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Fire Prevention Day: Facts and Lifesaving Safety Tips for Your Family

October 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

firedetectorToday is Fire Safety Day. Please take the time to read these tips. It could help save your life one day.

Help! Fire! The words terrify, particularly if you’re at home, and unprepared to put out a fire.

Sadly, the numbers add up: Last year, there were 370,000 home fires, causing $6.9 billion in property damage, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Yet, it’s easy and inexpensive to follow safety measures to avoid the causes of most home fires. Fire Safety Week, which runs through Oct. 13, sends a loud message about the importance of understanding major causes, and heeding NFPA’s preventive measures:

MAJOR CAUSES OF HOME FIRES

Cooking fires. Kitchens are the hub of family life, with at-home cooking grabbing a starring role. Yet, it’s also the leading reason for home fires and injuries. The greatest number start when ingredients ignite (frying poses a particular risk), or a cook leaves a flame unattended.

To avoid a cooking fire: Avoid wearing loose-fitting clothing; keep the cooktop cleared of towels, papers or anything that can ignite; and stay in the kitchen when cooking. If you step away, turn off flames.

Never use water to extinguish a cooking oil fire. If a small grease fire develops,  smother flames by sliding a lid over the pan, turn off the burner, and leave the lid on until the pan cools, suggests the NFPA. If an oven fire starts, turn off heat and keep the door closed. Never take unnecessary risks: If you’re ever in doubt, exit and call 911.

Home heating fires. Furnaces and space heaters help keep you toasty as temperatures dip, but they need an annual cleaning, according to NFPA.

NFPA suggests keeping anything that can burn at least three feet from equipment, and turning off space heaters (which account for one-third of home heating fires) when you leave a room.

Holiday fire safety risks. Holidays are festive, but not if you don’t make safety a guest. Take extra precautions around turkey day: Thanksgiving is actually the peak day for cooking fires, according to the NFPA!

The winter holidays also pose special concern: Remember to water a live Christmas tree and use nonflammable decorations, advises FEMA. And never leave a room with candles burning in a Hanukkah menorah. More tips? See this NFPA report.

FIRE SAFETY MEASURES FOR YOUR HOME

Beyond these basic preventative measures, you might also consider a three-pronged approach to fire safety:

Smoke detectors. Besides keeping smoke alarms in working order (test them monthly, and change out batteries twice a year), you need to install the right number: the NFPA advises having one outside separate sleeping areas and on every level. Alarms that flash or vibrate can be important if there’s a hearing-challenged  member in the household.

Fire extinguishers. A fire extinguisher can be an important part of a fire safety kit, but you need to use the right tool for the job. It might be surprising to know that there are actually five distinct types of fire extinguishers—each designed to combat a different fire. Do a little research and outfit your home with the right extinguisher.

Automatic sprinkler systems. Common in office buildings, automatic sprinklers are increasingly being considered in private homes. They can be installed within the piping of new construction homes, but can also be retrofitted to fit in an existing home.

PRACTICE AN ESCAPE PLAN

Fires can quickly take a bad turn, spreading rapidly through your home. The NFPA says you may have as little as two minutes to escape your home safely once an alarm sounds.

Your best chance of getting out? It can depend on advance planning. So grab everyone in the household and develop a fire escape plan. Walk through your house and identify all possible escape routes (the NFPA even suggests having two ways out of every room) and choose a safe meeting point for your family outside the home. And, then, put the plan to the test. Try it out and practice it regularly.

Filed Under: Blog, Home Care, Technology Tagged With:

Seattle is great place for Gen Y

October 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Gen_YSeattle tops other metropolitan areas for its Gen-Y friendly work environment, according to PayScale, Inc., a provider of on-demand compensation data and software, reports the Puget Sound Business Journal. In partnership with Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and management consulting company, PayScale released its findings on the state of the Gen Y worker, ages 18 to 29.

The Emerald City is named the best large metro area for Gen Y workers for its strong wage growth (4.4% increase between Q2 2009 and Q2 2012), high median pay ($44,000), and the abundance of tech employers in the area.

The best companies for Gen Y are clearly in the technology arena. Qualcomm, Google, Medtronic, Intel, and Microsoft are ranked as the top 5 firms for Gen Y based on pay, the percentage of Gen Y employees, job satisfaction, stress, and schedule flexibility among other criteria.

PayScale’s study indicates that Gen Y most commonly works in online marketing and social media and is more likely to engage with smaller firms that value entrepreneurship, innovation, social media, and flexibility.

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Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Housing Market, New Media, Technology Tagged With:

CoreLogic: falling shadow inventories foreshadow rise in prices

October 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

shadow-inventoryReporting for July (the most recent month available), CoreLogic notes that shadow inventory levels are falling across the board, but notes that this is an indicator that housing prices will continue rising.

Shadow inventories on the decline

According to information provider, CoreLogic, the current residential shadow inventory as of July 2012 fell to 2.3 million units, representing a supply of six months, and a 10.2 percent drop from July 2011, when shadow inventory stood at 2.6 million units (approximately the same level the country was experiencing in March 2009).

CoreLogic notes that as of July, the flow of new seriously delinquent (90 days or more) loans into the shadow inventory has been roughly offset by the equal volume of distressed (short and real estate owned) sales.

corelogic figure 1 CoreLogic: falling shadow inventories foreshadow rise in prices

“Yet another hopeful sign”

“Broadly speaking, the shadow inventory continued to shrink in July,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The reduction is being driven by a variety of resolution approaches. This is yet another hopeful sign that the housing market is slowly healing.”

“The decline in shadow inventory has recently moderated reflecting the lower outflow of distressed sales over the past year,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, Chief Economist for CoreLogic. “While a lower outflow of distressed sales helps alleviate downward home price pressure, long foreclosure timelines in some parts of the country causes these pools of shadow inventory to remain in limbo for an extended period of time.”

corelogic figure 2 CoreLogic: falling shadow inventories foreshadow rise in prices

Digging deeper in to the six months’ supply

As of July 2012, CoreLogic reports that the shadow inventory fell to 2.3 million units, or six-months’ supply, and represented just over three-fourths of the 2.7 million properties currently seriously delinquent, in foreclosure, or in REO.

Of those 2.3 million units, 1.0 million units are seriously delinquent (2.9 months’ supply), fully 900,000 are in some stage of foreclosure (2.5-months’ supply) and 345,000 are already in REO (1.0-months’ supply).

The dollar volume of shadow inventory was $382 billion as of July 2012, down from $397 billion a year ago and $385 billion last month.

corelogic figure 3 CoreLogic: falling shadow inventories foreshadow rise in prices

Regional performances varied

Serious delinquencies, which CoreLogic calls “the main driver of the shadow inventory,” declined the most from April 2012 to July 2012 in Arizona (3.2 percent), Pennsylvania (2.8 percent), New Jersey (2.3 percent), Delaware (2.2 percent), and Maine (2.2 percent).

As of July 2012, Florida, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey make up 45 percent of all distressed properties in the country.

Note: as of this month, CoreLogic has adjusted the methodology for this report, which they say will improve accuracy. Full details here.

Source: Tara Steele in Economy, News – October 9, 2012

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Housing Market, real estate financing, Real Estate Updates Tagged With: , ,

Facebook | The Things That Connect Us

October 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

While I’m not a Facebook apologist, I am a fan. This, is a brilliant ad.

A smorgasbord of emotional titillation. Children playing, people crying, lovers loving, crowds jumping. Even a questioning gaze into the cosmos.

It’s all there, beautifully presented, to remind us just how much Facebook connects us.

Filed Under: Blog, New Media, Technology

Grand piano design strikes a modern chord

October 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

PH_Grand_Side-668-450-450-80The PH Grand by Poul Henningsen

Though the design of this grand piano is more than eighty years old, in an industry where classics are king, something so radically different might strike just the right chord for a modern musician.

According to manufacturer Blüthner’s website:

Poul Henningsen introduced his futuristic design in 1931. At that time, it was a total departure from the common perception of aesthetic piano design, and remains an outlier in the world of design cabinets to this day. True to the design ideal, “Form follows function”, the transparent lid and desk lend an extraordinary and delicate visual impression while allowing the player to see his entire ensemble, wherever they might be placed.

 

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While the pianist’s eye might be on the ensemble, the audience would have a tough time focusing on anything but this beauty of an instrument.

Be inspired by German quality and a Scandinavian design icon.

Width: 145 cm, length: 187 cm  Leather banding available in a variety of colors.

Full story at Blüthner World

Filed Under: Blog, Music, Technology Tagged With:

House Prices: Annual Appreciation for Last 25 Years

October 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Prices-Over-25-Years

Filed Under: Blog, Housing Market Tagged With: , , , ,

Reluctant Sellers Hold Up the Market?

October 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

monopoly-houses-7109While home prices are making gains in many markets, many home owners continue to wait for home prices go up even further before wanting to list their homes for sale, Inman News reports. As such, inventory levels have been tightly constrained in many markets, resulting in shortages of available for-sale listings.

Negative equity is mostly at play in causing many would-be sellers to wait out the market longer. About 10.8 million home owners were underwater at the end of June, CoreLogic reports. Negative equity often delays home owners from selling because they need the down payment on their current home to purchase another home.

"Many [would-be sellers] are waiting for prices to increase more before they can sell, and some sellers are keeping their current homes as a rental investment and buying without selling," Tom Avent, a broker-owner at Tom Avent Real Estate in Fresno, Calif., told Inman News.

Eight out of 10 would-be sellers recently surveyed say they believe they can get a higher price for their home if they wait one to two years to sell, according to a survey of 816 home owners conducted by Redfin. In the survey, only 13 percent said that now is a good time to sell.

"The sellers want to sell high and buy the home for prices that were available six months ago,” Andrea Harrington, an agent at EWM Realty International in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., told Inman News. “When they realize the entire market trends up, they rethink their plans to sell since it may not be as economical."

Facing inventory shortages, some real estate professionals are even reaching out to home owners who are sitting on the fence about putting their home on the market.

"Many sellers are still not aware of how strong our market is," Charles Roberts, co-owner of Your Castle Real Estate who serves as a director on the Denver Board of REALTORS®, told Inman News. "They still think it’s a bad market to sell. Our job is to inform them about the market and explain to them that with a rising market, it has become a strong seller’s market and to walk through their options."

In many areas, it’s a seller’s market right now, and that surprises many home owners, adds Jason Lopez, a broker at Atlantic & Pacific Real Estate in the San Diego area.

“Now it doesn’t mean prices are skyrocketing like past cycles, but with the chance of multiple offers, it makes the process more appealing,” Lopez told Inman News.

Source: “Fence-Sitters in No Hurry to Sell,” Inman News

Filed Under: Blog, Housing Market, Real Estate Updates

Morgan Stanley Makes Bold Prediction on Housing

October 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

housing-market-predictionsInvestment firm Morgan Stanley has high hopes for the housing market’s recovery this year and next.

"We expect to see 2012 end with an increase of 7 to 9 percent for the year in aggregate home prices after considering seasonality effects for the remainder of the year, with the possibility of a 10 to 12 percent increase on the bullish side and a 4 to 6 percent increase as the bear case," according to Morgan Stanley analysts in its latest Housing Markets Insight report. "We view the bear case outcome to be relatively less likely."

Morgan Stanley analysts say that home shoppers need to have more access to credit in order to finance their home purchases to keep the housing recovery strong. A tight lending environment has kept many would-be buyers out.

"Recent actions by the Federal Reserve, the commitment to keep interest rates lower for longer as well as the launch of an open-ended QE3, convince us that this low mortgage rate environment and the demand response for housing are likely to prevail for an extended period — well into the future," the Morgan Stanley analysts conclude.

Source: “Morgan Stanley Declares Housing Out of the Woods,” HousingWire

Filed Under: Blog, Economy, Housing Market, real estate financing, Real Estate Updates Tagged With: , , , ,

Will The Mortgage Forgiveness Act Be Extended?

October 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

helpAs the year winds down, we are getting more and more inquiries about the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 and whether or not it will be extended past its original expiration date of December 31, 2012. This is important as people who are selling their home through a short sale may be faced with a tax liability if they don’t close by the aforementioned date.

Here is the way the IRS explains the tax liability:

“If you borrow money from a commercial lender and the lender later cancels or forgives the debt, you may have to include the cancelled amount in income for tax purposes, depending on the circumstances. When you borrowed the money you were not required to include the loan proceeds in income because you had an obligation to repay the lender. When that obligation is subsequently forgiven, the amount you received as loan proceeds is normally reportable as income because you no longer have an obligation to repay the lender. The lender is usually required to report the amount of the canceled debt to you and the IRS on a Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt.

Here’s a very simplified example. You borrow $10,000 and default on the loan after paying back $2,000. If the lender is unable to collect the remaining debt from you, there is a cancellation of debt of $8,000, which generally is taxable income to you.”

What does the Act accomplish?

Let’s go back to the IRS for the explanation:

“Normally, debt that is forgiven or cancelled by a lender must be included as income on your tax return and is taxable. But the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act allows you to exclude certain cancelled debt on your principal residence from income. Debt reduced through mortgage restructuring, as well as mortgage debt forgiven in connection with a foreclosure, qualifies for the relief.”

(For more information on the ACT from the IRS, click here)

This relief also applies to most short sales. Therefore, the question of whether or not the Act will be extended is crucial for anyone considering selling their house through the short sale process.

Will the Act be extended past the end of the year?

No one knows for certain. Diana Olick of CNBC recently reported on the issue:

“So what is the possibility of congress extending the tax relief? One Hill-watcher puts it at 60-40. The Senate Finance Committee passed a package of tax extenders right before the recess, including a one year mortgage relief extension, but leadership in the House of Representatives has not figured out how it wants to handle these extenders. With the looming ‘fiscal cliff,’ tax cuts are an increasingly tough sell. This particular extension does have bipartisan support, but that doesn’t always mean passage in Congress, especially around a presidential election.”

Without knowing whether the Act will be extended, we suggest anyone considering selling via the short sale process do it now.

Source: KCM

Filed Under: Blog, Housing Market, real estate financing Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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