How high is high enough? Here on Long Beach Island, it's a Post-Sandy reality where the prime directive is to get all new homes and renovations above the new Base Flood Elevations (BFE). Part of the challenge in doing something so sensible is that the BFE has been a moving target. The magic number determined by FEMA as the minimum height required to raise one's home has changed at least three times since Sandy revealed how vulnerable the Jersey Shore is to flooding. The first

Some people believe they can compare builders by asking how much they cost "per foot." They believe that building houses is like commodities trading: the items are all the same, so find the least expensive, right? To do this, many buyers compare the "square foot costs" of each builder, often searched through the Internet, whether building in the buyer's housing market or not. Here is what I tell all of my clients: Square foot costs are wrong indicators of the value of a buil