Oregonian – It can be dangerous to judge a film by its country of origin, but sometimes it’s inevitable. “Summer ‘04,” for instance, involves an intellectual bourgeois family on an extended vacation at a charming coastal cabin, precocious teenage son and his … Osgood named an All-StarDetroit News – Osgood had planned a family vacation [...]

Commercial Rent Prices Up – Square Footage Down?
A recent article in Business Week suggests that the open space model of the dot com era may, actually be a paradigm to enable businesses to reduce one of their largest expenses, namely, commercial office rent. Yet, the position of the author is hardly universally shared, eliciting a number of rejections and criticisms in the posted comments following the article. From my own experience, there is no doubt that, technologically, more and more things can be done in more and more places….

Kill two, get one free : Kenya s cry of hate
Times Online – A mob robbed the store of a prominent local Kikuyu businessman at Miritini, a cluster of houses and shops beside the Mombasa-to-Nairobi railway line 12 miles from Kenya s famous beach resorts. Yesterday, international peacemakers pushed Kibaki and Cooler temps, solitude await in Panhandle Chicago Sun-Times – We [...]

mortgage Insurance: More Tax Breaks
Certain home and apartment owners can continue to deduct private mortgage insurance premiums from their income taxes.

Open Your Door and You re on the Lift
Prices for ski-in/ski-out properties at Tamarack still hold steadier and higher than do their more general ski-house counterparts.

NYC Coop Sales Price Now Public Information
It’s an old axiom that, despite increasing numbers of condos, coops still account for around 80% of NYC’s apartment inventory. Yet, until recently, the sales figures were shrowded in mystery. No more. A recently passed law allows access to these figures through use of the City’s ACRIS system. While the link may not be up for long, you can find a pdf guide to how the system works at NYC.gov/html/dof/html/jump/acris.shtm.

Everybody into the Pool!
When it comes to Terrorism Insurance, the government’s days as a reinsurer of last resort are numbered, ending in 2007 following one extension of a temporary act intended to restore confidence among the Nation’s insurers and reinsurers following the huge losses suffered as a result of the 9/11 attacks. A lobbying group called the real estate Roundtable, http://www.rer.org/, recently proposed modeling a future system after that…