Rezoning Plan Could Bring 1,200 Acres of Rooftop Farms to NYC

Inhabitat reports that a new proposal by the NYC Department of City Planning would allow commercial buildings throughout the city to be topped with rooftop farms or greenhouses without increasing the building’s floor area ratio and height restrictions. According to a study by the Urban Design Lab, this amendment could bring almost 1,200 acres of rooftop farms to the city. The zoning proposal was spurred by the popularity of rooftop farms such as the expanding Brooklyn Grange pictured here.

Where the NJ Jobs Are

The monthly employment stats just came out this morning with another unexpected drop in the percentage of unemployed. The new figures show a sharp drop from 8.5% to 8.3% with the addition of 243,000 new jobs. the chart at right breaks down the jobs in the Newark area in comparison the the rest of the U.S.(click on the chart to enlarge it)
For a detailed update on the NJ housing market check out my latest NJ Housing Trends Newsletter. You will see links to several key NJ markets.

Rates Turn Up a Bit

Rates were up for the first time in several weeks as Freddie Mac announced a rise for the week ending January 26. 30-year fixed rates averaged 3.98%, up from 3.88% the previous week. The average for 15 year loans rose to 3.24%. Adjustable rates were up slightly, with the average for one-year adjustables increasing to 2.74% and five-year adjustables rising to 2.85%.

GROUNDHOG DAY UPDATE: Like Bill Murray, we've been here before -- rates have just dropped again to new record lows! We're now seeing rates as low as 3.65 to 3.85%.

NASA Spotlights 132 years of Global Warming

NASA recently released a time lapse visualization that depicts global temperature changes since 1880. Although nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000, 2011 was only the ninth warmest year on record, according to NASA.

How about Some Cool Wheels With That Cozy Condo?

In a last ditch effort to buck the slow housing market, and sell their new development's last three units, Community Housing Innovations in White Plains is offering a prepaid, two-year lease on a Honda Civic for qualified first-time homebuyer

s. The hope is the deal will sell all three remaining apartments in White Plains, which have been on the market over a year.

First-time homebuyers for the 14-unit Minerva Place complex cannot earn more than $100,000 for the three remaining units, which range from $225,000 to $275,000 for the pair of two-bedroom and single one-bedroom units.

1889 NJ

Here's a fascinating geological map of NNJ from the Rutgers archives.

Obama Proposes Expansion of ReFi Plan to Most Homeowners

President Obama proposed a new program during his State of the Union address Tuesday to allow homeowners with privately held mortgages to refinance at lower interest rates. The plan would expand his recent effort to help troubled homeowners reduce their mortgage payments. The proposed legislation could give "every responsible homeowner" the ability to take advantage of low interest rates.

The President expressed concern for the

millions of innocent Americans who’ve seen their home values decline. And while government can’t fix the problem on its own, responsible homeowners shouldn’t have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief.

The program would cover both loans issued by government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as private mortgage lenders. Officials estimate an average annual saving for homeowners of $3,000. Congress would have to approve it.

5 Tips for Keeping Your Home Secure

Yahoo Real Estate has just posted these tips that are good common sense yet inexpensive. We've compressed them:

Lock Up!
Dead bolts are atill the best.

Know Your Neighbors
Give them your phone and email contact info.

Beware of Dog
Even if you don't have one, Those signs will make a potential intruder think twice.
To give a burglar another reason to go elsewhere, leave a large dog bowl by the front door with the name "Cujo" or "Killer."

Make Your Home Look Used When Vacationing
Cancel Papers and Mail.
Don't update your plans via Facebook or Twitter.

Go High Tech
You could always leave a radio on with a talk station blaring,
but now you can add a simple security camera run remotely with free apps.

USA Today Increasing Bullish on Real Estate

Home sales and home building are forecast to rise this year after sliding steeply the past five years in housing's worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Monday's USA Today notes that recovery is expected to be slow, and home prices are widely expected to fall this year. But investors are betting on the start of an upturn, bidding up home builder stocks and causing them to outperform the broader stock market.

Photographic Roots of the EPA

On the day that Kodak files for Chapter 11 Bankrupcy, it's interesting to see what was done to document the American environment, entirely with color and black & white negatives. over 40 years ago. For the Documerica Project (1971-1977), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s. The National Archives digitized part of the series "Documerica". More than 15,000 of these slightly faded images are available in the Archival Research Catalog (ARC). Thousands more are also in the public domain via Flickr. (Photo at right By Danny Lyon: El Paso, 1971)

Freddie Mac Now Permits Grace Period for Unemployed Borrowers

Realtor.com is reporting that mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac will give unemployed borrowers a break on their mortgage for up to one year.

Borrowers can be given up to a yearlong break from payments under the new policy. The forbearance is offered in two ways. First, starting on the first of February, mortgage servicers can allow borrowers to abstain from paying mortgages for as long as 6 months, getting Freddie Mac’s prior approval. After that, Freddie Mac can permit another six months.

"These expanded forbearance periods will provide families facing prolonged periods of unemployment with a greater measure of security by giving them more time to find new employment and resolve their delinquencies," said Tracy Mooney, senior vice president of single-family servicing and REO at Freddie Mac.

"We believe this will put more families back on track to successful long-term homeownership,” Mooney adds.

Freddie said the new deal expands the powers of mortgage servicers. The edict gives servicers the ability to forebear a mortgage for six months without prior approval. Freddie Mac can approve an additional six months after that.

Tough Decision: Which Jet to Take Out Today?

John Travolta is into planes enough that he had Florida change its laws in order to allow his favorite vehicle, a 747, to land beside his beautiful estate. Parking his planes isn’t a problem, as the grand runway leads directly to his home, with a convenient loading dock directly into the living area. Pretty dinky pool....

A Well Balanced Home Life

It's one thing to balance your income with your housing needs, but this home designer took things a couple of steps further. This unusual four bedroom house designed by MVRDV and Mole Architects is balanced on the edge of a steep hill in Suffolk, England. Known as the “Balancing Barn”, this cool house features reflective stainless steel exterior and beautiful plywood interior. It even comes with a swing.

For anyone dealing with a life out of balance, we suggest oddee.com

4 Tips to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford

{EcoRealty has just added a new House Logic widget to the info column at right. Take a moment to browse the useful info for homeowners and homeowners to be}

From Houselogic.com
By: G. M. Filisko

By knowing how much mortgage you can handle, you can ensure that home ownership will fit in your budget.
1. The general rule of mortgage affordability
As a rule of thumb, you can typically afford a home priced two to three times your gross income. If you earn $100,000, you can typically afford a home between $200,000 and $300,000.

To understand how that rule applies to your particular financial situation, prepare a family budget and list all the costs of homeownership, like property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, and community association fees, if applicable, as well as costs specific to your family, such as day care costs.

2. Factor in your downpayment
How much money do you have for a downpayment? The higher your downpayment, the lower your monthly payments will be. If you put down at least 20% of the home's cost, you may not have to get private mortgage insurance, which costs hundreds each month. That leaves more money for your mortgage payment.

The lower your downpayment, the higher the loan amount you’ll need to qualify for and the higher your monthly mortgage payment.

3. Consider your overall debt
Lenders generally follow the 28/41 rule. Your monthly mortgage payments covering your home loan principal, interest, taxes, and insurance shouldn’t total more than 28% of your gross annual income. Your overall monthly payments for your mortgage plus all your other bills, like car loans, utilities, and credit cards, shouldn’t exceed 41% of your gross annual income.

Here’s how that works. If your gross annual income is $100,000, multiply by 28% and then divide by 12 months to arrive at a monthly mortgage payment of $2,333 or less. Next, check the total of all your monthly bills including your potential mortgage and make sure they don’t top 41%, or $3,416 in our example.

4. Use your rent as a mortgage guide
The tax benefits of homeownership generally allow you to afford a mortgage payment—including taxes and insurance—of about one-third more than your current rent payment without changing your lifestyle. So you can multiply your current rent by 1.33 to arrive at a rough estimate of a mortgage payment.

Here’s an example. If you currently pay $1,500 per month in rent, you should be able to comfortably afford a $2,000 monthly mortgage payment after factoring in the tax benefits of homeownership.

However, if you’re struggling to keep up with your rent, consider what amount would be comfortable and use that for the calcuation instead.

Also consider whether or not you’ll itemize your deductions. If you take the standard deduction, you can’t also deduct mortgage interest payments. Talking to a tax adviser, or using a tax software program to do a “what if” tax return, can help you see your tax situation more clearly.

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and award-winning writer who’s owned her own home for more than 20 years. A frequent contributor to many national publications including Bankrate.com, REALTOR® Magazine, and the American Bar Association Journal, she specializes in real estate, business, personal finance, and legal topics.

High Water Mark for NJ Solar?

EnviroPolitics is a blogsite that offers a unique closeup on "Environmental and political news, issues and opinion for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware." In recent months they've written several articles on the growth of solar power in New Jersey.

For the last decade, solar power has become increasingly popular in NJ due largely to state financial incentives designed to encourage it's development.

New Jersey ranks second only to California in total installed solar capacity with over 9,000 solar projects having a capacity of more than 320 megawatts. With a much smaller land area, we have by far the most solar capacity per square mile of any state.

But their latest article warns of the prospects for the light dimming on NJ's solar future.

What you Need to Know About Homeowners Insurance

Leonard Baron, CPA, and writer specializing in Real Estate issues, has just written an article for Zillow

that goes into great detail on the ins and outs of today's homeowner insurance policies.

"Having the proper type and amount of insurance in place is vital in today’s world. Pull out your policy and schedule a talk with your agent to discuss what you have and what you need."

Price Turnaround in Multifamily Homes

Loopnet is a great resource for information about all kinds of commercial real estate -- including multi-family residential properties. While residential price drops are slowing in fits and starts in several NJ markets, LoopNet is reporting that the median sale price per unit for multifamily properties throughout NJ has been rising for three straight months. Encouraging news, but it may well be the flipside of the hard pressed single-family market i.e. the economy is forcing more folks to move into rentals that out of them,(Click on graphic to enlarge) You may need to register (it's free) to download more detailed data and charts.

2011 - 2012: Fasten Your Seatbelts

See if you can match any of the headlines in our Blog Archive on the right with the thumbnails

Surprising Increases in Home Prices in Varied Locations

While most of the U.S. continued to see home values decrease in 2011, Zillow has found year over year increases in many housing markets from Florida to Hawaii. Here are their top 10.

How NOT to Maintain Your Home

One of the top home inspectors in Minneapolis, Reuben Saltzman, shares his top inspection photos from 2011 that are life lessons in home repair problems and mistakes.

Peace Over Earth

From MSNC's photo blog, here's the way Earth looked on Christmas morning, blending imagery of Earth's surface from the MODIS instruments on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites current weather data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite. While we're at it, how about a look at the years's best photographs taken from space?

Solar Paint: A Gift That Can Keep On Giving -- When It's Perfected

It has just been reported this week that researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing a new type of solar cell that can simply be painted on to a surface.

The team has created a "power-producing nanoparticle" called a quantum dot, which can be combined with a spreadable paste that can then be painted onto any conductive surface. It requires no special equipment, making this solar paint an inexpensive alternative to traditional solar cells.

The technology isn't quite ready for commercial use yet — its efficiency is much less than traditional solar cells, at around one percent as opposed to the typical 10-15 percent.

Tata Steel is working with researchers at Swansea University to produce sheet steel treated with a sensitive coating of solar cells. According to Dr. Worsley, the project leader for the Swansea Solar Paint Project, if all the steel cladding produced by one manufacturer was energy generating, it would be the equivalent of 50 wind farms (or 4500 gigawatts/year) at an efficiency rate of 5%.

How to Get Those Great Low Rates

With home mortgage rates still hovering around record lows, this should be the perfect time to lower your borrowing costs.

Yet with tough standards and more people in a home-equity hole due to the housing slump, it's mot easy to to get the best rates. There are some ways to improve your odds, but you'll have to jump through hoops to sweeten your application.

Since there aren't too many home buyers around, some 80 percent of mortgage activity is refinancing, according to the Mortgage Banker Association. But up to half of those applying for refis may not qualify, according to LendingTree.com.

If you're looking for a loan and have a low credit score or are buying anything but a single-family home, the odds are you'll pay higher rates than today's phenomenally low average rate of 3.74 percent for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage according to our Zillow update on your left.

How do you get the best deal? Here are some guidelines via Reuters

Christmas at the Kips

The first floor of Kip's Castle is open to the public for the month of December. This year's theme is Christmas 1928.

Kip's Caslte was built in 1905 to replicate a medieval Norman Castle. Frederic Ellsworth Kip and his wife, Charlotte, lived here until 1926. Frederic, a wealthy textile magnate, was a descendent of one of the first European families to inhabit NYC. The family gave its name to Kip’s Bay in Manhattan.
Kip's Castle Park is located at 22 Crestmont Road, Verona, 973.239.2465

Gifting Green

Don't fret if you have yet to find the perfect presents for your friends and loved ones - Inhabitat is here to help with their 2011 Green Holiday Gift Guide! This year's guide is jam packed with over 300 sustainable gifts spread over 21 categories, so you're sure to find a special sustainable gift for everyone on your list

Why Tuesday May Be Pivotal Day for Interest Rates

Mortgage market expert Dan Green is predicting that major changes are likely in mortgage interest rates after tomorrow's meeting of the Federal Reserve.
Tuesday, the Federal Open Market Committee meets for a scheduled 1-day meeting, its eighth of 8 scheduled meetings for 2011, and ninth overall.

The FOMC is a branch of the Federal Reserve; a 12-person, revolving committee led by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Members of the FOMC make the final votes on U.S. monetary policy which includes the establishment of a "Fed Funds Rate".

Even though this rate is expected to stay the same, Green explains that other factors are now at play that could easily result in a sharp rise in rates

that have been hovering at record lows for over a month.

FEMA Grants Awarded for Home Buyouts

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded more than $28 million in Hazard Mitigation Program grants for voluntary home buyouts in New Jersey.
The grants have been awarded to these North and Central New Jersey communities:

· $6.3 million for approximately 56 homes in Wayne
· $3.1 million for approximately 13 homes in Pompton Lakes
· $2.9 million for approximately 15 homes in Little Falls
· $4.1 million for approximately 18 homes in Lincoln Park
· $3.1 million for approximately 12 homes in Fairfield
· $3.8 million for approximately 15 homes in Pequannock

· $2.9 million for approximately 13 homes in Manville
· $1.9 million for approximately 7 homes in Middlesex

Top Lenders Sued Over Foreclosure Practices

Massachusetts has sued the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers for allegedly pursuing illegal foreclosures and misleading troubled borrowers hoping to get loan modifications in that state.

In suing, Massachusetts Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley increases pressure on the banks, which are negotiating with a coalition of attorneys general in an effort to reach a settlement over the companies' foreclosure and mortgage servicing practices. The suitcontends the banks — Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.,Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc., “charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law.”

In a statement, Coakley said the latest legal action was necessary because “the banks have charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law.”

Our Sister Planet

This artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star's habitable zone -- the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth, making it the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star like our sun.

Scientists do not yet know if the planet has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition. It's very possible that the world would have clouds in its atmosphere, as depicted here in the artist's interpretation.

Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Much Ado About Mulch

Can you use some more mulch around your house? Just call your local DPW. These days an increasing number of them in the Northeast are more than willing to let you take all you can carry out for free.
The surprise October storm that dropped a record amount of snow across northern New Jersey knocked down tons of trees and branches. Nearly 5 weeks later, most residents are still seeing fallen branches scattered along the sides of roads.

Those big pulverizing trucks are working overtime to recycle the obstacles, but they are running out of room to stack the growing mountains. Our suggestion: just leave a small pile of the stuff on every "donor's" driveway to be shoveled onto appropriate spots around their yard.

WNBC environmental correspondent, Brian Thompson, demonstrated just how big a job the Jersey Mulchup is in this video piece.

Occupy Wall Street Goes Home

From a news release on OccupyWallStreet.org:

On December 6th Occupy Wall Street will join in solidarity with a Brooklyn community to re-occupy a foreclosed home. The day of action marks a national kick-off for a new frontier for the occupy movement: the liberation of vacant bank-owned homes for those in need. The banks got bailed out, but our families are getting kicked out. The fight to reclaim democracy from the banks is growing from Wall Street to Main Street.

The NYC foreclosure tour and home re-occupation is part of a big national day of action on Dec. 6 that will focus on the foreclosure crisis and protest fraudulent lending practices, corrupt securitization, and illegal evictions by banks. The Occupy movement actions, including eviction defense at foreclosed properties, takeovers of vacant properties by homeless families, and foreclosure action disruptions, will take place in more than 25 cities across the country.

New Records Set in Foreclosure Time Lines

Non-judicial state foreclosures inventories are less than half those of judicial states such as New Jersey. Foreclosure sale rates in non-judicial states are four to five times higher, but judges are starting to ramp up the process.

Bank repossessions actually surged in October in many judicial states, up 48% in New Jersey and up 73% in Indiana month-to-month, according to RealtyTrac. Still, the backlog is enormous.

Overall foreclosure inventory is at an all-time high, 4.29% of all active loans, according to LPS

.

A Tower grows in Brooklyn

The long delayed and controversial Atlantic Tower project for Brooklyn;s Atlantic Yards is on its way to becoming a reality. Designed by SHoP Architects, the 32 story building will be the world’s tallest prefab structure.
While the project will save on energy use, cost and waste, critics note thatthe downside of the prefab efficiencies is the reduction of the promised 17,000 construction jobs to a measly 190.
More from Treehugger.com.

Notorious "Foreclosure Mill" Shuts Down After Halloween Uproar

The NY Times reports that Steven J. Baum P.C., the firm of foreclosure lawyers who had earlier agreed to a settlement of 2 million dollars for improper activities that included "robo-signing" foreclosure documents, will permanently shut down. The reason was not because of their bank related actions, but rather a Times story showing photos of a homeless themed party last Halloween.

Publication of pictures some of of the firm's 89 employees in costumes mocking folks who had lost their homes led Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to forbid servicers of their mortgages from using Mr. Baum and his colleagues.

Joe Nocera, The Times columnist who originally wrote about the firm’s Halloween party, published another column about the controversy. In it, he quoted an e-mail that Mr. Baum had sent him last week.

“Mr. Nocera — You have destroyed everything and everyone related to Steven J. Baum PC. it took 40 years to build this firm and three weeks to tear down."

Surprising Rise In Existing-Home Sales

Existing-home sales improved in October while the number of homes on the market continued to decline, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Total existing-home sales1, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 1.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in October from a downwardly revised 4.90 million in September, and are 13.5 percent above the 4.38 million unit level in October 2010.

Evidence Of Liquid Water Found On Jupiter's Moon

Taking a leap beyond the man-made tracks in yesterday's piece, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft have found ice blocks on Europa's surface that suggest an interaction between the moon's icy shell and a lake-like body of water under the surface. They now feel they are one step closer to determining whether or not the freezing satellite is suitable for the development of extraterrestrial life.

China's Latest Landscape Riddles

You may have seen some of these Google Earth images in the news recently. To some, they seem like site specific abstract art. Others find them a signal of an alien invasion. Wired magazine has the definitive collection on their website followed by nearly 200 comments from their savvy readers that speculate on their possible function. The photo pictured here may be a practice target for a satellite war game. Only time will tell which theory is closest to reality.

Occupying Rooftops -- A Novel Way to Spread Solar

(photo from Arlington County via Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)
As the protesters leading the Occupy Wall Street movement decry the big banks that crashed the economy, foreclose homes and continue to finance mega fossil fuel projects like the Tar Sands, community solar represents one path forward: clean energy created for and by the people. Community solar projects are taking the first steps toward a future where people can move their money out of low-yield savings accounts and into safe and high-yield solar investments that lower carbon emissions and create green jobs and local prosperity. Occupy Rooftops, organized by community solar advocate Solar Mosaic, aims to make that point this November 20th. Get together with your family and friends and take a picture occupying the rooftop of a community building that you want to take solar!

Low Time to Buy or ReFi

The latest issue of Mortgage Reports explains why It's a great time to buy and an even better time to refi.

Half of All Mortgages Now Effectively Under Water

CNBC Real Estate Reporter Diana Olick gives us reality check on todays Realty market.

Negative equity rose to 28.6 percent of single-family homes with mortgages in the third quarter of this year, according to Zillow. That's up from 26.8 percent in the second quarter. In real terms, that's 14.6 million borrowers. As Olick explains it, the biggest drag on the housing market is the growth in "effective" negative equity, which is borrowers who have so little equity in their homes that they cannot afford to move.

6 house repairs you shouldn't neglect

Home maintenance chores can be daunting, especially for newer homeowners who aren't familiar with their home's maintenance needs. When the list of home repair chores, from inspecting the roof to regrouting the bathtub, grows overwhelming -- perhaps because necessary tasks have been put off due to financial pressures -- the question naturally arises: What's most important?

The answer: Maintenance chores that involve safety or water intrusion should be top priority, according to David Tamny, 2010 president of the American Society of Home Inspectors and owner of Professional Property Inspection in Columbus, Ohio.

"One of the most important elements of homeowner maintenance is anything that has to do with drainage or water flow. Gutters or problems with grading and drainage around the structure that can contribute to foundation problems are probably things you don't want to defer," he says.

More details here from Bankrate.com

Blowing in the Wind

The Windstalk energy concept was created by a New York design firm Atelier DNA for the planned city Masdar, a 2.3-square-mile, automobile-free area being built outside of Abu Dhabi. The proposal for the ambitious project includes 1203 stalks that are 180 feet high (55 meters) and are anchored on the ground with concrete bases that range between 10 to 20 meters in diameter. They are made from carbon fiber reinforced resin poles, about a foot (30 cm) in diameter at the base and 2 inches (5 cm) at the top. There are LED lights at the top of the stalks, and their intensity varies with the force of the wind. If there's no wind, there's no light.
From Treehugger.com.

10 Cities With The Lowest Poverty Rates

From The Huffington Post:
Across metropolitan America, poverty rates vary widely, according to a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Indeed, the city with the highest poverty rate and that with the lowest are separated by a full 25 percentage points. The report examined poverty levels in areas with more than 500,000 people last year.
In general, highest-poverty cities tend to be found in southern cities, low-poverty cities in the North, a trend mirrored at the state level. Speficially, seven out of the 10 cities with the lowest poverty rates are located in the Northeast.

National Home Price Update

Year to date by region (click on image to enlarge)

Changes

Like hundreds of towns in the Northeast, Bloomfield had an unreal feeling today, as the one of the earliest snowstorms in recorded history hit the region. Forget about driving anywhere. With large tree branches continually snapping all around, it was even scarier to walk outside to shovel your sidewalk. For the NYC/NNJ area, there were no comparable events in anyone's memory. Just a new variation in another year of remarkable weather events.

Is this the new normal? Some key climate change deniers are beginning to reevaluate their positions. A recent study by a major skeptic funded by the Koch Brothers concluded that the facts were unmistakable. As is often the case, the best coverage was by Jon Stewart.

The Most Haunted Home's for Sale or Rent

Among the top ten Real Estate deals this week are some of the most haunted houses in the U.S. Several have connections to celebrities including Dean Martin, Mike Tyson, Janet Leigh and Ozzie Nelson. The majority are are located in California but the scariest may be in upstate New York(at right) on 8 acres for 289k.

Get Ready for E-Cat

This Friday, Andrea Rossi's E-Cat Energy Catalyzer technology will either make the history books by producing a Megawatt of thermal energy or will fizzle as have so many "revolutionary" energy pipe dreams. Rossi explains his new cold fusion inspired process here.
Updated 10/29: Initial tests were successful! Stay tuned...

Rising Rates Threaten Refi Plans

From CNBC.com:

Rates dropped to record lows a month ago, and while more borrowers went to refinance, the volumes were still very low. Then, more recently, we see basically a quarter point rise, and refinances fall off a cliff. The goal of the refinance proposals is to get the allegedly 3/4 of underwater borrowers with above-market mortgage rates (about 8.9 million according to CoreLogic) a break on their monthly payments. This would supposedly lessen the threat of default as well as add much-needed spending power back into the economy.

Bloomfield Mega-Mortgage Scammer Sentenced

A loan officer from a Bloomfield-based business was sentenced Monday to 366 days in prison for his role in a $1.5 million wire fraud case, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

David Wynn of Englewood, from Home Start America Inc., previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, along with its chief executive officer and founder, Michael Kaufman, who has yet to be sentenced.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Kaufman founded HSA in Bloomfield, N.J., and at one time employed more than 30 people. Kaufman, through HSA, purchased and sold residential real estate properties. As part of the scheme, Kaufman and others recruited people – often first-time home buyers – to purchase properties quickly, with promises of no money down, no closing costs, and repairs paid for by HSA. Kaufman would then steer the purchasers to loan officers, including Wynn.

Many of the properties sold by HSA had actually been bought by HSA shortly before, and then “flipped” to the unsuspecting buyers for far more than HSA paid. Kaufman, Wynn, and others falsely inflated the buyers’ income and assets on loan documents to make it appear that the buyers could afford the properties HSA was selling, when the purchasers did not have the means to buy the properties.

Victim financial institutions – relying on the false figures in the loan documents – then issued the mortgage loans, unaware of the purchasers’ true financial conditions. HSA and Kaufman received illicit profits when the transactions closed, and Wynn and other loan officers received commissions for their fraudulent work. After the closings, the buyers could not make the payments on the properties, and nearly always lost the properties to foreclosure.

The fraud, which began as early as 2002 and lasted through June 2005, caused over $1.5 million in loss to the banks, and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for Kaufman and HSA.

The World’s First Vertical Forest

Although not yet a reality, this adventurous design goes well beyond being a mere concept. Designed by Stefano Boeri - architect, academic and former editor of design and architecture magazine Domus - his Bosco Verticale is a towering 27-story structure, currently under construction in Milan, Italy. The Bosco Verticale is designed to produce and optimize energy. It should help to balance the heavily polluted Milanese microclimate.

According to Inhabitat.com:

Each apartment in the building will have a balcony planted with trees that are able to respond to the city’s weather — shade will be provided within the summer, while also filtering city pollution; and in the winter the bare trees will allow sunlight to permeate through the spaces. Plant irrigation will be supported through the filtering and reuse of the greywater produced by the building. Additionally, Aeolian and photovoltaic energy systems will further promote the tower’s self-sufficiency

Future Plans and Prognostications

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is out with predictions for the future of the U. S. economy as it applies to the housing market. Among their forecasts:

--Fixed mortgage rates are expected to remain low by historical standards, finishing 2011 at around a 4.5% average for the year, falling slightly to 4.4% for 2012 and climbing back up to 4.9 by 2013.

--Total existing home sales will stay around the 4.9 million
unit pace for 2011 and 2012, before increasing slightly to 5.2
million units in 2013 as the broader economy recovers. The
recovery in the new home sales will have a comparably slow start,
and may well be slow for most of 2012, but will show some
meaningful increases in 2013.

--Home price measures that exclude distressed transactions have
stabilized, and certain markets are showing year-over-year
appreciation.

--The unemployment rate will increase slowly until the second
quarter of 2012, hitting 9.3%, from the current level of 9.1%. It
is expected to be around 9.1% for 2011, 9.3% for 2012, and 9.1%
for 2013. Even though both economic and job growth are in
positive territory, they are still insufficient to lower the
unemployment rate in the near term.

And then there are the solar storm warnings

Chinese Biofuels -- Stir-Fry or Hogwash?

China’s omnivorous global appetite for energy resources is well known.

While biofuel production is one of the rising energy stars of the 21st century, it is unlikely to become a significant source for China in the near future, as the country’s arable land is devoted first and foremost to feeding the country’s massive population 1.3 billion citizens, unless a feedstock can be found that grows well on marginal land.

But the issue of food may yet prove to contribute to the country’s energy output by recycling a traditional component of Chinese cuisine – used cooking oil. According to a recent article in the People’s Daily, Beijing’s 19 million inhabitants are seeing the grease used to fry up their dim sum and other delicacies carted off by eight licensed collectors of used cooking oil, known as “hogwash,” for recycling into biofuel.

Hogwash oil is extracted from rotten pork and peroxided oil, used repeatedly in frying. The bad news is that when hogwash oil is reused in restaurants, it can breed a number of diseases, doctors suspecting that it is even a potential carcinogen.
Recycled into biodiesel fuel, hogwash oil accordingly becomes a public health service.

More from John C.K. Daly at OilPrice.com....

Another Week in Real Estate Unreality

It was another wild week for homeowners: The House of Representatives voted to renew the National Flood Insurance Program, interest rates remained at record low levels, homeowners called on Congress to keep the mortgage interest deduction, and lower FHA loan limits went into effect. Check out the houselogic.com blog to catch up on the most important home ownership headlines and highlights from the week.

New Jersey Homes are 3rd Priciest in U.S.

The following is a list of states ranked by the highest median list price of homes viewed at real estate search site Realtor.com in August:

Top 10 Places with Highest Median List Price of Homes Viewed at Realtor.com in August (among 50 states and Washington, D.C.)

State Med. list price of homes viewed
U.S. $214,990

Washington, D.C. $459,000
Hawaii $450,000
New Jersey $349,500
California $339,900
Massachusetts $339,900
Connecticut $299,900
Maryland $289,900
Rhode Island $279,900
New York $275,000
Virginia $275,000
Source: Realtor.com.

Tree Houses or Trailer Park?

This photo just popped up on a site for humorous pix. It may be a photoshop job, an environmental art project or a new reality in high rises. We'll update when we learn anything.