Millennials Ready to Play Key Role in Housing Market Recovery ...

Recent data from a survey commissioned by Better Homes and Garden Real Estate (BHGRE) suggests a pent up desire among 18-35 year olds to own a home of their own that could easily fuel a real estate boom for at least the rest of this decade.?

In contrast to predictions from some futurists that the Millennial generation, born 1982-2003, will be content to be lifelong renters, BHGRE?s survey found home ownership still ranked as young Americans? most important definition of personal success.? Overall, three-fourths of those surveyed named home ownership as an indicator of having succeeded financially, more than seven times the number who named other major expenditures such as taking extravagant vacations, buying an expensive car, or owning designer clothing. Even among those living in the Northeast or in cities, seventy percent identified home ownership as the best indicator of having made it financially. This is fully in line with earlier studies by Pew Research that found home ownership was among the top three priorities in life for members of the Millennial generation.

Unlike comments often made about this generation by some of their elders, most Millennials didn?t express sentiments suggesting that they feel entitled to be simply handed this badge of success. ?Seventy percent of those in BHGRE?s survey said they needed to possess the skills to own a home; only thirty percent said they ?deserved it.? Respondents also made it clear they were prepared to sacrifice to achieve their dream of home ownership. ?About sixty percent were willing to eat out less and/or only spend on necessities to save the money needed to buy a home. These sentiments were most strongly expressed by those who had grown up in a home ?owned by their parents. ?In addition, forty percent were willing to take a second job. And, almost a quarter ?of the generation accused of ??failing ?to launch?? were prepared to live with their parents for a couple of years to save the money they would need to own a piece of the American Dream. ?

The collapse of the housing market that triggered the Great Recession also has made Millennials sophisticated, knowledgeable consumers when making decisions about how and when to purchase a home. ?Rather than thinking they should buy a home as soon as they get married or qualify for a mortgage, seventy percent of BHGRE?s respondents said the time to buy a house is when a person can ?afford it and maintain their lifestyle.??

Millennials are careful consumers, as befits a group shaped by the most lengthy economic downturn in decades. Sixty-one percent suggested they would want to have a secure job before buying a house and more than half said people should wait until they had saved enough for the down payment before making such a purchase. ?When asked to indicate the factors they would research in determining whether to buy a home, financial considerations were cited by a majority of the respondents.

They understand the power of money. Interest rates, home prices and how those two factors impacted their ability to secure a mortgage, all ranked much higher in importance than the type of neighborhood a house was in, school district ratings or foreclosure rates.? With the median sales price of both new and existing homes up almost five percent this year, Millennials are likely to jump into the market soon before it becomes too expensive for them to do so.??????

These findings suggest the current policies of the Federal Reserve and its Chairman, Ben Bernanke to keep interest rates low in order to stimulate this key part of the U.S. economy are right on target. If home builders and sellers can tailor their offerings to these technologically sophisticated, family-oriented potential buyers, Millennials could well play an important role in reinvigorating the nation?s housing market, further spurring the nation?s recovery from the Great Recession.

Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais are co-authors of the newly published Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation is Remaking America and Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics and fellows of NDN and the New Policy Institute.

Homes image by BigStock.

Source: http://www.newgeography.com/content/003259-millennials-ready-play-key-role-housing-market-recovery

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Those who own valuable pieces of art are taking out loans against ...

@Gregers said ?Britain has never seen nor created art. Ever.? To which I offer this incomplete list of British artists (these are just a few painters): William Hogarth, William Turner, Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, William Blake, John Constable, Ford Madox Brown, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Edward Burne-Jones, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Aubrey Beardsley, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake, David Hockney? It?s fun to make sweeping generalizations, but they usually make the person who says them look ignorant. If you?re going to sum up Britain?s entire aesthetic output with Damien Hirst, then you?re a fool. And all Hirst really did was take American artists Warhol and Koons ideas of flagrant consumption and crass self-promotion one step further to it?s cynical self-destructive aesthetic conclusion

Source: http://maxkeiser.com/2012/11/23/those-who-own-valuable-pieces-of-art-are-taking-out-loans-against-their-assets-to-raise-finance/

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Boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho remains on life support

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Relatives of Hector "Macho" Camacho are still hoping for a miracle but planning funeral arrangements for the three-time world boxing champ, Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia said on Friday.

Camacho, 50, remained on life support at the Rio Piedras Medical Center in San Juan. He was declared brain dead on Thursday, two days after he was shot in the face in a drive-by shooting.

The newspaper quoted his former manager, Ismael Leandry, as saying Camacho's family would not remove him from life support before Saturday.

"They won't take him off the machines. God says when he will die," Leandry told the newspaper. "Camacho is a warrior and we believe he is battling to stay alive."

At the same time, the newspaper said the family is planning a funeral in New York, where Camacho grew up, and possibly a public wake in Puerto Rico.

Police were still investigating the shooting. Two gunmen opened fire on Camacho and a friend, Adrian Mojica Moreno, 49, as they sat in a car outside a liquor store in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon, Camacho's birthplace.

Mojica Moreno, the driver of the car, was killed and Camacho was shot in the jaw. The bullet fractured two vertebrae and lodged in his shoulder, damaging the arteries that carried blood to the brain, doctors said.

Police found nine small bags of cocaine in the driver's pockets and one open in the car. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.

Camacho, a left-handed fighter who grew up in New York's tough Spanish Harlem, had a record of 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts. His three-decade career featured fights with a "who's who" of boxing and a flamboyant style that included entering the ring in an outfit based on the Puerto Rican flag.

(Reporting by Reuters in San Juan, editing by Jane Sutton and Sandra Maler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boxer-hector-macho-camacho-remains-life-support-181506718--box.html

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1 killed, 19 wounded in Israeli gunfire near Gaza

An Israeli soldier guides a tank to a new position at a staging area near the Israel Gaza Strip Border, southern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. A cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers took effect Wednesday night, bringing an end to eight days of the fiercest fighting in years and possibly signaling a new era of relations between the bitter enemies. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

An Israeli soldier guides a tank to a new position at a staging area near the Israel Gaza Strip Border, southern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. A cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers took effect Wednesday night, bringing an end to eight days of the fiercest fighting in years and possibly signaling a new era of relations between the bitter enemies. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

(AP) ? Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded 19 people as crowds surged toward Gaza's border fence with Israel on Friday, a health official said, the first violence since a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers took hold a day before.

The shooting did not appear to pose an immediate threat to the Egypt-brokered cease-fire, which called for an end to Gaza rocket fire on Israel and Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The truce came after eight days of cross-border fighting, the bloodiest between Israel and Hamas in four years.

The Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, has urged militant factions to respect the cease-fire. It appeared unlikely Hamas would retaliate for the Friday's shooting because that could jeopardize the militant group's potential gains from the cease-fire deal, such as an easing of restrictions on movement in and out of the Palestinian territory.

Hamas officials were not immediately available for comment. Nafez Azzam, a spokesman for Gaza's Islamic Jihad, said the shooting was a violation of the truce and that Egypt was informed.

On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians approached Israel's border fence in several locations in southern Gaza, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman. In the past, Israel's military has barred Palestinians from getting close to the fence, and soldiers opened fire routinely to enforce a no-go zone meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel.

Since the cease-fire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the no-go zone.

In one incident captured by Associated Press video, several dozen Palestinians, most of them young men, approached the fence, coming close to a group of Israeli soldiers standing on the other side.

Some Palestinians briefly talked to the soldiers, while others appeared to be taunting them with chants of "God is Great" and "Morsi, Morsi," in praise of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, whose mediation led to the truce.

At one point, a soldier shouted in Hebrew, "Go there, before I shoot you," and pointed away from the fence, toward Gaza. The soldier then dropped to one knee, assuming a firing position. Eventually, a burst of automatic fire was heard, but it was not clear whether any of the casualties were from this incident.

Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said a 20-year-old man was killed and 19 people were wounded.

Israel's military said roughly 300 Palestinians approached the security fence at several locations in southern Gaza, tried to damage it and cross into Israel. Soldiers fired warning shots in the air to distance the Palestinians from the fence, but after they refused to move back, troops fired at their legs, the military said. It also said a Palestinian infiltrated into Israel in the course of the unrest, but he was returned to Gaza.

The truce allowed both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step back from the brink of a full-fledged war. Over eight days, Israel's aircraft carried out some 1,500 strikes on Hamas-linked targets, while Gaza fighters peppered Israel with roughly the same number of rockets.

The fighting killed 166 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, and six Israelis.

In Cairo, Egypt is hosting separate talks with Israeli and Hamas envoys on the next phase of the cease-fire ? a new border deal for blockaded Gaza. Hamas demands lifting of all border restrictions, while Israel insists that Hamas must halt weapons smuggling to the territory.

In Israel, a poll showed that about half of Israelis think their government should have continued its military offensive against Hamas.

The independent Maagar Mohot poll released Friday shows 49 percent of respondents feel Israel should have kept going after squads that fire rockets into Israel. Thirty-one percent supported the government's decision to stop. Twenty percent had no opinion.

Twenty-nine percent thought Israel should have sent ground troops to invade Gaza. The poll of 503 respondents had an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.

The same survey showed Netanyahu's Likud Party and electoral partner Israel Beiteinu losing some support, but his hard-line bloc would still able to form the next government. Elections are Jan. 22.

___

Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-23-Israel-Palestinians/id-994ad0e4077944899867b5ff035d9061

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Halo: The SPARTAN V Project

The war with the Covenant has since come to an e, but the SPARTANs are far from done with active duty. As space exploration and colonization continues, multiple threats, both new and old, rise to stand in the way of humanity's expansion towards the stars.

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EU nations head into tough budget summit

British Prime Minister David Cameron pauses during a press conference at Stormont Castle, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. The Prime Minister arrived in the province to announce that that the G8 will be held in Fermanagh Northern Ireland in June 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

British Prime Minister David Cameron pauses during a press conference at Stormont Castle, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012. The Prime Minister arrived in the province to announce that that the G8 will be held in Fermanagh Northern Ireland in June 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? Leaders from around Europe are arriving in Brussels Thursday for what promises to be a turbulent summit on the budget for the 27-country European Union. And for once, Britain will be at the heart of the debate.

In a battle pitting several wealthy member states against those seeking a bigger aid budget, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will seek to reduce the financial clout ? and political sway ? of the EU's institutions.

As he arrived Thursday morning for a preliminary meeting with Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, Cameron said he was not happy with the latest budget proposals. The Council is the assembly of the 27 European heads of state and government. Also attending was Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

"These are very important negotiations," Cameron said. "And clearly, at a time when we're making difficult decisions at home over public spending, it would be quite wrong ? it is quite wrong ? for there to be proposals for this increased extra spending in the EU. So we're going to be negotiating very hard for a good deal for Britain's taxpayers and for Europe's taxpayers, and to keep the British rebate."

Facing an ever more vocal Euroskeptic electorate at home, Cameron is under huge pressure to veto any seven-year deal which would exceed the old 2007-2013 ?1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) budget by as much as a euro.

The budget primarily funds programs to spur growth in the bloc less developed regions and farming and amounts to about 1 percent of the EU's gross domestic product.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, backs more spending, arguing that cross-border initiatives will help to create the economic growth and jobs that the bloc of a half-billion people needs.

Cameron is set to do the talking for some of the other member states ? such as the Netherlands, Sweden and, to a certain extent Germany ? who also want limits on EU spending when he opens a session of bilateral talks with EU President Herman Van Rompuy. He will demand a real cut in the EU budget, claiming that is the only justifiable outcome at a time when almost every member state has to cut its budget to lower debt.

Poland and Spain, on the other side, will head a group of nations imploring for more funds to be committed to help economic development in many southern and eastern nations and close the wealth gap in the EU and boost jobs and growth.

Going into the open-ended summit which might well stretch into Saturday, Van Rompuy made a first compromise proposal that leaned toward Cameron's demands. It proposes a cut of between ?3 billion ($4 billion) and ?24 billion ($31 billion), depending on how the figures are read.

"With less money, we cannot do the same as before," Van Rompuy wrote in the invitation letter he sent to the 27 leaders.

Since each of the 27 member states has veto power over the budget, the outcome is a cliffhanger.

"If necessary, we will have to meet again at the beginning of next year," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the country's parliament on Wednesday.

Leaders from Denmark up north to Spain and Italy down south have already threatened vetoes, sometimes for opposing reasons.

If the summit fails to find a compromise, the issue could spill over into a new meeting next month, or into next year. There is no set deadline for a deal but the closer it gets to 2014, the tougher it will be for a smooth introduction of new programs. If there is no deal up to 2014, there would be a rollover of the 2013 budget plus a 2 percent increase accounting for inflation.

___

Don Melvin contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-11-22-EU-Budget%20Summit/id-878e27bda7c44ad29e098ceca09dce0b

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Pinterest helps grow ecommerce

Brick and mortar stores are dying a slow death. This is especially true for smaller operations. The reason for this? The Internet. Traditionally, small to medium businesses were limited to the areas where they had offices. Now, thanks to the Internet, you can sell your products to anyone, anywhere. This ?e-commerce? has become an integral part of business and with it, marketing your products and services to those online. One way companies do this is through social networks, and one platform that is proving to be fantastic for commerce is Pinterest.

Pinterest is different from the other main social networking services in that you don?t usually share written content, rather you pin photos to an online pinboard that other users can view and share. If a user shares, or ?pins? one of your pictures all their friends can then see it and can repin it on their boards, and so on. The potential result of this is that one picture can be seen by hundreds of thousands of users ? commonly referred to as ?going viral?.

What this means for you is that there is potential for your business name/brand to gain massive exposure and an expansion of your existing customer base. Here?s how to get your Pinterest marketing started.

  1. Take pictures. As Pinterest is all about images, you should take pictures of the products you sell, or interesting aspects that define your company.
  2. Create an account with your company?s name. You should do this soon, as Pinterest is the quickest growing social network; many of the more popular usernames are being snapped up.
  3. Create a relevant description. If users have never heard of you but like the content you pin, they will usually check your description for more information. This means your description needs to pop. The most effective descriptions give a brief overview of what you do, specialities, interests and links, so users can find more information. Don?t make the text too long, users won?t read it (that?s what your website is for).
  4. Identify and create boards. Based on the pictures you have taken, and your main business offerings, set up boards based on these images. Many companies take the product categories from their website and create a board for each, then add related pictures.
  5. Invite people to view your boards. Using other social networking services, email, newsletters or day-to-day conversation, invite your friends, employees, colleagues and customers to view your boards.
  6. Promote yourself. To get existing friends, customers or otherwise to view your boards, place a banner on your website and a Pinterest sharing button near content you already have on your boards. If people are browsing your website and find a picture or some content they like, and have a Pinterest account, they will be more inclined to share.
  7. Branch out. As this is a social network, you need to be social. Follow other users, companies and friends. Along with that, create boards that allow you to pin and share other content.

The seven tips above help you understand how to go about starting a Pinterest marketing campaign, but many businesses are still asking the question, ?Should we be on Pinterest?? If you run a product based website e.g., restaurant, jewelry store, clothing store, etc. then it?s an amazing site. Take a look at the infographic published last month by FastCompany: 12 of the top 15 categories are associated with commerce. If you run a shop that sells products that cater to a female audience, Pinterest is almost a must as nearly 80% of the users are female.

For other websites, Pinterest can help bring out the human side of marketing. By sharing your interests in products that are somewhat related to yours, or the values of your company, people can get a better glimpse of who you are, what you?re about and what you do. For example, if you run a small restaurant that focuses on locally grown or sourced food, pictures and sharing interests in the local area can help emphasize this.

As with any social network, you do need to be active on a regular basis. Aside from that, don?t use Pinterest to sell, instead look at it as a tool that helps users get a glimpse of what makes your company special. This then encourages them to visit your website, where the selling happens. If you?re new to Pinterest or would like help with your social marketing, please contact us, we can help.

Source: http://www.techadvisory.org/2012/11/pinterest-helps-grow-ecommerce/

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Mavs' Nowitzki still unsure when he will play

DALLAS (AP) ? Dirk Nowitzki was hoping to be back on the court sooner, even when the Dallas Mavericks were saying after his surgery that it could be at least six weeks before any basketball activity.

The perennial All-Star forward instead is finding out just how difficult and frustrating it can be recovering from surgery.

Nowitzki said Tuesday that he's still about two weeks away from getting back on the court to start running and shooting. That would put him at just more than six weeks since arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Oct. 19 ? and he still isn't sure when he will start playing again after that.

"Unfortunately, I tried, but I couldn't cut the time down," Nowitzki said. "I was obviously hoping to cut that time a lot shorter. It's been a frustrating time for me, especially watching and nothing I can really do. So there have been some hard days, some frustrating days. ... But I think now it's gotten better this last week or so and now I guess I'm seeing the end of the tunnel."

Nowitzki, who never had surgery in his first 14 NBA seasons, said the goal has always been for the swelling to be gone and he has to be 100 percent strength-wise before he will play again. There are still good days and bad days with the swelling.

"Once that goal is reached, then I can obviously think about playing again," he said. "But I think we're still far away from that."

He was able this week to increase his off-court workload, including leg presses and getting back on an elliptical machine.

The 34-year-old, 7-foot German decided to have surgery after problems with swelling early in training camp. Nowitzki had issues with the same knee two seasons ago when he missed time before the Mavs won their only NBA title, then skipped a week last January to strengthen and condition that knee.

The Mavericks (6-6) are trying to get by with eight new players. They could go 20 games or more before getting a chance to play with Nowitzki.

"Dirk will get there. And we know he'll be back at some point. But nobody knows exactly when that's going to be," coach Rick Carlisle said. "For right now, we've got to press forward with the guys we have and we've got to take up the slack in some of these areas where we're having some slippage and where we're losing ground."

Nowitzki said it's been tough to sit and watch knowing there are ways he could help if he was playing.

But he has no plans to rush himself back, like he had to do after the NBA lockout following the championship season.

"I need to make sure everything's right before I come back. I can't rush. I'm hoping maybe after these two years to play a couple more years," he said. "So it would be the wrong thing now to push it and come back too early and maybe make something worse for the long term. So it's been learning to be patient the last couple weeks. It's not my favorite thing to do."

When asked if there had been any setbacks in his rehabilitation, Nowitzki said it's just been a slow process that he didn't expect since he had never had surgery before.

Nowitzki said doctors didn't find anything "that was crazy or anything unexpected" during the surgery. He figures 14 NBA seasons, and playing on the German national team during the summers, just took its toll on his knee.

"I'm always a fast healer, so when I heard I'm doing this rehab, in my head I'm thinking I'm playing in 2, 3 weeks. But it just didn't work out that way," he said. "It's a piece of work, but it's getting better from here."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mavs-nowitzki-still-unsure-play-232205842--spt.html

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