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In homebuying, cash is king again

"If you’re looking to buy a home right now, you'd better find some cash and you'd better find it fast. Right now homebuyers across the country, already in frenzied bidding wars for homes, are increasingly losing out to the almighty all-cash buyer. These folks are mostly investors -- but not just the monolithic, institutional investment investors that have been snapping up distressed properties and foreclosures over the past few years. There are also a slew of well-heeled individuals with extra cash to invest, and they believe the real estate market is the place to put it. In fact, many of the buyers paying cash don’t plan to actually keep all that cash in the house." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn homebuying, cash is king again

List of top places with bargain homes; don’t look for California cities

"Looking for a cheap fixer-upper? You might check the list of the 15 best cities for do-it-yourself housing bargains, published this week by RealtyTrac, the Irvine-based real estate data firm. Shocker: No California cities made the list. The five best cities to find a bargain home are in the Rust Belt: Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis and Cincinnati. The rankings come from the number of bank-owned homes that were built before 1960 and are valued under $100,000. There are 3,773 such homes in Detroit, which is more than double Chicago's inventory, which is ranked just below the Michigan city." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingList of top places with bargain homes; don’t look for California cities

NYC goes Tokyo: Micro apartments proposed as solution to overcrowding

"Tiny — and affordable — modular living spaces could soon become the latest real estate craze in the highly crowded city of New York. Fifty-five micro apartments are being constructed in Manhattan to test whether New Yorkers are willing to follow the example of Tokyo and Mumbai. According to Bloomberg News, micro apartments at the new 'My Micro NY' building will be only 250 to 370 square feet. Rents will range from $939 to $1,873. Currently, the average monthly rent for a studio is more than $2,000." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNYC goes Tokyo: Micro apartments proposed as solution to overcrowding

Artist Gregory Kloehn turns $1,000 dumpster into tiny home

"There’s nothing trashy about Gregory Kloehn’s Brooklyn pied-a-terre: a live-in dumpster that sleeps two with ease, hosts impromptu barbecue parties and sports its own sundeck. In a nation where the average home is 2,600 square feet (241 square meters), tiny houses are fetching more attention, not least from aging baby boomers looking to downsize in their retirement years. 'There are more builders. There are more people seeking to live in tiny houses,' Mitchell told AFP by telephone. There would be even more tiny homes, he said, if if local zoning regulations and housing codes were not so restrictive." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArtist Gregory Kloehn turns $1,000 dumpster into tiny home

The New Deal Origins of Fannie Mae and the Government-Housing Complex

"Fannie Mae is a classic crony capitalist progeny of the New Deal that began life in 1938, quite innocently, as still another ad hoc New Deal program to boost the depression-weakened housing market. It grew into something quite different: a monster that deeply deformed and corrupted the nation’s entire financial system seventy years later. The policy aim of Fannie Mae was 'forcing water to flow uphill' in the residential mortgage market so that low-rate thirty-year home mortgages became available to wage-earning households of modest means. Such mortgages did not then exist for a good reason: they were not economic." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe New Deal Origins of Fannie Mae and the Government-Housing Complex

“Government Laboratory” for “Unlimited Taxpayer Risk” Now Slated for Demolition

"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has described Fannie and Freddie as the product of a ‘government laboratory’ and one that exposes taxpayers to ‘unlimited risk.' Hensarling and others in the House are working on legislation to end the companies for good. Now that the president is on board, with apparent bipartisan support, it seems that reality may not be far off. Investors appear to be speculating on news the feds may actually pay off debt to taxpayers and recapitalize. Since liquidation appears to have broad support in the government, Fannie and Freddie look like stock to steer clear of." Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Government Laboratory” for “Unlimited Taxpayer Risk” Now Slated for Demolition

Watchdog: Fannie, Freddie should be required to recognize bad mortgages ‘immediately’

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are masking billions of dollars losses because of the level of delinquent home loans they carry, a federal watchdog said, and it said the companies should be required immediately to recognize the costs of some bad mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were seized by the U.S. government in September 2008 as rising mortgage losses threatened them with insolvency. The mortgage companies have cost taxpayers almost $188 billion to stay afloat. Fannie and Freddie have reduced their funds reserved to cover potential losses on bad loans due to the strengthening housing sector and higher home prices." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWatchdog: Fannie, Freddie should be required to recognize bad mortgages ‘immediately’

TV’s Unnatural Monopolies

"The big loser in the battle between Time Warner Cable and CBS is not the cable company, the network or the viewers who lost access to their favorite shows. The big loser is Washington, whose efforts to regulate what used to be called television grow more futile with every new video technology. The absurdity of the current laws is clear: A regulatory system designed to keep local broadcasts available to viewers is causing disputes between cable companies and broadcasters, leading to the very blackouts the regulations were supposed to prevent. It's past time to deregulate video distribution." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTV’s Unnatural Monopolies

Woman, clinically dead for 42-minutes, brought back to life by Australian doctors

"Mother-of-two Vanessa Tanasio, 41, was rushed to Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne last week after a major heart attack, with one of her main arteries fully blocked. She went into cardiac arrest and was declared clinically dead soon after arrival. Doctors refused to give up and used a compression device called a Lucas 2 — the only one of its kind in Australia — to keep blood flowing to her brain while cardiologist Wally Ahmar opened an artery to unblock it. The Lucas device physically compresses the chest, like during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), allowing doctors to work non-stop to put a stent into a blocked artery." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWoman, clinically dead for 42-minutes, brought back to life by Australian doctors

Argentinian vet designs $3 IUD device to boost beef production

"Turin, 47, began experimenting with home-made bovine IUDs 20 years ago. Today he has a small factory built next to his home in Pergamino — 245 kilometers (152 miles) north of Buenos Aires in Argentina’s livestock and agricultural heartland — to produce the $3.00 devices. The cheap and simple items have been a success: some 2.5 million bovine IUDs have been exported to places like Brazil — a world beef-producing giant — and Spain. Spanish officials have even approved one of Turin’s models for use in sows, especially since the castration of boars was recently banned due to animal welfare concerns." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArgentinian vet designs $3 IUD device to boost beef production