Consumer Economics Unit 8: Housing

Lease

A contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment. Rent.

Rental Agreement

A contract specifying the tenant's and landlord's legal responsibilities. A written agreement that allows you to leave anytime as long as you give the required notice.

Rental Inventory

A detailed list of current property conditions. Should be filled out at the same time you move into the property.

Townhouse

A dwelling of two or three stories that attaches at sidewalls to other units; each person owns walls and air space plus property rights and yard of the unit. A living space that has two or more levels.

Cooperative Ownership

A form of ownership for units in a multiple-family complex. Each person owns stock in a corporation that owns the entire property and its grounds.

Manufactured Home

A home that is built according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) construction standards. Also known as a mobile home or house trailer. A single family dwelling that is manufactured in a factory and then moved, on wheels, to a site and set up.

Dormitory

A large bedroom for a number of people in a school or institution.

Mortgage

A lien on real property as security for a debt. A special contract by which the borrower conveys to the lender a security interest in the mortgaged property. A specific type of loan that is used to buy real estate.

Down Payment

A part of the purchase price. The amount of money a buyer pays upfront in order to purchase a property. It is usually paid at the signing of the contract in the form of a certified check. The amount is typically 10% of the sales price.

Lessor

A party that has agreed contractually to let another party use its asset for a period at an agreed price. Landlord. A person who transfers the right to the possession and use of goods to another in exchange for rental payments.

Tenant

A person who pays for the right to live in a residence owned by someone else. A person who rents property. Lessee.

Budget

A plan for making and spending money. An estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time. A plan of how money will be spent and what it will be spent on.

Rider

A provision attached to a bill - to which it may or may not be related - in order to secure its passage or defeat. An add-on to an insurance policy.

Apartment

A set of rooms for someone to live in on one level of a building or house.

Security Deposit

A sum of money usually equal to one month's rent, held by the landlord to cover any damage to the apartment caused by a tenant. Money paid to a landlord to cover potential cleaning costs at the end of the lease, as well as any damages the property suffered during occupancy.

Property Insurance

A type of insurance that covers damage to property, such as a home. Provides payment to the insured person if his or her property is damaged or destroyed by an accident covered by the insurance policy.

Cosigner

Helps protect a loan when a borrower's credit rating is poor or has not been established. The party responsible for payment of a note if the borrower does not pay as promised.

Disadvantages of Renting

Locked for lease term, rent increases over time, restrictions, no building equity, no tax benefit. Noise, lack of privacy, small living space, lack of storage space, scarcity of parking.

Fair Housing Act

The federal law that prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, and national origin. Prohibits landlords from discriminating on basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or familial status.

Eviction

The owner of a property blocks a tenant from possession of all the real property. A landlord's act of depriving a tenant of possession of the leased premises.

Landlord

The owner of property that is leased or rented to another. A landowner who leases to others. Lessor.

Lessee

The person who leases the vehicle. The person or company allowed to use something (warehouse, terminal, etc. ) against payment. The person who "rents".

Sublet

To have a person other than the original tenant take over the rental unit and payments for the remaining term of the lease.

Equity

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it. The difference between the amount owed on a home and the home's value.

Landominium

Also called a "planned unit development", a type of residential property in which the homeowner owns both the home and the land on which the home is built. Similar to a condominium, except the owner owns both the home and the land on which the home is built.

Appraisal

An estimate of the current value of the property. The evaluation of the significance of a situation or event as it relates to a person's well-being. Assessment.

Condominium

An individually owned housing unit in a building with several such units. Housing consisting of a complex of dwelling units (as an apartment house) in which each unit is individually owned.

Advantages of Renting

Don't have to put down deposits, don't have to deal with lawnwork, cheaper, less responsibility and at the end of the year you can leave.

Rowhouse

One of a series of individual homes having architectural unity and a common wall between each unit. A single attached dwelling containing three or more separate living units assigned in such a way they abut each other at the sides, as in a row, and are separated from each other by party walls, provided with independent access.

Furnished

Provided with whatever is necessary for a purpose (as furniture or equipment or authority). Having furniture.

Duplex

The ability to transmit and receive simultaneously. A house divided into two apartments, with a separate entrance for each.

Unfurnished

Without furniture. May or may not include basic kitchen appliances like a stove or fridge. A apartment that is not provided with such its as table, chairs or furniture.