Q: I need to insulate my attic since what I have up there is little to nothing. The small brick home is only 1,450 square feet. What is the best stuff to put up there at reasonable cost? What is the best stuff that I can install myself? —Annette Z.

A: One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to insulate an attic if you’re having a contractor do it is to have him blow in loose-fill fiberglass insulation.

If you’d like to do the work yourself to save some money, I’d suggest blown-in cellulose. It’s a pretty straightforward project, although it is a little messy. Simply open up the bags of cellulose (it’s a gray, papery material, made primarily from ground and treated newspaper) and dump them into the blower. Direct the hose from the blower into the attic, and spray a uniform layer of insulation. Complete instructions, including safety precautions for protecting yourself and creating air spaces around chimneys and other heat-producing fixtures, are included with the insulation.

Blowers and bags of cellulose insulation are available at most home centers and some other retailers that sell insulation. Many home centers and larger retailers will also give you free use of the blower if you purchase a certain minimum quantity of insulation, so there’s a way to save even more.

In March, 75% of agents with broker Redfin said their clients’ offers were countered by rival bids, up from 56% who said so in late 2011, CNNMoney reported.

The competition has been most intense in California, where nine out of 10 homes sold in San Francisco, Sacramento and cities in Southern California drew competing bids during the month.

The housing market is on an upswing, but not everyone is reeping the benefits, the Denver Post said. 

The Obama administration is pushing to make home loans more accessible to people with weaker credit, the article stated.

However, the new push for lending to people with weaker credit has created skepticism in the marketplace.

Obama pledged in his State of the Union address to do more to make sure more Americans can enjoy the benefits of the housing recovery, but critics say encouraging banks to lend as broadly as the administration hopes will sow the seeds of another housing disaster and endanger taxpayer dollars.

“It is likely homebuilders will start over 20,000 homes in 2013,” said David Brown, MetroStudy’s Dallas-Fort Worth regional director. “Starts in 2013, however, will still be 60% below the peak activity level in 2006. Homebuilders entered 2013 with the largest backlog of sales in years.”

Nearly 4 million more single-family homes have been added to the rental market since 2005. This new supply has fully caught up with the increased rental demand during the housing crisis – causing single-family home rents to flatten nationwide.

Nationally, rents rose 2.4 percent year over year. For apartments only rents rose 2.9 percent Y-o-Y, while rents for single-family homes were flat, rising just 0.1 percent Y-o-Y. In Las Vegas, Orange County, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Phoenix, where investors have actively bought and rented out single-family homes, rents are either falling or flat. Even in single-family rental markets where rents are up, such as in Tampa and Dallas, asking prices to purchase homes rose much faster than rents.

Rent and Price Changes on Single Family Homes
#	U.S. Metro	Y-o-Y% change in single-family home rents	Y-o-Y % change in single-family home prices
1	Las Vegas, NV	-1.9%	24.6%
2	Fort Lauderdale, FL	-1.2%	10.7%
3	Chicago, IL	-1.2%	3.6%
4	Orange County, CA	-0.7%	13.7%
5	Washington, DC-VA-MD-WV	-0.7%	6.2%
6	Los Angeles, CA	-0.4%	11.0

Q: Unbeknownst to me, my tenant hired a handyman to come to the house and perform some repairs. The guy hurt himself and is now threatening to sue me. He says he has no insurance, and my tenant has none, either. I have property and liability insurance, but that’s it. What is the risk that I’ll end up paying the bill? –Jeff R.

A: I don’t think there’s a for-sure answer to your question. It depends on a few factors, which I’ll explain.

First, who was responsible for the repair that the handyman undertook, and how serious was the problem that needed fixing? If it was a repair that seriously affected health and safety, was something that you knew about and were obliged to fix, you may have a problem. That’s because a judge may see your tenant’s response — a self-help measure when you failed to act — as foreseeable. When landlords deliberately or carelessly fail to live up to their duty to maintain fit housing, they must realize that tenants may step in and do the work themselves. If injury results, the landlord is sometimes held responsible.

For example, the tenant whose water heater is broken and unfixed, who burns herself with scalding water brought from the stovetop to the bathroom so that she can bathe in warm water, may have a claim against the landlord.