The Affairs Organizer Blog

Today’s Wall Street Journal article “Builders Make Plea for Federal Aid” by Nick Timiraos reports:
“The builders’ lobby is ramping up its sales pitch for a $250 billion stimulus package called “Fix Housing First,” arguing that financial markets won’t recover until home prices stop falling. They are calling for a generous tax credit for home purchases [...]

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The New York Times website has in interactive map that shows where homes across the US are worth less than the mortgage debt.
Click on the map’s upper-left to view on a state-by-state basis:
(1) the percent of homes with negative equity;
(2) the number of homes with negative equity; and
(3) ratio of mortgage debt to property value
A [...]

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“The term hails from a legend that Siamese royalty gave albino elephants — revered but financially ruinous to maintain — to unpleasant courtiers. Today, the financial burden of carrying an overly big, overly unique manse is being shared by many wealthy owners, who are finding out the hard way that not everyone is willing to [...]

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According to The Wall Street Journal, despite most of the state’s population living in the desert, “Nevada Has Highest Percentage of ‘Under Water’ Households”

Nevada leads the U.S. in the proportion of households whose mortgage debt exceeds the current estimated value of their homes, a condition known as being “under water.”

Many Americans are under water because [...]

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Dreaming about making an expensive purchase? Consider the following excerpt on ‘Adaptation’ from page 256 of Rob Walker’s book “Buying In – the Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are”:
“…Human beings have a remarkable capacity to get used to things. This means a capacity to get used to miserable situations. And it [...]

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(1) saving a small amount of annual premium dollars may be costly if you have a claim, since some insurers are more customer-friendly than others when paying claims. Also, insurance companies weigh a customer’s history with the company pretty heavily when making decisions about whether or not to renew a homeowners policy after a claim [...]

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Unless you “opt-out” (actively remove yourself), national consumer credit reporting companies will include you in lists for unsolicited pre-approved credit and insurance offers.
To exclude your name (people, not businesses) from these lists, call 1–888–5OPTOUT (1–888–567–8688).

Personally, I think the default status that we are all initially “opted-in” to things like this is ludicrous.

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