If you have never been to Seeking Alpha, go there! It’s a great source of information and usually well written and stays away from the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) most other news love to toil with.

You can go to Seeking Alpha to find many well written article on Real Estate, Mortgages, Home Builders and International News.

Every week it seems, we read about new gloomy reports but this one surprised me a little until I gave it some thoughts. According to Fidelity Investments, home equity won’t be a significant portion of your retirement funding. It makes sense in some ways.

Numbers recorded from the mid-60s of home appreciation show homes have apreciated country wide at anywhere from 1.5% to 3 yearly. If I take into my ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) portofolios who made between 10% to 12, it pales in comparison. However, it wasn’t always the case as was a few years ago when home appreciation went wild.

The study focused on stocks and bonds over every five- and 10-year period from 1963 to 2005.

It makes for an interesting read and should help a few wonder how to diversify their assets. Remember that important investment word, “diversify”?

Here is a link to the article.

At last, the Faster Freight-Cleaner Air Conference is happening.

It is currently held at the Long Beach Convention Center, 300 Ocean Blvd until the 28th, which is Wednesday.

IT will showcase programs, policies and technologies implemented in ports across North America to reduce negative air quality impacts from the goods movement industry.

You can go and visit www.ffca2007.com for more information.

The other news we’ve been inundated with is how many insurance companies are dropping clients after the first signs of trouble. This is disturbing since getting coverage in our country is not only difficult but very expensive. And believe me, as an independent worker, the very least you need to spend is $400, usually well over $1500 to get a normal coverage.

This is something that concerns all of us, not just in our industry but insurers have to be responsible again. It is one of the only industries that have grown substantially in revenues while laying off more people and insuring less. Truly, something is rotten in this industry.

Comes to the rescue C.A.R who sued Blue Shield for stopping health plan, canceling contracts and dropping coverage.

In all fairness, Blue Shield is saying some Realtor groups failed to meet some of the contracts guidelines. The guideline was basically, Blue Shield would ensure if 75% of the work force would purchase programs. Tough choice.

The problem is Realtor believes 99% are covered by Blue Shield. It should make for an interesting law suit as it sheds more and more light on the dark practices insurance companies engage with little reporting in the news.

Watch for March 14 in Los Angeles County Superior Court for a hearing.

I haven’t been getting my fast facts lately since I was swamped with spa. I decided to change my online email address to a spam box which filters relevant stuf. Anyway, out of the scope of this post. So, back by popular demand, here are The Fast Facts:

California’s median home price as of December 06 was $567,690
California’s highest median home price by C.A.R. region as of December 06 was Santa Barbara So. Coast at $1,250,00
California’s lowest median home price by C.A.R. region as of December 06 was the High Desert $324,560
California’s First-time Buyer Affordability Index Third Quarter 06 was 24 percent. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it per regions.

Source C.A.R.

Mortgage rates – week ending 2/15:
30-yr. fixed: 6.30%; Fees/points: 0.4%
15-yr. fixed: 6.03%; Fees/points: 0.4%
1-yr. adjustable: 5.52%; Fees/points: 0.6%

Freddie Mac

Oh, I love that quote: “Figures can’t lie but liars can figure!”

Apparently, the numbers showing the inventory of unsold homes on the market was greatly understated.

Surprised? No too much. I just don’t understand the ridiculous game played withy media. On one hand we have the news media being used to feed fear, doubts and uncertainty into the public opinion and once it has achieved it, it back peddles and says the news wasn’t accurate. OK, granted I take most of my news from specialized blogs, it often paints a much clearer image.

According to the Chicago Tribune, canceled contracts were not taken into account into glut of homes on the market. That should certainly give a less than accurate number.

Calculated Risk with more links.

As the media laments the current condition of the home market, I can’t help but wonder what is the real problem? After all, we are back at what a “normal” market should be or at least, getting closer to it.

Unfortunately, we are reminded constantly of figures from last year and last months. Normal sales for President’s Day are usually good but what can you expect after a market has gone through the skyrocket ride it went through the last few years?

Robert Toll, Chief Executive, of Toll Brothers was lamenting that even though President’s Day weekend sales were good, they were nowhere near normal.

So I will completely agree with Alex Barron, an analyst with JMP Securities when he sais: “You can’t have five years of a good time and fix everything in a few quarters.”

Calculated Risk“>Calculated Risk

I was asked the other, interviewing for a volunteering program, how I would tackle one of the biggest problem I find in our city.

It isn’t the biggest problem but I am an information maniac and I would love to have a place where I can easily find everything I need to know about my city. There is the city’s website, which is good but I have time easily finding the next upcoming meetings.

There are other sites I like but they haven’t evolved in the last few years.

I guess there is a need for a site that talks about Long Beach and is for Long Beach. Such a site would have people contribute to upcoming events, list classes offering, and everything relevant to anyone moving in our city or wanting more info.

There was a great site back in the .com days called StreetMail.com. The idea was simple, it had people writing about happenings in their neighborhoods.

One person who has certainly taken the right technology for the right thing to do is Gerry Schipske‘s blog. It is well done, and does exactly what a blog should do, inform people.

In a situation that is getting more confusing that it should ever be, now we have State Senator Alan Lowenthal who sent messages via telephone to most Long Beach residences.

He urges citizens to not sign a petition that would let voters decide whether the city should keep the labor peace ordinance recently adopted by the city council. Why is he so motivated all the sudden?

The Long Beach Business Journal