Keeping the House Germ Free!

With Labor Day behind and Cold and Flu Season approaching, consider taking a high-tech approach to staying germ-free at home and at work.

The Zadro Nano UV Disinfectant Light looks like a clamshell mobile phone but acts like a high-power germ killer.

With one wave of your hand, intense ultra-violet radiation emanates from the wand, safely killing 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses on any surface in any location.  It's the same type of UV light that hospitals often use to sterilize surgical rooms.

Some practical places to use the disinfectant light include:

• On phones, keyboards and copiers in the office
  
• On the subway, bus and train
  
• In public restrooms, airplanes, and hotel rooms

Of course, around the home works, too.

The handheld Zadro device costs $80.  It's available at Amazon.com and other retailers.

Compact Bulbs Need Special Disposal

As compact fluorescent bulbs gain favor across the country, it's important to remember that they contain mercury and mercury is harmful to humans.

Because even though CFLs contain small amounts of mercury -- less than 4 milligrams per bulb -- it's still enough mercury to cause brain damage.

If you're interested, this 4-minute video from the University of Calgary shows how mercury damages neurons in the brain.

But don't let the presence of mercury stop you from using CFLs -- they are much more positive than negative if you exercise good care.

The Environment Protection Agency provides some basic handling tips:

1. CFLs are made from glass.  Therefore, screw and unscrew the bulb using the base and not the bulb.
   
2. Never force a CFL into a light socket.
   
3. When the bulb burns out, take it to a specially-designated recycling center in your area.  Do not throw out a CFL with the "normal" trash.

In addition, the EPA drafted guidelines for dealing with broken bulbs within a household.  Among the recommendations: Don't wash your mercury-covered clothing, and don't vacuum up the poison.  This is somewhat counter-intuitive for most people.

The EPA's review of CFL safety is 3 pages long and can be viewed on its Web site. 

CFLs are more expensive than traditional bulbs but offer long-term savings in both energy and environment costs.  And, with common sense care, CFLs pose no household health risks.

Watching Tuesday Night Soiree at Second City in LA - Funny folks

When I don't Disagree with Case-Schiller's Price Index

I don't usually like the Case-Shiller Home Price Index because it doesn't include our Metropolitan Statistical Area, and without data from Philadelphia (which is usually better than most parts of the nation) I don't think the study can have validity to us, But even with their poorly weighted (IMHO) information, it seems that we may have hit the bottom of the real estate market in many parts of the country.

According to the June 2008 Case-Shiller Home Price Index, home prices in 15 of the 20 largest U.S. real estate markets either improved, or showed growth from the month prior.

This is the fourth straight month in which that happened which means that a national housing recovery may already be underway.

Now, it's worth stating that all real estate is local and that there's no such thing as a "national real estate market", but for home buyers looking to to maximize their negotiation power to get the best possible "deal", spotting trends like this before the media does is a good thing.

So far, only Bloomberg and a few others have chosen to highlight the positives from the otherwise-negative Case-Shiller report. By contrast, most publishers are focusing on annual home price figures which show a hefty drop of 15.9 percent.

We shouldn't dismiss annual trends because they're helpful in the theoretical sense, but for real, live home buyers trying to identify trends and market bottoms, it's the month-to-month data that matters most.

After looking at 4 consecutive months of Case-Shiller data, the month-to-month data appears to show that home prices have stabilized in most major markets. And, in some, they've already started to recover from their lows.

Source
U.S. House-Price Slide Eases, S&P/Case-Shiller Shows
Courtney Schlisserman
Bloomberg.com, August 26, 2008

How Labor Day can Effect Housing Affordability!

As we get closer to Labor Day, volume on Wall Street is dwindling as market players get a head start on their long weekend.

Today could be a difficult day to shop for mortgage rates and that can impact home affordabilility. 

Expect volatility.

This is because mortgage rates are based on the price of mortgage bonds and, on Wall Street, bonds trade a lot like stocks.

There has to be a buyer and a seller at a specific price to make a deal.

With so many traders on vacation today, though, there are fewer opportunities to match buyers and sellers.  This can cause mortgage prices rise or fall faster than on a "normal" day, directly leading to mortgage rate volatility.

Each 0.125% mortgage rate increase is an extra $96 cost per $100,000 borrowed on a principal + interest home loan.

For a light-volume trading day, there is a lot of information for markets to digest:

• The weather reports on Tropical Storm/Hurricane Gustav
  
• Reports that inflation is rising
  
• Reports that Consumer Spending is slowing
  
• Ongoing political tension between the U.S. and Russia

By themselves, each of these points can move markets. Together, however -- and aided by Labor Day -- they can move markets a lot.

Mortgage bond pricing is fluid, changing every minute of every day.  Today, those changes will be exaggerated and, as an example, in the first 30 minutes of trading, mortgage rate pricing swung from rate improvement to rate deterioration in a flash.