Home Ownership Matters

Home Ownership was recorded at its highest in 2008 and since then has been falling from state to state even though according to National Association of REALTORS®(NAR) research, 70 percent of Americans say home ownership is important to them. But current social and economic forces are not in alignment to encourage home ownership. Home owners continue to lose homes to foreclosure because unforeseen circumstances including job losses, pay reductions and unplanned high healthcare costs.  Others anticipated being able to refinance to escape the payment of crushing mortgage payments due to high interest rates but discover they are unable to take advantage of now dramatically low t rates because the value of their homes have plummeted and their properties cannot appraise for enough to satisfy loans taken out at the time of purchase of the property.

Unemployment is at 9 percent. No one in this group can take advantage of attractively low interest rates to achieve home ownership. (A job is a necessary requirement for a loan.) Among the employed, stringent lender requirements, an unwarranted backlash from the mortgage crisis stands in the way of their qualifying for new loans. New proposed legislation offers no hope. Portions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act like the Qualified Residential Mortgage requirement could solidify a requirement of a 20 percent down payment on all residential mortgages. Ironically, that requirement would immediately put home ownership outside the reach of a significant number of people. That group would include all the fully employed workers whose incomes have never and will not now allow them to save enough for any such down payment. Economic uncertainty keeps yet another group from embarking on one of the biggest financial undertakings of a lifetime because of the perceived greater risks than usual. So even though 70 percent of Americans value homeownership, home ownership remains in decline.

Home ownership was at 69.2 percent (the highest ever) across the nation in 2008. The rate has continued to fall since 2008 and currently the average is 59.9 percent, with some states recording percentages well below 50. But all is not yet lost. Consumers can still find reasons to be thankful. Strong advocates of the American dream exist even outside the group of would-be homeowners. The National Association of REALTORS®, since its inception has been an advocate that continues to champion the cause of home ownership as one of the foundational beliefs embedded in the Preamble to the1913 Code of Ethics.  REALTORS® should recognize that the interests of the nation and its citizens require the highest and best use of the land and the widest distribution of land ownership. They require the creation of adequate housing . . .

National Association of REALTORS® continues to champion the cause of home ownership by challenging laws oppositional to home ownership in the legislature. To build awareness and highlight the importance of  owing one's home, NAR has taken the issue on the road. The association is also supporting local associations as it visits offices on its bus tour across the country. The bus stopped at the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® office in Albuquerque in October.

#BAD11 Food - We Are What We Eat

It would have been appropriate for my husband to launch his change in eating habit on World Food Day, but he didn't. That is why I think it appropriate to share it today on Blog Action Day. I am not sure when he made the decision but it was about mid January of this year that my husband announced that he would no Ionger eat any animal product and was switching to a plant-based diet. He would no longer eat meat of any kind, no fish, no cheese, no eggs and no dairy products. This was startling news from someone who drank milk like water, loved cheese, eggs, steak and potatoes, on a daily basis.

I decided to humor him, expecting that he would soon get tired of his experiment while  I secretly hoped he was serious and would no longer be bring home slabs of Muenster, Swiss and cheddar that I had difficulty resisting.

It has been nine months since the announcement.  It turns out, switching to a vegan lifestyle was not a passing fancy. My husband does not compromise on the types of food he eats.  I have learned how to use egg replacer instead of eggs for baking. I know at least six alternatives to dairy milk and I am delighted that our house is rid of artery-clogging cheeses. I know where the vegan restaurants are in our town. When we travel, we call ahead to find out which restaurants serve food he can eat.
Apart from not eating meat and other animal products, my husband maintains his customary lifestyle of daily biking, swimming and working out at the gym. He eats three meals per day with snacks in between and is two sizes smaller and twenty-five pounds lighter than when he started. His doctor confirms that his body is undergoing significant positive changes.

Therefore,  it is true. We are what we eat. How else to explain how eliminating certain kinds of food can change one's appearance and improve health? It is interesting that bread, a metaphor for food in general, is universally referred to as the staff of life. Food maintains life. Without food we die, abruptly or slowly. How ironic, then that eating food could be dangerous to ones health! My husband says his only regret is that he did not read T. C. Campbell’s The China Study earlier.
Eloise Gift
Gift Realty NM

Voting Day



Balloons Over Albuquerque

I always like to take advantage of the opportunity to vote early, meaning before the  actual day of the elections. If I don't, on election day everyone and everything seem to conspire to keep me away from the voting center until it is too late. Few things are more upsetting than discovering that election day ended and you did not get to cast your ballot.
Today, October 4, 2011, as the International Balloon Fiesta continues, it is municipal election day in Albuquerque. I did not get to vote early so I gave priority to getting to the voting center as soon as possible after 7:00 AM when the polls opened. I was impressed at the steady stream of people entering and leaving the Ventana Ranch Elementary School to participate in the type of election that traditionally has a low turnout.
In this election, all voters get to vote on bond issues, gross receipts tax  revenues and a referendum on the Traffic Light Camera Program while residents in even-numbered districts also get to choose their city councilor. Every issue is important.

Based on my observation, either the importance of the issues or the newly established Consolidated Voting Centers that allow residents to vote anywhere in the city must be influencing voter turnout. If what I observed has any validity, turnout will be significantly higher than in the last municipal elections.
Eloise Gift
Gift Realty NM

Rio Rancho -- Each Day A Surprise

Rust Medical Center

The New Presbyterian Hospital in Southeast Rio Rancho adjacent to Cabezon  is not yet complete and already a flurry of new  activity surrounds it.  Across the street, what appears to be flood control construction is almost complete. Adjacent, the sign announcing medical office pads for sale is gone and earth movers are sitting on land scraped bare of vegetation alongside stacks of long, blue, cylindrical tubes.
On the corner, a new pharmacy opens next door  to another also recently opened. All this, where just a year ago ago, acres of tumbleweed and scrub land existed. A quarter mile up the road, in anticipation of all the new employees who will soon be in and around the Rust Medical Center, restaurants and entertainment spots are springing up.



I have reason to travel along Unser Boulevard frequently -- several times per week.  I am constantly surprised by the changing skyline.  Rio Rancho, at least some parts of it, seem to be unaware of the real estate downturn. Residential and commercial construction continue to change the skyline. The city may deliver before too long on the prediction that it will surpass Las Cruces and Albuquerque in growth.

Lift Off -- International Balloon Fiesta 2011

The 2011 International Balloon Fiesta is off to dashing start. The weather was perfiect. The rain stayed away, the wind did not wake up and it was not not even cold enough for mittens at 3:30 AM, the reputedly coldest time at the foot of the of the Sandia mountains.
Cars, some full of spectators, rolled in steadily from the opening of the gates at 3:30 AM. Morning patrol, with intermittent lights, took to the skies in the pre-dawn hours and mass ascension of varying shapes and sizes of balloons drifted aloft as dawn spilled over the mountains. later in the day I learned that more than 425 balloons floated off within an hour to create a new entry in the Guiness book of Records.