Jergler
he year brings with it many questions about the fate of real estate — and possibly the world. Is the real estate market ready for the onslaught of short sales and foreclosures we’ve been hearing about? Will home prices rise in 2012, and if so, could...

Ask The Builder
The first thing to understand is that a great deal of load could be concentrated above a door. This happens on bearing walls. In these instances, a structural header acts as a beam over the door to support the load or weight that is bearing down on that portion of the house.

BUILDER
Door openings commonly have two king studs and two jack studs. A king stud is one that runs continuously from the top plate to the bottom plate. The jack stud is nailed to the king stud, but it’s shorter as it supports the structural header or the flat 2x material that you use for a door in a non-load-bearing wall.

JERGLER
2) As for the economy, the key right now is job creation, possibly followed by underwriting standards. Historic low interest rates may not last, especially if the economy begins to add jobs.