Improvement

L.A. County ends controversial PACE home improvement loan program

By Jean J. Brown 21 hours ago

Los Angeles County has ended its controversial PACE home improvement loan program, a decision that follows years of criticism that the county enabled predatory lending and put people at risk of losing their homes.

County officials — who launched the PACE program in 2015 to fund energy- and water-efficient home improvements — said they made the decision after determining the program lacked adequate consumer protections.

Homeowners repeatedly alleged the private home improvement contractors who signed them up for PACE misrepresented how the financing would work, saddling them with loans they could not understand or afford.

The county also faced lawsuits alleging that government authorities failed to properly oversee the private lenders it partnered with to issue loans that, if unpaid, could lead to foreclosure.

The criticisms mirror complaints directed at other Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, programs across California that fund environmentally friendly home improvements such as solar panels,

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Home Depot is having a massive sale on everything you need to get your home improvement projects off the ground

By Jean J. Brown 4 weeks ago

Yahoo Lifestyle is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability is subject to change.

Get started on your home improvement projects. (Photo: Getty)
Get started on your home improvement projects. (Photo: Getty)

Whether you’re planning on giving your home a solid spring clean or you’re set on totally redecorating your space, you need the proper tools to get all your projects done. Have a few shelves that need assembling? Promised yourself you’d finally hang those pictures you spent a small fortune getting framed, but now they’re just leaning against a wall? There’s no time like the present to get it done.

If your biggest deterrent to getting those household SEO Jacksonville projects done is a lack of tools, not to worry — Home Depot has precisely what you need. The retailer’s sale of the day is on select power

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Home Improvement Projects on the Rise

By Jean J. Brown 4 weeks ago

A majority of homeowners are planning to make home improvements in the coming months, a slight uptick from a year ago.

LightStream, the online lending division of financial services company Truist, commissioned a survey of 1,300 homeowners to find out whether home renovations were in their near future. Not only are more homeowners expecting to make improvements than last year, but they are willing to spend more money to do so this year.

More than three-fourths of respondents — 77% — said they plan to make renovations this year, up from 73% in 2019. The average amount homeowners plan to spend on the improvements is $11,473 — up 27% from the $9,006.60 homeowners, on average, expected to spend last year.

The increase in home improvements — and the money spent on them — is being led by millennials, defined by Pew Research as those between the ages of 24 and

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Financing Home Improvement Projects Without Using Your Home’s Equity

By Jean J. Brown 4 weeks ago

This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com.

By Brian Lesko, All Things Finance

If you are a homeowner or thinking about becoming one, then there may be some major projects or renovations that you’d like to do.  These could be expensive such as a kitchen or bathroom remodel or an addition.  If you are planning on financing such an endeavor, then one of the more common things to do is to pull equity out of your house in the form of a loan or refinance and then use the funds for your project.

But what if you don’t have enough equity in your home to do this?  Or, what if you simply don’t want to tap your home’s equity?  Thankfully, you have a few options.  Let’s look at a few of the most common.

Unsecured Personal Loans

An unsecured loan is a loan that is not backed by any collateral

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