Line Item Veto
Green advocates fight HOA bans on clotheslines.
Neo-traditional architecture, tree-lined streets, and quaint corner stores have become staples in traditional neighborhood developments designed to invoke the nostalgia of simpler times. But there's one old school feature these towns have been just as happy to do without: the clothesline, which, by neighborhood-design–police standards, is an eyesore.
Ah, but with mounting concerns over greenhouse emissions and energy conservation, this low-tech technique could be poised for a comeback. At least that's the hope among proponents of the “Right to Dry” movement, a growing cadre of citizens advocating al fresco air-drying as a sustainable alternative to electric dryers. Grassroots activists have commanded attention of late by staging protests in local jurisdictions and promoting state legislation that would overrule local HOA bans on clotheslines.
“How we do laundry is a big deal, because we all do it,” notes Alexander Lee, executive director of Project Laundry List, a nonprofit advocacy group that recently began enlisting college students via Facebook to help further the cause. Six percent to 10 percent of residential electric consumption is attributable to the dryer, he observes, with the average household spending more than $100 per year to dry its clothes.
Legislative proposals to lift clothesline bans have been floated in North Carolina, Florida, Utah, and Vermont. And they could be coming to a community near you. - J. Sullivan
Jumbo Comeback
Jumbo loans, a struggling market now, will be back in full force.
Dick Kovacevich, Chairman of Wells Fargo, told the audience at the 37th Annual Bank of America Investor Conference in San Francisco that while the current credit environment may reek of “war, pestilence, and famine,” all hope is not lost for the nonconforming, or jumbo, loan market.
Mortgage loans above $417,000 are considered jumbo loans. In many parts of the country where home prices are high, residents are heavily reliant on jumbo loans and are struggling to get financial backing for such loans during the credit crunch.
“The nonconforming market will be back in no time at all. If you were worried that that's going away, don't worry. Trust me,” Kovacevich said at the conference according to numerous published reports.
One way that could happen is if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are given permission to buy, insure, and securitize jumbo loans. Currently they are not allowed to, though U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been quoted as saying he'd consider allowing the Government Sponsored Entities to buy such loans—temporarily.
Whether or not jumbo loans do make a come back, some other mortgage product, probably a risky one, will spring up, said Kovacevich.
“Believe me, this is all going to happen again,” he said. “We never learn our lesson.” - E. Butterfield