Feed

Hopes and Fears

By Kim Velsey 7/27/12 12:46pm

Hopes and Fears

Which way is foreign investment in the housing market going? (Sean Dreilinger, flickr)

Will Foreigners Abandon the U.S. Housing Market As Prices Rise?

Foreigners have been making the sad, broken housing market feel better for a little while now—taking her to the movies, telling her how great she looks, buoying her confidence after the fiasco of the housing market crash.

But now those foreign buyers may be going away, writes a Trulia economist in a Forbes column. It was just a fling, and the housing market knew that sooner or later they would  have to move on, that a healthy relationship would have to be forged with people who call the United States their primary residence. But still… Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/24/12 3:23pm

Hopes and Fearsbug

Beating a retreat, or here to stay? (TomSpinker, flickr)

Bed Bugs Begone! Scourge of Apartment Dwellers on the Way Out?

Can New Yorkers finally stop examining the buttons of their mattresses, the crevices in their floorboards, every speck of dirt on their sheets?

Well, don’t go picking up furniture off the street anytime soon, but better days may lie before us.

A data analysis done by DNAinfo found that 2011 was the first year that the number of bed bug-related complaints and city-issued violations dropped—from 2,649 in 2010 to 2,361 in 2011, based on numbers from the city’s 311 complaint line. Read More