HBA Newswatch
March 19, 2008
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY CAN CUT ENERGY USE, GREENHOUSE GASES
LONDON GROVE — While you are sitting around waiting for a fuel cell car to be developed for the mass market, there is one technology available right now that can cut energy use and greenhouse gases dramatically.
It’s geothermal energy and while no one has thought of a way to run their car with it, it can chop home heating and cooling costs down to the bone.
Once thought to be only for the super rich or for model homes featuring all the latest green technology, it is now entering the mainstream and showing up in the basements and backyards of modest, middle-income families.
“A year ago our business was 95 percent gas heaters and air conditioners,” said Louis Rakus, owner of Chelsea Heating & Air in Avondale, one of the largest heating and cooling contractors in the area. “Today, it is the complete opposite with 95 percent of our business geothermal installations.”
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GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCING PLAN TO EASE CAPITAL RESTRAINTS ON FANNIE, FREDDIE
By Marcy Gordon, Of The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --- The government will free up billions of dollars at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, money that would be used to help home owners refinance mortgages on the brink of default.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which oversees the government-sponsored companies, was expected to announced a plan Wednesday that would ease mandatory capital requirments now in place, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
That mandatory cash cushion — now nearly $20 billion for the two — will be reduced by a third under the new deal. The freed-up money will go toward buying mortgages of struggling homeowners to enable them to refinance into more affordable loans.
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THE RICH KEEP BUYING DESPITE HOUSING SLOWDOWN
By Lauren Baier Kim
The rich keep buying
Your Average Joe may be hesitant about dipping his toe into today's frigid housing market, but the wealthy aren't -- a Business Week article recently noted that "movie stars, hedge fund managers and corporate titans" are buying up real estate these days.
The credit crunch is making it harder for many of us trying to get the financing needed to purchase a home, but that's not an issue for many luxury-home buyers -- about a third of those who buy residences priced at more than $1 million pay cash, Business Week quotes Laurie Moore-Moore, founder of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, located in Dallas, as saying.
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HOUSING BUST FUELS BLAME GAME
Democrats Seize On Opponents' Role; Bipartisan Failures
By GREG IP, JAMES R. HAGERTY and JONATHAN KARP
As the falling housing market shakes financial institutions and pummels Americans in an election year, the nation's economic woes have surged to the top of voters' minds. The timely question: To what extent are politicians and regulators at fault?
Democrats are quick to blame Republicans, who were in power during the housing bubble and subprime lending frenzy. For years, America's leaders failed to restrain the markets, companies, investors and consumers from the missteps that led to the most pervasive financial crisis in decades.
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