[RottedOak]

This is the sort of pseudo-statistic that makes me cringe. The headline-grabbing item is the standing of specific countries in the rankings, with virtually no information being given in the stories about what the rankings are supposed to mean or how they were determined. As best I can tell from the news coverage, the rankings are mostly about stability, with the economy being one element alongside “politics,” “society,” “military-security” and “external threats.” How these items are evaluated isn’t clear. Regardless of the missing details, once the focus on stability is recognized, the rankings become much easier to understand. I don’t see any shame in admitting that tiny semi-autonomous territories in the heart of Europe are more “stable” than the US. By the same standard, I expect that rural counties in Nebraska are more stable than New York City. That’s not a commentary on intrinsic goodness or even relative desirability.

[RottedOak]

This is the sort of pseudo-statistic that makes me cringe. The headline-grabbing item is the standing of specific countries in the rankings, with virtually no information being given in the stories about what the rankings are supposed to mean or how they were determined. As best I can tell from the news coverage, the rankings are mostly about stability, with the economy being one element alongside “politics,” “society,” “military-security” and “external threats.” How these items are evaluated isn’t clear. Regardless of the missing details, once the focus on stability is recognized, the rankings become much easier to understand. I don’t see any shame in admitting that tiny semi-autonomous territories in the heart of Europe are more “stable” than the US. By the same standard, I expect that rural counties in Nebraska are more stable than New York City. That’s not a commentary on intrinsic goodness or even relative desirability.

[RottedOak]

This is the sort of pseudo-statistic that makes me cringe. The headline-grabbing item is the standing of specific countries in the rankings, with virtually no information being given in the stories about what the rankings are supposed to mean or how they were determined. As best I can tell from the news coverage, the rankings are mostly about stability, with the economy being one element alongside “politics,” “society,” “military-security” and “external threats.” How these items are evaluated isn’t clear. Regardless of the missing details, once the focus on stability is recognized, the rankings become much easier to understand. I don’t see any shame in admitting that tiny semi-autonomous territories in the heart of Europe are more “stable” than the US. By the same standard, I expect that rural counties in Nebraska are more stable than New York City. That’s not a commentary on intrinsic goodness or even relative desirability.

[RottedOak]

This is the sort of pseudo-statistic that makes me cringe. The headline-grabbing item is the standing of specific countries in the rankings, with virtually no information being given in the stories about what the rankings are supposed to mean or how they were determined. As best I can tell from the news coverage, the rankings are mostly about stability, with the economy being one element alongside “politics,” “society,” “military-security” and “external threats.” How these items are evaluated isn’t clear. Regardless of the missing details, once the focus on stability is recognized, the rankings become much easier to understand. I don’t see any shame in admitting that tiny semi-autonomous territories in the heart of Europe are more “stable” than the US. By the same standard, I expect that rural counties in Nebraska are more stable than New York City. That’s not a commentary on intrinsic goodness or even relative desirability.

[RottedOak]

This is the sort of pseudo-statistic that makes me cringe. The headline-grabbing item is the standing of specific countries in the rankings, with virtually no information being given in the stories about what the rankings are supposed to mean or how they were determined. As best I can tell from the news coverage, the rankings are mostly about stability, with the economy being one element alongside “politics,” “society,” “military-security” and “external threats.” How these items are evaluated isn’t clear. Regardless of the missing details, once the focus on stability is recognized, the rankings become much easier to understand. I don’t see any shame in admitting that tiny semi-autonomous territories in the heart of Europe are more “stable” than the US. By the same standard, I expect that rural counties in Nebraska are more stable than New York City. That’s not a commentary on intrinsic goodness or even relative desirability.

[RottedOak]

First off, I think some folks in this thread are conflating the existence of an HOA (with associated dues) with the existence of community rules about lights, clothes lines, etc. These two don’t necessarily go together. A community can have an HOA in order to maintain common amenities such as a pool or playground, without necessarily having a lot of rules. (In theory you can also have the opposite, strict CC&Rs without an HOA, but this is rare.) You would really want to read the community’s CC&Rs and bylaws, along with recent HOA minutes, to get a good idea.

As far as costs for HOA dues, I would always evaluate these relative to what they buy. If the amenities are ones that I would never use, then the fee may not be worth it even if it is low. I would also want to understand the financial condition of the HOA. Some HOAs keep dues low by under-funding their reserves and/or deferring long-term maintenance. This is bad and can lead to huge special assessments. I don’t consider it a good result if I pay low dues for a while and then get whacked with a single huge bill because the roof of the clubhouse collapsed or some such.

[RottedOak]

First off, I think some folks in this thread are conflating the existence of an HOA (with associated dues) with the existence of community rules about lights, clothes lines, etc. These two don’t necessarily go together. A community can have an HOA in order to maintain common amenities such as a pool or playground, without necessarily having a lot of rules. (In theory you can also have the opposite, strict CC&Rs without an HOA, but this is rare.) You would really want to read the community’s CC&Rs and bylaws, along with recent HOA minutes, to get a good idea.

As far as costs for HOA dues, I would always evaluate these relative to what they buy. If the amenities are ones that I would never use, then the fee may not be worth it even if it is low. I would also want to understand the financial condition of the HOA. Some HOAs keep dues low by under-funding their reserves and/or deferring long-term maintenance. This is bad and can lead to huge special assessments. I don’t consider it a good result if I pay low dues for a while and then get whacked with a single huge bill because the roof of the clubhouse collapsed or some such.

[RottedOak]

First off, I think some folks in this thread are conflating the existence of an HOA (with associated dues) with the existence of community rules about lights, clothes lines, etc. These two don’t necessarily go together. A community can have an HOA in order to maintain common amenities such as a pool or playground, without necessarily having a lot of rules. (In theory you can also have the opposite, strict CC&Rs without an HOA, but this is rare.) You would really want to read the community’s CC&Rs and bylaws, along with recent HOA minutes, to get a good idea.

As far as costs for HOA dues, I would always evaluate these relative to what they buy. If the amenities are ones that I would never use, then the fee may not be worth it even if it is low. I would also want to understand the financial condition of the HOA. Some HOAs keep dues low by under-funding their reserves and/or deferring long-term maintenance. This is bad and can lead to huge special assessments. I don’t consider it a good result if I pay low dues for a while and then get whacked with a single huge bill because the roof of the clubhouse collapsed or some such.

[RottedOak]

First off, I think some folks in this thread are conflating the existence of an HOA (with associated dues) with the existence of community rules about lights, clothes lines, etc. These two don’t necessarily go together. A community can have an HOA in order to maintain common amenities such as a pool or playground, without necessarily having a lot of rules. (In theory you can also have the opposite, strict CC&Rs without an HOA, but this is rare.) You would really want to read the community’s CC&Rs and bylaws, along with recent HOA minutes, to get a good idea.

As far as costs for HOA dues, I would always evaluate these relative to what they buy. If the amenities are ones that I would never use, then the fee may not be worth it even if it is low. I would also want to understand the financial condition of the HOA. Some HOAs keep dues low by under-funding their reserves and/or deferring long-term maintenance. This is bad and can lead to huge special assessments. I don’t consider it a good result if I pay low dues for a while and then get whacked with a single huge bill because the roof of the clubhouse collapsed or some such.

[RottedOak]

First off, I think some folks in this thread are conflating the existence of an HOA (with associated dues) with the existence of community rules about lights, clothes lines, etc. These two don’t necessarily go together. A community can have an HOA in order to maintain common amenities such as a pool or playground, without necessarily having a lot of rules. (In theory you can also have the opposite, strict CC&Rs without an HOA, but this is rare.) You would really want to read the community’s CC&Rs and bylaws, along with recent HOA minutes, to get a good idea.

As far as costs for HOA dues, I would always evaluate these relative to what they buy. If the amenities are ones that I would never use, then the fee may not be worth it even if it is low. I would also want to understand the financial condition of the HOA. Some HOAs keep dues low by under-funding their reserves and/or deferring long-term maintenance. This is bad and can lead to huge special assessments. I don’t consider it a good result if I pay low dues for a while and then get whacked with a single huge bill because the roof of the clubhouse collapsed or some such.

[RottedOak]

Home sales have seasonal variations, so it is more useful for compare year-over-year rather than month-over-month. Here are the comparisons of number sold by month, last year and this year:

Month : 2006 : 2007 : % change
Jan : 1876 : 1768 : -5.8%
Feb : 1912 : 1820 : -4.8%
Mar : 3006 : 2479 : -17.5%
Apr : 2626 : 2444 : -6.9%
May : 2903 : 2377 : -18.1%
Jun : 2859 : 2468 : -13.7%
Jul : 2446 : 2189 : -10.5%
Aug : 2571 : 2182 : -15.1%
Sep : 2139 : 1493 : -30.2%
Oct : 2189 : 1472 : -32.8%
YTD : 24527 : 20692 : -15.6%

The YOY percentage decline for October was greater than for September, and more than double the average decline for the year. Obviously there was a huge acceleration of decline in Aug-Sep (presumably due to lending issues), and not so much acceleration in Oct. So in that sense you could say the decline has “leveled off,” but things are still getting worse.

[RottedOak]

Home sales have seasonal variations, so it is more useful for compare year-over-year rather than month-over-month. Here are the comparisons of number sold by month, last year and this year:

Month : 2006 : 2007 : % change
Jan : 1876 : 1768 : -5.8%
Feb : 1912 : 1820 : -4.8%
Mar : 3006 : 2479 : -17.5%
Apr : 2626 : 2444 : -6.9%
May : 2903 : 2377 : -18.1%
Jun : 2859 : 2468 : -13.7%
Jul : 2446 : 2189 : -10.5%
Aug : 2571 : 2182 : -15.1%
Sep : 2139 : 1493 : -30.2%
Oct : 2189 : 1472 : -32.8%
YTD : 24527 : 20692 : -15.6%

The YOY percentage decline for October was greater than for September, and more than double the average decline for the year. Obviously there was a huge acceleration of decline in Aug-Sep (presumably due to lending issues), and not so much acceleration in Oct. So in that sense you could say the decline has “leveled off,” but things are still getting worse.

[RottedOak]

Home sales have seasonal variations, so it is more useful for compare year-over-year rather than month-over-month. Here are the comparisons of number sold by month, last year and this year:

Month : 2006 : 2007 : % change
Jan : 1876 : 1768 : -5.8%
Feb : 1912 : 1820 : -4.8%
Mar : 3006 : 2479 : -17.5%
Apr : 2626 : 2444 : -6.9%
May : 2903 : 2377 : -18.1%
Jun : 2859 : 2468 : -13.7%
Jul : 2446 : 2189 : -10.5%
Aug : 2571 : 2182 : -15.1%
Sep : 2139 : 1493 : -30.2%
Oct : 2189 : 1472 : -32.8%
YTD : 24527 : 20692 : -15.6%

The YOY percentage decline for October was greater than for September, and more than double the average decline for the year. Obviously there was a huge acceleration of decline in Aug-Sep (presumably due to lending issues), and not so much acceleration in Oct. So in that sense you could say the decline has “leveled off,” but things are still getting worse.

[RottedOak]

Home sales have seasonal variations, so it is more useful for compare year-over-year rather than month-over-month. Here are the comparisons of number sold by month, last year and this year:

Month : 2006 : 2007 : % change
Jan : 1876 : 1768 : -5.8%
Feb : 1912 : 1820 : -4.8%
Mar : 3006 : 2479 : -17.5%
Apr : 2626 : 2444 : -6.9%
May : 2903 : 2377 : -18.1%
Jun : 2859 : 2468 : -13.7%
Jul : 2446 : 2189 : -10.5%
Aug : 2571 : 2182 : -15.1%
Sep : 2139 : 1493 : -30.2%
Oct : 2189 : 1472 : -32.8%
YTD : 24527 : 20692 : -15.6%

The YOY percentage decline for October was greater than for September, and more than double the average decline for the year. Obviously there was a huge acceleration of decline in Aug-Sep (presumably due to lending issues), and not so much acceleration in Oct. So in that sense you could say the decline has “leveled off,” but things are still getting worse.

[RottedOak]

Not to mention delayed inspections, missed appointments, etc., as people deal with evacuations for themselves and their families. I would think that the fact that it is near the end of the month is especially unhelpful. Don’t lots of escrows close in the later part of the month?

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