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The Residential Lead-Based Hazard Reduction Act of 1992, was a 1992 law passed by the US Congress that regulates the selling of houses with lead paint in the United States and educates consumers about the dangers of lead paint. [1]
The Act was enacted as Title X of the Housing and Community Development Act.
In the past, lead was added to household paint to increase its drying speed and improve the durability and life of the finish. However, Lead is toxic and is a possible carcinogen.
In 1978, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the residential use of lead-based paint containing ≥0.06% lead (600 ppm). [2] [3] [4]
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that approximately 35 percent of U.S. homes (37 million) still contain some lead-based paint, a decline from 1990 estimate of 64 million homes with lead paint. [5] [6]
As per Section 1018 of the Act, sellers must comply with the following requirements before selling or leasing a house built before 1978, or a house that is known to contain lead:
Sellers who do not comply with the above criterion are subject to legal action, as well as fines for the breaking of rules and any damages experienced by buyers. [7]
The effects of the Residential Lead-Based Hazard Reduction Act [9] are studied through observations of people's behavior when choosing a home. A study that analyzed the effectiveness of Section 1018 concluded the following:
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and urban development, who reports directly to the president of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet.
This aims to be a complete list of the articles on real estate.
The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), one of the longest-running programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, funds local community development activities with the stated goal of providing affordable housing, anti-poverty programs, and infrastructure development. CDBG, like other block grant programs, differs from categorical grants, made for specific purposes, in that they are subject to less federal oversight and are largely used at the discretion of the state and local governments and their subgrantees.
Paint stripper or paint remover is a chemical product designed to remove paint, finishes, and coatings, while also cleaning the underlying surface. Chemical paint removers are advantageous because they act on any kind of geometry and they are cheap. They can however be slow acting.
An FHA insured loan is a US Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance backed mortgage loan that is provided by an FHA-approved lender. FHA mortgage insurance protects lenders against losses. They have historically allowed lower-income Americans to borrow money to purchase a home that they would not otherwise be able to afford. Because this type of loan is more geared towards new house owners than real estate investors, FHA loans are different from conventional loans in the sense that the house must be owner-occupant for at least a year. Since loans with lower down-payments usually involve more risk to the lender, the home-buyer must pay a two-part mortgage insurance that involves a one-time bulk payment and a monthly payment to compensate for the increased risk. Frequently, individuals "refinance" or replace their FHA loan to remove their monthly mortgage insurance premium. Removing mortgage insurance premium by paying down the loan has become more difficult with FHA loans as of 2013.
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a United States law, passed by the 94th United States Congress in 1976 and administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that regulates chemicals not regulated by other U.S. federal statutes, including chemicals already in commerce and the introduction of new chemicals. When the TSCA was put into place, all existing chemicals were considered to be safe for use and subsequently grandfathered in. Its three main objectives are to assess and regulate new commercial chemicals before they enter the market, to regulate chemicals already existing in 1976 that posed an "unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment", as for example PCBs, lead, mercury and radon, and to regulate these chemicals' distribution and use.
Lead paint or lead-based paint is paint containing lead. As pigment, lead(II) chromate, lead(II,IV) oxide,, and lead(II) carbonate are the most common forms. Lead is added to paint to accelerate drying, increase durability, maintain a fresh appearance, and resist moisture that causes corrosion. It is one of the main health and environmental hazards associated with paint. Lead paint has been generally phased out of use due to the toxic nature of lead. Alternatives such as water-based, lead-free traffic paint are readily available.
Nehemiah Corporation of America is a non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California specializing in homeownership, affordable housing and community development. It started in 1994 as a small organization, but grew to prominence later in the 1990s after it developed a program that allowed home buyers to make down payments on their purchases using funds that were derived from the home sellers. This program, the Nehemiah Program, became popular and was widely emulated, giving birth to what came to be known as the seller-funded down-payment assistance industry. The industry attracted criticism from U.S. federal agencies and was ultimately shut down in 2008 by a change in federal law.
The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) was a law passed by the United States Congress in 1974 and codified as Title 12, Chapter 27 of the United States Code, 12 U.S.C. §§ 2601–2617. The main objective was to protect homeowners by assisting them in becoming better educated while shopping for real estate services, and eliminating kickbacks and referral fees which add unnecessary costs to settlement services. RESPA requires lenders and others involved in mortgage lending to provide borrowers with pertinent and timely disclosures regarding the nature and costs of a real estate settlement process. RESPA was also designed to prohibit potentially abusive practices such as kickbacks and referral fees, the practice of dual tracking, and imposes limitations on the use of escrow accounts.
A real estate trend is any consistent pattern or change in the general direction of the real estate industry which, over the course of time, causes a statistically noticeable change. This phenomenon can be a result of the economy, a change in mortgage rates, consumer speculations, or other fundamental and non-fundamental reasons.
Mandated by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) standard 24 CFR Part 1330 (a) (4), Lead-Safe Work Practices provide those performing remodeling tasks in homes built before 1978 with guidelines on procedures they should be using to prevent creating a lead hazard.
The United States Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was designed primarily to address the subprime mortgage crisis. It authorized the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee up to $300 billion in new 30-year fixed rate mortgages for subprime borrowers if lenders wrote down principal loan balances to 90 percent of current appraisal value. It was intended to restore confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by strengthening regulations and injecting capital into the two large U.S. suppliers of mortgage funding. States are authorized to refinance subprime loans using mortgage revenue bonds. Enactment of the Act led to the government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In the United States, subsidized housing is administered by federal, state and local agencies to provide subsidized rental assistance for low-income households. Public housing is priced much below the market rate, allowing people to live in more convenient locations rather than move away from the city in search of lower rents. In most federally-funded rental assistance programs, the tenants' monthly rent is set at 30% of their household income. Now increasingly provided in a variety of settings and formats, originally public housing in the U.S. consisted primarily of one or more concentrated blocks of low-rise and/or high-rise apartment buildings. These complexes are operated by state and local housing authorities which are authorized and funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2020, there were one million public housing units. In 2022, about 5.2 million American households received some form of federal rental assistance.
The HUD-1 Settlement Statement is a standardized mortgage lending form in use in the United States of America on which creditors or their closing agents itemize all charges imposed on buyers and sellers in consumer credit mortgage transactions. The HUD-1 is used primarily for reverse mortgages and mortgage refinance transactions. The reference to 'HUD' in the form's name refers to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Lead-based paint was widely used in the United States because of its durability. The United States banned the manufacture of lead-based house paint in 1978 due to health concerns.
PACE financing is a means used in the United States of America of financing energy efficiency upgrades, disaster resiliency improvements, water conservation measures, or renewable energy installations in existing or new construction of residential, commercial, and industrial property owners. Depending on state legislation, PACE financing can be used to finance water efficiency products, seismic retrofits, resiliency, and other measures with social benefits.
The Kenosha/Racine Lead-Free Communities Partnership is a joint venture of Kenosha County, Wisconsin and the city of Racine, Wisconsin, along with various community organizations. It began in March 2007 as a three-year program with a goal of making 320 homes in Racine and Kenosha lead-safe. Its overall aim is to educate the public about the dangers of lead poisoning and to help low-income families with small children improve their living conditions by replacing and/or repairing the largest sources of lead in their home. As of July 9, 2009, 433 living units had been assessed and the program had cleared 321 homes of lead hazards.
Housing discrimination in the United States refers to the historical and current barriers, policies, and biases that prevent equitable access to housing. Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery in 1865, typically as part of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. The federal government didn't begin to take action against these laws until 1917, when the Supreme Court struck down ordinances prohibiting African-Americans from occupying or owning buildings in majority-white neighborhoods in Buchanan v. Warley. However, the federal government as well as local governments continued to be directly responsible for housing discrimination through redlining and race-restricted covenants until the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Brownfields are defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as properties that are complicated by the potential presence of pollutants or otherwise hazardous substances. The pollutants such as heavy metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contaminating these sites are typically due to commercial or industrial work that was previously done on the land. This includes locations such as abandoned gas stations, laundromats, factories, and mills. By a process called land revitalization, these once polluted sites can be remediated into locations that can be utilized by the public.
Lead abatement includes lead-based paint abatement activities, such as inspections, risk assessments, as well as removal. Lead abatement must be performed by educated, certified professionals with proper safety protocols to limit lead exposure. The goal is to permanently eliminate lead-based paint hazards, such as serious permanent and irreversible health damage due to lead poisoning in children. This is especially important in home environments and in any facility with frequent visitation by children, particularly those built before 1978.
