"Pic" of the week:
Guatemala City sinkhole; In March 2007 this 330 foot deep sinkhole swallowed several homes and caused the evacuation of 1000 people and was blamed for three deaths. According to articles, it emitted foul odors, shook the ground and rushing water could be heard from its depths.
http://www.rxbbx.com/blog/2007/02/24/guatemala-sinkhole/
http://www.ordena.com/digg/sinkhole.html
(See more photos at the end of this newsletter)
Headline Mortgage News:
Builders circle the wagons – Starts & permits drop to 12 year low – According to this article in CNNMoney.com, builders “slam the brakes on new projects”.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/19/news/economy/housingstarts/index.htm?postversion=2007091910
Foreclosure filings may exceed 2 million in 2007 according to Realty Trac – Nevada, California and Florida lead the pack. Read about it in this CNNMoney.com article by Les Christie:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/17/real_estate/August_foreclosures_way_up/index.htm
Fed cuts interest rate ½ point – Will this stop the bleeding? According to this LATimes.com article, there are winners and losers and it is not clear that housing will revive:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rates19sep19,1,655303.story?coll=la-headlines-business
H&R Block announces 575 to be fired at Option One Mortgage (a wholly owned subsidiary). This is in addition to 615 jobs lost last May. For more info, click on this Reuters article in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR2007091101634.html
A housing problem rising faster than foreclosures; The high cost of rent – this AP article found at msnbc.msn.com, states “the number of working family renters paying more than half their income for housing has soared from 1 million to 2.1 million since 1997”.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20776771/
Thought for the Week:
"Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule."
Friedrich Nietzshe
This photo is an entry from the “Why women live longer than men” photo contest…And this one was 7th place? http://www.gophergas.com/funstuff/womenlivelonger2.
How to keep more of your own paycheck
Metro and Cricket eyeing merger
Metro PCS and Cricket may be getting ready to merge. These companies are like the Southwest Airlines of the cell phone business. They run extra-lean operations and undercut traditional cell phone operators by a handsome margin, passing the savings on to customers. With Metro and Cricket, flat-rate calling usually starts at $30/month for unlimited calling. The only problem is that if you travel, you may or may not be able to use your phone because Metro and Cricket don't have coverage across the country. Metro is now looking at the possibility of buying Cricket's parent company. If this happens, it would create a fifth major player in the telecommunications industry.
And now, for this week's fun freebies!
Free Back-ups: It has been reported that this is a product you can use to make sure you don’t lose those valuable photos, music files and office documents on your PC. Ever heard of a company called Mozy? This company will give you FREE 2 GB of storage. If you want, you can do unlimited data backups for less then $5.00 a month. So, for less then $60 a year, you can store all of your valuable data in a secure place.
This is how it works:
1) Sign-up for an account at this URL: http://www.mozy.com/?ref=3f9a896b&kbid=38254&m=5
2) Download and install a small application.
3) Select the files you want saved.
4) Lastly, this software will copy your data to a secure server at a trustworthy site.
So, if your computer crashes or your child accidentally deleted a file, No Problem. Open the Mozy icon and pull it back to your computer.
Get up to 4 FREE tickets to a live show in your area during the month of October! Free Night of the Theater 2007 sponsors this program to help introduce more people to shows in their communities! To see which theater in your town is giving away free tickets go to www.freenightoftheater.net
And finally, Appraise That!
The “House in the Clouds” is located in Thorpeness, Suffolk County, England. It was built in 1923 to hide the town’s unsightly water tower. The living area was the five stories below the house shaped structure which enclosed the tank. Later, when Thorpeness connected to an alternate public water supply, the tank was dismantled and the additional living area was built out.
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