Say it ain’t so!

Congress is planning to make your home unsalable

 By Craig J. Cantoni

Oct. 22, 2009

 In the midst of the raging healthcare debate over who owns your body and can decide what repairs it receives, the media and the public have overlooked the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives has already ruled in H.R. 2454 that the state owns your house and can decide what repairs it receives.  Your name might be on the title, the mortgage, the homeowners policy, and the property tax bill, but if H.R. 2454 becomes the law of the land, the federal government will become a dictatorial homeowners association (HOA) with the power to make your house unsalable unless you comply with its diktats.

 H.R. 2454 is the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.  Its sponsor is the creepiest-looking member of the House, Henry Waxman (D-CA), who resembles Heinrich Himmler in appearance but certainly not in ideology — well, except for Waxman’s belief in statism, central planning, one-party control, and the subjugation of the individual to the collective. 

  The Act is 1,428 pages long.  I strongly encourage you to read every page.  By doing so, you’ll get an education in political science, economics, and history that will be better than a PhD in these subjects.  You’ll not only understand how nations destroy themselves from within, but you’ll also understand how politicians like Waxman, and the people who elect them, are turning the U.S. economy into an economy of high-paid consultants, lawyers, lobbyists, and apparatchiks.  At the same time, these great intellects bemoan that high-paying jobs for working stiffs are evaporating.  Connecting dots is not their forte.

 The Act can be found at:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2454pcs.txt.pdf

 Warning:  You’re going to find a lot of gobbledygook like this:

 (b)  APPRAISER CERTIFICATION AND LICENSING REQUIREMENTS.–Section 1116 of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (12 U.S.C. 3345) is amended–

            (1) in subsection (a), by inserting before the period at the end of the following: “, and meets the requirements established pursuant to subsection (f) for qualifications regarding consideration of any renewable energy sources for, or energy efficiency or energy-conserving improvements or features of, the property” . . .

 Such gobbledygook will ensure that thousands of young Americans who might have pursued careers in science or engineering will instead pursue careers as gobbledygook interpreters — as lawyers, consultants, and bureaucrats.  It’s hard to imagine that a sane person would want to attend college for four years and then law school for another three years in order to spend his life deciphering the meaning of a confusing clause before a period in subsection (a) of 12 U.S.C. 3345.

 Speaking of sanity, it’s impossible for a sane person to read 1,428 pages of such tripe and still be sane afterwards and know for sure what the Act says.  As such, my interpretation of what the Act says about your house might not be accurate, because I’m typing this in a padded cell with drool dripping off my chin.  In any event, the following is what I think it says about your house. 

It says that the federal government, in conjunction with state and local governments, will set environmental standards and building codes for residential homes.  Then, any major renovation or planned sale of a house will trigger a report to the authorities on whether it meets the standards.  Such information will be maintained in a national database and reflected in real estate records, including titles and property tax records. 

 In other words, if your house doesn’t meet the standards, this will become public information available to prospective buyers, who would have to be as stupid as Henry Waxman to buy a substandard house and risk the possibility that the government will someday force them to bring it up to standard.  The Act’s language doesn’t preclude that possibility.  

 Of course, the expense of such renovations will be borne by you, unless you’re in a favored socioeconomic or racial group, in which case the expense will be borne by others.  For example, if you live in a manufactured home (mobile home) that was manufactured prior to 1976, and if your household income is less than twice the poverty rate, you can get a rebate of up to $7,500 on the purchase of a new manufactured home that meets the standards.  And if your race is “diverse,” owners of multifamily housing properties with more than 50 units will be required to make room for you in order to meet the environmental standards.  Maybe some races produce less CO2 than other races.

 Although the Act’s language doesn’t say it as explicitly as I’m going to say it, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be pressured under the Act to give favorable terms to mortgages for Green homes.  Also, to be eligible for free stuff under the Act, contractors will have pay prevailing wages, or, in other words, will have to share the loot with union friends of the Democrat Party.

 The good news in all of this is that your home will still be your castle.  The bad news is that if it doesn’t have thermal windows, a reflective roof, thick insulation, and the proper appliances and heating and air-conditioning systems, you’ll be living in it until you die, unless you can afford to bring it up to the standards in order to sell it.

But none of this is what made me insane.  What put me over the edge was the section in the Act on trees.  Yes, the federal government wants to set national standards on trees in your yard.  

The Act will establish a program to “use the best available science to create tree siting guidelines which dictate [well, at least they admit it] where the optimum tree species are best planted in locations that achieve maximum reductions in consumer energy demand while causing the least disruption to public infrastructure, considering overhead and underground facilities.”  It goes on, of course, to specify that free trees will be available under the program.  It also specifies that loot will be given to power companies to be shared with nonprofit tree-planting organizations.

 I have to end here.  An orderly is entering my padded cell to wipe the drool off my chin and change my diaper.  Let me quickly close with this:  The most insane aspect of the Act is that it is not needed — not its 1,428 words, not its legions of lawyers, not its brigades of bureaucrats, and not its tremendous shift of productive resources to unproductive make-work.  If the consensus in the United States is that global warming is man-caused and can be stopped — as wrongheaded as that is — it is not necessary for the government to micromanage your life to the extent that it tells you what trees to plant in your yard.  Instead, the government would only have to raise energy prices through a tax on carbon, and the market and individual choices would sort out the rest.

 But what do I know?  I’m insane.

_____________

 An author and columnist, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Hmmm…A Thought Provoking Statement

Some people read with an eye toward having their suspicions about the world affirmed, while others read to discover what they don’t know.

Forbes Rates Denver Best City To Buy Home – The Full Story

Wahoo! Some good news for Denver.

Best Cities To Buy A Home
Sarah Lynch, 06.22.09, 5:58 PM ET

It’s no sellers market. But by some measures, things are looking up in Los Angeles. Though the area is one of the worst-hit of the country’s crippled housing markets, those with listed properties in relatively solid areas are beginning to see consistent bites.

This month, “one of my clients wrote an offer on a home that had 20 offers,” says Monique Carrabba, 35, an agent with Keller Williams Hollywood Hills, of a two-bedroom, one bathroom duplex located in Picfair Village, part of a neighborhood that borders La Brea and Venice. “I mean, that’s just nuts. And even though we came a hundred over asking price, we still didn’t get it.” The duplex was listed at $450,000 and is in escrow at about $150,000 over the original asking the price.

While the majority of the nation’s housing markets are still working toward a bottom, some cities are boasting fundamentals that make them good places to buy a home now. In addition to Los Angeles, these include Denver, Boston, Phoenix and San Diego.

Behind The Numbers
To determine which cities feature the best real estate deals, we looked at three sets of data in the March 2009 RPX Monthly Housing Market Report, distributed by Radar Logic Incorporated, a New York-based derivatives firm. It looks at the market fundamentals in the country’s 25 most populated metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs or metros), geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget used by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. First, we examined the number of ZIP codes with 25% of the area’s sales to determine those in which activity is most evenly distributed. Next, we examined increase and decrease in price per square footage to determine where market value is the highest. Last, we looked at transaction rates in each city to determine where the housing markets are most active. We scored each city by category, and then combined the scores to determine the final ranking.

In Depth: Best Cities for Real Estate Deals

Denver tops the list. It had 25% of its property sales occur within approximately 25% of the city’s ZIP codes. This means sales in various parts of the city were fairly evenly distributed, showing proportionate activity. The further a city deviates from the 25% mark, the less evenly distributed the market is in that city, and thus the lower that city ranks.

“Denver scores very well in terms of being able to bring people into a stable housing market,” says Christopher Cornell, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com says. “It has better growth potential than most cities today.”

Cornell attributes Denver’s stability to its main industries–energy and technology–that he says aren’t likely to decline simultaneously. He also says its housing market didn’t grow as much as in other parts of the country over the last five years. “Little boom, little bust,” he says.

Price per square foot increased most in Boston, at 6%, showing an overall boost in value. The greatest declines were in Washington, D.C., at 7.5%, and in Las Vegas, at 4.3%.

The last data set we analyzed were percentages of increased or decreased transaction counts in March 2009 as opposed to March 2008. Transactions, coupled with relative health and value, are key indicators of a market worthy of investment. Los Angeles ranked first in this category, with a 32.5% increase in the number of transactions. Las Vegas ranked last with a 55.3% decline.

Of course, sustained improvement is dependent in part on the job market. Though increased property sales in Phoenix during the first half of 2009 suggest investors are returning, for example, the housing market hasn’t bottomed out yet and most likely won’t until the employment picture improves. Moody’s Economy.com expects unemployment in Phoenix to bottom out in the 2nd quarter of 2010. The job outlook there is expected to improve in 2011.

Markets that didn’t fare as well include Las Vegas, Cleveland, Seattle and Detroit. There, distressed sales have kept home values down and buyers away.

That, however, could change.

Even with home values down–80% of the market is distressed sales, says Dan DeNuccio, a real estate broker with Prudential Americana Group in Las Vegas. He calls the market “robust.”

“We have a large number of investors in Vegas right now, a lot of cash investors, a lot of foreign investors,” he says. “And what’s happened here is a lot of those first-time homebuyers that were excluded from the market because of the price range are now in the market and taking advantage of the tax credit,” which the Obama administration ushered in in February.

Denver Public Art

When traveling to any city it is always intriguing to take note of the city’s public art.  I refer to those pieces of public art that are scattered about the metro area, predominately situated in the urban sector.  Those pieces of art that help define the city.  Denver is no exception.  Our city is riddled with fun, serious, colorful, large, gigantic, unique examples of artistic expression.

 To get a taste of what Denver has to offer please visit http://www.denvergov.org/Default.aspx?alias=www.denvergov.org/public_art_program

…And if you want to learn more about some of the artworks you see around the city the Denver Public Art Program is offering Public Art Phonecasts of their most popular pieces.  From any phone you dial a number and extension to hear short interviews with the artists talking about their works.  What a great idea!

http://www.denvergov.org/Public_Art_Program/PhoneCasts/tabid/433276/Default.aspx

RSS & PODCASTS

For those interested in another source for unique podcast feeds and/or RSS feeds you might want to try Radio New Zealand http://www.radionz.co.nz/podcasts

Whereas it may be a little unusual utilizing a resource from the other side of the world you just may discover some fascinating info. The site has many other choices than those pertaining to New Zealand. Sort through the options….and enjoy!

John Adams

“I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means….” –John Adams

Memorial Day Reflection

Dartmouth College is one of our nation’s finest academic institutions. This iconic Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire, was established in 1769 and is one of nine Colonial Colleges founded prior to the American Revolution.

Dartmouth was named in honor of William Legge, the Second Earl of Dartmouth and, like Harvard, Princeton and Yale, was established as a Christian institution. Legge was a primary benefactor of the ministry of Dartmouth’s founder, Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, who established the institution “for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land … and also of English Youth and any others.”

Dartmouth has produced many notable graduates over the years, including 164 members of the U.S. House and Senate, and a long list of cabinet secretaries and jurists.

But among the most distinguished of Dartmouth’s graduates would be those of the Class of 1944. Although they will observe their 65th reunion this year, the Class of ’44 never walked for a commencement. Neither did the Class of ’43 before them, or ’45 after them.

World War II interrupted their lives.

In 1940, there were 699 freshmen enrolled for Dartmouth’s Class of ’44, but in the years prior to their scheduled commencement, the entire class departed — most to serve in WW II or in some capacity with the war-related industrial surge. By 1944, the Navy had requisitioned most of Dartmouth’s teaching space for training its own personnel.  

The College will hold its 235th commencement in June and the Class of ’44 reunion will be this summer. Of the original 699 classmates, most went on to complete their degrees after the war. Amazingly, some 226 are still with us today, and many of them will be at that reunion.

Excerpt from Mark Alexander
Publisher, PatriotPost.US

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sproing!!

Spring has sprung.  It is now time to get out and enjoy some of Denver’s 850 miles of off-road bike trails.  Denver is a freewheeling kind of town, with one of the biggest biking, hiking, and jogging trail systems in the nation.  The city’s massive network of more than 850 miles of paved, off-road trails crisscrosses throughout seven county metro areas.  The paved trails connect to hundreds of additional miles of dirt trails, many of which head up into the mountains and offer mountain biking adventures and scenic views.

The following link takes you to swell interactive Google maps of the various trails.  Click here for the Google’s My Maps master map and directory. 

Have fun!

Free Lectures! Free Education!

To our benefit there is a growing movement by academic institutions worldwide to open their once exclusive halls to all who want to peek inside. Whether you’d like to learn algebra from a mathematician at MIT, watch how to make crawfish étouffée from an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America or study blues guitar with a professor at Berklee College of Music, you can do it all in front of your computer, courtesy of other people’s money. In March, YouTube launched an education hub called YouTube Edu, http://www.youtube.com/edu dedicated exclusively to videos from the more than 100 schools–ranging from Grand Rapids Community College to Harvard Business School–that have set up official channels on the site.

There is clearly a big appetite for all kinds of online lectures, as shown by the popularity of sites like TED.com, http://www.ted.com/  which broadcasts talks given by innovators in the fields of technology, entertainment and design. . TED is  building a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

The above sites are just two examples of how much free education is out there.

HUD Secretary Sees ’09 Home-Price Recovery

Housing secretary Shaun Donovan said he was optimistic that housing markets would recover this year and that the Department of Housing and Urban Development was seeing early signs that some of the hardest-hit housing markets were stabilizing.

Mr. Donovan, who previously served as the New York City housing chief, said at a press conference that he expects home prices to recover “certainly by the end of the year if not earlier.” He said that the Department of Housing and Urban Development was seeing early signs that some of the hardest-hit housing markets were stabilizing.

The comments came as the Obama administration rolled out an add-on to its housing rescue program that will give loan servicers an incentive to extinguish second mortgages for borrowers who are facing delinquency or are already delinquent. Nearly half of all troubled borrowers have a second mortgage, and the administration’s Making Home Affordable effort to modify loans hadn’t yet addressed the thorny issue.

Under the program, the government will pay mortgage servicers $500 upfront and $250 annually for three years if they successfully modify a second mortgage, such as a home equity loan. The administration expects that to help between 1 and 1.5 million homeowners.

Mr. Donovan said that, under the administration’s set of guidelines for pricing loans, the program offers investors a chance to modify loans that, financially speaking, “are a better outcome than foreclosure.”

A separate effort allows borrowers to refinance their mortgage even if their loan is between 80% and 105% the value of their home. The program is only open to borrowers whose loans are held or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Mr. Donovan defended the decision to cap eligibility for borrowers at a 105% loan-to-value ceiling and dismissed speculation that the administration might refinance loans with a higher loan-to-value.

 

By Nick Timiraos