patrick.net

FAB says: Back in 1994 I knew a S. Shore Realtor with over 100 listings with many of them under $100K…
I suppose this could get interesting -- especially if people head for the exits and all you are left with is a price/rental ratio that is seriously out of whack. So $100k at 5% appreciation (from 1994) is $180k. Not much listed on the MLS for that amount these days. At 8% appreciation the price is $270k, but still not too many listings in that range.
I found a for rent/for sale page on the net for a 1bed/1bath quarter share at the Marriott Grand Residence in Tahoe. They claimed Marriott is selling/sold these for $220k -- can you imagine losing $90k just by signing on the dotted line? Makes new car depreciation seem not all that bad.

You will find that the higher US infant mortality is related to substance abuse by the mothers, not lack of medical care. If Americans had European habits on exercise and food consumption, we would have similar levels of the ailments you mention. That has nothing to do with the quality and quantity of medical treatment.

No affordability issue here. As an American, you can chose to eat responsibly and exercise for about the same price as a European.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt that US rates of substance abuse among women of child-bearing age are greater in the US than in Europe. For one thing, at least anecdotally, it seems like a lot more Europeans smoke.

Diet and exercise are moderately important for pregnant women, but not critical. However, it is critical that pregnant women have access to decent prenatal counseling. Educated people take for granted that pregnant women need to avoid smoking and drinking, take prenatal vitamins, avoid mercury-contaminated seafood, etc., but there are a lot of people, both in the US and Europe who are clueless about these things. Decent prenatal counseling can make a big difference at the margin. And this kind of counseling can be provided at relatively low cost. But without some form of universal healthcare, a lot of people in the US just do without.

EBGuy,

There are a lot of "1/4 share" arrangements being run out at the OR coast. It's just been my experience that even at at 13 weeks the shares have a pretty high turn-over. No one seems to want (or be able) to hang on to them for more than 2 or 3 years. Good news for realtors I guess.

What seems such a shame is that a fellow (such as... myself) would be able to see all he wanted of OR w/ a spring/summer share and spend the balance of his life elsewhere (out of the rain perhaps?)

But no, the equity locusts have driven prices AND FEES through the roof at just about every turn. I will say though, as originally positioned they made sense, but the whole thing got perverted as time went on. Sad.

RE: overall European health vs. U.S.

I would agree that personal lifestyle/dietary choices ARE a big factor in why Europeans are generally healthier that Americans, and one that critically needs to be addressed. However, I was specifically addressing problems with our healthcare insurance system, not people's overall health.

Of course the two problems are not entirely mutually exclusive. If you could get more Americans to eat better and exercise more, and --critically-- to get get government and ADA public dietary guidelines in sync with current research on what constitutes a 'good diet', then the cost of medical insurance here might come down (because we would have a healthier population). I still believe we can and *should* provide some basic level of medical insurance coverage to all legal residents, but am certainly not against lifestyle-driven solutions to the cost issue.

It amazes me how many people, even in the medical establishment, are still operating under the (now) thoroughly discredited 1980s-era belief that a low-fat, high-carb diet represents the "best" possible diet. Or how much of our commercial and fast food supply is still loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats, which we now know are among the very worst things you can eat.

There is a lot of *very* bad dietary information still out there and strong institutional resistance to change, and I think our own medical establishment is at least partly to blame for it.

We need a topic on "How to talk to your coworkers who just closed on their new condo."

Seriously. My coworkers aren't dumb, but I know 3 of them have bought in the last month or are in the process of buying right now. I just keep my mouth shut around them and chat with my coworker who sold her Santa Clara house in early 2005 and just talked her husband into selling his parent's old house a little over a month ago in Vallejo. It was the best closing (for them, not the buyers) ever in that the day after it closed, two houses almost exactly the same size and a block away came on the market 30-40k under what they sold for. (They had a lucky break in that there was a guy who owned 3 rental houses on the block and wanted to stop being a landlord put all his houses up at wishing prices when they were trying to sell.)

Oh, and by the way, that whole Bear Stearns subprime mortgage CDO implosion thingy is causing the stock market to tank:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSwogFT3t7Uk&refer=home
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahiW3FrIaT_k&refer=home
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7QWNVKDNAI0&refer=home

@SFBB,

Once it's already a done deal, keeping your mouth shut and changing the subject sounds like a pretty good plan.

It amazes me how many people, even in the medical establishment, are still operating under the (now) thoroughly discredited 1980s-era belief that a low-fat, high-carb diet represents the “best” possible diet.

The best diet is the one that makes you feel best 2 hours after a meal.

Mercury in fish is not too much of a problem. Fiber and fruits really help. Meat is good but only in small quantity.

"There is a lot of *very* bad dietary information still out there and strong institutional resistance to change, and I think our own medical establishment is at least partly to blame for it."

Sadly, even with perfect dietary info, Americans are only going to eat what tastes good, and lots of it. So if anyone can invent a food with the look, feel, and taste of a cheeseburger or pizza, but have the nutrition and calories of a small serving of rice and beans, that person would be rich and only then would Americans eat better. The Euros stay thin because even though they eat great tasting full calorie food, they eat much less at a time.

DataQuick finally posted their May charts for the Bay Area. Fortress areas are holding steady if not increasing slightly. Mill Valley, though, is going crazy with sales and median both on the upswing.
Sonoma, Solano, and the hinterlands in Contra Costa are getting creamed. Bloggers, please read the tea leaves and offer analysis of your favorite Fortress towns.

PS 4-4-3-2 is where its at... none of this new age food pyramid stuff ;-)

The problem is that most Americans never escape poverty and strike it “rich”.

Um, that's exactly what the terrorists would want you to say.

Why do you hate our American Dream?

You're probably on a hitlist now.

“I will be very happy if US becomes third world”

You… you mean we’re not already?!

http://www.midwesthsr.org/promote_how_worldwide_kaza.htm

eburbed,

I know. I hate Your Freedom, too. At least that's what someone said :).

How about a new thread re the hedge fund blow up or is that old news?

I had a thought about the 'leverage' the hedges are doing and how that might compare to the endless margin in 1929 that caused that crash. Now you can only margin 50% (unless you have a crazy CDO fund then there is no limit?!?) wth has happened ?

@HelloKitty,

I was wondering the same thing when I read this:

"One Brookstreet broker, who declined to be identified because only Mains was authorized to speak for the firm, attributed Brookstreet's troubles to a bond division at the firm that had set up a special website for wealthy investors.

In some cases this would more than wipe out an investor's entire position overnight, putting the burden on Brookstreet to make up any amounts owed to the National Financial unit of Fidelity Investments, which held the accounts."

Maybe history doesn't exactly repeat itself but it sure rhymes.

Looking over the latest DQ numbers, I am nominating Antioch, 94509, as the worst performing zip in the Bay Area. Sales are off -51.0%. The median (near the lowest in the BA) slipped 16.1% to $375,000 and is mirrored by a 15.2% drop in price per sq.ft ($275). The sample size is nice (48 homes) so I am confident that this city is a true underperformer and a good representative of the subprime crunch. Hayward, San Leandro, and Richmond are all also showing signs of a weakening market.

First, have you ever been to Antioch? Endless highway between yellow grassy hills to get there, and when you get there it's nothing but strip malls and raw new development. I am not surprised that Antioch prices would decline early in the game. It's a place where you buy a house because you just have to have a house, and it's not *so* far from the Bay Area, and it's not *such* a bad commute. It is a compromise place, near as I can tell.

Second, I think that Europeans may eat less because they are allowed to enjoy food. They are allowed to be happy about butter. We Americans are not allowed to be openly happy about food. Food is a kind of sin in our culture. Another of the body's unseemly needs. Of course, it is totally natural to enjoy food--just observe any infant beginning to eat solid food. They love the flavors, the textures, the richness of the experience. Since we don't get to openly appreciate food, we spend less time cooking it (and the food you cook will often be of higher quality than the food you buy) and less time eating it (wolfing it down rather than appreciating the flavors and presentation)--but we eat more of it. Joy in bulk. I think there is an emotional component to satiety--the mind must feel satisfied, and if that means eating a third cheeseburger, so be it. But the mind might be just as pleased by elegantly presented sashimi and a small bowl of rice, fully and guiltlessly appreciated.

On the healthcare issue--maybe it matters that it is simply such an omnipresent concern for everyone. Change jobs to one you like better? Hmm, well, you might lose your insurance, and the new place has a 6 month waiting period, and we don't know whether they would cover the kids. Start your own business because you are passionate about what you do and you have a new idea and you'd like to see if it will fly? Well, could you get health insurance at all if you do that? Probably not with your dad's history of cancer. This constrains people. It worries them. It limits their choices.

I know a yoga teacher--a tremendously healthy woman with a long career in the field and books published--who cannot get insurance because of a no-longer-current diagnosis in her records. I know a father whose entire paycheck goes to cover his family's insurance--he doesn't make much, and his workplace covers him but not his family, and that's the way it goes. They live on the wife's paycheck. Just the stress of this is not good for people.

Europeans are healthier because they walk far more. Light amount of exercise actually suppresses appetite. The American daily activities are primarily repetitive actions of getting and out of the car.

The dietary focus of this country is completely wrong as well. Sugar is evil, not fat, not butter. We cook alternatively with olive oil and butter, never margarine, and we avoid sugar. My wife and I don't try that hard to watch our weight, we just eat plenty of vegetables and fruit, substitute meat with seafood. It is hard to get fat to get fat on a proper diet.

If we eat right, exercise a bit, we won't end up with millions of diabetes patients who are just in their 40s. I actually think that one should be responsible for his own health. HARM's situation is not his own fault, so a person like himself should be covered. But anyone who is clearly obese is just his own doing, and the society should NOT be responsible for their medical bills.

I will propose an universal medical coverage scheme that requires everyone to put in at least a bit of effort to keep themselves healthy. Anyone who is 2 standard deviation away from the mean weight should be automatically excluded. There is no such illness as being prone to getting fat, it is called laziness and stupidity, which are precisely the genes the we as human beings strive to get rid of.

Looks like the summer standstill is around the corner.

The inventory of the "desirable spots" starts to grow steadily with no sign of backing down.

>> We’re behind Kazakhstan!

No wonder that Borat made mockery of American culture ...

Basically this film shows that US essentially is a third world from cultural standpoint ....

2 standard deviations from the mean weight (for height, I am guessing?) would be a hazardous standard, simply because muscle is heavy stuff, and very fit people can be rather heavy--and we're not just talking professional athletes, either. Any person who is extremely fit can end up being shockingly heavy as compared with their height and appearance. Also, recent evidence suggests that genuinely overweight people who exercise regularly tend to be healthier than thin people who never exercise--and details like that would matter if we're talking about cutting people off from public, universal health insurance.

But I take your meaning. I also support universal healthcare, but I worry that Americans tend to try to make the most of what they are given--and not in a good way. There would need to be some structure in place to assure that medical care was being used responsibly. And there are ways to do that--I would think the focus would shift to education and prevention, which would hopefully lead to a cultural shift--everyone changing their ways at once.

And there's still the thorny problem of expensive miracle cures. At what point do you decide that an extremely ill or elderly person does not get to try the latest surgery or innovation that could perhaps allow them a little more life? Because that sort of thing gets expensive. One miracle surgery is vaccine for a thousand kids.

Casey has moved to Sydney!

Blogger learns how to monetise hate

However, he also needs emergency accommodation for a few days, so I generously...

HARM, we need to call a bored meeting of Harm-X Industries. LLC, GmbH.

On 7.7.7 bring seven of something.

BLOG PARTY - HOUSE WARMING.

I nominate David Spade to play CS when the movie comes out! Now there's a guy that looks perfectly comfortable with his lips wrapped around soy latte'!

I'm none too sure about the Aussie press. The "application" of "haterz" concerns me? I can't say for certain but is CS being portrayed as a victim here? It's as if the press down under knew all along that the collapse in U.S real estate (duh) was inevitable and CS was duped into his "venture". If ever I'm accused of fraud I know where I'm heading! "Industrial strength vitriol"? Uh... ever heard Surfer-X tear into MP/FR/CR!?

Perhaps that Marxist website isn't the most convincing proponent of my point of view, but I have read in both the Wall Street Journal and Economist that by most people's measure of class mobility, the US has fallen behind Europe. I was actually googling for "class mobility" and that one came up first.

I was actually googling for “class mobility” and that one came up first.

Have you stumbled upon Marxist spam?