- The most typical type of roof might be the “composition shingle” roof. It is a combination of thick tar-paper-like material, and something that looks like rough sand on top of it. The sand/stone material that covers it is in fact to protect the material itself from sunlight. If not protected, the material would age a lot faster. New materials make these roofs attractive, with various duration spans – 25, 35 and 45 year materials.
- Another very typical type of roof, for Eichler homes for instance and houses that have flat roofs: “tar and gravel”, which as the name indicates, is made of a thick tar paper layered in such a way as to make a water proof protective barrier on top of the roof. The tar is melted when the layers are put down, and at the edges. There again there is gravel on top of the roof, not to make it more attractive, but mainly to protect the tar paper. This is a fragile roof, as cracks develop easily with hot/cold variations and the aging of tar. But they are economic. Needless to say that all these roofs have to be installed by good professionals...
- Clay tiles and concrete. Do you picture these Italian roofs, redish in color and so stylish? Clay tiles last a long time (50 to 100 years) and can be fragile.
- Metal roof: in the various forms of tiles, or panels. They are quite expensive especially if you go to copper. This will last also between 50 to 100 years. Beware of the rain noise on it though…
- Slate: do you picture one of those old European houses, with slate roofs that last for a century or two? The slates can be thick on some of those, and heavy. This type of roof on modern houses is elegant and durable (and thiner), .. and expensive too…
- Solar shingles. New materials are being created that enable to incorporate some shingles that create electricity (solar panels) with other shingles. Some of those can be seen on the roofs of the new houses at the Enclave in Mountain View, on Levin. Are these the roofs of the future of Earth? It is an elegant concept.
- Tin. as in tin roof in shanty towns... Many, many people on earth only have a cheap layer of metal above their heads as a roof. .. as a thought here, just to remember to appreciate what we have... This being said, metal roofs (under which category "tin roof" falls) can be made of many different types of metal, like tin, or aluminum, or galvanized steel, and they can last a long time if well installed.
Of these borrowers, 58 percent maintained about the same loan amount, and 21 percent of refinancing homeowners reduced their principal balance; the share of borrowers that kept about the same loan amount was the highest in the 26-year history of the analysis.
1.5 % points, or a savings of about 27 % in interest rate, the largest percent reduction recorded in the 27 years of analysis. Over the first year of the refinance loan life, the median borrower will save about $2,900 in interest payments on a $200,000 loan.
Asking rents rose over the past year in almost all large metro areas included in the Trulia Rent Monitor. In the largest metros, rents rose 6.2 percent in New York and 6.1 percent in Chicago, but only 0.6 percent in Los Angeles. Rents rose strongly in Miami (12.1 percent) and Denver (9.9 percent), which also experienced large asking price increases. Meanwhile, rental affordability declined in places where rents rose while prices fell, most notably in San Francisco (rents up 11.1 percent), Seattle (9.7 percent), San_Jose (9.4 percent) and Boston (9.2 percent).
