Controversial Cleanup Plan for Phosphorescent Passaic

(click on picture to enlarge)
Wastewater treatment plants that discharge phosphorous into the Passaic River may soon be buying and selling credits to one another for that right, according to a report in The Record.

Scientists from Rutgers University partnered with Cornell University economists to develop a phosphorous trading program for the nearly two-dozen municipal sewage plants that flush effluent into the upper Passaic River every day. The trading model will be presented to the public at the third-annual Passaic River Symposium at Montclair State University on Oct. 16.

NJ Sierra Club director Jeff Titel has blasted the proposal:

It is a scam a Bush Administration shell game that will lead to more pollution in the Passaic River. Instead of the DEP enforcing the Clean Water Act the sewer plants get to trade pollution so human waste could be part of NJ"s pay to play system.

Distressed Homes Bringing Investors Back Into Market

From The International Herald Tribune:
For a growing number of investors, the spate of home foreclosures across the United States — a result of the mortgage crisis and drop in real estate values — is creating extraordinary buying opportunities for distressed properties, not to mention a flood of how-to books, seminars and infomercials on finding the right deals.

"You'll probably never see anything like this in your lifetime again," said Gene Hacker, a broker for Century 21 Allstars in Brea, California, which specializes in bank-repossessed homes, or what are known in industry lingo as REO's, or real estate owned.

"With the rental market as strong as it is, and prices as low as they've been," he said, "this is as good as it gets." Indeed, Hacker has managed to profit nicely by sifting through the detritus. In the last three years, he has acquired three dozen or so foreclosed homes at discounted prices, mostly in North Carolina and Texas, which he has since resold or rented out. And he has seen a budding interest among clients looking to do the same.

For them and others, there is no shortage of inventory. During August, for example, one in every 416 households, representing 303,879 homes, received a foreclosure filing (which could cover anything from a default notice to actual repossession of a house). That was a 27 percent jump from August 2007, according to a recent report from RealtyTrac, which follows home foreclosures.

"We are, by almost anybody's estimation, at the highest level of foreclosure activity this country has ever seen," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president of RealtyTrac, which is based in Irvine, California. He cited a recent report by the Center for American Progress, a research institute in Washington, estimating that nearly 0.6 percent of all housing units in the United States are bank-owned, the same ratio as in 1930, during the Great Depression. (Though not a panacea, the government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced this month, could help to slow the rise in foreclosures.)

With many stock portfolios in the doldrums, many investors have been turning their attention toward the widening foreclosure real estate market as an investment alternative. Distressed properties can typically be bought at discounts of 20 to 30 percent or more from their peak prices, according to market experts. Homes in stable areas where there was appreciation in the past can be especially good investments.

Wall and Main

Don't count on on the proposed near trillion dollar "bailout" of our financial institutions to do much for stressed out homeowners.
From today's NY Times:

“We are literally spending hundreds of billions of dollars on subsidies for financial institutions,” said Christopher Mayer, a professor of real estate finance and vice dean at the Columbia School of Business. “This won’t do anything to help the housing market. This plan is about buying mortgage-backed securities, not mortgages, and there is a big difference.”

Congress Debating Flood Insurance Program

The U.S. flood insurance program would be temporarily extended for seven months under legislation introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass).

The extension would give the lawmakers time to work out deep disagreements over the troubled program, which expires at the end of the year.

It was unclear whether the Senate would agree to the extension. Congress has been unable to agree on whether to add wind damage coverage to the 40-year-old flood insurance program, and whether to forgive its $18-billion debt from Katrina.

Source: Reuters

Getting Out the Volt

It's here! Well almost. The long awaited Chevy Volt electric car from GM should be available to all by 2011 at "competitive" prices in the 50k range. For all the specs and hype, check out their website.

The Volt is radically different than any on the road today. Although agreement about definitions vary, GM doesn’t not consider it a hybrid. Current hybrids cars, such as the Prius, are defined as parallel hybrids, meaning they have a small electric motor that moves the car when it is going slowly, but when speed or acceleration increases, a gasoline motor kicks in. The Volt, however, is considered an extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV). It has a very powerful all-electric 161-horsepower 45KW (100 KW peak) motor that is the only engine to power the car at all times. This engine should be capable of moving the car from 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds, and have a top speed of at least 100 mph.

Here's another take with more pictures from TreeHugger.com.

Time to Lock & Load?

After one of the biggest one week drops in 30 year rates(5.75%) we've seen in a long time, many financial advisors are saying that this may be the best time to get in the game. Brian Brady, who proclaims himself America's #1 Mortgage Broker chimes in:

Longer-term, mortgage applicants may find mortgage rates higher than they are today. The realization that SOMEONE has to pay for this bailout will hit everyone, after the election, and treasury bond yields should rise, pushing the MBS yields, and mortgage rates, higher as well. Not a rosy picture.

So, lock those loans at application. While the current 30-year fixed rate loan offering, with 1% origination fee, is 5.75%, for a conforming loan (6.02% apr), the risk of those rates popping up to the 6% level far outweighs the reward of holding out for 5.625%.

Lose Your Home, Lose Your vote

Michigan Republicans think they have found a new way to "re-foreclose" African American voters.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

... volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

Drilling Through Reality

Since this election appears to be coming down to who's got the biggest drill, it is interesting to see from this graph what an impact it will have.(click on graph for larger image)

Graph from: Architecture 2030

Little Orphan Fannie

Regarding the necessity of taking over floundering Fanny, there is rare agreement from economists on both sides of the political spectrum. Robert Kuttner puts it in context:

....

Criticism was limited to the right and left. The Wall Street Journal and libertarian think-tanks regularly warned that Fannie was getting too big and too speculative with an implicit government guarantee. A few progressives like your faithful writer objected that FNMA's true purposes were being perverted and the system was being put at risk so that insiders could get very rich.

In virtually none of the coverage of the Bush administration's latest emergency action, did anyone bother to tell the back story. Fannie Mae, nee the Federal National Mortgage Association, (FNMA) began life as a government invention. It was born "nationalized"--and it worked beautifully until it was privatized.

FNMA was part of the New Deal's trinity of housing agencies--the other two being the Home Owners Loan Corporation and the FHA-agencies that Roosevelt created in order to literally create the modern mortgage system. Before the New Deal, there were no long term, self-amortizing mortgages. The loan was due and payable at the end of the term--usually five years--and if you couldn't persuade a bank or savings-and-loan to roll it over, you lost the house. After foreclosures exploded during the Depression, Roosevelt invented a whole new system. FNMA's job was to buy approved mortgages from banks, to replenish their working capital, so that they could make more mortgages. As the biggest buyer, FNMA also maintained standards.

Nimby Gets Windy

Hannah's blowby has whetted our appetite for the growing potential of wind energy.
Our previously mentioned visionary from Wayne has just had his dreams of a backyard wind turbine rained on by a nervous town council. Details and an extended debate on the subject can be found here.

At the same time, comes news of a micro-windmill technology than seems analogous to "bathtub gin" for a backyard(or windowsill) underground movement that may steal the breeze out of sight of the neighbors.

The gear-like turbines can be linked to fit just about anywhere and a row of eight turbines costs just $150 for now (prices may decrease once the turbines are mass produced). Early tests indicate that turbines arranged within a surface area of one square meter and a wind speed of 5 m/sec generate 131 kWh/yr.

NIMBY Gets Windy

Hannah's blowby has whetted our appetite for the growing potential of wind energy.
Our previously mentioned visionary from Wayne has just had his dreams of a backyard wind turbine rained on by a nervous town council. Details an an extended debate on the subject can be found here.

At the same time, comes news of a micro-windmill technology than seems analogous to "bathtub gin" for a backyard(or windowsill) underground movement that may steal the breeze out of sight of the neighbors.

The gear-like turbines can be linked to fit just about anywhere and a row of eight turbines costs just $150 for now (prices may decrease once the turbines are mass produced). Early tests indicate that turbines arranged within a surface area of one square meter and a wind speed of 5 m/sec generate 131 kWh/yr.

Foreclosures Up In North Jersey

This map from NorthJersey.com shows the rate of foreclosure activity by zip code in Bergen and Passaic Counties from January 2008 through May 2008. Click on map to enlarge.

Pedaling Homes In A Biker's Market

From The Huffington Post:

With gas prices high, bicycles flying out of stores and a buyers' market for houses, a handful of real estate agents around the country are touting the two-wheeled appeal of their listings.

Some even show houses exclusively by bike, wheeling through the neighborhood with potential buyers to show off bike lanes and bike-focused businesses and repair shops.

...Real estate agents and industry surveys indicate that home buyers are placing more importance on cutting their gas bills and commute times and that homes near urban centers, and subway, train and bus stops are selling faster than those in the distant suburbs.

"Living out in the suburbs just isn't a big deal anymore," says Matt Kolb, a bike agent who owns Pedal to Properties, a Boulder, Colo., firm. "People want to live, work and go to school within a six blocks radius _ that's changing the way they look at property."

Pedal to Properties has five agents and a fleet of 48 cruiser bikes and big plans for nationwide expansion. Next year, the company will stretch into Oregon and Texas.

Northern Exposure

Valleymarket.com reported that the average price of pending home sales in the Wasilla area was $248,404. These properties had been on the market an average of 60 days. Since the governor of Alaska is a graduate of Wasilla High School and reared her family in the area, it's probably safe to assume this is a good place to live. It's certainly a pretty area. If you're there, you might want to visit Lake Lucille and Hatcher Pass both of which are quite beautiful.