Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Sun Online - News: Jail ship to ease overcrowding
There's nothing like a great big prison ship to bring out the best in people, don't you think?
Las Vegas Business Press :: News : Web site ranks Las Vegas as nation's most overbuilt city
Most of this (overbuilt) housing supply is in HOAs, townhome associations, and condo associations. And it turns out that the units that are hardest to sell are...condos and townhomes. Single family homes sell much faster. Of course, those are in HOAs for the most part.

NuWireInvestor.com, a real estate investor Web site, recently ranked Las Vegas as the nation's most overbuilt city due to the 2005-'06 housing construction boom. There were 72,965 permits issued for residential construction during the last two years, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet the inventory of homes available for sale on the Multiple Listing Service hit a record 24,341 in August, which is 19.4 percent more than last year, reports the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Roughly 40 percent of those homes are reportedly unoccupied. New home sales through August are also down 37.2 percent from a year ago, GLVAR adds.

Additionally Las Vegas has overbuilt its condominium and townhome sector. Condos and townhomes are spending 335 days on the market, says the National Association of Residential Real Estate Investment Advisors. The average single family home is spending 115 days on the market as of May 2007, according to Zip Realty.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Tom Cruise building '£5m bunker to protect against alien attack'| Showbiz | This is London
I hope he went through the Architectural Review Committee.

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is planning to build a bunker at his Colorado home to protect his family in the event of an intergalactic alien attack, according to new reports. The Mission Impossible actor, who is a dedicated follower of Scientology, is reportedly fearful that deposed galactic ruler 'Xenu' is plotting an evil revenge attack on Earth.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

NPR : Town Weighs Ban on Leaf Blowers
One of these days I'm going to put together two lists of unusual prohibitions one list for HOAs, and the other for municipalities, and compare them.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Victorville Daily Press : board member settles for seat
Challenged 2006 election, now must pay some of association’s legal fees
In Harford Co., residents pay their own way for safe streets -- baltimoresun.com

Frustrated with the police response, the residents in this southeastern Harford County community have hired security guards who conduct foot patrols each night. The neighborhood association has paid nearly $75,000 this summer for the patrols, while complaining that county government has ignored the residents' plight.
Homeowners Association Sells Disabled Couple's Home | WOAI.COM: San Antonio News
But ask anybody who works in this industry and they will tell you that things like this don't really happen. I guess this must have occurred in one of those alternate universes they have in science fiction novels.
Homeowner associations: Friend or foe? | Clayton.Talk
Is this a trick question?
Bacteria sent to space come back more infectious
Great. Just great. Science marches on. Why not send up some plague while you're at it and see how virulent you can make that? To think that we are paying for this.
S&P: US Home Price Decline Accelerates: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Every article I read with this or a similar headline says that this must be the bottom. But the next week there is another slide.

EW YORK (AP) -- The decline in U.S. home prices accelerated nationwide in July, posting the steepest drop in 16 years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday. Home prices have fallen by more every month since the beginning of the year.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

The Old "Scientific Consensus" about climate change
Ah, the good old days of the early 1970's, when NASA scientists predicted that burning fossil fuels would lead to global cooling.

On July 9, 1971, the Post published a story headlined "U.S. Scientist Sees New Ice Age Coming." It told of a prediction by NASA and Columbia University scientist S.I. Rasool. The culprit: man's use of fossil fuels. The Post reported that Rasool, writing in Science, argued that in "the next 50 years" fine dust that humans discharge into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel will screen out so much of the sun's rays that the Earth's average temperature could fall by six degrees. Sustained emissions over five to 10 years, Rasool claimed, "could be sufficient to trigger an ice age."
Smog and Mirrors: China's Plan for a Green Olympics
Here is a fascinating article sent by Mystery Reader about how China's government has implemented a massive plan to "green" Beijing for the Olympics, but the massive growth of the private economy is placing those efforts in jeopardy. This is quite a test for the Chinese experiment with keeping Communist Party control of what is by now the world's fastest growing capitalist economy. Well, Marx was a believer in dialectical materialism, which means you have to love contradictions.
West Boca Raton condo association sues resident over loud TV -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
I think when you can hear somebody's TV five condos away, it is time to complain. But do you put an 80 year old in jail over it? Stay tuned. But be careful about the volume.