Daily Archives: December 3, 2006

TV, a Comparison Between Europe and The US

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A few things that always surprise me, maybe because we don’t have TV anymore at home is watching TV in France and Europe again.

The first thing you notice is that gone are the dreaded, boring commercial breaks every 6 to 10mn!  That’s a good thing.  Another thing I noticed is that the PAL and SECAM definition standard is way superior than our NTSC.  I even noticed better than our Hi-Def NTSC.  Why don’t we just adopt their better standard and do away with the incompatibility?  I am sure, much greed is at stake here.

Another funny thing is that Europe still has a lot of presentator for shows.  There are more talks, especially political and philosophical which I enjoy.

The thing I miss most in the States are the car channels here.  I can always turn on TV and find a good show on some old car manufacturer, old race or rally racing, something we rarely get back home.

However, one thing that is similar in both continents is the lack of interesting shows overall.  They seem to have copied our poor programming of many stations with little to show from home shopping to the latest star mania.

I will have TV again when I can chose to only get Discovery, SPEED, History and the few other channels I like.

First Time Buyers Still Out Of The Loop, Long Beach, CA

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First time buyers still have a hard time getting into the market.  It is a shame as it would bring a much needed flow into the industry that would have great benefits for the economy both locally and on a country wide aspect.

Only 24% of first-time buyers in
California could afford a median-priced home
the third quarter of this year, compared with 28 percent for the same period
a year ago.  That’s a very harsh number and clearly shuns many would be buyers.  And that only takes into consideration the $550,000 price bracket.  On the other hand, it makes for a strong rental market.

C.A.R.’s First-time Buyer Housing Affordability Index takes into account the percentage of first-time buyer households that can afford
to purchase a home in California.

The minimum household income for first-time buyers needed to purchase a
home at $478,710 in California in the third quarter of 2006 was
$98,890.  First-time buyers typically
purchase a home equal to 85 percent of the prevailing median price. The
monthly payment including taxes and insurance was $3,300 for the third
quarter of 2006.  Judging from these numbers, it not hard to understand why we don’t meet too many home buyers.

Here is the link to the original article.