But how many of these foreclosured / threatened homes were, are, actually occupied by families who in good (if misguided) faith entered into the American dream by contracting dastardly opaque-small-print mortgages, putting their down payments at risk?

And how many owned by people who were cynically flipping homes, investing there, rather than in the stock market, oil futures of whatever, as tangible assets tend to impress, and may seem easier to understand than financial products?

Did not the housing ‘boom’ or ‘bubble’ - the potential financial gains, deprive many Americans of owning a small home? That last question is polemical, goes beyond the first.

I haven’t a clue.

I dont't think the holidays have much to do with the crisis. We are at a point where the economy is
getting worse and worse everyday and depending on how bad the next couple of months are will determine how long it will actually take for the economy to regualate itself.There is speculation that OPEC will try to change the currency of each barrel of oil to the EURO. If this were to happen it would create the collapse of the US economy and the Canadian economy because they are so closely linked.The cost of oil has to be regulated somehow because if not then people in the USA will seek an even greater defecit in addition to the foreclosure problem . USA has the most Co2 emessions across the world and I don't think they are ready for oil to reach 100% increase per barrel this year.If there is nothing done the economy will be stifiled and the unemployment rate would double or even triple. With the next presidental campaign I look forward to seeing Obama sponsoring programs, trying to look for other sources of energy. This will help the pollution crisis we have been facing and also have people less dependent on oil which will possibly reach $200/barrel. Car manufactures which employs about 1 million across the US can actually be innovative and try alternatives other then petrolum. Houses can be heated possibly through solar power or wind and his means more jobs created to help re-stimulate the economy.The current US government has put the citizens in a horrible economic position and if the price of oil is not regualted or the forclosure on homes people can only hope some sort of technological wave will hit!

Just remember that we were starting from a very low level; lenders didn't need to foreclose when there were lots of buyers out there. Any increase from zero is substantial, on a percentage basis.

I would even go so far as to say it began a year earlier than that. The peak of the housing market occurred in July/August 2005. Incidently(?, NOT) coincident with a nasty surge in crude.

It was like watching dominoes after that as first investors bailed from properties, unsold inventories bulged and homebuilders slowed.

It took a while to hit the banks, but nope, not immune...

"More expensive? With an automobile at 20K and still costing .10+ per mile and rising?"

your statement implies an electric scooter as a replacement for an automobile.

i am not making a comparison with a new automobile, only for a $700 electric scooter to reduce auto travel. i cannot expect to fully replace an auto with a scooter.
other's results may vary. for me, it works out to a toy, nothing more.

the irs is using $0.485/mile for the cost of operating an auto, including amortization, fuel and maintenance.

Hi Calorie,

Halifax is approximately 7,800 HDD F and my home is a 40-year old 2,500 sq. ft. Cape Cod. I estimate our heat loss to be 320 BTUs per degreee F when temperatures drop below 13C/55F; above 13C, internal gains for lighting and appliances and whatever passive solar that might be available are generally sufficient to maintain the house at a comfortable temperature.

Of the 830 litres of heating oil used each year, roughly 475 litres can be allocated to DHW production -- it varies by season, but an average of 1.3 litres/day is a pretty safe bet. The remaining 355 litres (94 U.S. gallons) can be attributed to backup heat and at an AFUE of 82 per cent, net heat gain is approximately 3,113 kWh/year or 10.6 MM BTUs. In the first year of operation, the heat pump consumed an estimated 3,946 kWh of electricity and provided us with 9,672 kWh or 33 MM BTUs of heat. Taken together, that's 43.6 MM BTUs/year and divided by 2,500 sq. ft. that translates to be 17,450 BTUs/ft2 or 55 kWh/m2. That year I started on high blood pressure medication that forced me to keep the house between 22C and 25C (I was constantly cold no matter how warmly I dressed). By the following year, I was better adjusted and indoor temperatures averaged between 17C to 20C. That trimmed heating demand in the winter of 06/07 by about 6 MM BTUs, so our heat loss ran closer to 15,060 BTUs/ft2 or 47.5 kWh/m2. This year has been colder than the past two and I have been keeping temperatures a little higher, so I expect 07/08 will fall somewhere between these two numbers.

In addition to the 830 litres of heating oil and 10,400 kWh of electricity, we use approximately 90 litres/24 U.S. gallons of propane a year to operate our cooktop, dryer and BBQ (we also have four gas fireplaces but they're only used for emergency heat in the event of an extended power cut or on the rare social occasion; the pilot lights are never left on).

A record of our fuel oil usage can be found at: http://www.datafilehost.com/download-70a9bfb1.html

A summary of our heat pump performance as of today can be found at: http://www.datafilehost.com/download-afa6cd48.html

Cheers,
Paul

I now work in the office, cutting my commute time (from 12 months ago) from 3 hours/day to zero.

Hi EG,

Wow, that's a mighty impressive savings in terms of fuel consumption, time and operating expense. I also work from home and I can easily walk wherever I need to go, so on the few occasions when I do need to use my vehicle (e.g., when picking someone up at the airport) I often discover my battery has gone completely dead (which reminds me I should head out to the garage and hook-up the battery charger now because if this keeps up, my battery won't be long for this world). In my case, it's a leisurely five minute walk to the library and perhaps another three minutes to all the shops.

Cheers,
Paul

Very good stuff. Thanks. A few more questions come to mind:
- What part of the country are you in?
- Do you have any issues with shade from trees or the house reducing available sunlight?
- How many years have you been doing this?
- Any problems with squirrels, deer, etc. getting to it before you do?

I hope we will see you occasionally posting an account of how things are going.

Thanks again.

Those ready to hear and understand but who haven't yet heard it need to be told. Simple as that - you simply need to adjust your expectations and recognize only the already fertilized fields will respond to watering.

There are such people out there who haven't yet heard.

You have both there. Which is which?

are a lot of wackos running around warning us about all sorts of things from fluoride

http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/bone/fracture/strength.html

Most animal studies investigating how fluoride effects bone strength have found a detrimental effect, or no effect. Very few animal studies have found a beneficial effect.

Yea, wackos....warning of reduced bone strength! Bad, Bad wackos.

maybe not:

http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2008/02/drowning-in-gasoline.html

shoot up bread machine sales? Catch that Oster stock.

Who's claiming that this program pretends to be anything BUT a 'forced' economic move? It's enabling a build-out which gives the country a broadly diversified and therefore resilient addition to its electric power base.

It's energetically viable, and the utilities are helping pay for that infrastructure load.