Power of House Talks by The Cerdafied Development Group

Springwise newsletter 24 March 2010 Custom notebooks feature your tweets or Facebook feed Now that sites like Facebook and Twitter have become a major part of many consumers' lives, there's a growing need to bridge the online and offline worlds, as we've noted before. Efforts like HotPrints , News from YOUs and Kodak's new kiosk capabilities all get at that to some extent, and recently we came across two more interesting examples: Famebook and TweetNotebook, both of which embellish custom notebooks with select online content. With Famebook , Facebook users can create a unique notebook featuring a post from their Facebook feed at the bottom of each page. By connecting to Facebook from the Famebook site, users allow Famebook to access their status updates. If there are fewer than 320 available, Famebook will duplicate some to fill the pages; if there are more, it makes a random selection. Either way, the result is a mostly-blank notebook with one timestamped update on

California rebound boosts 20-city home price index California rebound boosts 20-city home price index Written by Alan Zibel and Alex Veiga, AP Writers Tuesday, 30 March 2010 10:31 (AP) — A surprisingly strong rebound in California's real estate market helped lift a key home price index for the eighth month in a row. That's good news for people who plan to sell their homes this spring. Prices are now up almost 4 percent from the bottom in May 2009, but still almost 30 percent below the May 2006 peak. Prices rose 0.3 percent from December to January on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released Tuesday. Prices increased in 12 cities in the index. The biggest monthly gain was in Los Angeles, where prices rose 1.8 percent from December. And real estate agents say there's a distinct sense the worst of the downturn is over. Buyers are "seeing that prices are creeping up," said Tony Middlet

Written by ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer Friday, 26 March 2010 06:18 Gov't unveils plan to shrink some home loans Written by ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer Friday, 26 March 2010 06:18 (AP) — After months of criticism that it hasn't done enough to prevent foreclosures, the Obama administration is announcing a plan to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans. The multifaceted effort will let people who owe more on their mortgages than their properties are worth get new loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, a government agency that insures home loans against default. That would be funded by $14 billion from the administration's existing $75 billion foreclosure-prevention program. But it could spark criticism that the government is shouldering too much risk by taking on bad loans made during the housing boom. In addition, their existing mortgage companies will be able to receive incentives to lower their principal balanc

Business Street fresno Schwarzenegger Signs Homebuyer Tax Credit Bill Posted Friday, March 26, 2010; 20:50 PM Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in Fresno Thursday afternoon allocating an extra $200 million in homebuyer tax credits by James Olinger Darius Assemi, president of Granville Homes, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (far right) at Granville’s project La Ventana Homes in Fresno on Thursday afternoon. Schwarzenegger was in Fresno to sign a bill for a $200 million homebuyer tax credit extension. (Photo by Tony Kalanjian) Fresno, CA (March 25, 2010) – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill at the La Ventana Homes project in Fresno today that would allocate an extra $200 million in homebuyer tax credits. The signing was attended by the co-authors of bill AB 183 Sen. Roy Ashburn and Assemblymember Anna Caballero, as well as Fresno County Supervisor Debbie Poochigian. “The governor is here to share with us special news about a program that’s intended to improve our economi