Housing Bubble, credit bubble, public planning, land use, zoning and transportation in the exurban environment. Specific criticism of smart growth, neotradtional, forms based, new urbanism and other top down planner schemes to increase urban extent and density. Ventura County, California specific examples.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Centimeter Hail
Cool. Global warming reigns. Centimeter hail coming down as we speak. Pics soon. Until then yesterday's photo of the poor Red Tailed Hawk in the rain.
9 comments:
Anonymous
said...
First to say that weather pattern will mean a foot of snow when it hits me next.
Not sure what the weather in Ventura is, but Sacramento is about to get hit with a hurricane.
But every cloud has a silver lining: Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy. No doubt The Donald has a big chunk of change squirreled away out of the reach of Trump Ent. creditors, but he can't hide from the hit to his reputation. No word on how this will affect "The Apprentice"; maybe the winner will get a job cleaning The Donald's apartment?
Meanwhile, fair weather here in Washington DC (to keep flogging the weather analogies!) I have to say, we in the shadow of the Washington Monument are not feeling the recession. You have to go out to the suburbs, especially the far suburbs like Manassas or Gaithersburg, before you start seeing the empty retail and the see-through office buildings and the bazillion "for sale" signs. Here in the District, redevelopment continues apace, the stores and restaurants are full, and the recession definitely has a "somewhere else" feel to it. A lot of condo projects got converted to rentals at the last minute, and consequently there's a surplus of rentals, and something of a surplus of office space, but that's about it.
DC is definitely in a bubble, one of the reasons that the politicians are moving slow; we just don't feel it the way the rest of the country does. When I visit my family back West, it's shocking how different it feels; the stores and restaurants are quiet, "for sale" signs and empty buildings are everywhere, it just feels hollowed out.
PV, I live and work in Alexandria. I see a lot of lease signs around here(I work near the PTO). Things are very slow here. The owners of our office building have been trying to rent the 1st floor for 2 years. I think they are demanding to much hence the reason it isn't moving. We are in a different zone from the rest of the country. I am currently in the process of refinancing. Hoping that the house appraises for enough to keep out of PMI. Otherwise I may stick to the current mortgage unless the fine print allows me to get out of that PMI w/o jumping through to many hoops in a couple years.
BTW, I saw that Cali is set to roll some heads. Also saw the beginnings of another ponzi scheme??
Aaron: I don't get down to Alexandria as often, so thanks for the insights. As noted above, the "for rent" signs are becoming more common in my neighborhood, and I'm even seeing "for lease" signs on K Street. I suspect the problem is not one of demand (there's plenty of demand for housing and office space in Washington proper), but one of price. But in general, at least day-to-day in the District, it feels like business as usual.
And Stanford is not the beginnings of a Ponzi scheme, but rather the end of one. Oh, and the "bank" in question is in Antigua, not the U.S.--good luck to anybody trying to get their money back.
Cool. Global warming reigns. Centimeter hail coming down as we speak. Pics soon. Until then yesterday's photo of the poor Red Tailed Hawk in the rain.
9 comments:
First to say that weather pattern will mean a foot of snow when it hits me next.
My girls were squealing in delight. Such a rare event.
We had snow Friday up in the AV. Hail a bit earlier, but small stuff.
Pea-sized hail. That could potentially knock some leaves off a tree or two.
When you get 20 inches of rain in one day get back with us about weather hazards. :-)
Hailed today in the San Gabriel Valley, too. Such fun!
p.s.: Did you try emailing? Haven't gotten anything.
Not sure what the weather in Ventura is, but Sacramento is about to get hit with a hurricane.
But every cloud has a silver lining: Trump Entertainment filed for bankruptcy. No doubt The Donald has a big chunk of change squirreled away out of the reach of Trump Ent. creditors, but he can't hide from the hit to his reputation. No word on how this will affect "The Apprentice"; maybe the winner will get a job cleaning The Donald's apartment?
Meanwhile, fair weather here in Washington DC (to keep flogging the weather analogies!) I have to say, we in the shadow of the Washington Monument are not feeling the recession. You have to go out to the suburbs, especially the far suburbs like Manassas or Gaithersburg, before you start seeing the empty retail and the see-through office buildings and the bazillion "for sale" signs. Here in the District, redevelopment continues apace, the stores and restaurants are full, and the recession definitely has a "somewhere else" feel to it. A lot of condo projects got converted to rentals at the last minute, and consequently there's a surplus of rentals, and something of a surplus of office space, but that's about it.
DC is definitely in a bubble, one of the reasons that the politicians are moving slow; we just don't feel it the way the rest of the country does. When I visit my family back West, it's shocking how different it feels; the stores and restaurants are quiet, "for sale" signs and empty buildings are everywhere, it just feels hollowed out.
PV,
I live and work in Alexandria. I see a lot of lease signs around here(I work near the PTO). Things are very slow here. The owners of our office building have been trying to rent the 1st floor for 2 years. I think they are demanding to much hence the reason it isn't moving. We are in a different zone from the rest of the country. I am currently in the process of refinancing. Hoping that the house appraises for enough to keep out of PMI. Otherwise I may stick to the current mortgage unless the fine print allows me to get out of that PMI w/o jumping through to many hoops in a couple years.
BTW, I saw that Cali is set to roll some heads. Also saw the beginnings of another ponzi scheme??
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-agents-enter-Stanford-rb-14381229.html
Aaron: I don't get down to Alexandria as often, so thanks for the insights. As noted above, the "for rent" signs are becoming more common in my neighborhood, and I'm even seeing "for lease" signs on K Street. I suspect the problem is not one of demand (there's plenty of demand for housing and office space in Washington proper), but one of price. But in general, at least day-to-day in the District, it feels like business as usual.
And Stanford is not the beginnings of a Ponzi scheme, but rather the end of one. Oh, and the "bank" in question is in Antigua, not the U.S.--good luck to anybody trying to get their money back.
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