Home PICS Week 05

Front: On the right hand side you can see two (fake)chimneys.

This is the block wall that seperates the backyards in our street.

Saturday 1 PM, they are working with 5 people to finish our home. They expect to finish our home at the end of July 2008.

Midweek update

The world's biggest housing bubble is about to deflate ...

"The Prime Minister sought to allay fears of a full-blown property slump after the country's biggest lender revealed an average price drop of 2.5 per cent during March – the biggest monthly fall since 1992."

LINK

Apparently the housing crash won't stop at the UK border... (-2.5% in March = 30+% a year)

EXTREMELY OVERINFLATED: average UK property costing £191,556

That is about $400 000 with one of the highest tax rates in the world, you have to earn a lot of pingping before you are able to pay that kind of mortgage...

Auch that's gonna hurt

Dumb, dumber and Kendra Todd

She will not go in history as one of the greatest economists of our time...

September 26, 2006

Is the Real Estate Market in Bubble Trouble?

Kendra Todd: You can't go anywhere without hearing people talk about "the real estate bubble." Such talk drives me to distraction, and I'll tell you why. It's because there is no real estate bubble. Bubbles are for bathtubs. Despite a thousand articles in Sunday newspaper real estate sections, the bubble is a myth. Talking about a bubble implies a sudden burst, and real estate does not work that way. You don't go to sleep one night with your house worth half a million dollars and wake up to find it's lost half its value.

Who is Kendra Todd: winner of Donald Trump's NBC show, "The Apprentice"; Broker of Florida-based The Kendra Todd Group, ex-host of the HGTV Show "My House Is Worth What?"; Author: "Risk and Grow Rich: How to Make Millions in Real Estate" (aka How to Make Millions in a Real Estate Bubble)

Some TAX deductions

Here are some of the more creative deductions allowed, according to sources at H&R Block and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and remember kids, don’t try this on your tax return without the supervision of a licensed professional.

Professional Losses

In 2007, the Tax Court ruled that Linda Myers could be considered a professional gambler and could therefore legally deduct all of her gambling losses (normally, the amount of gambling losses deducted cannot exceed the amount of winnings). Myers owned a trucking business where she worked 25-35 hours a week. But as a "professional gambler," she logged 40-60 hours per week in the casino playing slot machines and kept careful records of her hours and the amount of money she spent each day. She claimed she did not derive any enjoyment from gambling and considered it tiring work. The court ruled in her favor.

Deduction or Bust

If your body is your primary source of income--as it was for exotic dancer Cynthia Hess (also known as “Chesty Love”)--you might be entitled to deduct your “business expenses” or in this case, your breast implants. Hess successfully won her case against the IRS when the court ruled she could claim her size 56FF breast implants as a business expense because they could be viewed as a “stage prop.”

Claiming your Cat Food

In 2001, cat food was ruled as a business expense for Samuel and Carol Seawright, the owners of a scrap yard in Columbia, S.C. The Seawrights claimed the food was used to attract wild cats to keep snakes and rats away from their automobile salvage yard. The court agreed.

Music Really is Therapeutic

In 1962, a taxpayer was allowed to deduct the cost of a clarinet and clarinet lessons to correct a child’s “severe malocclusion” or overbite. The instrument was recommended as treatment by an orthodontist, thereby qualifying as a medical expense.

See Spot Move

Even the cost of moving your pet can be claimed as a moving expense. In 1966, the court decided the term "moving expenses" included the cost of moving a household pet.

Tax Breaks for Eating Organic

Before you go running to Whole Foods with this one, you'd better get a doctor’s note. In 1976, the Tax Court ruled that a taxpayer on a special, medically-required diet could deduct the cost differential between the cost of organic or chemical-free food and the cost of food that has been chemically treated, as a medical expense.

That's not what I would call a campaign booster...

NEW YORK -- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain for president, according to Reuters, which cited an interview in El Pais this Sunday. The Spanish newspaper also quoted Greenspan as saying that the U.S. economy has more than a 50% chance of going into recession, the news service said.

LINK

Globalwide inflation

Fears of unrest rise across Asia as rice price surges 30% in a day

Rice prices jumped 30 per cent to a record high yesterday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks of social unrest across Asia, where the grain is a staple food for more than 2.5bn people.Global rice stocks are at their lowest since 1976. While prices of wheat, corn and other agricultural commodities have surged since late 2006, the rice prices increase started in January.

Maricopa in the news

Mirage in the desert: LINK

That was fun ...

a security agent, an administrator and 3 police officers with drug dogs searching your classroom.

LINK TO article.

Home PICS Week 04

This will be our mailbox.

The construction yard.

This is the 1-car (third) for the same model we have bought. Try to fit an American car in that opening... We paid extra to have a 2-car (fourth) garage which widens the garage with 3.2 meter (11 feet).
To give you a better idea of the progress of the house I will take pictures from the same angle now. I have marked 5 spots and will take pics each week from these spots.

Streetside pic.
Part of our roof.
East side of our lot.
Lakeview.
West side view.
Entry.

One of the best songs of the 21st Century?

Pics of the week-end

Charlton Heston died today

I really loved Ben-Hur but this was by far his best performance.

Nationwide home sales down 25%YoY / Maricopa home sales UP 150%

I have a spreadsheet with all numbers for the Maricopa housingmarket (see below)

MARCH 08: Incredible jump in sales, big decline in inventory and days on the market.

blue: number of homes sold / month

pink: days home on the market (time it takes to sell home)

yellow: $ per sq ft

Numbers:

Midweek update home

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

The banks are now PAYING homedebtors (aka homeowners) to vacate the premises. Amazing.

Quoteof the day

"I do not like the idea of the Fed getting involved (in bailouts like Bear Stearns). That is socialism"

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., March 2008

Some good news from the Maricopa housingmarket

Phoenix March Home Sales Preview

There was one big surprise this month- there was a marked increase in sales in Queen Creek and Maricopa:
QC-Maricopa
Active 2,990

Sold 337 +68.8% YOY
8.8 months of inventory

The Oracle of the FED speaks: there will be a recession

OH PLEASE TELL US SOMETHING NEW, but for him it is new:

82 days ago: January 10/2008: "the Fed is not currently forecasting a recession"

April 2/2008: Bernanke said Wednesday that the American economy could contract in the first half of 2008

Repeat after me: I-n-C-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-t

Mid week Update Home construction

This is the daredevil of the community. It is the first family to moe in. They moved in a week ago. I like the 1 story home with courtyard.

This is the machine they use at our lot.

New pics, these were taken on Wednesday, the other pics were taken this Sunday. They work 6 days a week at our home.

Lakeside view, patio and deck.

Wall...

Entrance with portico.

Inside the home.

Front...

What happened in the bond market: the cartoon version

Quote of the day

"I think it was arrogance and incompetence that put this country in such a hole around the world."-

GOP Senator Chuck Hagel on the Bush Administration, March 2008

Toshi, the "hit by a car cat" story

ALERT! Our cat was hit by a car

Toshi our cat was hit by a car and was sent to the hospital. We'll keep you up to date.

The Bush WAR propaganda is working

Poll: Iran, Iraq, China Top US Enemies

China has replaced North Korea as one of the top three U.S. enemies, according to a poll of Americans.
Iran topped the list, with 25 percent naming it when asked which country is the greatest U.S. enemy, according to the Gallup Poll. Iraq came next at 22 percent, then China with 14 percent.

Can you believe that American people think that Iraq and Iran are the top enemies of the US?

Mind boggling.

Not one Iraqi has harmed a US citizen, not one Iranian has harmed a US citizen.

When you invade the place you can expect some challenges, that seems pretty normal to me. Why would any sane American think that Iran and Iraq are enemies? Inquiring minds want to know.

The United Kingdom thinks the US housing crash/mortgage mess will stop at their borders...

Are they stupid or ignorant? They don't know and they don't care. In 2009, we can put up a similar pic for the UK, one of the most expensive places in the world to buy a home. The housing crash will have an even bigger effect on them. (and Spain, Russia and Turkey)