Transportation: More Money For Biking and Walking U.S. Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood turned transportation policy on its head with a declaration that pedestrians and cyclists should be treated as equals with drivers.  That means federal dollars for more projects geared toward walking and cycling. In an interview with NPR, LaHood stated: "I think what you see here in Washington, D.C., as you tool down Pennsylvania Avenue. They've put all-new bike lanes in there. Go up on 14th Street in D.C., where they've put bike lanes in. What it means is that communities decide that there are lots of people who want to bike on streets. In order to make it safe, you paint a lane down the street and make sure that it can be safe and - so that people then begin to pay attention to these bicyclists. A... 06/01/2010

Baltimore County: The Linhigh Report Communities within the Greater Baltimore Region can change within relatively small distances. In Nottingham, which is in zip code 21236, one can find homes priced around $750,000, but can, also, find homes priced much more modestly. The good thing about the lower priced homes is that the neighborhoods are just as safe and just as attractive as the higher priced homes. Additionally, the homes are all in the excellent Baltimore County school system. One of these lower priced neighborhoods is Linhigh, which is just inside the Beltway (I-695) along Belair Road. It is very convenient to shopping, entertainment, hospitals, colleges, and employment centers. So when a buyer is looking for a home in that part of town, it is important to know that there are ho... 05/28/2010

ALERT: SPAM Has Infiltrated ActiveRain I would occassionally get these emails sent to me but they would be captured by my SPAM filter, but now, I have received as a comment to an ActiveRain blog of mine the following: Comment by ReplicaWatches: Maybe if you want to save your money on brand watches as Rolex Watches, IWC Watches, D&G Watches, Bell&Ross Watches, Omega Watches, Gucci Watches, then you can buy the Replica Watches, Replica Rolex Watches, for instance, in our online store. These Fake Watches, such as Fake Rolex Watches, are much cheaper then the originals, so hurry to buy the wonderful fashion Fake Watches. The hottest brands you can find like A.Dunhill Watches, Fendi Watches, Piaget Watches, Guess Watches, Fortis Watches, Breguet Watches, Audemars Piguet Watches, Watch Access... 05/27/2010

If You Want It Done Right . . . You know the start of the phrase.  But, what is the end of the phrase? It's a common phrase, so the ending flows right out of our mouth, but is the second part, which we believe that we know, always correct. Obviously, we want things to be done right, so would the complete phrase be: If you want it done right, then do it yourself. Does your car need tires, put them on yourself. Does your house need a new roof, put it on yourself. Do you need some meat, go butcher a cow yourself. Do you need a new car, go build one yourself. Do you need a new house, go build one yourself. Do you need a heart by pass, go do it yourself. For some of you and for some of these things you might be the most capable person for the job, but it is highly unlikely that you can do al... 05/26/2010

No More Urban Sprawl? Did the government encourage urban sprawl or did they just respond to the lifestyles of the American people? An elaborate system of expressways was constructed throughout the country.  The primary purpose was to allow for easy movement of military vehicles.  However, this extensive road network, also, made it much easier to commute longer distances.  Today, these expressways are congested and contribute to long and expensive commutes. This and other actions may have contributed to urban sprawl, but it was not intentional.  Now, HUD is talking of intentionally taking actions to reverse urban sprawl. Previously, the cost of transportation was not one of the qualifying factors for receiving a loan, but now there is talk of including it. Transportation is one of our bi... 05/26/2010

As Real Estate Goes, So Goes The Economy May 2010 In recent days and weeks, investors were busy watching the Euro and bailouts of severely struggling economies like that of Greece. Investors had been almost wholly concentrating on whether steep budget cuts to manage rising debt in European countries would slow a global economic recovery in the coming months. This negative news led the stock market to steep declines. However, they may have been missing a more important indicator of the health of the economy.  That indicator is the real estate market. The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes rose 14.8 percent in April to an annual rate of 504,000 units. That followed a 29.8 percent rise in March that was the biggest increase in 47 years. The latest gain is we... 05/26/2010

Maryland: Job Gains; Unemployment Drops The State of Maryland continues to lead the nation out of the recession. Alexander M. Sanchez, the state's labor secretary, stated "The job creation in the last three months is the largest three-month job creation in Maryland in more than 20 years," and "New claims for unemployment benefits have fallen more than 40 percent in the last six months - that's another extremely positive sign." Employers add 8,200 jobs in April in another sign of recovery   05/24/2010

Stocks Are Down; Invest In Real Estate Rates have improved this week as stocks plunged on worries about the European markets and its effect on the global economy. Concerns about how the European debt crisis and a slumping euro will impact the economic recovery fueled a flight to quality and a dramatic sell off in the U.S. stock markets. Investors are flocking to bonds, seen as a safe spot to park their cash in times of economic volatility. With interest rates in the 4%'s, buying a home is actually more affordable and makes more long term financial sense this week than it did before the tax incentive expired. Home prices are at their low in the cyclical real estate market, while interest rates are lower than most people have seen in their lifetimes. With the volatile stock market plummet... 05/21/2010

U.S. Retailers Believe The Economy is Improving Nearly 70 percent of U.S. retailers believe that the overall economy is improving, and 92 percent are planning to increase store openings, according to a new survey released by CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc.(CBRE). The report, "Shop Talk - A Retailer's Perspective", also finds that despite an improving economy, nearly all the retail executives surveyed believe that retail rents will either fall or remain flat throughout the rest of 2010.The survey also found that while retailers believe the economy is improving, nearly 60 percent think that it will take another six to eighteen months before their segment of the retail market feels the benefit of the recovery. Among concerns cited by respondents were the state of consumer confidence, potentia... 05/20/2010

Good Morning to all!! I wanted to share with you a very interesting conversation I had this morning with a first time home buyer in the State of Maryland.  The buyer called me after reading a few of my blogs here in Activerain relating to the Fannie Mae addendum.  She is purchasing a Fannie Mae property here in Maryland and she is taking a loan through HomePath.  See FAQ's in the link http://www.fanniemae.com/homepath/homebuyers/faq.jhtmler Her questions to me were in relation to whether or not she was able to use her own title agent, and whether or not she would lose the seller's credit if she did not use the seller's title agent and whether or not she, as a first time home buyer, would be responsible for the payment of the full amount of transfer taxes and stamps.    This poor woman w... 05/05/2010

New Home Sales Substantially Up Nationwide After slow sales of new homes in February, which was primarily related to severe weather across most of the nation, March saw an incredible and higher than expected increase in new home sales.  The month to month increase was the highest seen in 47 years. Pundits believe that this is related to a variety of factors, including a rapidly recovering economy, good spring weather, very low interest rates, low home prices, and partially to the tax credit program. During these once in a lifetime conditions, Buyers who are looking in the Baltimore County area may want to consider looking at any of these fine quality and very affordable homes by Danleigh Homes. Contact Ron Trzcinski at 410-935-5844 or ront@mris.com for more details.   Brittany Marie    ... 04/28/2010

I Sold It Twice It was a modest semi-detached home with three bedrooms, one full and one half bath, and a finished basement. In the first go round, I picked up the listing from a For Sale By Owner.  Overall, it was not a bad house and it did have some updates.  For the most part it showed very well.  However, the owner fancied himself as a handyman, when he was actually unhandy.  He put in a new kitchen, which at first glance looked nice, but upon closer examination, it showed that it had been done without measuring.  Nonetheless, it did not take much to bring it into decent condition.  It took us about 4 weeks to get an acceptable buyer.  The inspection did not uncover many problems, but the negative conditions which were found would be taken care of by the owner, you know, the unhandy... 04/21/2010

Up To 90; Down To 60 It's early April in Baltimore, the start of the baseball season, and temperatures have been in full agreement for the ball tossing gang of summer.  We have seen day time temperatures making it from the high 80s to the low 90s for the last few days.  The weather is summertime beautiful and the people are gleefully taking to the outdoors in their tee and tank tops, shorts and flip flops. However, the forecast for the weekend is for temperatures to drop by about 30 degrees from the pleasant mid week warmers to frigid days in the 60s.  Bundle up boys and girls, you don't want to catch a cold. . . . . Did somebody mention temperatures in the 60s and frigid in the same sentence? The normal daily highs for this part of the world at this early point in spring are actually a... 04/07/2010

Single Family Homes Available In Nottingham, Maryland There are currently 89 single family homes available in Nottingham, Maryland. Nottingham is a popular subdivision of Baltimore County, Maryland which is in very close proximity to White Marsh, Maryland. Nottingham is located conveniently close to I-95, Route 40 and 695 so Baltimore City and the surrounding areas are within a quick commute. There are plenty of shopping alternatives close by as well with the thriving shopping areas in and around White Marsh including White Marsh Mall, the Avenue In White Marsh and Nottingham Square. There are also a great deal of entertainment facilities in the area with nearby movies, bowling alleys, restaurants and pubs. Most single family homes available in Nottingham have 3 to 4 bedrooms and 1 ½ or... 04/06/2010

Convictions Do you have strongly held beliefs? We hear talk of morals as if they are absolutes, yet we constantly see individuals who do not act in accordance with such morals.  They even go to the point of defending what otherwise appears to be an immoral act. We hear talk of ethical behavior, but we can debate the topic as to what is ethical conduct and what is not ethical conduct to the point that one could reason that any behavior could be considered to be ethical. Politically, there are people who are far left in their views and there are others who are far right in their views.  The phrases "far left" and "far right" by themselves, stated simply as words, indicate nothing negative about either one, yet people from either side will accuse the other of having selfish motivations. We... 04/02/2010

Face to Face The internet and the many other electronic tools which are available to us in this technological world of today have become almost indispensable. We hear statistics about how many buyers of any product and especially real estate start their search online. 65 percent, 75 percent, 85 percent, the number keeps rising as the internet becomes more and more accessible and as more and more businesses create a presence on the net. But a key word in this statement which should not be overlooked is the word "start". While for some products, a buyer's search might start and end on the internet, this is not likely to be the case with real estate. In fact, for real estate it may be nearly 100 percent of searches that do not end on the internet. Most buyers want to see the actual product... 03/27/2010

My March Madness Picks (Updated) This is only a prediction of the Final Four and not of each game in the tournament. I will probably be the only person in the world to have these picks, but, nevertheless, they are my picks and I am sticking by them . . . well, at least, through the first round, or I should say until next week.  We will see if I need to make a revision after that. Okay, Revision I. The Duke Blue Devils (This has nothing to do with the fact that I am an ACC fan.) They are still in it.     The Maryland Terrapins (This has nothing to do with the fact that I am a super big fan of the Terps).  Move over Maryland.  Michigan State University is taking your place.                             The Gonzaga Bull Dogs (Why not?).  Good job; now get lost and make way for Xavier.      ... 03/22/2010

Cell Phone Numbers Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month--All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. You will be charged for these calls even if they go to your voice mail. To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.  It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time and will block your number for five (5) years. Or go to  https://www.donotcall.gov/register/reg.aspx  and register up to 3 phone numbers.     03/22/2010

De-evolution of the Voice The Rise of the Voice Over the course of many millennia humans have developed very sophisticated spoken languages.  This development of speech has made it possible for people to convey their most complex thoughts to each other. When the evolution of the voice was at its peak, the world received some of the greatest content filled oratorical deliveries of ideas of all time. During this peak period, language was choreographed into beautiful poetic lines, which flowed from the lips more gracefully than a tranquil stream headed out to sea. At the acme of this ascension of the voice, powerful lyrics were put to song and the creation of the most pleasant sounds imaginable were lofted through the air in wonderful melodic tones. The Decline of the Voice In the early da... 03/22/2010

Health Care Legislation and Job Creation? Proponents of the Health Care Legislation, which some members of Congress and the President are trying to pass, indicate that one of its side benefits will be that it will create jobs. It does make sense that if health care is accessible to more people, then it will require more workers to provide this service, such as doctors, nurses, technicians, and administrative workers. However, this may be at the expense of other parts of the economy. For instance, the wealth in an economy comes from the primary and secondary economic sectors. These would include, in the primary sector, the extraction of raw materials such as coal, oil, farm and fishing crops, ores, and the like. In the secondary sector, it would include the manufacture of products such a... 03/19/2010