FORECLOSURES ON THE RISE: As the housing market softens, a combination of consumer naivete and aggressive lending means owners with subprime loans are increasingly getting sucked down a financial black hole

To many people in the affluent Bay Area, losing a home to foreclosure sounds like a Depression-era relic or a Rust Belt phenomenon. Our real estate prices have defied gravity for so long; our job market is so strong; our cachet as a place to live seems so obvious. How could foreclosures happen here?

A countertop made from a composite of recycled, compressed paper costs about the same as one made of granite.

In his small way, Michael Schaeffer hopes to change that.

Schaeffer, a longtime California home builder who started using more-efficient methods before “eco-friendly” was a catchphrase, has started the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City, a kind of year-round trade show, education center and retail shop designed to steer builders away from natural resources and low-efficiency items and toward cabinets made from reclaimed sorghum straw and non-electrical glow-in-the-dark “exit” signs.

Stinky!

It never fails. Shortly after you put a clean plastic liner in the
kitchen wastebasket, something really smelly gets thrown away before the
bag is full. I’ve found I can eliminate rotten odors in a wastebasket by
completely covering the offending waste with a few layers of
newspapers. I use the newspaper ad supplements that fill up my mailbox each week.
The paper absorbs the smell entirely so you can use each bag to
capacity.
Julie B. in Houston TX

The Hanging Heat Reducer

An investment partnership has quietly purchased more than 12 acres between Bryan Street and Ross Avenue in East Dallas with plans to redevelop the neighborhood.

Burlew Street Partners has bought parts of eight blocks in the area near Carroll Avenue.

Their development plans include remodeling the historic Mrs Baird’s building at Carroll and Bryan into residential units, partner Leo Whelan said.

“Our goal is to redo the building and use it – our architects were blown away by it,” Mr. Whelan said Friday.

New York home prices continue to buck national trends, as the average and median prices in all five boroughs rose steadily in the second quarter, a new report shows.

Average apartment prices increased 8 percent citywide in the second quarter, and average prices for one- to three-family dwellings increased 5 percent, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York, a real estate trade group with more than 12,000 members.

The report found that the average sales price overall for cooperatives and condominiums in New York City was $831,000, compared with $769,000 during the second quarter of 2006. For one- to three-family dwellings, the average sales price was $622,000 compared with last year’s average of $592,000.