Homeowners should use discretion when deciding which home improvement projects to take on, because not all renovations positively impact property values.

“Projects that take a home significantly beyond community norms are often not worth the cost when the owner sells the home,” said Appraisal Institute President Richard L. Borges II, MAI, SRA. “If they don’t match what’s standard in a community, they’ll be considered excessive.”

According to Remodeling magazine’s most recent Cost vs. Value report, some of the projects with the highest expected return on investment are siding replacement, entry door replacement, attic bedroom addition, minor kitchen remodel and garage door replacement. Other renovations with high expected pay-offs include basement remodel, deck addition and window replacement.

Some of the housing news being kicked around recently is astounding: Home prices soaring by 20 percent or more over the past 12 months? Multiple offers? Bidding wars? All of the great news has some wondering, is another housing bubble brewing?

Experts think not. According to the business forecast aficionados at Kiplinger, there are huge differences between what we see happening today in even the hottest of real estate markets and the tulipmania of last decade. The extreme heat in today’s market is a short-term phenomenon, born of a temporary imbalance between supply and demand. Come 2014, if not sooner, the pace of price hikes will ease, as builders rush in to beef up supplies of new homes, more homeowners – reluctant to sell at a loss –are no longer underwater on their mortgages, and additional properties come through the foreclosure process.

This week’s Kiplinger Letter takes a look at the U.S. housing market, forecasts price hikes for this year and next, and explains why there’s little danger in fast-rising home prices in some parts of the country.

Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes hit a significant milestone in June, surging eight points to a reading of 52 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. Any reading over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor.

“This is the first time the HMI has been above 50 since April 2006, and surpassing this important benchmark reflects the fact that builders are seeing better market conditions as demand for new homes increases,” says NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder and developer from Charlotte, N.C. “With the low inventory of existing homes, an increasing number of buyers are gravitating toward new homes.”

The eight-point jump in the index was the biggest one-month gain since August and September of 2002, when the HMI recorded a similar increase of eight points.

Family Features—The summer months are all about color. From flowers in bloom to vibrant beach towels and colorful dresses, summer brings with it a multitude of hues.

If you feel that your home is in need of an update, adding a little pop of color can help. Start by thinking about the colors you want to add, where color can make the most impact and just how much you need to give your home a fresh look.

Here are a few tips to get you started on your adventure in color:

Explore Color. Begin by visiting your favorite clothing boutique, stopping into a paint store or flipping through home design magazines for inspiration. Choose the looks you are most drawn to or the colors that evoke a feeling of happiness or calmness. These colors reflect your personal style and will make you feel most comfortable in your home.

Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group today released a new research study that investigates the impact of consumer attitudes toward renting and homeownership on the future of housing in America. Data from Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey provides insights into whether current renters, particularly younger Americans, aspire to become homeowners and when they expect to achieve the goal of homeownership. Findings show:

Over the last two years, home building has experienced significant growth, albeit off of low levels. And this expansion has added to overall growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In fact, since the last quarter of 2011, advances in home building have been responsible for 20 percent of total economic expansion.

While the economy as a whole has slowed somewhat over the last year, the expansion of home building has picked up steam. The home building component of the GDP accounts, as measured by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, is Residential Fixed Investment (RFI). RFI includes spending on residential structures and some equipment. The category of residential structures includes new construction of single-family and multifamily housing units, improvements and remodeling that expand or extend the life of housing units, expenditures for manufactured homes, brokers’ commissions on the sales of residential property and net purchases from government agencies. The bulk of this spending is associated with construction of new single-family and multifamily units, plus improvement spending.

It is also worth noting that this measure of home building’s contribution to economic growth does not include other housing-related spending, such as the average $7,400 spent by buyers of newly built homes on furnishings, appliances and other items in the two-year period after the purchase.

Since the last quarter of 2011, RFI has averaged a 14 percent growth rate. And as seen in the green line above, this growth has added between 0.19 and 0.43 total percentage points to the headline GDP growth rate in the last six quarters. For example, GDP growth in the first quarter of 2012 totaled 2 percent. Of that total, 0.43 points (or 21.5 percent) was due to advances in home building . Absent the expansion in residential construction, GDP growth in that quarter would have been only 1.6 percent.

In our previous report, your RIS Consumer Confidant introduced some stormy predictions regarding the upcoming and potentially severe hurricane season. According to Chicago-based Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), leading weather researchers are forecasting an active hurricane season.

With that in mind, PCI spokesman Chris Hackett provides homeowners these tips to help protect property and assets from becoming a storm casualty:

1. Inventory household items now to speed up claims processing after the storm - photograph or videotape them for further documentation. Keep this information and all insurance policies in a safe place, such as a safety deposit box.

A: According to the Millennial Housing Commission, few lenders are willing to administer home improvement loans. Most prefer to make home equity loans or unsecured consumer loans because they are easier to manage.  Home improvement loans usually require inspections and irregular draws on the loan amount as work is completed, which requires regional or national lenders to find local partners to provide oversight.

Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey(R) (PMMS®), showing fixed mortgage rates trending higher for the third consecutive week and putting pressure on refinance momentum. Regardless, mortgage rates remain low helping to keep home-buyer affordability high, which should further aid home sales and construction in coming weeks.

The survey showed that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.59 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending May 23, 2013, up from last week when it averaged 3.51 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.78 percent.

Additionally, the 15-year FRM this week averaged 2.77 percent with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.69 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.04 percent.