and residential in others, this downtown neighborhood has one of the most urban slices of the city within its confines. Walking down King Street, it’s a bustling cityscape with high-end men’s shop Context, live band venue the Majestic Theatre, stellar sushi place Muramoto, cheeky gay sports bar Woof’s, and chic cocktail haven Opus. Walk a block or two east and find peaceful, tree-lined residential streets with lake views and a beautiful bike path thrown in.

6. Tenny-Lapham
   Year Established: 1850 – the year the first building was constructed in the areaIcons & Landmarks: Annual Art Walk, Avenue Bar, Christ Presbyterian Church, 1909 Prairie-style City Market converted into apartments, East Johnson business district, Gate of Heaven public meeting house, James Madison Park, Lapham School and Community Gardens, Reynolds Park, Tenny Park and Locks, Tour de Coops, Yahara River Parkway.Why It’s So Special: From mansions on Lake Mendota to two- and three-story flats along the busy Johnson and Gorham thoroughfares, you’ll find historic and contemporary housing stock of all kinds and people of all ages living in this close-knit community that organized its first annual neighborhood festival this summer. Residents are also raising $1.6 million for a beautiful new Tenny Park Shelter that hopes to open in time for the 2010 ice-skating season.

    

7. Vilas
   Year Estabilished: 1889 and 1896 – annexed by the city of Madison in 1903Icons & Landmarks: Vilas Park, Henry Vilas Zoo, Bear Mound Park (also known as Vilas Circle), Lake Wingra, Edgewood College and Monroe Street lie along the neighborhood’s bordersWhy It’s So Special: What kid wouldn’t want to grow up amid forests, houses painted in a rainbow of colors, a lake, parks, and a zoo? Indeed, Vilas has been a family-friendly neighborhood since developing as one of the city’s original “suburbs” as the electric streetcar line extended out from the isthmus at the turn of the century. Nestled in between the Edgewood and UW campuses, the neighborhood often finds students commuting by food or bike through the tree-lined streets. But an even more common sight is residents walking dogs, pushing strollers, or toting kids past tidy bungalows and lovingly tended gardens to Vilas Park or the adjacent zoo.
8. Schenk-Atwood
   Year Established: 1999 – Give or take a hundred years. The Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood Association was established ten years ago. Fred Schenk opened his general store at the intersection of Atwood and Winnebago about ninety years before that.Icons & Landmarks: Becky Steinhoff and the Goodman Atwood Community Center, Olbrich Botanical Gardens, The Harmony Bar, community gardens, Absolutely Art, United Way of Dane county headquarters, public murals and sculptures, Circle Park, the bike path, the Starkweather Solstice Celebration, Studio Paran, Bad Dog Frida, the Barrymore Theatre.Why It’s So Special: When a young woman sustained a serious injury that restricted her mobility, her neighbors, including some she barely knew, simply stepped up and built a ramp to her home. This is a special place, aptly described in the neighborhood association brochure as a “diverse, friendly, and human scale village.” Schenk-Atwood has a chic urban hipness with a friendly, inviting warmth, punctuated by gardens, little parks, and one well-known river. And the mix works because people care, plain and simple.

If mowing lawns, trimming shrubs, shoveling walks, cleaning gutters, painting and repairing the roof make you cringe, a condo or co-op may be right up your alley.

“Millions of baby boomers are looking for alternative living styles that will let them ease into retirement or just simplify their lives,” says John York, a West Palm Beach CPA who has prepared tax returns for condo and co-op owners for more than 16 years.

“By purchasing either a condo or co-op, you still enjoy some tax relief and property appreciation, while someone else cuts the grass and takes care of the pool and grounds. But there’s a price attached to it, both in dollars and your sense of independence.”

The day-to-day life in a condo or a co-op is much the same and the typical resident usually wouldn’t notice any difference. However, there are critical distinctions and what you don’t know could cost you money and lots of aggravation.

David St. John, a Florida condominium attorney, says, “There are significant differences between a condominium and a cooperative, but each is considered a common interest development or CID. The terms ‘co-op’ and ‘cooperative,’ are short for ‘cooperative housing project.’ Cooperatives were in existence and common before the condominium scheme of ownership was fully developed in the United States. They were especially common in New York City and the northeast.”

In a cooperative says St. John, an attorney whose firm represents more than 600 condominium, cooperative, and homeowner associations, the building containing the residential units or apartments is owned by a ‘cooperative housing corporation.’

“In a condominium, each unit owner owns an individual apartment in fee simple. In addition, the buyer owns an undivided interest in the common elements such as the exterior walls, roof, pool and other recreational areas.”

Both condo and co-op owners have monthly maintenance fees to pay, but they can vary, depending on what expenses the fee covers.

“As a practical matter, there is no significant advantage or disadvantage to a cooperative vs. a condominium ownership.

“There are pros and cons with both condo and co-op community living,” adds York. “The good part for both is that most of the outside work is done under a contract let by the condo or co-op board of directors. Each unit pays a monthly fee for these services and many associations provide all outside maintenance, including painting, along with water, sewer and cable or satellite TV. Insurance to cover damage to the buildings and grounds — but not the contents of each unit — is also standard.

“The downside is that the individual cannot cut back on these expenses if times get tough. Owners on a fixed income may find these monthly fees strain their budget. Any home requires a certain amount of maintenance and if you can’t or won’t do it yourself, you have to pay someone else to do it. But paying for someone else to do it is generally more expensive.”

Here’s a look at the key differences between condos and co-ops to help you decide which may be best for you.

Form of ownership: The key difference between a condo and a co-op. A condominium owner actually owns the apartment in fee simple, like any other homeowner, and owns an undivided interest in the common areas like parking lots, recreations areas, lobbies and hallways.

In a cooperative apartment complex you don’t actually own any real estate. Rather, you own shares in a not-for-profit corporation. As a shareholder you get the right to lease space in the building. The corporation owns the common areas. The effects of this are varied. Real property, for example, descends to your heirs while the co-op’s tenant-stockholder’s shares pass as personalty to your personal representative and may be subject to securities regulations. Generally, a condo is considered real property and a cooperative is considered intangible personal property.

Property taxes: Because condos are owned individually, they appear in the property tax rolls as separate entities and, accordingly, individual owners are taxed separately.

The entire property co-op is owned by the corporation, so it appears on the tax rolls as a single piece of property. The corporation pays the property taxes and passes along the cost to the tenant-shareholders, usually as part of the monthly maintenance fee.

Property taxes generally run lower in co-ops than in condos. That again goes back to the form of ownership. When condos are resold as separate entities, the appraisals and higher sales prices are recorded individually. This has the effect of producing higher assessed values and consequently, higher property taxes. Co-ops — as sales of stock — are not recorded at all and the only way a sale could be reflected in tax rolls is if the entire piece of property were sold, which is rare. Therefore, the rising value of the property usually lags in terms of assessed value and corresponding tax bills.

Financing: Generally speaking, there are two issues of financing when speaking about cooperatives. First, there is the underlying mortgage — or blanket mortgage or master mortgage or corporate mortgage — that funded either the original construction or conversion of rental apartments to a co-op form of ownership. Payments on that mortgage are paid by the corporation and then are passed along in the monthly maintenance fee to the tenant-shareholders. Secondly, there is the matter of whether the tenant-shareholder had enough cash to buy into the building or if he had to borrow the money.

Attorney St. John points out that since there is no fee simple ownership of the unit, it is sometimes difficult to obtain financing because the security for the loan is the resident’s shares in the corporation. Many lenders will not lend money on a co-op at all. Consequently, most co-ops have relationships with a few “approved” lenders who will finance sales. But that means those lenders have an actual stake in the building and often demand that they have a voice in how the corporation is run. These lenders also generally offer far fewer mortgage options, normally require larger down payments and charge higher interest rates.
Other important points: Most co-op owners cannot get a home equity loan or line of credit and in a co-op each individual is dependent on the solvency of the entire project. If the corporation were to go bankrupt, all shareholders would feel the pinch. Individual condo owners are responsible only for mortgage debt and taxes solely on his property.

Federal tax deductions: In the condo situation, each individual is able, easily, to deduct payments made for mortgage interest and property taxes if he resides in the unit and further deductions for such things as depreciation and maintenance if the condo is used as a rental property. The co-op tenant-shareholder can only easily deduct his proportionate share of the property taxes and interest on the underlying mortgage. If other monies were borrowed to finance the actual purchase of the tenant-shareholder rights, deductibility depends on several different factors and is not done as easily.

Monthly fees: Maintenance fees, paid usually on a monthly or quarterly basis, generally are significantly higher in a cooperative because the corporation is collecting mortgage and property tax payments from each shareholder in addition to the periodic assessment for things like lawn care, pool cleaning, security and insurance. The corporation also frequently includes all utilities.

Co-ops have an advantage when it comes to special, costly repair or capital improvement projects, because they can borrow funds, adding to the amount of the blanket mortgage. The shareholders then pay off the cost of the project in their monthly fees. Condos cannot borrow money as an entity and therefore unit owners often face large assessments for similar projects.

Ownership Transfer: One of the good things about not being considered real estate is when the lease rights to a unit in a co-op change hands (because a seller sold his stock shares to a buyer) there is much less in the way of state and local taxes on the transaction and far less in settlement costs because there’s no appraisal, survey or title work to be done. This also comes in handy for celebrities who want to keep their address and purchase price hidden from the public. Again, because it’s a transfer of shares and not real estate, the transfer is not recorded in any public place.

Powers of the board: Despite the fact that many condo associations contend that they are empowered to either approve or disapprove the transfer of ownership, the reality is that they have almost no power at all. Co-ops, on the other hand have the right to approve or deny the sale of shares on the basis, for example, of the buyer’s perceived inability to make the payments. They can also block the sale to celebrities; for example, who they feel may disturb the peace and quiet of other shareholders. Cooperatives, of course, are bound by federal fair housing laws and cannot discriminate against buyers due to race, religion, sex, nationality, etc., but they can — and do — choose people based on financial resources and criminal background. Condos cannot exercise that kind of control.

• For the first time ever, HUD will require mortgage lenders and brokers to provide borrowers with an easy-to-read standard Good Faith Estimate (GFE) that will clearly answer the key questions they have when applying for a mortgage including:
• • What’s the term of the loan?
  • Is the interest rate fixed or can it change?
  • Is there a pre-payment penalty should the borrower choose to refinance at a later date?
  • Is there a balloon payment?
  • What are total closing costs?
• HUD estimates that by improving upfront disclosures on the GFE, and limiting the amount estimated charges can change, consumers will save nearly $700 in total closing costs.
• Based on substantial public comment, HUD withdrew a proposed requirement that closing agents read and provide a ‘closing script’ to borrowers in favor of a new page on the HUD-1 Settlement Statement that allows consumers to easily compare their final closing costs and loan terms with those listed on the GFE.
• HUD’s new Good Faith Estimate has been reduced from four to three pages, including an instructional page to help borrowers better understand their loan offer. In addition, the GFE will consolidate closing costs into major categories to prevent junk fees and display total estimated settlement charges prominently on the first page so the consumer can easily compare loan offers. HUD will specify the closing costs that can and cannot change at settlement. If a fee changes, HUD will limit the amount it can change.
• To help borrowers compare their Good Faith Estimate with their HUD-1 Settlement Statement, each designated line on the final HUD-1 will now include a reference to the relevant line from the GFE. Borrowers will now be able to easily compare their estimated and actual costs in the same manner many commenters suggested.
• HUD will require lender payments to mortgage brokers (often called Yield Spread Premiums) to be disclosed in a more meaningful way. These payments are directly dependent on the interest rates that consumers agree to. To ensure that HUD’s new requirement will not create a consumer bias against brokers, the Department did rigorous consumer testing and found the new Good Faith Estimate helped consumers to select the lowest cost loan nine-out-of-10 times, regardless of whether the loan was originated by a lender or a broker.
• Loan originators will be required to provide borrowers their Good Faith Estimate three days after the loan originator’s receipt of all necessary information. To facilitate shopping, loan originators could not require verification of GFE information (tax returns etc.) until after the applicant makes the decision to proceed.
• HUD will allow lenders and settlement service providers to correct potential violations of RESPA’s new disclosure and tolerance requirements. Lenders and settlement service providers will now have 30 days from the date of closing to correct errors or violations and repay consumers any overcharges.
• The new, standardized GFE and revised HUD-1 will not be required until January 1, 2010.

Source:  HUD.GOV

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Lynn Holley, Certified Distressed Property Expert & Realtor
Phone: 608-219-8955
Email: lynn@holleydevelopment.com
Web: www.LynnHolley.com

Brown as a color in decor

Ever wonder who decides what colors will be hot from year to year?  Why do we one year embrace orange and brown, and the next sky blue? There are people whose jobs are to determine what the new “trendy” colors are.  One of these groups, the Color Marketing Group, is a non-profit organization of color professionals that predicts color trends.  For 2009 the new hot colors are purple, mauve, yellow (as accent), blue and grey-brown. Click here to read the latest on this year’s trends:  Color Trends Article.

$8000 Tax Credit