(That includes Indiana, New Jersey, California and Texas, a great representation of the US)
New Jersey:
I was always amazed at the HUGE houses being built all over New Jersey, wondering who could afford the mortgage payments on those mansions...
N.J. home foreclosure filings outpace national rate
by Jeff May/The Star-Ledger
Thursday October 23, 2008, 7:49 AM
For the first time since the onset of the housing slump, the rate of foreclosure filings in New Jersey outstrips the national average.
In September, one in every 453 homes in the state received a filing -- either a default notice, a scheduled sheriff's auction or a bank repossession, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based data tracking firm. The rate for the United States was one in 475 households.
U.S. foreclosure filings for the three months ending Sept. 30 rose a whopping 71 percent, year over year. During the same period, however, N.J. filings climbed 95 percent.
New Jersey ranked eighth in rate of filings for September. Nevada, California and Florida were the top states. For updated coverage, see the New Jersey Business News page.
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And here is a wild fire burning in my old stomping grounds from late 2000-2004 in my beloved Jersey Pine Barrens
Wildfire burns 1,800 remote acres in South Jersey
by MaryAnn Spoto and Rudy Larini/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday October 22, 2008, 7:45 PM
A fire burning in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey has charred 1,800 remote acres of the Wharton State Forest, but fire officials have scaled back immediate concerns that the wind-whipped flames would spread to more populated areas.
Tonight, Stephen Maurer, assistant fire warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, estimated the fire was about 40 percent contained and he said he did not expect either its size or containment would change much before Thursday morning.
Residents who were evacuated earlier today from four homes and two businesses in Hammonton, Atlantic County, were allowed to return in the afternoon as flames appeared not to be spreading, Maurer said.
Additionally, state officials reopened a portion of Route 206 in Hammonton. The roadway remains closed between Atsion and Chew roads, Maurer said.
"The fire activity has decreased substantially. Most of the fire has been burning on the ground because it's been so dry," Maurer said.
"It seems to have settled down quite a bit even though it was pretty windy today," he said tonight, attributing that to the higher humidity.
"There are going to be between 50 to 70 men and about 15 trucks out there tonight doing what they can to contain the fire lines," Mauer said.
With no rain in the forecast until Saturday, he did not expect the fire to be doused any time soon.
"If we don't get any rain or not enough, this'll burn for weeks," he said.
This morning, fire officials estimated 1,200 acres had burned, but Maurer attributed the additional 600 charred acres to a better mapping of the area by aerial observation teams.
"There was so much smoke, they didn't know how much had burned," he said.
Today's northerly winds weren't strong enough to warrant fears of a quick spreading fire, but they had enough force to give firefighters on the ground some assistance, Maurer said.
"The wind is helping dissipate the smoke so they can see what they're doing and helping the guys on the ground breathe a little better," he said.
The blaze began Tuesday afternoon in Camden County and spread to Burlington and Atlantic counties, according to Bert Plante, a division fire warden with the fire service.
Firefighters tried to stop it from crossing Route 206, but the blaze jumped the highway Tuesday night, Plante said. See more in Atlantic County, Editors' Picks, Environment, Fire
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California:
Home sales soar as prices fall
Foreclosures drive purchases concentrated in Salinas Valley
By MARIE VASARI Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/22/2008 09:54:56 AM PDT
Monterey County's home sales tripled in September over the same period last year, driven by steep price reductions on foreclosed properties.
The bulk of those transactions were in existing home sales: 393 properties closed escrow in September, up from 130 in September 2007.
But while sales have increased for seven of nine months this year, the impact on pricing has been just the opposite.
The September median home price in Monterey County was down 45.1 percent compared to September 2007, according to new data released Tuesday by real estate research firm MDA DataQuick.
In dollar figures, that means the median sales price for a Monterey County home, which was at $500,750 in September 2007, plummeted to $275,000 last month. Those figures comprise all newly built homes and condos, resale condos and resale detached houses, according to the La Jolla-based tracking firm.
Foreclosures are the biggest factor in the pricing equation: 62.3 percent of existing home sales sold in September had been foreclosed upon at some point in the past 12 months, said DataQuick spokesman Andrew LePage.
While no part of Monterey County has been immune to the wave of foreclosures, the hardest-hit areas are those now experiencing the greatest number of sales, as bank-owned properties continue to flood the market.
For the third quarter of 2008, 70 percent of closed sales were concentrated in Salinas and the northern and southern regions of Monterey County, said Sandy Haney, chief executive officer of the Monterey County Association of Realtors. The remaining 30 percent were sales of properties on the Peninsula, including Seaside and Marina.
Of the 940 homes that sold during last quarter, 76 percent were foreclosures sales, according to data compiled from MLSListings, Inc., making the average sale price from $200,000 to $300,000 for a Salinas home, and from $300,000 to $400,000 for properties in Seaside and Marina, said Haney.
In practical terms, the continued downturn in pricing means local real estate agents have been busier than they have been in some time. Hopeful first-time homebuyers and investors are showing up to open houses again, and some agents are seeing multiple offers on properties.
For some buyers, those prices are creating opportunities that few could have imagined just two years ago, when Monterey County's median sales prices peaked at $675,000.
So, what's ahead? Haney said it's hard to say, but pending home sales suggest that the current trends could continue. Of the 160 contracts entered into during the past 30 days, 84 happened during the past two weeks, despite the nation's economic crisis. But only 21 percent of those properties were located on the Peninsula, with the majority of those transactions in North County, South County and Salinas.
Those pending transactions range from an $89,499 single-family home listing in East Salinas to a $599,000 property along Monterey-Salinas Highway, Haney said, and 28 of those 84 pending sales were listings under $200,000.
"If the prices go low enough, people will buy, and why wouldn't they?" said Haney. "It was always the adage: Once a buyer can buy cheaper than he can rent, the decision's been made — providing they qualify for the loan."
But while the trends of the past nine months have been unequivocal, lending patterns and consumer confidence are tomorrow's unknowns. In a recent Monterey County Association of Realtors survey, members named consumer confidence as their biggest challenge right now, as consumers are hit with an onslaught of financial worries about their stock market investments, consumer prices and a shaky job market.
"If you don't feel comfortable," said Haney, "regardless of whether you have the money or not, you won't buy, whether it's a house or a waffle iron."
And there's still the big unanswered question about local real estate: "Just how low can it go?" asks Haney. For now, inventory remains high — 2,747 properties were listed for sale at the end of September, up from 2,480 in January — and no small portion of those are foreclosures. The impact, said Haney, is that the ripple effect on sales — a seller buying a new home with proceeds from the sale of a house — doesn't happen when someone buys a bank-owned property.
"Until that inventory is reduced, that's when we'll start seeing what the market's really made of," said Haney. "Right now, it's still a fire sale." Marie Vasari can be reached at mvasari@montereyherald.com or 646-4478.
See Monterey County Association of Realtors monthly data at www.mcar.com/statss.html
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Indiana:
(Indiana has some of the highest cancer rates in the country, to include lung cancer. It doesn't help that Indiana has low cigarette taxes and allows smoking in restaurants)
President's panel seeks answers on cancer
October 23, 2008
By Piet Levy Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- A special panel that reports directly to the president of the United States came to Indiana's capital city for a seminar about cancer.
The President's Cancer Panel, which monitors activities conducted by the National Cancer Program, is hearing from health experts and the general public at four special meetings across the country. All the meetings have a singular theme -- environmental factors that may cause cancer.
Indianapolis was the site of the second meeting Tuesday, which specifically focused on potential agricultural exposure to pesticides and herbicides.
The opportunity to meet with a panel that reports to the president was too good to pass up for Gary environmentalist Lin Kaatz Chary.
Chary made the trip for the meeting, and during public comment, emphasized the importance of promoting prevention.
"We don't wait to count the bodies to decide there's proof of harm," she said regarding the possibility of chemicals in pesticides causing cancer.
Dr. LaSalle Leffall, chairman of the panel and Professor of Surgery at Howard University's College of Medicine in Washington, said the panel wanted to meet in the Midwest for the agricultural meeting.
He said the panels, which looked at possible health consequences from exposure to compounds like atrazine, found in pesticides, didn't conclude there was a direct correlation to human-related cancer.
But he said it was important to have discussions so precautionary actions could take effect. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, less than 2 percent of chemicals on the market have been tested for carcinogenicity.
"Sometimes you cannot wait until you get all the information," Leffall said.
Speakers at Tuesday's meeting included experts from the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Pesticide Education Center, the Canadian Cancer Society and the University of California-Berkeley.
The panel also included Margaret Kripke, special assistant to the provost at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Career Center, Abby Sandler from the National Cancer Institute, and until recently, famed cyclist and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.
Joe Torre, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a cancer patient, is Armstrong's pending replacement, Leffall said.
Contact Piet Levy at 648-3102 or plevy@post-trib.com.
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1237756,indycancer.article
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Texas:
WEATHER
Cold front introduces first real taste of fall
Lows in the 40s expected Friday morning.
By Emily GlazerAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, October 23, 2008
It's time to dig out your sweaters and jackets because Austin's first major cold front this season has arrived.
For the first time since April 15, temperatures are expected to fall into the low and mid-40s Friday morning. Highs are expected in the low 70s today and Friday, said Bob Rose, meteorologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority.
"We're not going to see freezing temperatures, but it's the coldest front so far this fall," Rose said.
Temperatures will warm to the low 80s Saturday, but no rain is expected. Another cold front will push through late Sunday, reinforcing the cool conditions, Rose said.
Still, winds could kick up to 15 to 25 mph, with gusts hitting 30 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Fogarty said.
The cold front blew in from western Canada and hit downtown Austin about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Rose said. Between 4 and 5 p.m., the temperature dropped from 82 to 69 degrees.
"We'll see several days of sweater weather," he said.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/23/1023chill.html
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