BUILDER Online's Housing Headlines

While the trend is nascent, dozens of “net zero” and “near net zero” developments — projects designed to use only about as much power from the public grid as they can save or produce on their own — have sprung up across the U.S. over the past five years.

A state lawmaker has chimed in on TH Properties’ ongoing bankruptcy case and the woes it has created for homeowners, prompting a federal judge to call a hearing this month to hash out the issues.

“The best response to the housing bubble would have been regulatory, not monetary,” Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the American Economic Association’s annual meeting. The Fed’s efforts to constrain the bubble were “too late or were insufficient,” which means that regulatory actions “must be better and smarter,” he said.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, asked: “Why this assault on the home builders? I don’t get it.”

But while construction of luxury homes has fallen dramatically, one home builder says he’s seen some success in the past year building more modest dwellings for entry-level buyers.

The proposal to more closely scrutinize how people in new housing are affected by existing pollution sources has thrust the Bay Area Air Quality Management District into another heated debate over pollution reduction.

“The buyers will come back out of the woodwork, but will they be able to get the mortgage they can afford on the house that they want?” asked David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders.

In all, Hansen & Horn is facing at least 20 lawsuits brought mostly by subcontractors hoping to recover more than $1 million. Hansen & Horn is building in more than 20 subdivisions in central Indiana, including Duke Realty Corp.’s mixed-use Anson development in Boone County near Whitestown. The company has regularly ranked among the top residential construction companies in the Indianapolis area over the past decade, building more than 200 homes during several of those years.

Christmas will stretch into 2010 for apartment renters, who are benefiting from an epic collapse in the rental market and generous concessions.

“Unemployment is not respecting income boundaries,” said Case in an interview. “It’s affecting rich people, poor people and middle-income people and they all have mortgages.”

 To be sure, the latest Fannie-Freddie pay deals are considerably less than those that its top execs pulled down before the crash.