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Maybe It’s Time to Change Credit Cards

On Thursday, the first of a set of new rules went into effect resulting from the landmark credit card legislation earlier this year.

Banks must now provide written notice to customers 45 days before increasing the interest rate or changing the terms on a card. So banks raced to get out in front of that requirement, making a bunch of changes before Thursday, lest they have to give you a month and a half of warning.

Irritated by the changes? Inclined to take your business elsewhere now? This is exactly the right instinct, since plenty of people can still get a better deal from a different card. Fee-free balance transfers still exist. And banks have barely touched the most lucrative rewards programs — and wouldn’t dare fiddle too much given the revenue they generate.

The best revenge is a better card. Here’s how to find one.

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Why Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Should Be Allowed To Stay On As Renters

Less than 10% of homeowners facing foreclosure have benefited from the Obama administration's mortgage modification program, according to a Treasury Department report this month. This plan is the third federal mortgage modification plan in the last two years, but the foreclosure rate continues to skyrocket, with the country now on a path to 2 million foreclosures this year.

It's time to try a new route for helping homeowners. There is a simple alternative: Congress can pass legislation that gives homeowners facing foreclosure the right to stay in their home as renters. This "right to rent" policy would require no taxpayer money, no new bureaucracy and could immediately benefit homeowners facing foreclosure.

» LA Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

U.S. Enters Recovery as Stimulus Refutes Skeptics

Recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s has begun as President Barack Obama’s fiscal stimulus -- derided as insufficient and budget-busting months ago -- takes effect, a survey of economists indicated.

The economy will expand 2 percent or more in four straight quarters through June, the first such streak in more than four years, according to the median of 53 forecasts in the monthly Bloomberg News survey. Analysts lifted their estimate for the third quarter by 1.2 percentage points compared with July, the biggest such boost in surveys dating from May 2003.

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Nissan foresees ‘mass market’ for electric cars

Pure-electric vehicles could account for 10 per cent of new-car purchases globally by 2020, Carlos Ghosn, head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, predicted on Sunday as he unveiled the Leaf, an emissions-free family hatchback that the Japanese carmaker is aiming at mass-market buyers.

“We don’t see the electric car as a niche car,” Mr Ghosn said at a ceremony at Nissan’s new global headquarters in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo. “We see it as a mass-market car.”

» FT [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Hollywood Destroys the World; New wave of disaster movies, TV shows

A flood of postapocalyptic stories is now headed toward movie theaters and TV screens: Expect to see characters fending off cannibals, picking up day-to-day survival techniques and struggling to maintain their humanity amid the ruins. Many of the new projects, however, actually skip the spectacle of doomsday. Instead, they’re more fixed on what goes down in the aftermath.

» Wall Street Journal [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Mortgage rates down for 4th week

July 22, 2009 -- The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 3 basis points, to 5.55 percent. One year ago, the mortgage index was 6.77 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.8 percent. The Fed "believes that a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will be appropriate for an extended period." (The Fed will keep short-term rates low for a long time)

» Markets [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Podcast: Cybercrime and Working From Home

The economic downturn has been very good for one sector - cybercrime. Stephen Pritchard reports. Plus - how far has homeworking progressed?

[ MP3 ] Cybercrime and working from home

The sophisticated and funky N-BLOX in Toronto

A groundbreaking modern residential building, the likes of which Toronto has never seen before, is set to take its place on the edge of one of North America's most colourful and coveted neighbourhoods. The sophisticated and funky N-BLOX at 799 College is a low-rise, high-quality, condominium project perfect for those who appreciate living an urban lifestyle in a vibrant and inviting neighborhood.

Set on a New York-style 50 x 110 deep lot, N-BLOX is surrounded by a city strip packed with popular restaurants, bars, cafés and specialty shops with parks and schools nearby. In what can be described as an architectural work of art, easily recognizable as a landmark, the façade will feature a stunning exterior that resembles avant-garde building blocks of glass clad with a mixture of stone, brick and metal. Eschewing volume for style and substance, only eight condominium apartments, ranging in size from 1,200 to 2,000 square feet, are being developed in this boutique six-storey structure, ensuring N-BLOX creates an eye-catching presence on the street and provides a modern compliment to this iconic neighbourhood. A cozy minimalist lobby, designed to optimize privacy and maximize security, leads to elevators that open directly into each suite’s private foyer. Each unit has its own exclusive elevator access, and penthouse residents have direct elevator access to their private rooftop terraces.

» quadrangle.ca [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

Home improvement ladder-related injuries increasing in the US

According to new research, more than 2.1 million individuals were treated in U.S. emergency departments for ladder-related injuries. That estimate exceeds an average of 136,000 cases annually. This is the first U.S. study to use national data to comprehensively examine nonfatal ladder-related injuries.

"Individuals using ladders are often not mindful of the severe risks associated with use" Data showed ladder-related injuries most often occur to males, accounting for nearly 77 percent of the total cases. Fractures were the most common type of injury, while the legs and feet were the most frequently injured body parts.

Companies build new image for prefab homes

Factory-built housing is touting environmental benefits and a fresh look to win a new generation of buyers as the industry continues to fight an image of cheap design and endure the same housing slowdown pummeling conventional home builders. Among the industry's innovations: tiny backyard houses where baby boomers can house aging parents, two-story log houses and a three-story townhomes.

Fans of what's variously called "prefab," "modular" or "manufactured" housing say the industry is poised for new growth as architects explore fresh designs and more people associate the housing style with higher standards, better energy efficiency and less construction waste.

» chron.com

Welcome to BoKlok (Ikeatown)

BoKlok homes don't exactly come in flatpacks, but they're not far off. The timber-framed buildings are almost entirely prefabricated. They are usually brought to the site on the back of trucks as pre-assembled units, like Portakabins, with the interiors already fitted out. Each apartment is made up of two of these units, which are simply moved into position by crane. Put on the roof and exterior wall cladding, plumb and wire it in, and it's ready to live in. The typical BoKlok arrangement is an L-shaped, two-storey block with three apartments on each floor. One such block can be put up in a day...

The bestselling BoKlok design in Sweden has an exterior of blood-red weatherboard, square white windows and a pitched roof; it wouldn't look out of place in a typical Swedish town. There is a limited choice of colour and cladding types, plus national variations. Danish ones are dressed more fashionably, for example, with black cladding and steel balconies, and they have found it easier to build straight blocks rather than L-shaped ones on Norway's hilly terrain. The one in Malmo that Magnusson takes me to, though, looks anonymously modern, with plain white walls, tall windows, wooden balconies and walkways. Typically, it is situated among other housing types in a suburb of the city.

» boklok.com via: guardian.co.uk [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

The Next Big Boom: Ocean Real Estate?

With land getting so crowded, the age-old fantasy of sea-based living is becoming reality.

The first is Hydropolis, a $500 million-plus, 220-room hotel under development near Dubai in the Persian Gulf. Billed as the world's first underwater hotel, the Hydropolis will be located, if all goes according to plan, 60 feet below sea level and cost $1,500 a night. Among other amenities, the Hydropolis will also feature a missile defense system to guard against terrorists, a shopping mall, and three bars.

Then there's Poseidon Mystery Island, a $200 million development off the coast of Fiji. When it opens in mid-2008, the hotel will be much smaller than Hydropolis and almost twice as expensive to visit. But it does boast something you don't get in Dubai: 24-hour views of one of the world's liveliest coral reefs.

Whether these two projects ultimately swim remains to be seen. The engineering challenges aside, there are plenty of unanswered questions about the environmental impact of these underwater havens. And while Poseidon is taking reservations, construction delays at the Hydropolis will likely extend its scheduled 2008 opening.

» business2 [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

[mp3] Investing in a foreclosure can be rewarding if you're willing to do your homework

Compared with a year ago, foreclosures are up more than 60% nationally, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties. And the chance of obtaining a bargain is likely to rise as the slowing housing market forces foreclosing lenders to offer bigger discounts to lure a smaller pool of buyers.

» Search RealEstate-Specific Tags: Foreclosure - Foreclosed Properties - Housing Market
» [mp3] Listen or Download Opportunities in the Housing Slowdown

KOR's Sunset Silver Lake: Pre-construction Bust?

 
A blogger's report on KOR's Sunset Silverlake loft project...
"As for my own decision not to buy now, I have been spooked by the chilly housing market combined with my uncertainty about the scope and speed of Sunset Junction's gentrification. KOR has now decided to not market the lofts again until the new year, and has claimed that its released prices will "not go down."

» Search RealEstate-Specific Tags: LA Housing Market - Sunset Silverlake - KOR
» Curbed LA

Urban Glass House, Soho, New York / Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie

Is a modernist residence the latest luxury accessory of the rich and famous? Judging from the brisk sales of units at The Urban Glass House, a new, luxury condominium project located in Soho New York designed by Philip Johnson and Alan Ritchie, one would think so. The 11 storey 40-unit project, which is ready for occupancy in 2007, is 80% presold. And the penthouse unit set a record for the neighbourhood. No small feat given that real estate market has cooled and that the units here are pricey, ranging from 1.6 to 12.5 million dollars.

Part of the project’s success is that it has been cleverly marketed as the urban version of an iconic building, Johnson’s Glass House in New Caanan, Connecticut, which the architect completed in 1949 and occupied until his death in 2005. Ritchie says in scale and context, the Urban Glass House echoes the Seagram building. But the details are drawn from the Glass House. The building’s palette is limited and restrained, with steel and glass as primary materials. Inside, Annabelle Seldorf has designed rich, warm yet spare interiors. White oak floors are laid in a chevron pattern like the brick floors in the original Glass House, and large expanses of glass are used throughout.

» pjar.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer

Frenzied corporate cultures still confuse sleeplessness with vitality and high performance. An ambitious manager logs 80-hour work weeks, surviving on five or six hours of sleep a night and eight cups of coffee (the world’s second-most widely sold commodity, after oil) a day. A Wall Street trader goes to bed at 11 or midnight and wakes to his BlackBerry buzz at 2:30 am to track opening activity on the DAX. A road warrior lives out of a suitcase while traveling to Tokyo, St. Louis, Miami, and Zurich, conducting business in a cloud of caffeinated jet lag. A negotiator takes a red-eye flight, hops into a rental car, and zooms through an unfamiliar city to make a delicate M&A meeting at 8 in the morning.
Via: HBR Sleep Deficit: The Performance Killer, October 2006

Mortgage Applications Dip in Spite of Falling Rates

U.S. mortgage applications fell for the first time in four weeks even as interest rates dropped to a six-month low, an industry trade group said on Wednesday, providing further evidence the country's housing market slump is deepening.
via: FOX News

Massachusetts Home Sales Plunge, Prices Drop

Sales of single-family homes plunged in August by a whopping 21.6 percent,to 4,229 homes, compared with figures from the year prior. It was the fifth straight month of sales declines, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said yesterday. The median price of a home took a 6 percent hit, falling to $352,000... Condo sales dropped by 18.5 percent, to 2,103, in August. The median price for a condo was off 3.3 percent, to $278,000.
via: Boston Herald

Know Your Numbers: Home Sales

The housing industry is an important component of the U.S. economy, affecting everyone. By looking at data on sales of homes, you can track how well the housing industry is doing, which can help you with decisions about investing in real estate, home-building companies, and other companies that directly benefit from a healthy housing economy.
via: Motley Fool

Existing-Home Sales Holding At A Sustainable Pace

Existing-home sales stabilized at a sustainable pace in August, while home prices showed an anticipated decline, according to the National Association of Realtors.

[XLS] Total existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – slipped 0.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.30 million units in August from a level of 6.33 million Ju1y, and were 12.6 percent lower than the 7.21 million-unit pace in August 2005, which was the second highest on record.

U.S. mortgage rates fall

Average interest rates on U.S. 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell over the past week.

Thirty-year mortgages averaged 6.43 percent, down from 6.47 percent in the prior week, while 15-year mortgages fell to 6.11 percent from 6.16 percent.

One-year adjustable rate mortgages also dipped, to an average of 5.60 percent from 5.63 percent a week earlier.

Prospects for a potential stabilization in the housing market - Barron's

Barron’s says that if the downturn in the housing market bucks the Street’s opinion and stabilizes in 2007, stocks that have been taken down by investor fear may see upside in the next twelve months as some anticipate a recovery.
View the story

United States Housing Characteristics

Americans are very satisfied with their neighborhoods, according to 2005 American Housing Survey microdata released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The survey also reveals that the median value of a new home (built in the last four years) was $236,864; monthly housing costs were $809 last year.

The American Housing Survey microdata are files showing the responses made by the public to survey questions, with identifyng information removed. These records enable users to generate their own tabulations.

The file includes 2005 statistics on a wide range of housing topics. Among these are the presence of air conditioning and other equipment, heating fuels used, size of homes, mortgages, rent control and rent subsidies, satisfaction with home and neighborhood and repairs made to the unit. Information on the demographic characteristics of the unit’s occupants is also included. Statistics are provided for apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes and vacant housing units.

Additional examples of findings:

• On a scale of 1 (worse) to 10 (best), the percentage of householders who rated their neighborhood an 8 or above (70.4 percent) was up about 1 percentage point from 2003, the last time these data were collected. The Midwest (72.6 percent) had the highest rate among regions.
 
• The median home value rose from $140,201 in 2003 to $165,344 in 2005.
 
• The median value of a newly built home also increased over the period, from $186,939 to $236,864.
 
• There were 4.1 million renter-occupied housing units in multiunit structures with five or more apartments that included at least one household member age 55 or older. In about 22 percent of these units, the occupants received various special services such as prepared meals, transportation and housekeeping. About 14 percent of these occupants lived in buildings where assistance was provided to them, such as financial management and aid in shopping, bathing and dressing.
 
• The percentage of householders who reported crime in their neighborhoods rose from 14.6 percent in 2003 to 15.1 percent in 2005.
 
• Sixty-two percent of the nation’s 6.9 million mobile homes were single-wide, with the remainder being double-wide or larger.

Americans Marrying Older, Living Alone More, See Households Shrinking

The median age of first marriage was 27.1 years for men and 25.8 years for women last year, up from 23.2 and 20.8 years, respectively, 25 years earlier, according to new information on America’s families and households released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.   According to Families and Living Arrangements: 2005, the proportion of households consisting of one person living alone increased from 17 percent in 1970 to 26 percent in 2005. In 2005, 10 percent of the nation’s households contained five or more people, down from 21 percent in 1970. During the same time period, average household size declined from 3.14 to 2.57 people.

67 percent of the nation’s 73.5 million children under 18 lived with two married parents in 2005. About 20.7 million children under 18 lived with one parent; 17.2 million with their mother and 3.5 million with their father.

• The majority of men and women in 2005 had been married by the time they were 30 to 34 years old (72 percent); and among men and women ages 65 and over, 96 percent had been married.
 
• The United States had an estimated 5.8 million “stay-at-home” parents: 5.6 million moms and 143,000 dads.
 
• About 8 percent of all children (6.1 million) lived in a household that included a grandparent.
 
• Among 12.8 million children ages 15 to 17, about 2.4 million were working and, of these, 2.2 million worked part time.

[PDF] Read the Report

Apocalyptic Days for Homebuilders

Some truly apocalyptic comments from Don Tomnitz, CEO of homebuilder D.R. Horton, at the Credit Suisse Homebuilders Symposium today. He is expecting 2007 to be worse than 2006, and maybe stabilization by 2008:

"We have never seen housing prices and demand slow as quickly as they have during this downcycle," said the CEO of the nation's largest home builder when measured by 2005 deliveries. "Demand has evaporated to the extent of about 20% to 30% for the industry, and in a tighter timeframe than we've seen before."

Homeownership

The homeownership rate in the second quarter 2006 (68.7 percent) was not statistically different from the second quarter 2005 rate (68.6 percent). Among regions, the homeownership rate in the Midwest was lower than the rate one year ago, while the rate in the West has higher than one year ago. No statistical year-to-year change was found in the other regions

There's No Place Like Home Blog

Home is a place where a person lives, spends much of her time, or feels generally comfortable with. While a house (or other residential dwelling) is often referred to as a home, and is home to many people, the concept of "home" is broader than a physical dwelling. Home is often a place of refuge and safety, where worldy cares fade, with things and people you love becoming the focus. Home is central to one's life, primarily emotional, and partially physical.

• "home is where you hang your hat"
• "home is where the heart is"
• "love makes a house a home"
• "there's no place like home" (Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz)

Ultimately home is highly individual, and personal, and is arrived at in different ways. It can be; the place of your birth, where you grew up, or maybe your first apartment, or house.

tags: homeblog, home, family, house

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Brand Name / tm [ HomeBlog ] Ideas To Love Where You Live
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HomeBlog Interior / Domotics / Domobots

Domotics is the application of computer and robot technologies to domestic appliances. It is a portmanteau word formed from domus (Latin, meaning house) and robotics.

Remote Control
Most modern houses have appliances that allow some degree of remote control. Domotics aims to integrate and extend this throughout the house. A house with a domotics system installed might have many computers, perhaps built into the walls, to allow the homeowner to control applications in any part of their house from any other.

Automatic Activities
A house with domotics is expected to be able to call the police or the firemen by itself, with more subtleness and a wider variety of allowances than normal alarm systems. On a daily basis, domotic systems are often supposed to be able to automatically gather data from several sensors and do such things as adjust lights and music to the personal preferences of each member of the household, as they come into or leave a particular room. The simplest systems require that each person wear a marker, such as an RFID tag, while the more sophisticated ones detect movement, body heat, and other individual characteristics.

Some Tasks That Domotics Fulfills:

• Work with your utility company to take advantage of off peak electricity rates and provide choices for comfort, safety, and energy management.
• Control curtains, window blinds, and sun shades from one location, all day, without human interaction.
• Opening or locking and unlocking gates and garage doors, under either separate or global control.
• Controlling indoor climate. Press one button to set the heating to night mode; the lights go out, the gates close....
• Control your hi-fi and home cinema from any room, using buttons, panels, or remote control.
• Ensuring that the right light is on in the right place; domotics can also ensure that the right lighting intensity and mood are achieved.
• Providing intelligent garden sprinklers and other plumbing; the lawn is watered only when it is needed, and you can enjoy a quiet stroll through your garden without risking a drenching.

Domobot
A domobot or domicrobot is a domotic microbot. Domotic means connected to a home automation network, and microbot means a mobile robot with a microcontroller - typically a PIC.

Domobots can be connected to a domotic controller (a computer or similar device) through a cable (USB port) or wirelessly (usually through a WiFi port). They are mostly used for domestic work, such as vacuum-cleaning or ironing, and transporting objects around the house to wash or iron them, etc.

A domobot is not the same as a home robot. For example, Roomba or Maxx are home robots but not domobots, because they do not have a port (e.g. WiFi or USB) to connect it to a domotic network.

Standards

• X10
• C-Bus
• CEBus
• INSTEON
• EIB
• ZigBee
• DECT
• Tebis
• KONNEX/KNX

Information appliance

An information appliance (IA) is any device that can process information, signals, graphics, animation, video and audio; and can exchange such information with another IA device. Typical devices could be smartphones, smartcard, PDAs, and so on. Digital cameras, ordinary cellular phones, set-top boxes, and LCD TVs are not information appliances unless they become capable of communications and information functions. Information appliances may overlap in definition or are sometimes referred to as smart devices, mobile devices, wireless devices, internet appliances, web appliances, handhelds, handheld devices or smart handheld devices.

tags: homeblog, home, family, domobots, domotics

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