OFHEO - Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Latest MSA Statistics

The good news is that Mobile is ranked as the 8th highest in annual appreciation for the latest statistics that was release in the past week. The reporting period is the first quarter of 2008. The report of the top 20 cities is on our homepage at www.GulfRegionProperties.com. Of the 292 cities on OFHEO's list of "ranked" MSAs, 164 had positive quarterly appreciation and 128 had price declines.

The bad news is that US home prices fell in the first quarter of 2008 according to OFHEO's seasonally adjusted purchase only price index. In fact, prices fell about 3.1 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. This is the largest decline in the purchase only index's 17 year history.

The full report can be viewed at this address - OFHEO Report

Frohawk

"My hair-style is a frohawk. The back of my hair is a mohawk, the sides are buzzed, and the top of my hair is bought to the middle. I usually first straighten my hair for half an hour, especially the back, and then i use "TRESemme" hairspray to spike it up. I just put my head down and spray. I use to use wax and gel, but hairspray puts a better look on my style. It gives the dry look that I have been looking for."

Myspace: Yavuz

Mobile and Northop Grumman/EADS Tanker Bid Featured in Magazine

We received an e-mail this afternoon from KeepOurTanker.com There was an article in this month's Forum, which is the global magazine for EADS. The article had many nice things to say about Mobile.

The article also gives the timelines for assembly in Mobile, the bidding process, and the proposal that was presented to secure the contract.

You can read the entire magazine article by clicking here

Don't panic.. just dance.

Soundcheck arrives in Las Vegas for an exclusive audience with Panic At The Disco! Dubbed as one of the most innovative bands, they spent time with lucky NYC fans, previewed tracks from their latest album 'Pretty. Odd.' and talked about fame, funk and got the low down on Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy. Check out their full performance on Soundcheck, the original performance series where you get up close and personal with your favorite artists.

Panic at the Disco Soundcheck session

Panic at the Disco

Panic at the Disco is an American band that was formed in 2004 by childhood friends (and now band mates) Ryan Ross and Spencer Smith in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its current members include Brendon Urie (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Ryan Ross (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Spencer Smith (drums, percussion), and Jonathan Jacob Walker (bass guitar, vocals). Former member Brent Wilson (original bass guitarist) left the band in 2006 and was later replaced by Walker. Panic at the Disco released their first album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” in 2005, featuring their first and most popular single to date “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” Other songs in the album include “But Its Better If You Do,” “Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have without Taking Her Clothes Off,” and “Build God, Then We’ll Talk.” The album eventually turned platinum in 2006 after having sold more than one million copies. Just recently, the band released their follow-up album “Pretty. Odd.” The first single in this album, “Nine in the Afternoon,” was featured during one of the episodes of the hit TV series “Heroes.” They are signed under Decadence, a record label owned by Pete Wentz of the band Fall Out Boy, a band considered by many as emo. Emo or not, Panic at the Disco is definitely one band to look out for!

Integrating your Google Maps into Flash applications

Posted by Joseph Neeman, Engineering Intern

Ever since its launch, the Google Maps API has allowed non-Google developers to harness the power of Google Maps on their own websites. Over time, the Maps API has expanded to cover a vast range of functionality, from geocoding to Street View, and the Sydney engineering team has been a big driver in the growth and development of the Maps API.

For years, people have been requesting a Flash version of Google's popular Maps API. Our recent launch of Google Maps API for Flash delivers an official, supported path for all those Flash developers wanting to integrate Google Maps into their web applications. And for the Maps API developers who haven't tried Flash yet, this new API offers dramatic performance improvements, Flash-y animations and effortless cross-browser portability. For an entertaining peek at the new power that Flash lends to Google Maps developers, check out the spinning map demo below.



A big part of my 3-month internship project at Google Sydney has been helping the Flash Maps API team get ready for launch. For any Uni students out there who were planning to spend their summers laying around at the beach, a student internship is a fantastic way to improve your coding skills, get industry experience and improve your table tennis game (although I'm reliably informed that foosball is the relaxation tool of choice at the Mountain View office). To go from no industry experience to the launch of a major product in three months has been an amazing experience, and I'd like to thank the Google Maps team for their friendliness and support.

Street View in Australia

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager

As you may know, we're aiming to launch the Street View feature for Google Maps in Australia, later in 2008. Sydney was where Google Maps had its origins, so we're very excited to be bringing the feature here. Street View is a popular Google Maps feature that allows people to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery of cities and towns.

Google Maps and Google Earth have proven incredibly popular with Australians and are used by Governments, businesses and individuals as essential and informative tools every day of the week. Street View provides an added experience by enabling you to see a location as you would if you were standing on the street.

It's been a highly requested feature that will help people discover and explore parts of Australia (and may even help you with your home hunting).

At Google, we take our users' privacy very seriously. Street View only contains imagery that anyone can already see walking down a public street and we've always had in place image removal tools. In addition, today, on the Google LatLong blog, we have just announced the first public test of our new face-blurring technology on the busy streets of Manhattan. This effort has been a year in the making - and we will continue to work hard to improve it as we roll it out for our existing and future imagery. Here's an example from the bustling streets of Manhattan:


In Australia (and New Zealand), Street View will also feature face-blurring, as well as image removal tools.

Recently, we have had very positive and productive discussions with the Australian Privacy Foundation about Street View and some of the issues they had raised. They were supportive of the efforts that we're making to safeguard privacy, including community outreach and product design. We're definitely looking forward to continuing to work constructively with them as we get closer to launch.

In the meantime, as winter approaches in Australia, you can enjoy going for a virtual walk through some of the many sunny US cities that are already featured. Safe travels!

Mobile and Baldwin County April 2008 Real Estate Statistics

The monthly reat estate statistics and trends are now available on our Active Rain blog. The summary MLS statistics are also available on our web page.

The Mobile Real Estate market showed an increase in activity though the numbers are down compared to last year. Mobile County has shown a 1% appreciation rate over the last year.

The Baldwin County numbers show that there is definitely a buyer's market with many homes to choose.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Asian Style

To achieve this hairstyle you need a good haircut, a good wax, straightening iron and a lot of time to kill.

After applying your wax, style your hair using a straightening iron. You hair has to be thick or else the spikes will just fall down. It would stay that way in a few hours if done properly and if you do not change the temperature and humidity of the room. Asian hair is normally thick and flat so you won't have trouble with those factors.

Have you seen anybody with that exact style on the streets?

If you say no, that's because it's styled for a fashion look. You have to apply tons of products (probably hair glue) or wax ( like the american crew fiber or paul mitchell dry wax) if you'll wear that outside and hangout by Starbucks. Plus it will look untidy after a few hours knowing the humid climate on where you're at.

Spiky hairs in asian countries cannot last for the whole day without refixing it every so often. I've seen Christian from project runway iron his hair while applying wax to attain a similar hairstyle so I think this one's like that. However, I think you should start finding a good stylist who could at least cut your hair to suit this kind of styling. Good luck on the money your gonna spend to all those styling products.

Go for it. It looks nice. It looks like it got styled with blade by chopping big chunks and fining it by groups.

Los Angeles Introduces Anti-McMansion Ordinance

The Los Angeles City Council this week approved a measure that will limit the size of remodeled homes in the city's flatlands to about 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft in most cases. The legislation was sorely needed to retain neighborhood character -- and to prevent egregious cases of over-building, where behemoths of 6,000 sq ft or more were towering over neighboring houses of less than one-third their size. The average home in Los Angeles is now 1,700 sq ft.

The new law restricts owners to building a new improvement no larger than half the size of the lot's square footage, plus a 400 sq ft garage. Many of the city's 304,000 flatland houses have lots in the 5,000 - 6,000 sq ft range. Councilman Tom LaBonge is pushing for similar legislation in the city's 100,000+ hillside homes.

Building groups and the Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors immediately decried the legislation and warned that the ordinance would drive down property values in the city. Council members were not persuaded: the measured passed 12-0.

Jamie Adner
www.adnergroup.com

Carribean Island Vacation

We had a great time in the Eastern Carribean. We visited Grand Turk, which is the capital island of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Princess Cays located about 30 miles from Nassau in the Bahama, at the southern portion of Eleuthera Island. It was nice to get away for a couple of days.

Here are links to view pictures that we took of the lovely islands we visited on this year's vacation.

Grand Turk

Princess Cays

Here is a web site to view real estate for sale in Grand Turk.

We will be back at work on Friday.

Day 2

On Sunday we spent the day in downtown Fort Lauderdale. We took a taxi from the hotel to Las Olas Blvd. There we visited the Las Olas Riverfront. This area is very similar to Ybor City in Tampa or the downtown area in San Antonio. There are many activities, restaurants and shops on the riverfront. We were fortunate that we were there on the first Sunday of the month. On these Sundays there is jazz in the park. There were a great many folks having a good time with their picnic lunches listening to the music and enjoying the atmosphere. There were many 4 legged friends there as well and we enjoyed our visit and walk along the River Walk. We are getting on the cruise ship this afternoon.

Here is a listing of 4 BR/4 BA condominium available for sale on the Las Olas river.

Click on picture below to see other pictures of the downtown area of Fort Lauderdale.

Google Treasure Hunt

Posted by Phillip Grasso, Manager - Engineering/Operations

The Google Engineering team is launching its first ever Treasure Hunt - a contest designed to challenge your problem-solving skills. Starting soon, we'll be releasing the first of four puzzles, drawing from computer science, networking, and low-level UNIX trivia. Each puzzle will be posted online week by week, and the first entrants to submit correct answers to each question will receive a prize.

With each puzzle, we'll also be featuring one of our worldwide offices. The contest will run for four weeks, and you will get a virtual glimpse into our Mountain View, Sydney, and San Francisco offices.

Below is the clue that you'll need to decode to get to the URL with more details. In the meantime, stay tuned here for directions and updates. And of course, to preserve fairness, no Google employees allowed :)

Arrrrrrrr you ready? Onward to the first puzzle, matey! And good luck!

aHR0cDovL3RyZWFzdXJlaHVudC5hcHBzcG90LmNvbS8=

Soon :). 1210550400

Los Angeles Apartments Forecasted to Outperform

Los Angeles investors owning rental property can expect robust returns reports Deustsche Bank Group’s April 2008 RREEF Research. Los Angeles – along with Austin, Denver, New York, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle – falls in the “out-perform” category, with decreased vacancy and sustained rent momentum projected through 2012.

The apartment sector, which generally underperformed its peers during the economic expansion of the past five years, is well posed for the future. The dominance of the for-sale housing market over the past several years, which culminated in a disastrous bubble that burst, edged out growth in this sector. As the impacts from this bubble unwind, a significant portion of US households will return to being renters. At the same time, favorable demographics will provide a new generation of renter households. While no sector will avoid the impacts of the recessionary economy of 2008, apartments will be the least affected and will be poised for strong growth going forward. This will be particularly true for those markets that avoided the extensive overbuilding of the for-sale housing market.

Forecasts for the Los Angeles Apartment Market:

2008:
Stage – Growth
Vacancy – 3.9%
Rent Momentum: 3 – 4%

2009:
Stage – Growth
Vacancy – 3.7%
Rent Momentum: 3 – 4%

2010:
Stage – Growth
Vacancy – 3.4%
Rent Momentum: Over 4%

2011:
Stage – Growth
Vacancy – 3.9%
Rent Momentum: Over 4%

2012:
Stage – Post-Growth
Vacancy – 3.9%
Rent Momentum: 3 – 4%

In the local market, the credit crunch and more stringent loan underwriting guidelines has reduced the number of qualified buyers, leading to price reductions of some apartment properties. Simultaneously, the number of home buyers has also been reduced, decreasing vacancies and contributing upward rental pricing pressure. Throw into the mix a number of bank-owned properties that are offered “below market” rate, and investors will see that opportunity abounds in the City of Angels when it comes to apartment properties.

www.adnergroup.com

How to Style Scene Emo Hair

This is how Alyssa Abscission does her hair!

http://www.myspace.com/punk_transistor

FAQ:
1) What's the song?
-Lemon Meringue Tie by Dance Gavin Dance
2)How many layers does she have?
-too many to count ;)
3) What hairspray does she use?
-Rave

West Hollywood Market Round-Up: April 2008

7 houses sold in April 2008 in West Hollywood – up from 4 sales in March. 2 sales were over $1.9 million, both on Huntley Drive. 2 sales for over $1 million were on Westbourne Drive, one block east of Huntley Drive, showing the enduring popularity and demand in West Hollywood West. The average days on market for a single family home in West Hollywood was 59.

26 condos sold in the West Hollywood area in April 2008, well below the number of condo sales in April in previous years: 37 (2007), 39 (2006), 64 (2005) and 56 (2004). The average days on market was 80. Condos sold for an average of $557/sq ft. The highest priced sale was 818 N Doheny, a 3,000 sq ft 14th floor unit – for $1,795,000. Also at the upper end of the market was an 1,813 sq ft penthouse at 718 N Croft, adjacent to Melrose Place, that sold for $1,395,000. A 1,631 sq ft ground floor unit in the same building sold for $999,000. More than half of the condo sales in West Hollywood were for $515,000 or less.

www.adnergroup.com

Day 1

Cristy and I are taking a little time for vacation. We are currently in Fort Lauderdale, FL. This is our first visit, and we have enjoyed ourselves. The city is called the Venice of America because of the number of canals. These canals are lined with multi-million dollar homes and yachts. There is local company called Water Taxi. You pay one price ($13.00) and can ride all day. There are 11 different stops along the canals/rivers. What a way to explore a city. We visited The Galleria, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Bahia Mar marina, and Bahia Cabana. The dockside restaurant at Bahia Cabana offers the best baby back ribs in a Jimmy Buffet style environment.

Since this is a real estate blog, here is a listing for a nice little 6 Bedroom, 8 Bath waterfront Home that is available for purchase. It can be yours for a $23,000,000.

Today we get on the cruise ship for stops in Grand Turk and Princess Cays.

Click on the picture below to view a slide show of pictures that we took

Emo hair tips

Our hair denotes our identity. It is one of the most important aspects in our body. If our hair is beautiful, we feel great and confident. Out of various hairstyles we make, Emo hairstyle is one of the best. An emo hair, is a style created by your own, a style that is completely different from the others.

Here are some tips for creating an emo hair:

• Mess around with your hair until you get it how you like it without the part. (there are some general rules about parting hair, and if you want a side part then I'd say pick which side of your face you like better and part it 1/4 way from the side.)
• To get the visible part out of your hair, you need to bring your hair forward from much further back (closer to the crown of your head). Also, layer at the top (sort of a scene mullet.)
• Blonde hair works great with emo hair, you can add some cool, brightly hued highlight. Dye it black, plum or navy or get brown w/ blue, black and plum streaks.
• To make your hair grow, do cornrolls and use organic shampoo.
• Emo hair won’t look good with a round race. Try long hair with layers and bangs off to one side instead.
• You can dye your hair with a dark, shiny, sexy shade like a black-pink combination or a dark brown, which are the most common colors.
• You can highlight the tips of your hair with purple or blue that should be well mixed with the above used color.
• Go like heaps of layers and longish kinda spike at the back with all different color blondes through it.
• Leave it long, color it black and get thick blunt front bangs that go down to your eyes but don't cover them. If you are exotic looking, you can pull off black. Maybe get a chunk of blonde to peek through the side (one side only.) Layer the front around your face.
• Spiderweb isn’t that great. Try some smoky eyes instead.
• Unfortunately you can never not have a part in your hair, unless maybe you’ve got an afro that sticks straight out everywhere. There are two types of parts, your natural part (where your hair naturally falls) and a forced part (one you force yourself). Just train your hair to go where you want it to by forcing it into that position everyday until it falls that way itself.
• When you need a more laid back kinda look you can just have it straightened with a bit of hair spray for volume.
• Emo hairstyles needs a lot of maintenance such as blow drying, STRAIGHTENING, & coloring. Invest in good straighteners!
• Emo hair can look good on a guy but NEVER take it to the point where people can’t tell your gender.
• Photobucket is your friend ;)

Calling all geek girls

Posted by Alan Noble, Head of Engineering for Google Australia & New Zealand

Google is happy to announce that applications are now open for the 3rd annual Google Anita Borg Scholarship. The scholarship is open to female university students in Australia or New Zealand who are studying computer science, or closely related technical fields. Scholars are selected on the basis of academic strength, demonstrated leadership and community involvement.

In addition to the financial award, all scholarship finalists and recipients are invited for an all expenses-paid networking retreat held in Google Australia's Engineering centre in Sydney in September. The retreat will include tech talks, break out sessions, a good mix of social activities and time to engage with fellow finalists and industry professionals. See below for a slideshow from last year's retreat, and be sure to check out the profiles of last year's scholars.

Scholarship winners are also awarded an all expenses-paid trip to the U.S. in October to attend the 2009 Grace Hopper Conference, the largest conference of women in computing worldwide.

For complete details, please visit www.google.com.au/anitaborg. Applications close June 13th 2008.

We are looking forward to expanding the scholarship this year to reach even a greater audience, so please do let any interested parties know about this opportunity.

How Green Is West Hollywood?

West Hollywood is a notoriously high-barrier-to-entry marketplace for all things real estate -- home-ownership, income property-ownership and real estate development. This liberal-minded, forward-thinking, tree-hugging community created legislation last year that will preserve its exclusive and visionary reputation -- the Green Building Ordinance of October 1, 2007. Hold onto your LEED hats! -- this program is among the most innovative -- and restrictive -- green building programs in the nation.

Specifically, the program applies to all new development -- both residential and commercial -- as well as remodels for homeowners and landlords. The goals are to:

• Save energy
• Conserve water
• Reduce waste
• Add longevity and durability
• Protect natural resources
• Create a healthier living environment

The initiative, which includes measures to incorporate drought-resistant landscaping, low-flow plumbing fixtures, energy efficient appliances and low VOC paint should have long-term side benefits of lower utility bills and improved air quality for all residents. In addition, any new public buildings will be LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design).

The City of WeHo has been gutsy in implementing -- and enforcing -- these stringent building requirements. Developers and landlords will have no choice but to pass on their increased costs to buyers and tenants. Consumers, however, may absorb this premium with a smile -- just as they've embraced nicely-packaged, costly Method cleaning products and hybrid Lexus SUVs.

Always a bold leader, never a follower, the City of West Hollywood is indeed creating a model city for the future. To see how effective it's been, climb a bamboo stalk and take a deep whiff of the very clean local air!

http://www.adnergroup.com/