PSoTD

More of that great economy news... Maybe the Canadians will help!

Reservations for seasonal rentals are lagging behind last year, which indicates the strong possibility that fewer snowbirds might come to Highlands County this winter.

Warren Wolfe, five-year owner of Woody's RV Resort, needs almost all his fingers and toes to count the number of prospective vacancies.

Most campers at the 110-site RV park reserve a spot a year in advance. At this time last year, almost every camp site was reserved for the upcoming winter season, which at Woody's, runs from November through the end of April.

Wolfe pointed to a map hanging in the community's office, with about 30 vacant spaces marked in red.

Wolfe is hopeful, but expects few campers to reserve a spot at the "last minute," which could mean a $100,000 loss from last year's revenues.

"Since 1993, and up until the last year, there were no more than two vacancies any year," said Wolfe, about seasonal RV campers. "They're staying closer to home or in their backyards."

The number of properties available for rent by the season is the some as last year, but the number or reservations is down, said Jean Eckman, Realtor with Century 21 Advanced All Service Realty Inc.

Eckman has noticed a trend over the last 20 years. In the past, snowbirds stayed from three to six months. That has changed. The average visit has dropped to one to three months.

Eckman is hoping this year's favorable exchange rate for Canadian dollars and the fact that out-of-country Canadians now have access to their health care coverages longer brings more Canadian visitors.

Is the textbook industry finally going to go through a "revolution" that will reduce costs?

One of the smart things I think Southwest is doing is giving passengers an arrival time that is 10-15 minutes after when they have a reasonable expectation of arriving. That way, they always seem to be running early, and as a passenger that feels good. The comparison of "how we're doing timewise" on a flight isn't compared to how much time we're in the plane in total, but compared to those numbers printed on our itinerary.

Another thing that was great, at least, about this 60 hour whirlwind trip to Seattle, is that somehow Southwest avoided the "sitting in line on the tarmac to take off or get to the gates" process that delays trips. That might have been a fluke on this trip, but still, it was a refreshing difference.

I catch the long-term parking shuttle at Baltimore-Washington International, and step into an empty bus. I ask the driver as we go around the parking lot, never picking up one other passenger, how business was. Summer's been busy, he said, mostly vacationers, but he figures in September it'll be awfully quiet. Business isn't flying NEARLY like they used to, they will probably have less buses at some times, which means less work. Vacations were locked in last winter by families and the decline in the economy couldn't stop promises made, but this fall will be a different story and NEXT summer will be terrible.

That was his opinion, anyway.

The next big thing.

The spike in gasoline prices, along with a desire for a greener commute, have people such as Wolfe increasingly turning to electric bikes as an alternative form of transportation. Experts say the bikes, which function much like typical two-wheeler with addition of a battery-powered assist, are flying off the racks.

Although official sales figures are hard to quantify, the Gluskin-Townley Group, which performs market research for the National Bicycle Dealers Association, estimates 10,000 electric bikes were sold in the U.S. in 2007, an increase of 6,000 over the number sold in 2006.

Bert Cebular, owner of NYCeWheels, an electric bike and scooter dealership in New York, reports a 50 percent jump in sales over last year. And Amazon.com Inc. reported sales of electric bikes jumped more than 6,000 percent in July from a year earlier.

"The electric bikes are the next big thing," Frank Jamerson, a former General Motors Corp. executive turned electric vehicle expert, told the AP.

The electric bikes are even more popular in Europe, where commuters seek alternatives for short trips that can free them from having to navigate overcrowded transport systems.

According to industry estimates, 89,000 electric bikes were sold in the Netherlands last year, while 60,000 power-assisted bikes were sold in Germany.

It's a bad sign for the financial industry, when financial institutions that seem healthy have to make room on their web site to explain to customers that although other financial institutions are having big problems, they're doing fine.

On the other hand, it's good to see financial institution marketing messages such as the one below seen as consumer-attractive:

Our net worth (capital) level is strong, the highest category a credit union can achieve from our federal regulator, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Our delinquency ratio, an indicator of the quality of our assets, is extremely favorable. Any investment we make is federally insured. We do not take risks in the stock market or make speculative investments.

We tried to buy some floor rugs for the kids' rooms since they were repainted with new themes, through the Sears Homecenter website. Ordered them long ago, they never came, never came, never came. Finally the orders were cancelled by Sears, and now the website says:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are no longer able to take internet orders for these catalog titles. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Direct Marketing Services Inc., a Chicago-based catalog company that owns and operates home décor catalogs and Web sites, agreed Monday to auction its assets Aug. 5 under an assignment for the benefit of creditors.

The 15-year-old mail-order firm is most famous for owning and operating a catalog and Web site under the Montgomery Ward moniker, a brand it acquired in 2004 when the retail giant went out of business.

It also operates Web sites for Sears Holdings Corp. under the Sears Home Center, Sears Showplace and Sears Room for Kids brands.

DMSI founder and CEO David Milgrom couldn't be reached for comment.

I guess we'll find the rugs somewhere else.

Which explains reverse mortgages:

This past year has shown a large increase in the number of people applying for reverse mortgage loans. A reverse mortgage loan is a loan by which older people, whose principal asset is often a home which might have to be sold in order to provide money for other living expenses, may borrow on the value (equity) in that home. The loan proceeds are paid by the lender to the homeowner in equal installments (usually monthly), or as needed under a line of credit, or in one or more lump sum payments or in any combination of these features.

This is the opposite of obtaining and then paying off a conventional mortgage. That is why it is called a “reverse mortgage.” Moreover, the homeowner does not have to repay the reverse mortgage loan until the loan “terminates” or ends.

Now that's a pretty basic description and a lot of value is tied up in the specifics, such as the value of the home in a declining market. I guess I wonder what several years of decline of value might do to the eventual cost of the loan.

There's definitely pressure on senior citizens to figure out what to do about their completely paid-off homes. In our area, if you sold your home 4 years ago, you might have made over 20% more than what you will today, depending on the development and the condition and age of the home. Add inflation into that and a four-year delay into an eventual decision could be seen as VERY expensive to those trying to time their exit from home ownership.

In our neighborhood, we're starting to see a lot of for sale signs, and they seem to be mostly from older homeowners, retired and looking to downsize. This "turnover" has been happening for several years as the neighborhood has been gradually been getting younger, resident-wise, but it looks, at least on the surface, to be increasing significantly now.