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Just out today: the 2006 J.D. Power New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study. If you're thinking of buying a new home, you owe it to yourself to check out this rich trove of information. (Full disclosure: J.D. Power is a sister unit of BusinessWeek in the McGraw-Hill Companies). You can find a press release about the study here. Pulte Homes and Centex Homes come out smelling like roses in sawdust. Pulte, including its Del Webb and DiVosta brands, ranks highest in 14 of 34 markets included in the study. Centex Homes ranks highest in 13 markets. Buying a new home can be frustrating. See if this blurb from J.D. Power comports with your own experience: More than 90 percent of new-home buyers report experiencing at least one construction problem with their new home.
Starting Monday (10/16) morning, the city of Wausau has three new road closures to report for morning commuters. The first is Scott Street between 1st and 2nd Streets for work on the parking ramp and for Miron to move their crane. Scott St. will shut down all but one lane for the construction, and it's expected to re-open by the end of the day. Second is Jefferson St. in downtown Wausau. Demolition of the Plaza Mall is slated to start Monday (10/16), forcing the closure. Jefferson will be shut down between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The closure should end by Wednesday (10/17). And, lastly, Grant Street between 5th and 6th Streets will close Monday (10/16) for water and sewer work. Grant St. should be re-open by Tuesday (10/17). .
The central government's restrictions on foreigners buying property in China, issued in July, left some leeway in the second-hand market for possible overseas purchasers, stirring up expectations of further regulations. And the Beijing News yesterday claimed that new regulations on foreigners and overseas Chinese buying used property in Beijing are expected to be promulgated within a month, with a real-name house purchasing system adopted. Sources from the Beijing Construction Committee, the capital's policy-making and administrative body for the real estate sector, declined to comment on the issue. But real estate agencies, insiders and experts believe a policy on second-hand housing will be drawn up shortly, because July's policy shift has already pointed potential overseas house buyers towards the second-hand market.
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