Bank of America is offering homeowners up to $30,000 to sell their homes in a short sale.

The nationwide program, announced this week, is the expansion of a pilot program that started in Florida last year. That program offered homeowners $5,000 to $20,000, with the average payout being $12,000.

The new program offers homeowners $2,500 to $30,000 in "relocation assistance."

The latest statistics on housing starts may explain why builders are showing increased optimism this month: The number of new homes started, single-family and multifamily, increased 2.6% in April.

Single-family housing starts rose 2.3%, and multifamily starts increased 3.2%, the Commerce Department reported. Building permits, a harbinger of future construction, fell 7% after a large gain last month. But single-family permits showed a 1.9% gain.

If construction maintains this pace, builders will start construction on 717,000 new homes this year, about half the number built during the peak but a major increase over the low of 458,000 reported in 2009.

Americans still see owning a home as part of the American Dream, but most are placing less emphasis on the financial aspects.

Those are the findings of a Coldwell Banker survey on homeownership, which looked at attitudes in light of the recession and real-estate bust, which saw some homeowners lose more than half their home equity and others lose their homes entirely to foreclosure.

"After any major fallout like a financial downturn, it’s natural to examine and sometimes alter the way we think about fundamental issues in our lives," Robi Ludwig, a psychotherapist who partnered with Coldwell Banker on the survey of 2,100 adults, said in a news release. "So it makes sense that this survey shows we are rethinking what passed for conventional wisdom during the 'boom years.'"

Embracing the housing-market glass as half full, homebuilders reported their confidence in the market up a full five points this month, bringing their faith in the future of home construction to its highest level since May 2007.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index was 29 in May, up from 24 in April and 28 in March.

"Builders in many markets are reporting that buyer traffic and sales have picked back up after a pause this April," Barry Rutenberg, NAHB chairman and a builder from Gainesville, Fla., said in a news release. "It seems we have resumed the gradual upward trend in confidence that started at the beginning of this year, as stabilizing prices and excellent affordability encourage more people to pursue a new-home purchase." 

There are a number of ways to acquire a house, but winning one in a charity raffle is not a method we had considered.

Apparently, we've been living under a rock in recent years, as house raffles to raise money for nonprofit organizations have grown more popular.

The Dream House Raffle to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver is typical: Entrants pay $150 for each chance to win a $3 million dream house, plus other prizes of cash and goods. The winner, who will be chosen June 2, gets a choice of the $3 million house or $2 million in cash. Friday is the deadline to enter the drawing.

Is this a great time to buy your first home? It depends on whom you ask.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a point-counterpoint set of arguments from two experts who strongly disagree on whether this is the right time for first-time homebuyers to jump into the market.

Eric Lascelles, chief economist at RBC Global Asset Management, says this is the best time in a generation to be a first-time homebuyer. "Affordability is the best it has been in 30 years, thanks to the combination of a 34% decline in prices since the 2006 peak and a historically low 4% average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage," he writes.

One of the problems I have always had with smart thermostats is that they seemed to be smarter than I am. Either that, or they were just contrary, arbitrarily raising and lowering the temperature at their whim rather than my command.

So I don't have a programmable thermostat.

But as the technology improves, perhaps you'll find one that you can bend to your beck and call, or at least your climate choice.

We've all likely heard stories about homeowners associations that leave us incredulous. They don't like flags. They don't like flowers. They don't like any number of decorative items that individual homeowners might choose to adorn their homes.

In Cumming, Ga., outside Atlanta, at least one homeowners association doesn't like solar panels. That's apparently a problem across the country, where associations say that solar panels mar the look of their communities.