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According to IHS Global, there isn’t a single U.S. metropolitan area where houses are ‘extremely overvalued’ right now. In fact, while a few regions remain moderately overvalued, overall U.S. housing prices are now undervalued.

IHS: When weighting each area by its share of total housing market value, we find that the overall housing market is now undervalued by 8.6%. That compares with a peak overvaluation of 26.1% during the second quarter of 2006. When weighting each area by its share of total housing market units, we find the overall housing market to now be undervalued 10.1%. That compares with a peak overvaluation of 17.1%, during the second quarter of 2006.

Here’s a map of their housing valuations below. By their measures, there are a lot of metropolitan areas with undervalued housing these days, especially in California and the southern U.S.. If you think this sounds completely ridiculous, then there’s a decent chance they’re right.

Here’s a brief description of their valuation method, check out the full report here. They claim some housing markets are undervalued by as much as 20%, especially in California.

IHS: Our approach to determining statistically normal house values considers not only house prices and interest rates, but household incomes, population densities, and any historical premiums or discounts metropolitan areas have exhibited over time.

We examined these factors for 330 metro areas, which now account for 78.4% of all existing housing units in America and 86.4% of all related real estate value, to determine what house prices should be, in this statistical sense.

Based on an historical examination of 155 actual metro area price corrections during the 1985-2008 period, we consider valuations in excess of +35 percent as “extremely overvalued” and present a risk of substantial price decline (10 percent, or greater) going forward.

Valuations between ±14 percent are consistent with one standard deviation of the historically normal distribution, and considered “fairly valued,” accordingly. Between extremely overvalued and fairly valued are areas above the historically normal range, but not so high as to be at risk of substantial price decline. We call these areas “overvalued.” Finally, any area below the historically normal range, below -14 percent, is considered “undervalued.”

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Deutsche Bank: Housing Still Has 10% To Fall
• Moody’s: The Housing Market Has Bottomed
• Housing Starts And CPI All Benign

Daily Random Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup minced red onion
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3 millimeter / 1/8 inch dice (1 cup)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• A few drops balsamic vinegar

METHOD:
Heat a skillet over high heat until your hand feels warm when held 7.5 centimeter / 3 inches above the surface. Add the oil and saute the onions over high heat for 3 or 4 minutes, until brown. Add the sweet potatoes and cook, stirring constantly, for about 4 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are cooked through and lightly browned. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper and a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Serve immediately or reheat, covered, in the oven.

The ESRB has just slapped Atlus Games’ Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey with an M rating. The reason behind this rating: graphic text and phallic monsters.
 
 

Article Tags: Copenhagen Conference, Headline Story, Will Alexander

My memo with this title is attached together with my message titled Children of Africa.

Copenhagen has come and gone. It was a nail biting experience watching the developments on TV and downloading all the Internet items. Now I can get on with my life.

While you enjoy the Christmas festivities, give a thought to the millions of people in the world living in conditions of abject poverty.

Regards and a Merry Christmas,

Will

Please download PDF file to read latest message from Will Alexander

Read in full with comments »

File attachment: Copenhagencollapse.pdf
  

One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google Reader account, however I don’t check it on a daily basis. I check Twitter for news and information multiple times a day, I monitor Twitter lists, and I read a number of blogs across a set of topics of most interest to me.

Frankly I’m more likely to use Google Reader to search for specific information nowadays, than to scan my subscribed feeds for their latest posts. So what’s happened to RSS Readers. Do people still use them and is there still a viable market for them?

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In February 2007 we reported on the state of the RSS Reader market, based on statistics from Feedburner and Pheedo. At that point Google had 59% market share amongst web-based RSS Readers, followed by Bloglines with 33%, then Newsgator and Netvibes with 3% (note: this didn’t count Newsgator’s desktop apps, like FeedDemon). Pheedo’s stats in February 2007 were somewhat different: Newsgator Online had 27% share, followed by MyYahoo! with 20%, Blogines 19% and Google Reader 13%.

The first time ReadWriteWeb looked into market share for RSS Readers was 5 years ago, in December 2004. At that point, very early in the web 2.0 era, Bloglines was the clear leader and Google Reader wasn’t even a glint in the milkman’s eye.

2009 Update on RSS Reader Market

Well, unfortunately Feedburner no longer publishes any useful data about RSS Readers. The product has been infrequently updated since Google acquired it in June 2007 and it no longer even has a proper blog (a Google blog called Adsense For Feeds was the closest I could find).

Pheedo also has gone quiet from a blogging perspective – its last blog post was January 2009. Tellingly though, it has an active Twitter account.

The best data we have then is ReadWriteWeb’s own Feedburner account. Here is the top 10 for Dec 09:

1. Google Feedfetcher 85665 (includes both Google Reader and its start page iGoogle)
2. Bloglines 38797
3. Netvibes 34894
4. FriendFeed 16269
5. NewsGator Online 6753
6. Firefox Live Bookmarks 2999
7. PostRank 2454
8. Windows RSS Platform 1587
9. Mac OS X RSS Reader 1307
10. Zhuaxia 1127 (a Chinese RSS Reader)

Feedburner’s numbers always need to be taken with a large grain of salt, nevertheless we can see that Google is now over twice the number of Bloglines. There’s little sign of life on Bloglines’ blog either and its Compete.com traffic numbers show a decline since June 2009.

Netvibes, FriendFeed, Newsgator and PostRank are the only other english language competitors showing in our Feedburner numbers. The others are either browser (Firefox) or operating system readers.

Also note that Newsgator shut down its online RSS Reader at the end of July this year.

Conclusion: Google Dominates, RSS Readers Less Relevant

These statistics are by no means the definitive RSS Reader market numbers. They do clearly show two things though:

1) Google now dominates what’s left of the RSS Reader market. Bloglines is hanging in there, but it seems like it’s given up the fight judging by lack of activity in its blog and traffic dips.

2) RSS reading is a very fragmented experience circa 2009. People can monitor news and information via Twitter, Facebook, start pages like Netvibes, their Firefox bookmarks, their OS, aggregators like Techmeme, and so on.

Tell us in the comments how you currently read your RSS feeds and how often you check them in an RSS Reader – if indeed you still use one…

Update: I should add that our news writers use a variety of RSS Readers daily.

Discuss

We’re not entirely sure if this would be the DLC that Naughty Dog promised to send out in time for Christmas, but apparently, two new multiplayer skins were found in Uncharted 2.
 
 
 

Ford is making a serious bid for geeks’ business. Scott Monty, the auto company’s Internet-famous social media head, wrote to us tonight with some of the most exciting car-related news an Internet-dependent nerd could wish for.

The next generation of Ford’s SYNC-enabled vehicles will not only be rolling communications and entertainment systems. They’ll also be rolling WiFi hotspots. Passengers will be able to connect to the Internet anywhere, anytime. Our crystal ball is showing a lot more Ford-enabled conference roadtrips.

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The way it works is a lot like many devices available from wireless networks. For example, Sprint’s MiFi, which we tested earlier this year, allows for multiple devices to connect to the Internet from a small, card-shaped device without a physical connection to any hardware. Other devices we’ve tested allow for single- and multi-device connections via USB.

Ford’s solution is allowing for USB modems connecting to the vehicle’s SYNC system and enabling Internet connectivity for multiple devices. These vehicles can also connect to other USB devices. In essence, the user’s vehicle becomes one with the user’s hardware.

The WiFi signal is broadcast throughout the vehicle, and password protection will guard against piggybacking.

Currently, SYNC vehicles feature hands-free calling, navigation systems, emergency assistance, music searches, news and weather feeds, business search, traffic data and audible text messages.

Without built-in hardware, it’s a lot like many other devices we’ve seen. Users will have to work with their carriers to get the hardware and network coverage to make the magic happen.

Nevertheless, Internet connectivity in a moving vehicle is something we’ve waited a long time to see, and we’re glad to see Ford recognizing that need.

Discuss

Deloitte report – Financial Services Industry: 2009 Accounting, Financial Reporting, Tax and Regulatory Update – 229 pages – good reference – thanks Marty Rosenblatt – from Deloitte 
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Voros: Nine biggest banks really didn’t need our bailout – Drew Voros – WELLS FARGO executives just couldn’t wait any longer or it would run the risk of looking like a laggard, like something was wrong.  When Citigroup, the weakest link of America’s nine largest banks that were bailed out, announced Monday morning its was joining other banks in repaying $25 billion in TARP money, San Francisco-based Wells became the lone major bank in the country not to reimburse taxpayers. – Silicon Valley Mercury News

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Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase Report Growth in 15-Year Mortgage Market  – … As evidence of this trend, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that 15-year fixed rate loans accounted for nearly one in five refinance applications in October. That was up from 9.1% in 2008 and 7.5% in October 2007 … – American Banking News

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CRE Losses Won’t Threaten Life Insurers’ Ratings Unless Values Fall More Than Expected –  Moody’s expects US insurers’ commercial mortgage losses to grow, but not to result in many rating downgrades unless commercial property values fall much further than expected. – Research Recap

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Obama should create debt commission, Greenspan says – Says Greenspan: “Our nation has never before had to confront so formidable a fiscal crisis as is now visible just over the horizon.”  – USA Today … The Oval

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Ginnie Mae Issues $1.2 Billion of Reverse Mortgage MBS – Reverse Mortgage Daily

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Fannie Mae Predicts Strong Recovery for Housing Next Year – … According to the forecast, existing home sales are expected to rise by 10 percent next year, compared to an estimated 3.1 percent gain this year, while new home sales are projected to rise by 26 percent in 2010 compared to an estimated 19 percent drop in sales this year … – UPI.com 

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Dear Mr. Geithner, Let Me Teach You Something – By Ron Coby – Americans are pointing a finger right back at you – … Mr. Geithner, let’s start your education by simply looking at the number of zeros in $100 trillion. Are you ready for this? You better sit down because it should blow your mind away: $100,000,000,000,000. … – Minyanville
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Ben Bernanke, Repo Man – Elizabeth Macdonald – worth reading – talks about difficulties of draining excess reserves by Fed and that rates will rise – Fox Business
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Plan B Economics: Uncommon Knowledge –  Thoughts on 2010… – As long as governments can borrow at virtually zero cost to support ailing economies, nominal stock market returns will continue to be positive. However, when rates on government securities rise, the market will feel the real cost of saving the economy. This will mark a turning point in the recovery. – Plan B Economics

Casting one’s eye into a crystal ball is a risky undertaking that can leave the forecaster as visionary or fool – particularly if they are short term predictions that can easily be checked. But that hasn’t deterred the soothsayers at IBM coming up with their fourth annual “Next 5 in 5” list of innovations that will impact our lives in the next five years. Based on market and societal trends as well as emerging technologies, the latest list focuses on innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in our burgeoning cities…

Tags: Batteries,
Consumption,
Disease,
Eco-friendly,
Health,
IBM,
Law Enforcement,
Medical,
Predictions,
Technology,
Transport,
Vehicles,
Water

Related Articles:

• WaterMill provides energy-efficient alternative to bottled H2O
• Philips’ energy efficient street lighting cuts city energy consumption
• World Population Becomes More Urban Than Rural
• on-board automotive computers could interact with traffic lights in the future
• The world’s first floating, rotating (floatating?) hotel building
• Over half the world now live in cities according to UN Report

If you’re a frequent Whole Foods shopper than listen up because a holiday baking essential has just been recalled. Whole Foods Market is recalling…

• Organic raw hazelnuts, also known as filberts, that were sold in bulk in its stores in California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
• Non-organic dry roasted hazelnuts (filberts) sold in bulk through its stores in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
• Non-organic raw hazelnuts (filberts) sold in bulk through its stores in Oregon and Washington.

The above products have been recalled because they may be contaminated with salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.

No illnesses have been reported, according to the company. If you do have any hazelnuts on hand make sure you return them. If you already baked or cooked with them toss the food. For more information, consumers can call 512-542-0656.

*Source

[image via Wikimedia Commons]

Post from: Blisstree

Salmonella Whole Foods Product Recall

Filed under: Health, Healthy Eating, Eat This

My past posts on chocolate have specified that the only way to derive all the health benefits that are being touted about chocolate is to eat it raw and organic. However, as more and more science builds up, I’ve found myself in the position of having … Read more

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Filed under: Morning Scoop

Each morning, we dish out a few links we love.

With all that excess food on Christmas, no wonder Santa is so fat. So, is it time he went on a diet and hired a personal trainer?

Hitting the ski hill this winter? Here are some tips on avoiding … Read more

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Descriptions: Fuel/Water Separator Spin-on with Drain and Sensor Port
Notes: CAUTION: Furnished O-Ring must be installed on post for seal.
Contains: Sensor Port Thread: 9/16-18 Standpipe
Fits: Caterpillar Equipment
Replaces: Caterpillar 326-1643
Thread: 1-14
O.D.: 4 1/4 (108.0)
Length: 9 11/32 (237.3)
I. Gskt.: [1] Included
O. Ring: [2] Included

Baldwin’s BF1259, with InterBlendTM media, continues to exceed the aftermarket replacement for fuel/water separators on
Cummins CELECTTM electronic engines. In laboratory tests (see charts below), the BF1259 exceeds OE specifications when
testing contaminant removal efficiency, emulsified water removal capability and contaminant holding capacity.
Higher efficiency means less damage-causing contaminants pass through the filter to sensitive fuel injection components,
leading to longer and more efficient fuel system life.
The BF1259 with InterBlend media was designed to increase contaminant trapping efficiency, dirt-holding capacity and
water-removal efficiency. The final result is a fuel/water separator that meets or exceeds the OEM’s filter specifications.

Clippard’s new Rotary Valves are 4-way with 1/4″ NPT ports. They are manually-operated 3-position closed center valves offering an operating pressure range of 0 to 150 psig and an operatig temperature from 32 to 140°F.

With a small footprint, this base mounted rotary valves offers flexibility for strategic locations.

The Industrial Automation Group of Advantech introduces the UNO-3272, a Fanless Box PC equipped with a Celeron M 440 1.86GHz CPU, 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 2 x Gigabit Ethernet ports with teaming function, 4 x serial communication ports (2 x RS-232 and 2 x RS-232/422/485 with Auto Flow Control), 2 x PCI expansion slots, audio, DVI-D, VGA dual video output and 1 x external CompactFlash slot.

The UNO-3272 supports SATA RAID 0/1 function, allowing customers to backup their operating system, applications, and important data if they have installed two hard drives. A Gigabit LAN port supports teaming function with fault tolerance, link aggregation, and load balance features. Also, the UNO-3272 supports Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Linux or Embedded OS such as Windows XP Embedded and Embedded Linux.

The UNO-3272 provides high performance, multiple I/O interfaces, PCI and multimedia expansion, with a fanless design and superior thermal protection for harsh environments, making it a cost-effective, high performance Fanless Box PC for many different industrial automation applications.

the modular belt is mainly used in the corrugated packaging industry,our belt has the good perfermance in that industry,it is easy to maintaince and clean,it could make the carton more flat,at the same time,we have a good price on it,now it is tested in home market,of course,we also manufacture the belt according to clintes’ requirement.welcome to inquiry from us.

It will typically be a question of processing in-correct castings into a homogeneous fraction prior to re-melting.

By processing the incorrect castings into a homogeneous fraction the energy consumption during the re-melting process will be reduced.

The Plant is intended for size reduction of cast magnesium parts such as gear boxes, antlers, pucks, steering wheels etc.
An Eldan Magnesium Processing Plant normally consists of a Super Chopper (Heavy Duty) with inlet conveyor and vibrating discharge conveyor.

Sweep Frequency Response Analyzer for Power Transformer Core and Winding Diagnosis.

OMICRON’s FRAnalyzer detects mechanical and electrical changes of the core and the winding assembly of power transformers by using the SFRA method.

SFRA stands for Sweep Frequency Response Analysis, a worldwide proven technique for measurements in frequency domain that allows examining transformers without costly detanking.

By finding winding or core defects after faults, mechanical shocks (e.g. earthquakes) or transportation,it offers a valuable opportunity to improve the reliability of transformers, to reduce maintenance costs and, most of all, to avoid expensive unexpected outages.