Cheaper Summer Cooling
The Dollar Stretcher
by Gary Foreman

Gary,
Your recent article concerning summer cooling focused mainly on persons who own their own home and can make changes such as adding insulation, providing shade and shrubs, and replacing windows. In addition to fan usage, what can those of us in apartments do to keep ourselves cool this summer? 
Erica R.
Adams, WI

Erica is right. Apartment dwellers feel the sting of higher cooling bills, too. And, replacing windows or air conditioning units isn’t an answer for them. So let’s see what we can do to reduce the amount she spends keeping comfortable this summer.

We are all eager to learn where the real estate market is heading and how high the mortgage rates will go, and how investments are performing in different regions of the US.

Market Updates

Bay Area home price are increasing while sales are declining to a 5-year low. In Santa Clara County, 2,255 homes were sold this April, about a 20 percent drop compared with 2,830 in April 2005. The median price was $661,000, 8% higher than the median price of $619,000 during the same period last year. Median price for condos was up 13% to $433,045. That happened despite a 17% drop in sales in the county in the Q1 2006. San Mateo County shows 850 homes sold in the first quarter of 2006, compared with 631 a year ago. The median price was $750,000, compared with $731,000.

I “window shop” at home via catalogs. I circle the clothes that I like and set the catalogs aside until the end of the season. I sign up for that company’s email notifications of sales, and at the end of the season, I can usually get anywhere from 50-75% off the original sale price in the catalog doing things this way. Occasionally, I can even find free shipping. A really good catalog for simple, stylish, and casual clothes is Blair. They carry many sizes and are very affordable.
Regina

Sometimes an investor can purchase a property for a very low price because it’s in a bad location. Then the investor can help improve the neighborhood or somehow change the property’s relation to it, and in this way increase the property’s value. In this situation, it’s important to keep in mind the risk. If the price is low mainly because of a poor location and you can’t effect a change, you might have to accept a low price when you sell.