Flood Map Information Available from the City of Greenville

The City of Greenville participates in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which makes federally-backed flood insurance available for all eligible buildings whether they are in the floodplain or not.  Flood insurance covers direct losses caused by surface flooding, including a river flowing over its banks and local drainage problems.

The NFIP insures buildings, including mobile homes, with two types of coverage:

1. building coverage is for the walls, floor, insulation, furnace, and other items permanently attached to the structure.
2. Contents coverage can be purchased separately if the contents are in an insurable building.

The Flood Insurance Protection Act of 1973 and the National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994 made the purchase of flood insurance mandatory for federally-backed mortgages on buildings located in Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA).  The SFHA is the base (100-year) floodplain mapped on the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM).

The City of Greenville's Environmental Engineering Bureau provides assistance concerning floodplain locations, elevations, site-specific flood and flood-related data, and historical flooding of neighborhoods.

You can view the City of Greenville's Special Flood Hazard Areas in your neighborhood online by clicking here.  This is an interactive website that shows parcels within the city with respect to the floodplain.  If you are looking for more site-specific information, you can complete a floodplain verification request by clicking here.

The Environmental Protection Bureau maintains copies of FEMA elevation certificates on all buildings constructed in the floodplain since 1991.  The elevation certificates are available in the Engineering Division, on the 8th floor of City Hall at 206 South Main Street.  For more information, call the Environmental Engineering Bureau at 864-467-4400.

New Member Benefit: Discounted Pet Insurance

Introducing PetFirst
Trusted Pet Insurance for Dogs and Cats
Exclusive 10% Discount
NPP announces the newest addition to our Member Discount portfolio, PetFirst

Did you know that every 6 seconds a pet owner is faced with a veterinary bill of more than $1,000? Pet insurance gives pet owners peace of mind that their vet bills are covered.

As an NPP member, you and your employees have access to an exclusive 10% discount that will help provide your dog or cat with great veterinary care.

Your Home Builders Association is a partner with National Purchasing Partners to bring a menu of discount programs that are available to any member of the Home Builders Association of Greenville. Visit mynpp.com for more details.

NAHB: Apartment, Condo Markets Show Positive Movement in 2nd Quarter

The National Association of Home Builder’s Multifamily Production Index (MPI) increased one point to a level of 55 for the second quarter. This is the 14th consecutive quarter with a reading of 50 or above.

The MPI measures builder and developer sentiment about current conditions in the apartment and condominium market on a scale of 0 to 100. The index and all its components are scaled so that any number over 50 indicates that more respondents report conditions are improving than report conditions are getting worse.

The MPI provides a composite measure of three key elements of the multifamily housing market: construction of low-rent units, market-rate rental units and “for-sale” units, or condominiums. The MPI component tracking low-rent units stayed steady at 54, while market-rate rental units increased one point to 60 and for-sale units rose three points to 53.

“The multifamily market continues to perform quite well, and we expect that trend to continue,” said W. Dean Henry, CEO of Legacy Partners Residential in Foster City, Calif., and chairman of NAHB’s Multifamily Leadership Board. “The market is benefitting from new household formations. As these households are formed, many are choosing to live in apartments or condos.”

The Multifamily Vacancy Index (MVI), which measures the multifamily housing industry’s perception of vacancies, dropped two points to 34, with lower numbers indicating fewer vacancies. This is the lowest reading since the fourth quarter of 2012.

“The MVI has shown three straight quarters of declines and the Census’ vacancy rate is the lowest it has been since 1984,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “These are very good indicators of the overall health of the multifamily market. However, developers in certain parts of the country are experiencing lot and labor shortages, which can hinder production.”

Historically, the MPI and MVI have performed well as leading indicators of Census figures for multifamily starts and vacancy rates, providing information on likely movement in the Census figures one to three quarters in advance.

For data tables on the MPI and MVI, visit nahb.org/mms.

FHFA: Mortgage Rates Rise in July

Nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages increased from June to July, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts.

The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 4.02 percent for loans closed in late July, up 17 basis points from 3.85 percent in June.

The average interest rate on all mortgage loans was 4.01 percent, up 16 basis points from 3.85 in June.

The average interest rate on conventional, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages of $417,000 or less was 4.20 percent, an increase of 16 basis points from 4.04 in June.

The effective interest rate on all mortgage loans was 4.17 percent in July, up 18 basis points from 3.99 percent in June. The effective interest rate accounts for the addition of initial fees and charges over the life of the mortgage.

The average loan amount for all loans was $304,600 in June, down $21,000 from $325,600 in June.

Builder Breakfast Wednesday, September 9th! Sponsored by Progress Lighting

Attention all HBA of Greenville Builder members, there will be a Builder Breakfast on Wednesday, September 9th starting at 7:30 a.m. at Progress Lighting. This event is sponsored by Progress Lighting and our featured speakers will be the Greenville County Planning Commission.
Don't miss out on the insider details from this meeting.
Please RSVP by Friday, September 7th,  by calling the HBA office at 864-254-0133 or emailing HBA of Greenville
We look forward to seeing you there!

SMC Panel Discussion Event- September 3rd. 8:30-10 a.m.

Come out to our Panel Event on September 3rd.
Hosted and sponsored by Jeff Lynch!
This is a free event for SMC members.
Breakfast is included for this event, we will also be accepting new school supplies for Greenville County Schools.

Don't miss out- Learn More, Earn More!

FHFA: U.S. House Prices Rise 1.2 Percent in Second Quarter

U.S. house prices rose 1.2 percent in the second quarter of 2015 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). This is the 16th consecutive quarterly price increase in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.2 percent from May. House prices rose 5.4 percent from the second quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015.

The HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"Home price growth in the second quarter once again far exceeded the pace of overall inflation, even as mortgage rates drifted upwards," said FHFA Principal Economist Andrew Leventis. "Although too early to tell whether it's a sign of a slowdown, the monthly appreciation rate in June was more modest than we have seen in a while."

The seasonally adjusted, purchase-only HPI rose 5.4 percent from the second quarter of 2014 to the second quarter of 2015, while prices of other goods and services fell 1.4 percent. The inflation-adjusted price of homes thus rose approximately 6.9 percent over the latest year.

Significant Findings

• Home prices rose in every state between the second quarter of 2014 and the second quarter of 2015. The top five areas in annual appreciation: 1) Colorado – 10.6 percent, 2) Nevada – 10.5 percent, 3) Florida – 9.7 percent, 4) Hawaii – 9.5 percent, and 5) Washington – 8.8 percent.

• Among the 100 most-populated metropolitan areas in the U.S., four-quarter price increases were greatest in San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA (MSAD), where prices increased by 18.3 percent. Prices were weakest in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ, where they fell -1.1 percent.

• Of the nine census divisions, the South Atlantic division experienced the strongest increase in the second quarter, posting a 1.7 percent quarterly increase and a 6.1 percent increase since last year. House price appreciation was weakest in the Middle Atlantic division, where prices were flat in the second quarter.

Other Price Indexes
Most statistics in the attached release reference price changes computed by FHFA's basic "purchase-only" HPI. In some cases, however, the reported statistics reference alternative price measures. FHFA publishes – and makes available for download – three additional varieties of home price index beyond the basic "purchase-only" series. Although they all use the same basic methodology, the three alternatives rely on slightly different datasets in index estimation.

The alternative measures include:

• "Distress-Free" house price indexes. Sales of bank-owned properties and short sales are removed from purchase-only dataset prior to estimation of the indexes.

• "Expanded-Data" house price indexes. Sales price information sourced from county recorder offices and from FHA-endorsed mortgages are added to the purchase-only data sample.

• "All-Transactions" house price indexes. Appraisal values from refinance mortgages are added to the purchase-only data sample.

For some geographic areas, multiple index types are available. For instance, for individual states, three types of indexes are available. The various series tend to correlate closely over the long-term, but short-term differences can be significant.