Houses for sale inventory up from last year.

The stubborn slow economy fueled by high unemployment and a housing market with marked down prices and no more homebuyer tax credits leads to worries over a double-dip recession and the all important question whether now is the time to buy or not. Are we at the bottom or will house prices go down even more?

From their mid-2006 highs, home prices have sunk about 30% on average and in some places, like Las Vegas, prices have fallen more than 60%. And foreclosures are continuing to rise in 2010 even from the 2009 highs, and this puts even more downward pressure in housing prices.

At long last, the market is recording signals that housing could at last be skimming toward the bottom. Prices rose according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite home price index, ever so modestly, in the recent few months, and a handful of major lenders like GMAC, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase are putting on hold foreclosures in 23 states due to record-keeping issues. All of this signals that the declining price trend may stall — at least in the short term.

However, the founder of Housing Research Center LLC, Alex Barron, is still bearish on housing prices. He foresees prices falling another 10 to 30% before housing reaches a bottom. He points out that since the homebuyer tax credit has expired, inventory is increasing. He also projects that home prices will continue to decline as soon as mortgage rates start moving up. “Prices will correct 10% for every 1 percentage point the mortgage rate goes up,” he says.

The increasing number of foreclosures are also putting downward pressure on prices. Barron notes that bank repossessions totaled 718,000 in the first eight months of 2010, up 23% from the record 584,000 during the same period a year ago. He speculates that once the current foreclosure suspension is lifted, a flood of foreclosures could hit the market. That added supply will likely cause another correction in home prices.

Dell introducing new 7-inch tablet

Dell is ready to unveil it’s second Android tablet within the next few weeks, this one having the 7-inch display, and also a ten inch  model may appear at some point in 2011.

The brand new tablet’s introduction, verified by Dell Greater China President Amit Midha, was published in a Wall Street Journal article today. The announcement comes after Dell Ceo Michael Dell was at Oracle World last week where he enticed the audience with a short look at the new 7-inch tablet, but had not really provided any real details.

“It was showed off at Oracle World by Michael last week and we’ll be launching very, very soon, within the next few weeks,” Midha told the Journal.

Although Dell has not verified this, the brand new tablet may be the same 7-inch Android-based “Looking Glass” device that Engadget heard about last April thanks to some leaked Dell documents. If that’s the case, the specifications would apparently include Android 2.1 (though that may have been updated by now), an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a solid 800×480 pixel screen, the 1.3-megapixel camera, as well as 4GB of storage. The tablet will be expandable having a 32GB SDHC card and gives an optionally available TV tuner.

The 7-inch tablet might join Dell’s current 5-inch Streak that first appeared in European countries and has already been available in the United States via Dell.com from August. The Streak is  slated to be hitting Best Buy shops shortly, based on the statements from the company.

However Dell is not standing still with its new 5-inch or 7-inch devices. Midha disclosed to the Journal that the 10-inch device and additional 3-inch and 4-inch products (most probably smartphones) might reach the marketplace in the next six to twelve months. Although Dell has stayed with Android to date, Midha mentioned that a few of the new devices might also operate Windows and Dell is also  thinking about using Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS on a number of its devices.

Dell’s new tablets may join the developing and growing marketplace slowly becoming created by Samsung, Research In Motion, Hewlett-Packard, Research In Motion, and LG, and others. However it remains a marketplace dominated by Apple’s iPad for now. And similar to Dell, Apple is not sitting still and is apparently working on a thinner and more function-loaded iPad set to debut in early 2011.

Lawsuits abound between smart phone software and hardware manufacturers

Microsoft announced today that is suing Motorola for purportedly infringing upon nine patents in order to develop Motorola’s Android smartphones.

Microsoft issued a statement from corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing Horacio Gutierrez, which stated that the actual patents are related “to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.”

“We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market. Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones,” it went on.

Motorola has claimed that is has yet to receive the lawsuit. “Motorola has a leading intellectual property portfolio, one of the strongest in the industry. The company will vigorously defend itself in this matter,” it said.

The suits emphasize the extreme competition between software companies and device manufacturers within the exploding smartphone marketplace.

The software company’s actions accompany comparable legal attacks over supposed smartphone patent infringements.

Earlier in the week, Apple filed a suit against Nokia in Britain, continuing a back and forth legal struggle between the organizations relating to smartphone software.

Last March, Apple Inc. sued Taiwan-based HTC, the maker of Android phones like the HTC Hero as well as Google’s Nexus One (which is no longer available), claiming that it had infringed on 20 Apple patents associated with their iPhone user interface.

Employees inadequately reviewed foreclosure files

In the most sweeping action undertaken by a state regarding dilemma associated with document irregularities, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has initiated a moratorium on every foreclosure by every bank for the next 60 days on Friday.

Additionally, California broadened its moratorium on foreclosures that it declared last week for Ally Financial foreclosures to incorporate foreclosures by J.P. Morgan Chase as well.

Referring to the organizations’ reviews of crucial foreclosure documents as “a ruse,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) directed J.P. Morgan to demonstrate it is complying with the law before it proceeds with foreclosures in that state.

Both J.P. Morgan Chase and Ally now have suspended foreclosure proceedings in 23 states due to the fact that certain employees admitted to signing off on foreclosure paperwork not having adequately reviewed the files.

Illinois and Colorado have also frozen foreclosures by Ally along with no less than seven additional states having launched investigations into the issue. However Connecticut is the very first to actually initiate an industry-wide ban.

Meanwhile back in Connecticut, Blumenthal has stated that he is examining J.P. Morgan Chase and Ally, previously GMAC, which has received $17 billion in federal bailout funding and is also majority-owned by the U.S. Treasury, in addition to other lenders.

Blumenthal stated that the activities of J.P. Morgan and Ally are a “possible fraud on the court undermining the integrity of the legal process and consumers’ ability to fight foreclosures.”

“This freeze should stop a foreclosure steamroller based on defective documents and enable effective remedies,” he said.

Cellular Microscope

In a step that helps alleviate one of the most controversial areas within medicine today, a group of scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute located in Boston published a series of studies Thursday which reveal that artificial biological signals can reprogram common skin cells into entities that seem practically the same as embryonic stem cells.

The researchers have discovered an effective method to produce apparently safe alternatives to human embryonic stem cells that does not destroy human embryos. The same method could then change the cells into cells that could be utilized for transplants.

“This is going to be very exciting to the research community,” explained Children’s Hospital Boston’s Derrick J. Rossi, who directed the research published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell. “We now have an experimental paradigm for generating patient-specific cells highly efficiently and safely and also taking those cells to clinically useful cell types.”

The cells developed by this Harvard team, called iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), will steer clear of the ethical objection and could even turn out to be better than embryonic stem cells in a number of ways. For instance, iPS cells might make it possible for researchers to take a readily available skin cell from virtually any individual and then work with it to generate perfectly duplicated cells, tissue and possibly even complete internal organs for transplants that would subsequently be immune to being rejected by the body.

While warning that the experiments must be duplicated in other places and investigated even more, additional scientists mentioned the approach seems to signify a significant advancement in the growing field of “regenerative medicine” that is designed to be able to produce customized treatments  for individual patients.

Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot (1959)

Legendary American actor Tony Curtis, famous for starring in such classics as “Sweet Smell of Success,” “Some Like it Hot,” “The Defiant Ones,” and “Spartacus,”  passed away in his Nevada home near Las Vegas due to heart failure at age 85.

Before arriving in Hollywood from the Bronx and enjoying a career that lasted about 60 years where he starred in over 100 films, Curtis was known as Bernard Schwartz.

Curtis got his first big break in Hollywood through his role as a press agent in “Sweet Smell of Success,” where he starred alongside Burt Lancaster. He is also remembered for such roles as a cross dressing jazz musician trying to win Marilyn Monroe’s heart in “Some Like it Hot,” a slave next to Kirk Douglas in Stanley Kubrick’s historical drama “Spartacus,” and as an escaped prisoner starring opposite Sidney Poitier in “The Defiant Ones,” for which he won major acclaim along with his first, and only, Academy Award nomination for best actor.

Even though Curtis was a major star in his heyday, his career is comprised mainly of movies he did in his younger days. In fact, if Curtis had passed away at the same age as Marilyn Monroe, 36, he would still be remembered for the same movies.

“My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages,” Jamie Lee Curtis — his daughter with first wife Janet Leigh, co-star of “Psycho” — said in a statement. “He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world.”

NBA

In a CNN interview that was broadcast Wednesday night, LeBron James stated that race played a factor in the backlash from the ESPN Special, “The Decision” where James announced his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat.

The two-time reigning NBA MVP’s decision to join the Miami Heat came to light during the ESPN special this summer and was followed by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s response the same night in a statement to fans that James was behaving “narcissistic” and “cowardly.” Rev. Jesse Jackson then joined in claiming that Gilbert saw James as a “runaway slave.”

Last month, in a poll conducted by the Q Scores Company that asked about the most disliked sports figures, LeBron James came in at the top of the list.

During the interview on CNN’s “Primetime” when asked if he thought race was a factor James said, “I think so at times. It’s always, you know, a race factor.”

Even James’ manager Maverick Carter agreed saying, “It definitely played a role in some of the stuff coming out of the media, things that were written for sure.”

In comments made following Miami Heat practice on Thursday, James added, “I’m not going back on my words. People are looking too far into it. I said what I had to say and I’ll continue to move on.”

In a tight spot.

According to unnamed sources that have knowledge of the actual talks, the US Treasury Department is focusing on a plan to get American International Group Inc. (AIG) back to independence as well as to recoup taxpayer money provided in the insurer’s bailout, which the Federal government hopes to be able to announce by next week.

The announcement would arrive in advance of the November 2 US congressional elections where President Barack Obama’s Democrat colleagues are trying to keep Republicans from recovering power over the US Congress in the midst of voter frustration in regards to government sponsored business bailouts along with other issues.

The government bailout brought about taxpayers taking an almost 80% stake in the New York located insurance provider.

AIG, which was once the world’s biggest insurer, had initially been bailed out by the Federal Reserve Bank in September 08. Following three changes, the company’s $182.3 billion lifeline features a Fed credit facility, the Treasury’s expense of around $69.8 billion and as much as $52.5 billion to buy home loan backed assets possessed or guaranteed by AIG.

The company, that in addition to the Treasury’s preferred stake still owes approximately $20 billion through the Fed line of credit, is the last insurer that still has to pay back its Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout funds. Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. paid back their own bailouts, and in the month of September, the Treasury raised over $900 million selling warrants in the organizations.

The largest part of the actual strategy calls for the Treasury to commence transforming its $49 billion position in preferred stock into common stock to be sold by the end of the first half of next year, stated the sources, who refused to be identified since the discussions are private. The timing of the announcement will vary based on the actual pace of the talks between regulators and also the New York-based insurance provider, and conversations may lengthen beyond this current week, according to the sources.

AIG has already risen about 24% on New York Stock Exchange buying and selling this year. It fell 4.5% last year after it had steeply dropped 97% in 2008, the entire year write downs associated with soured real estate marketplace wagers compelled the insurance provider to agree to the bailout.

AIG’s strategy to obtain self-sufficiency could end up in the creation of a lot more shares of AIG common stock the firm stated in the August 6 filing and also the additional securities would likely cause considerable dilution to AIG’s current investors’ holdings.

The government is actually trying to get rid of its investment in AIG while Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche is preparing divestitures of 2 non-US divisions which he said should largely enable AIG to at least be able to pay back the company’s Federal Reserve line of credit. MetLife Inc. stated this month that its buying American Life Insurance Co., for around $15.5 billion, remains “on track” to turn out to be concluded upon November 1st. AIG might hold a preliminary public offering associated with an additional business, the AIA Group Ltd., this October.

AIG would be expected to hold a minimum of a 30% position within AIA for that first 12 months following the Asian unit’s listing, based on a preliminary IPO record dispatched to fund administrators today. AIA shares are planned to commence trading on the Hong Kong stock market on October 29th. Hong Kong based AIA is likely to increase pretax operating profit up to no less than $2 billion for this fiscal year closing November 30th, AIG disclosed on September 25th after supplying the forecast to particular analysts.

As outlined by Mark Herr, a spokesman associated with AIG, the insurance provider is actually trying to repay the actual rescue loan and over time be able to put AIG in a position as a powerful, independent organization deserving of investor confidence once more. AIG continues to be in discussions together with the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as well as trustees from the AIG Trust regarding the terms of the government’s departure from the company.

Each party would like to be able to complete their relationship with AIG as swiftly as possible, yet in the event that they sell their own shares too quickly it might lower the company’s market value that in turn determines how much money will be available to be delivered back to taxpayers.

Confused?

There seems to be the same confusion every time the S&P and  Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes are released, people want to know how or why the same information gets reported in so many various ways. People want to know what to believe and where they can look to find the information they need to make their own informed decision.

The actual Home Price Indexes  report price levels in the upper ten and even twenty property markets every month, in addition to a quarterly national quantity.  The actual report presents annual percentage increases and deficits, and then monthly gains in addition to losses, seasonally adjusted as well as non-seasonally. Why do they all this data?

Within a normal environment, which right now we do not live in, home prices differ from month to month because of the types of the different types of purchasers, among other things. Families usually buy just before summer, seeking to upgrade to a larger house and then make the actual relocation over the summer time, they do so in an attempt not to interrupt a child’s school year. Individual and older  buyers, and even first time purchasers, are most likely to buy in the Fall; they buy scaled-down and less expensive houses, thus skewing the price ranges down, simply by virtue of exactly what they are purchasing.

For this reason the year over year statistic is probably a superior indicator, since you are evaluating absolute oranges to oranges. Unfortunately, in the current environment, the actual oranges tend to be squeezed and mangled, because of the various sorts of federal government intervention within the mortgage industry. The Feds have played around with taxation, mortgage rates and foreclosures inventories, which lead to the typical seasonal changes becoming irrelevant. This is exactly why this report began providing both the information with the monthly seasonal changes as well as without the monthly seasonal changes.

Included in last July’s report that was just recently released, simply exploring the twenty city composite, you can see that prices have gone up 3.2% year over year. This really is positive, however, a bit less positive compared to the 4.2% annual increase in June. The actual prices rose .6% between June and July this year, with no seasonal adjustment, and they also fell .1% when the seasonal adjustment is included.

Added to the actual chaos, this particular report is often comprised of a three   running average associated with house prices, therefore, the numbers are not actually merely for July, and that means the actual currently expired home purchaser tax credit continues to be getting  factored in from May as well as June.

This leads one to wonder if the average house sales prices wouldn’t rise regardless of how many houses sold so long as there were more expensive homes being sold as opposed to starter homes.

The answer is not necessarily, because the S&P / Case-Schiller Indexes are calculated in a repeat sales manner. The repeat sales types of indexes take into account every sale of every house, and then calculate the actual yearly rate of change regarding each home from the previous sale to the present one, after which it averages the actual rates of change.

Therefore in a time period when just expensive homes are being sold, the question isn’t are the actual prices greater, but rather are the prices increasing much faster compared to those of more inexpensive homes? The data reveal that in the growth period it was actually  inexpensive homes that witnessed skyrocketing prices, most likely driven by sub-prime home loans.

The effect questioned previously is relevant when considering a median price based index. Under this type of index, if only more expensive homes are being sold, prices may seen as rising since there are fewer inexpensive houses within the mix.

The actual index released by the National Association of Realtors is a median price index, and it is probably used simply because it is just simpler to calculate.

Corn

Creative new efforts are currently aiming at having Americans eat more vegetables. In spite of two decades associated with public health projects, stricter government nutritional guidelines, record development of farmers’ markets as well as the simplicity of items like salad in a plastic bag, Americans still are not eating enough veggies.

This September, the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) released an extensive countrywide behavioral study associated with fruit and vegetable consumption. It came to the conclusion that Only 26% of the country’s adults eat veggies three or more occasions a day. (And absolutely not, french fries do not count as a vegetable.)

These results came up far short of wellness objectives set through the federal government about ten years ago. The amount of veggies Americans eat is actually under half of what public wellness officials had been shooting for. Even worse, it has hardly moved int he last ten year period.

In dining establishments, salads requested as the main course at possibly lunch or dinner went down by half from 1989, to a meager 5%.

The country has long experienced a complex association with veggies. People understand that veggies can enhance wellness, but they are seen as lots of work. In fridges all around the nation, vegetables frequently die a gradual, limpy death simply because life is perceived as too busy.

In the incorrect hands, vegetables may taste terrible, not to mention, compared to a lot of other choices at the grocery store, they are a relatively costly way to fill up.

The food business has attempted to make eating veggies easier. Sales associated with convenience vegetables, such as packages of chopped broccoli designed to be placed directly into the actual microwave, are rising. Washed, ready for consumption bagged salads happen to be a $3 billion per year industry.

However, that does not indicate that people are consuming more vegetables. It just signifies they are switching their vegetable spending budget from one destination to another one. For example, an organic veggie may replace the conventionally cultivated one, or a bag of lettuce replaces the head of lettuce.

It is apparent that veggies are making advances in certain groups. Women for example, as well as those who are older and more informed and have greater incomes, tend to consume more vegetables, stated Dr. Foltz, the actual pediatrician who helped publish the CDC document.

Actual vegetables, particularly when produced from heirloom seed products through small, local farming, is held in very high esteem and actually knowing the farmer that grows your meals are a form of treasured social currency. Veggies are also becoming higher art. At Sotheby’s last Thursday evening, a vegetable auction was a portion of the daylong event known as “The Art of Farming,” and raised nearly $250,000 to aid hunger organizations, immigrant farmers and also children who do not have ready access to veggies.

Nevertheless vegetables will also be important on the opposite end of the financial equation. An increasing quantity of the country’s 6,000 farmers’ marketplaces allow shoppers to purchase their products using food stamps. Urban gardens are cropping up in empty lots and on roofs. Almost every state currently has programs that deliver more vegetables into poorer communities and school cafeterias.

Veggies actually have Michelle Obama on their side. She brought up an organic garden within the White House yard and even praises veggies as a part of her “Let’s Move” campaign fighting against youth weight problems.

The government also continues to try to push its message all over. It now suggests 4.5 cups of fruits and veggies (that is equivalent to nine servings) for those who eat 2,000 calories per day. A few public health promoters have argued that after the guidelines will be updated later on this year, they should become clearer. One suggestion is to help to make Americans think about vegetables visually, filling half of a plate or bowl with vegetables as a good target.