Organic Garden Tips And So Much More!

In this day and age, many people are becoming more aware of the environment as well as the world around them. If you’re an official “Greenie” or you want to get into organic gardening there a few really easy ways to go about this! First off, why should you try anything organic or “green?” Its been said since the 1980s and even earlier on that there was a huge hole forming in the ozone from things like methane gases from garbage dumps, animals becoming extinct because of littering, and polar ice caps melting and collapsing piece by piece because of the rising temperatures. Isn’t it about time we start saving the place we live in, rather than hurting it even more?

This is where becoming green or living organically comes into play, and the easiest place to start is right in your own backyard! Several million sites online offer tips on how you can start an organic garden and become greener in your life. These sites also offer other things as well such as products that are good for the earth and recipes you can make for things such as you’re own green compost! These sites are pretty useful and really interesting. As said above, even if you aren’t an official “greenie” but you’re curious about how stuff like this works, this is a great place to start.

Organic fertilizers are made from such items as cottonseed meal, compost, and bone meal. As well as other things such as Green Sand, Kelp Meal, Fish Meal, and Blood Meal.

Cottonseed Meal: Cottonseed meal is the byproduct remaining after cotton is ginned and the seeds crushed and the oil extracted. The remaining meal is usually used for animal feed.

Bone Meal: Bone meal is a mixture of crushed and coarsely ground bones that is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and formerly in animal feed. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus.

Green Sand: Green sand forms in anoxic marine environments that are rich in organic detritus and low in sedimentary input.

Kelp Meal: Kelp Meal is brown seaweed harvested from the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the north Atlantic Ocean. Kelp Meal, Ascophyllum nodosum, is the best species of kelp for both horticultural and agricultural use.

Fish Meal: Fish meal, or fish-meal, is a commercial product made from both whole fish and the bones and offal from processed fish. It is a brown powder or cake obtained by rendering pressing the whole fish or fish trimmings to remove the fish oil.

Blood Meal: Blood meal is dried, powdered blood used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer. It is one of the highest non-synthetic sources of nitrogen and if over-applied it can burn plants with excessive ammonia. Blood meal is completely soluble and can be mixed with water to be used as a liquid fertilizer. It usually comes from cattle as a slaughterhouse by-product. It can be spread on gardens to deter animals such as rabbits, or as a compost activator.

Here are some really great recipes that use the above ingredients as well:

Rose feed/mulch
3 cups Alfalfa Meal
3 cups Mushroom compost
1-cup bone meal

Lilac, and other sweet soil lover feed/mulch
1-cup bone meal
3 cups lime
3 cups mushroom compost

Azaleas and Rhodo feed/mulch
1/2-cup rock phosphate
1/2-cup green sand
1/2-cup cottonseed
1/8-cup Epsom salts
1/2 cup used coffee grinds
20 shovels fish compost

Perennial feed/mulch
1/2-cup bone meal
1/2 cup green sand
1/2-cup rock phosphate
1 wheelbarrow of leaf mould

Fruit tree feed/mulch
5 shovels leaf mould
5 shovels garden compost
5 shovels peat moss
1-cup bone meal
1/4-cup rock phosphate
1/4-cup alfalfa
1/4-cup green sand

Basic Organic Fertilizer
3 parts blood or fish-meal
3 parts steamed bone meal
1 part kelp meal
1 and 1/2 parts Sul-Po-Mag (a brand name for a sulfur, potassium, and magnesium source, but you can substitute any such mixture.)

High Nitrogen Mix
4 parts blood meal
2 parts cottonseed meal
1 part steamed bone meal
1/2 part Sul-Po-Mag (a brand name source for sulfur, potassium, and magnesium)
1/2 part kelp meal

High Potassium Mix
2 parts cottonseed meal
2 and 1/2 parts Sul-Po-Mag
1 and 1/2 parts steamed bone meal
1 part green-sand
1 part kelp meal

High Phosphorous Mix
4 parts steamed bone meal
1 part fish meal
1 part meat and bone meal
1 part soft phosphate
1/2 part Sul-Po-Mag
1/2 part kelp meal

You can find any and all of these ingredients at your local garden center so its not that difficult to find! All it takes is a little creativity and you can make all sorts of really green fertilizers for your vegetable or flower garden at home! If you’re searching for some more tips try going to Google and looking for things like “Organic Garden Tips” or “Green Garden Tips.”

This author is a huge fan of the Advanced Gardening website where you can watch videos and learn different gardening techniques

Health And Safety For Our Children

The health and safety experts have been at it again. The age old tradition of children participating in sack races at schools sports day, all in the name of that horrendous past time called fun, have been ruled out on the grounds that it is dangerous.

I suppose it’s because of that awful chaffing of the sack cloth against the children’s knees. Sack cloth injuries may not be life threatening but they are detrimental to the children’s quality of life. After all, we all know what it’s like to try and sit cross legged in a packed assembly hall with a scab on the knee. The first few times, the scab will crack and hurt like hell and that pain is the only thing you can concentrate on.

After a few days of this, it will start to heal in the bent position and then you will be compelled to pick it. Next thing you know, you are so engrossed in this activity that everyone else has stood up for singing except you and you are the only child stood at the front of the hall and made a spectacle of for not listening. Still, all you can hear is the call of the scab.

For the scabbed knee reason alone, it is easy to see why health and safety chiefs want the activity banned. Add to that the danger of the new type of hard grass we now have and there is no telling where it will all end. Special grass is bred for schools and high traffic areas that may resemble normal grass but is pointy, and slicey and downright dangerous. For anyone who has ever fallen on grass and experienced a grass blade up the nostril, they will appreciate the need to ban sack races.

Another of those really dicey school events is biology lessons. For those who just don’t give a fig for health and safety rules, any manner of messy events could occur in a biology room. There is nothing to be gained from learning from mistakes anymore. Any mistake that occurs will see health and safety officials clamping down and stopping the activity before someone gets seriously hurt. Yay, the health and safety officials!

One primary school intended to show their children the miracle of life by hatching out chicks from eggs and watching their development. However, those brilliant people that decide on health and safety issues could spot the potential danger a mile away and are insisting that biological, electrical, child and teacher risk assessments should be carried out before the lessons went ahead. They also could see the possible risk of infection should the children be touching the eggs.

Aren’t we lucky we have these people to watch out for our welfare? Where would we be without them? Where would our children end up? Would we really want well-adjusted children that understand painful things hurt, dirty things need cleaning and that life, in general, is messy and risky and fun? Heaven forbid!

What we really need to do is bring our offspring into line with the healthy and safety rulings that will see them have a long, dull, risk free life by wrapping them in cotton wool, exposing them to nothing more than soft food taken from rounded spoons that have had the edges smoothed off and play them sweet, delicate music to protect their ear drums. Do not allow them to see anything slightly antagonistic for fear they will grow up as criminals – and yes, that means no Tom and Jerry cartoons. We have a duty to protect the next generation!

Parenting expert Catherine Harvey looks at the new health and safety rules to protect our children while at school.

T. Boone Pickens Speaks Out On America’s Energy Crisis

T. Boone Pickens is a legendary Oil man and investor who reached the billionaire stage long ago. Pickens knows a thing or two about oil drilling and America’s dependence upon foreign oil.

In a recent interview with CNN’s Lou Dobbs, Pickens had this to say about the sad state of America’s current energy position.

“The problem is unbelievable for this country. We are in a crisis mode and let me give it to you right quick. We’re spending $700 billion a year on foreign oil, $700 billion. We’re going to break the country in less than 10 years and we’re now importing almost 70 percent of all the oil we use.

1991 it was 42 percent. And I said then, we’re going to be 60 percent at the end of the century. We were at 60 percent — I was told I was a fool. I didn’t know what I was talking about. I can tell you now, you’re almost 70 and you’re going to be importing in 10 years from now. So we’ve got to do something about it and we can, Lou. The solution for it is natural gas. Natural gas can replace foreign oil.

There are 8 million vehicles around the world on natural gas and only 142,000 of them are in the United States. Can you believe, I mean, with our leadership, did not take us in the right direction. But not trying to place blame, it’s really our problem. Yours, mine, and the rest of the people in America.”

T. Boone Picken’s reference to poor leadership in the US is critical to understanding how the US has and still is falling behind the rest of the developed and developing world in energy management, infrastructure, technology, health care, and other issues that are vital to the progress of a nation.

It seems like our leaders have spent most of their time developing a military machine rather than attending to the needs of American citizens at home. American military adventurism is not the way to build a strong economy as resources are misallocated to the military sector. For example, the US Department of Defense is by far the largest consumer of gasoline and diesel fuel of any single sector in the US economy.

T. Boone Pickens is one of a very few American business leaders who are speaking out on the energy issue. And as for American politicians they are still in the self congratulatory mode of telling everyone how America leads the world in every category of technology and innovation. That may have been true ten years ago but no longer. When you are sending 700 billion Dollars a year overseas each year bad things are sure to happen to you. As T. Boone Pickens knows living in the past is not going to solve America’s energy problems.

America desperately needs leadership who will first of all admit that a serious problem exists and who will take massive steps to mobilize and organize the resources needed to reduce if not eliminate the dependency of America upon foreign oil.

Learn more about the coming energy crisis and its consequences for the way we will live and work at Crude Oil Crisis

Why The Public Is Increasingly Going Private

The private hospital is experiencing a boom in the modern healthcare structure. The reasons behind this are diverse but there are a few which stand out; of these a dissatisfaction with the national health service is the most striking. However, people are also choosing to visit a private hospital so they can have their own room, a more diverse menu and the option to have family stay with them.

Increasingly the NHS is sending their patients to private hospitals and paying for the treatment. The government has created a fund for this policy as it helps to take pressure off the beleaguered health service. It is hoped by outsourcing certain operations to private hospitals that the waiting times for patients will be reduced dramatically. While if you are getting the treatment for free it is doubtless patients are more than happy, if paying for treatment, your choice of private hospital can be vital.

The lengths of the cues at health service hospitals is the most commonly given reason for going private. For example, if going in for hip replacement surgery the waiting times can be huge; in this case, a private hospital is probably the best choice if you want to be treated quickly. Much of the government fund for private surgery has been spent on hip replacements as it is a relatively simple operation and the numbers of people who need this type of surgery are vast. In addition, as this is an extremely painful and debilitating ailment, speeding up the operations procedure is advisable for the sake of patients’ wellbeing.

For those who have visited public hospitals in the past a visit to a private one will astound them. Firstly the patients are rarely kept in wards; instead patients predominantly have a private room or are in a room shared by a small number of people. As well as having a private room, many private medical care institutions have en-suite facilities meaning that patients do not have to make the long walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The other benefit of having a single occupancy room is that if family members wish to stay and keep the patient company overnight, the provisions are there for this.

As well as the rooms however there are other fundamental differences when going private. Instead of the infamous hospital food there is normally a large and diverse al a carte menu; usually with a specialist chef. It is not just better food however; newspapers are often available for delivery as are provisions for the use of the internet. These small touches make the hospital stay that much more comfortable for the patient and can be considered one of the reasons behind the increased use of private institutions.

It is not just routine operations that can be carried out privately. Cosmetic surgery is probably one of the most widely undergone treatments in the private sphere, although the costs can be huge. In addition, patients who have been refused treatments on the NHS can opt to go private; such instances may be for couples who are undergoing fertility treatment. In this respect the private sphere is carrying out a vital complimentary service for the NHS.

As the NHS faces increasing amounts of pressure to perform it is doubtless that the private hospital will become a popular option for many. While you may have to pay, the widespread use of medical insurance has meant that people are more likely today to go private than ever before.

Health expert Thomas Pretty looks into the increased use of the private hospital and the reasons behind this.

The Importance Of Infection Control In Medical Management

Infection control has become somewhat of a political hot potato in recent years with the media producing stories on the spreading of so called ’super-bugs’ in hospitals and medical institutions. Thankfully to combat the problem a growing number of workers are undergoing online training programmes to reduce instances of these bugs such as MRSA and C.difficile.

The knowledge gained from these courses is expected to help if a pandemic of any of these virus strains breaks out. Recent research has shown that workers who undergo the online training are more adept in infection control procedures and informing patients on how to reduce the chances of contamination.

In terms of self assessment, workers who were surveyed before undertaking the online infection control course gave their competency levels at sixty four percent. Once the course had been completed, this self assessed competency rose by nearly fifteen percent. In addition almost ninety percent of participants thought that the online training had given them a clearer picture of how to control infection within their working area. The result has been an improvement in procedural adherence and a wide reaching change in behaviour.

An added benefit of having individually trained staff members has been the feedback on current infection control procedures. As long as institutions have been open to the suggestions of their workers, they have seen an improvement in procedural knowledge and effectiveness of these procedures. In addition to procedural knowledge however, the courses give workers and understanding of key issues such as hand washing, best hygiene practice and the chain of transmission.

The results of these types of courses have been far reaching in the medical sphere. Even experienced healthcare professionals found that after additional instruction a marked change occurred in their day to day behaviour and approach to infection control. Of these changes a few were striking: Workers were clearly more thorough with personal hand hygiene at all stages of the day. The protective clothing worn by both workers and patients was improved as were the procedures to dispose of this clothing. In addition to the clothing, the wearing of gloves and eye protection was also increased.

It is hoped that by increasing the training across the medical profession as a whole, instances of cross contamination and transmission of infection will be vastly reduced. As long as staff members recognise the importance of the training and take it on board; the situation should come into fruition.

This is a vital course of action should the problems of hospital infection be solved. These problems are now fundamentally international in nature meaning that agencies all over the globe are introducing methods to increase training and hence reduce instances of hospital based infections being contracted. A major reason behind this move is not purely to limit infection however; as these viruses are frequently contracted in hospitals, medical institutions are obviously aware of the fact that more instances will mean more lawsuits and hence more money being spent of legal fees rather than health benefits. In a world where the medical profession is under enough stress already, limiting infection is a major initiative to reduce hospital running costs.

If these online courses are a success hospitals should be able to reduce the instances of viruses such as MRSA. This is vitally important in not only restoring faith in healthcare institutions but also in reducing running costs. Today infection control is a vital constituent of medical management that requires training and procedural adherence to be successful.

Health expert Thomas Pretty looks into how infection control is becoming an increasingly large issue in medical institutions.

Equitable Outcome for Debt-Ridden Pension Holders

Equitable Life promised money that it couldn’t afford, building a house of cards that would capitulate in 2000. Throughout the 1990s, the life insurance company promised so much and would eventually deliver so little when the company’s assets were valued at 3 billion pounds less than the customers’ policies.

Ann Abraham, Parliamentary Ombudsman for the Equitable Life debacle has declared that the government should admit negligence for their part. The government is accused of not monitoring the ‘dubious practices’ that have subsequently been discovered, including naming future profits as viable assets.

Ms Abraham stated clear intentions in her report that the government should refund those that were affected by what she labels as ‘injustice’ and ‘maladministration’. She suggests that the policy-holders should be offered compensation to reposition them into the position in which they were before the Equitable Life collapse.

Since the near collapse of Equitable Life in 2000, the executives of the company were replaced by a new group. New chairman Vanni Treves agreed with the Ombudsman’s report and welcomed the recommendation of a goverment compensation fund, saying ‘The government should now pay up.’

After eight years of a seeming lack of responsibility, the government will be called upon to admit a level of liability. As Equitable Life continued to overvalue its own assets, the Government Actuary’s Department and the Department of Trade and Industry were wholly inefficient in doing their job.

These two departments ignored such malpractices as Roy Ranson becoming chief executive and appointed actuary of Equitable Life, allowing him almost complete control of a 30 billion pound pension fund. Equitable Life have repaid the policy holders that were laden with a debt, admitting responsibility for their failings.

The Penrose Report of 2004 investigating the claims of the affected policy-holders directed much criticism to the Treasury and the Department of Trade and Industry. This leads us to question why it is four years later and the government is still being pressured into admitting responsibility.

Following the publication of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report, the Treasury is expected to ‘provide a full response to the House in the autumn.’ As campaigners await the official response, it is expected that the government will be unable to deflect this obvious indictment and condemnation. Or so it would seem.

To the unaffected neutral, it would appear that a complete lack of regulation, combined with Ranson’s autocratic running of the pension company led to its inevitable demise. Equitable Life have paid up so now we must wait for the government to put their hands in their very deep pockets and justice will be served.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest include Heathrow Parking, the Hilton Heathrow and airport parking.

Save Food, Save The World

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stated that the average household in the UK is wasting around 8 pound sterling per week on unnecessary food bills. Brown’s suggestion that the British public should think more carefully about their food shopping in an attempt to reduce the horrifying effect of the credit crunch seems laughable. With the cost of oil soaring and the cost of living up by a reported 9.5 per cent, it seems like a drop in the ocean to have two sausages for dinner instead of three.

As Brown and the rest of the G8 gather in Japan to discuss the world’s dilemmas, we must reuse our leftovers and make a list before we go shopping. Don’t forget to ignore the ’special offers’ at the supermarket too, these usually get thrown away in the end as you simply have too much food. So, Gordon Brown heads to the G8 summit with the nation’s hopes in his hands and the end of the credit crunch a long way off in the future.

Rising fuel costs, food prices and a global credit crunch have severely damaged many of the world’s economies including in Britain where house prices are plummeting amid fears of a recession. The Labour government in the UK have also suffered a massive dip in popularity with public fears that a recession will affect millions of families across the country. Labour maintains that the financial difficulties have occurred due to uncontrollable external factors, so the UK continues to look for answers from a government that seemingly has none.

Brown is reported to be optimistic that a deal will be put in place to secure more liberal global markets. The summit is gaining importance with every day that passes as prices continue to rise and the countries’ economies are stretched further and further. Fuel price rises and food shortages are the main problems for the western world while promises of aid to Africa remain undelivered thirteen years later. So, where will the G8 take us and will they prevent the seemingly inevitable global recession?

The key issues that are increasing the risk of a global recession have been the agricultural price rises of 40 per cent as well as the oil prices doubling to almost 150 dollars a barrel. As the world struggles to come to terms with economic uncertainty, it becomes clearer that even with the new supplies of oil reported in Iraq we must continue to search for and develop alternative fuels.

U.S. energy secretary, Samuel Bodman, stated the country’s intention when he admitted that industrialised nations will have to aggressively promote ‘investment in renewable energy and other alternative energies technologies.’ The nations that are represented at the G8 – USA, Russia, UK, Japan, Italy, France, Germany and Canada are responsible for more than half of the world’s energy consumption.

So the world will look on as the ‘Big 8′ meet at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit to discuss global issues including environment and climate change, African development and peacebuilding. With so many major problems to tackle and overcome, it makes it even more difficult to listen to Gordon Brown and count out your chicken nuggets when you’re preparing your dinner.

Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest include Luton Airparks, Luton Airport Parking and I have a travel blog site.

So What’s New? 2008 Energy Crisis

America had an energy crisis starting in 1973 with the Arab oil embargo. Unfortunately we didn’t seem to take it all that seriously as it was fairly short lived. Certainly the United States didn’t learn much from it.

The 1970’s energy crisis led to greater interest in renewable energy and spurred research in solar power and wind power. It also led to greater pressure to exploit North American oil sources, and increased the West’s dependence on coal and nuclear power. The energy crisis of the 1970’s caused the United States to step up and begin conservation efforts and explore alternate energy sources. It was thought that if oil prices continued their uphill climb, these alternate sources will without a doubt become economically and politically superior to oil.

The 1970’s energy crisis was brought into focus by President Carter’s message to the American people on April 18, 1977 and by his message to the Congress on April 20, 1977. Although the President spoke of the gravity of the energy situation when he said that it was “unprecedented in our history,” his messages triggered an avalanche of critical responses from national political and business leaders. Fast forward to 2008 and you still hear from our so called “leaders” that American can work through the crisis just fine. That would be nice but don’t count on it. America is just as unprepared for an energy crisis in 2008 as it was in 1973.

Electric, fuel cells, hydrogen, and ethanol are all touted as a replacement for expensive oil. But the energy that they produce is also expensive. Then they require massive infrastructure changes like finding new ways to manufacture, transport, store, and sell fuel. For example, you won’t go on a long road trip in your electric car until there are reliable and affordable places along the way to plug in and recharge.

Electrically is not free, however it is produced. Now electricity is produced by the energy sources of today, primarily coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric. Every facet and aspect of our lives can be controlled when energy is controlled. Governments that control energy sources and technology will become all powerful in tomorrow’s energy starved world.

Oil futures speculation is only tangentially relevant to an honest discussion of the price of oil. In fact, it is harmful because it undermines and replaces a reality-based appraisal of the problem. Oil refineries operate at 98 percent of capacity and have no room for error or catastrophe, as witnessed by the Katrina fallout. Also, the two primary reasons refineries haven’t been built in 31 years are because environmental regulations make construction cost-prohibitive and because those same regulations prevent oil companies from drilling for more oil, which would increase production to an amount that would allow (cost wise) the expensive refineries to be built.

Oil companies culled domestic production 20 years ago because they couldn’t make the kind of profits they wanted. They shut down refinery development and started mothballing and selling off production plants. Now that the high price of oil is here, probably to stay, politicians are talking about taxing “excess profits”. It takes a lot of money to explore, drill for, transport, and refine oil. It also takes a lot of money to develop alternative energy sources. Take away the “excess profits” from the oil companies and everyone will suffer as a critical energy shortage develops.

Oil companies continue to receive $18B per year in incentives (tax breaks, no-royalty drilling), despite record profits. More of that oil company profits and/or tax breaks should to go fusion/solar/renewable energy research. Oil consumption by power generators is extremely small and is limited to a few East Coast states that have little capacity to turn to coal. To the extent that oil consumption could be reduced further, it would require increased reliance on natural gas, a fuel already in short supply.

Production in some Gulf of Mexico gas fields is decreasing 25%-50% per year. Obviously these conditions will lead to price increases for fuel. Production by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries fell by 350,000 barrels of oil a day last year. The production situation is even more challenging in the market-oriented nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, where many existing basins are maturing fast.

The effort to develop alternative energy sources is increasing as oil prices increase. Wind energy is one source of energy that is talked about a lot. Windmills are not ideal for power generation. They only generate it when the wind blows – which may not be when you want the power. Wind and solar simply aren’t complete answers, because they aren’t 24×7 solutions, and battery technology to store power in non-trivial amounts for non-trivial amounts of time doesn’t exist (ask any laptop user).

Oil supplies are uncertain. Demand is not, it keeps on climbing as China, India, Brazil, Russia, and other nations enter a rapid development stage. The cost of oil will keep going up. The US has been there before, in the 1970’s. Unfortunately, we have spend over 30 years since then dreaming that all would be OK, that any oil crisis would be temporary, that we could control events.

The United States is wrong. The oil crisis of 2008 will not go away. The world has changed and there is no going back. Increased energy demand from the rest of the world along with decreased production from major oil fields will keep supplies tight and prices high even if the US and the Euro zone enter into deep recessions.

We learned little to nothing from our last energy crisis. Serious conservation in the US market has been a bad joke for 30 years. Now we will pay. That way that Americans live will have to change. The next few years will not be happy ones for many Americans.

A “Marshall Plan” for the production of alternative energy sources and for the conservation of the energy we are now producing is sorely needed. With the right effort and dedication American can do it. Ultimately, the massive effort to produce alternative energy will provide many new opportunities for jobs, new industries, and for investment. Unfortunately, as many Americans are still in denial, it will take a horrible crisis and then years to ramp up the effort. In the meantime, hard times they are a coming.

Learn more about the coming energy crisis and its consequences for the way we will live and work at Crisis News Analysis

Mortgage Interest Rates Jump Up

After several weeks of staying relatively flat mortgage interest rates jumped up this week. 30 Year mortgage went from 6.09 to 6.32. 15 Year Mortgage moved from 5.65 to 5.93. 5 Year rates went from 5.51 to 5.70. The only rate that was somewhat stable was 1 Year Arms which went up from 5.06 to 5.09. Two weeks ago we predicted that rates would increase over the summer and they seem to be doing exactly that.

June 12,2008
30-yr 6.32 15-yr 5.93 5-yr ARM 5.70 1-yr ARM 5.09

June 5,2008
30-yr 6.09 15-yr 5.65 5-yr ARM 5.51 1-yr ARM 5.06

May 29,2008
30-yr 6.08 15-yr 5.66 5-yr ARM 5.62 1-yr ARM 5.22

May 22,2008
30-yr 5.98 15-yr 5.55 5-yr ARM 5.61 1-yr ARM 5.24

May 15, 2008
30-yr 6.01 15-yr 5.60 5-yr ARM 5.57 1-yr ARM 5.18

May 8, 2008
30-yr 6.05 15-yr 5.60 5-yr ARM 5.67 1-yr ARM 5.29

Using out free mortgage calculator lets see what the rate increase mean for the payments on a 200k mortgage. We calculated out the mortgage payments based on today’s mortgage interest rates and rates a week and a month ago.

June 12th
30-yr $1240.55
15-yr $1680.15
5-yr ARM $1160.80
1-yr ARM $1084.67

June 5th
30-yr $1210.69
15-yr $1650.11
5-yr ARM $1136.83
1-yr ARM $1080.98

May 8th, 2008
30-yr $1205.53
15-yr $1644.79
5-yr ARM $1157.00
1-yr ARM $1109.36

So for a 30 Year Mortgage on a 200k loan the mortgage payment went up about $30 or about 2.5 percent. The mortgage on a 15 Year mortgage also went up about $30. What is weird is rates on 1 Year ARMs stayed about the same and are actually down from a month ago. This makes no sense. Banks are dealing with foreclosures that are mostly coming from borrowers that got 5 and 1 Year ARMs. Basically when the ARMs reset borrowers are frequently unable to make the higher payments and wide up facing foreclosure.

One would think banks would be discouraging these high risk loans. I would like to think the banks know something I don’t. But looking at their foolish behavior over the last few years (giving loans to everyone that walked in the door from 2004-2006) its a distinct possibility they are just plain foolish. So again this week 1 Year ARMs look attractive. Just remember in a year your rate and mortgage could be higher so it would be wise to have some cash on the side to pay a potentially higher mortgage. And I would expect rates to be higher one year from today.

So what would I expect to happen over the rest of the summer. First off I don’t see rates going down. The FED has given numerous signals they don’t plan to lower rates. Will rates continue to go up? I am not sure. I expected rates to creep up over the next month instead of jumping up this month. So I hope rates stay relatively flat but they could go higher over the next month.

Escapeso Realty operates in the Austin real estate market. They provide a free mortgage calculator along with a tool to track mortgage interest rates.

Austin Hipness Moves South

For decades, bumper stickers have adorned cars all over central Austin, proudly proclaiming “78704 More Than just a Zip Code.” The South Austin lifestyle originated there, but as Austin real estate prices rose, and fancy restaurants and shops re-energized South Congress, a migration of hip-ness began. Now, a new bumper sticker is gaining in popularity, reading “78745 the new 78704.”

This is the perfect area for a young couple to start off. The area is roughly bordered by Westgate Blvd. to the west, Ben White to the north, Slaughter to the south, and Congress to the east, and has the feel of an established, homey neighborhood. Mature trees, fabulous mid-century ranch houses, great starter properties, winding streets with charming names like Jinx and Redd, and a casual but upwardly mobile vibe are hallmarks of the area.

The commercial center of the region is the Westgate Center, on Ben White, featuring the foodie mecca, Central Market. A wonderful store that highlights organics and international foods, Central Market also has a great cafe that features live music four days a week. For takeaway, they have, a Chef’s case and salad bar, as well as prepared full-meals for two or four, sushi, sandwiches, and a soup bar. Their cooking school offers classes on topics such as grilling, dim sum, tapas, and many other creative subjects. They recently added a wine bar to emphasize their world-class wine section, and their on-site bakery is one of the few places in South Austin to get fresh, organic breads. Also located in the shopping center are Whole Earth Access, Beall’s, Yoga Yoga, and the Westgate 11 Cinema, as well as many other boutiques and cafes.

Garrison Park is a large, well-appointed park smack dab in the middle of “the four-five.” Their playground has two playscapes one geared towards toddlers, and one towards older kids, and they have swings for all sizes as well. With a toddler/wading pool in addition to a full size recreation and lap swimming pool, this is a popular destination in the summer. They have grill grates, picnic tables, a basketball court, and a decent sized parking lot, making this one of the cities finer parks.

While the quiet tree lined streets and bucolic feel are a big plus, one of the most attractive qualities of the 78745 neighborhood is its proximity to central Austin. Manchaca leads right to Lamar, with South First and South Congress being the other two main north/south arteries that lead straight to the heart of Austin’s business center, and to the other vibrant neighborhood shops and restaurants. Ben White hooks right into Mopac and Loop 360, and I 35 is just a stone’s throw.

This neighborhood has all the qualities that make Austin such a cool place to live. With a great range of housing options and prices, a settled, mature neighborhood feel, and a great array of businesses and restaurants in close proximity, this is an up-and-coming area waiting to be discovered.

Escapeso Austin Texas real estate is a realty company in Austin. They provide web visitors a map search for Austin Homes along with updates on their blog about Austin real estate.

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