Free Republic

he typical American cannot afford to buy a home in a growing number of communities across the nation, according to common lending standards. That's the main takeaway from a new report from real estate data provider ATTOM. Researchers examined the median home prices last year for roughly 575 U.S. counties and found that home prices in 99% of those areas are beyond the reach of the average income earner, who makes $71,214 a year, according to ATTOM.

What if your home could protect itself from dangerous weather  by retreating underground automatically long before it hits? If you think about it, a house -or entire neighborhood/town- that could withstand higher winds than boxy, frail wood structures -and actually hide underground if necessary- could have one heck of a lot of applications: not just in tornado alley, but avoiding fires in California, tsunamis in Japan, or of course hurricane season in the Carolinas. Why build an expensive underground shelter only to watch your house and belongings be scraped from the face of the Earth, washed-away, or turned to...

OUESTION: Home Design Software Aug 29, 2011 Is there a computer software program that lets you: 1. First take item's size or dimensions and label them and save them, (stove, couch, sink, etc.) as a movable item. 2. Place them on a design sheet, and move them around by mouse movement. 3. Define space between items, and be able to change it later. 4. After you get satisfied with your layout of items, then design walls around those items, and design you home, yard, or whatever you are planning to build, in that order, and be able to make changes...

GULF BREEZE, Fla. -- When a hurricane makes landfall in the continental United States, Dave Prevatt and his colleagues in the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program are out evaluating which construction methods best protect homes from the tremendous wind forces the storms deliver. Established after Hurricane Andrew socked an unprepared South Florida in 1992 with an estimated $26 billion in damage, the program sets up portable instruments along stretches of coast where hurricanes are poised to come ashore. Engineers erect weather towers that make detailed measurements of the hurricane's winds. They learn about the forces that houses are subjected to by...