Whole Foods + Light Rail = SPRAWL?

Article from the Rocky Mountain News: Denver wants to avoid sprawl at Southmoor

The city of Denver wants future development around the Southmoor light-rail station in southeast to avoid the “random, piecemeal” sprawl that exists along nearby Hampden Avenue, Peter Park, the city’s manager of planning and development, said Tuesday.

For all you tech geeks… MICRO CENTER is a stone throw away from Southmoor.

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Denver is number one in a convoluted category

Denver lost the World Series (were we even in it?) and the Broncos lost in OT to Favre and Green Bay but kicked some major tail recently:

Denver squeaked out the No. 1 ranking in a national report on home prices released Tuesday.

The closely watched S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed that -area homes gained 0.3 percent in value from July to August.

From June to July, homes rose in value by 0.8 percent, bested only by the 1 percent increase experienced by Detroit during that period.

Read the full story: Denver tops home-price index

Read more on the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices

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Countrywide righting a wrong or righting their ship?

Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest lender, plans to offer refinancing or modifications on $16 billion in loans whose interest is set to adjust by the end of 2008.

Rocky Mountain News: Countrywide to push refis, modified loans

New York Times: Countrywide to Help Restructure Loansm

Or are they simply trying to get more business?

Mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp., whose loan volume is down sharply in the wake of the housing downturn and the sub- meltdown, is aggressively trying to get its customers to . Here are excerpts from two pitches the company sent recently to homeowners:

Exciting news — we are now offering a Special Online Discount. . . . If you qualify, you could get up to $511,006 to pay off credit cards and other loans.

– Countrywide e-mail

No need to show bank statements or verify other assets . . . no paycheck stubs or proof of income required . . . no new appraisal needed (in most cases).

– Countrywide flier

Could be a combination of both. However, this uber annoying Countrywide has been in HEAVY ROTATION:

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Ex-Rockie haunts Red Sox

Red Sox Attempt To Break Fabled ‘Curse Of Relief Pitcher Curtis Leskanic’

BOSTON—The Boston Red Sox, who have failed to win a single World Series since the departure of relief pitcher Curtis Leskanic in 2004, are attempting to defy the odds and do the impossible: reverse the curse of the journeyman reliever whose…

The Rockie fans that jumped off the bandwagon after last night probably don’t know who Curtis Leskanic and his connection to .

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Littleton couple sells home in only five days

How?

They followed guidelines set in the book “How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days,” by Bill Effros.

I didn’t make this up, read the full story: DU real estate class, book help couple auction home

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Filipino restaurant in Denver

Unless you live in a city sprawling with Filipinos such as San Diego (Chula Vista or National City) it’s rare to find a Filipino restaurant in a your neighborhood.

If you live in Denver, it’s been very rare ever since the Nipa Hut closed almost a decade ago. Enter the Tropical Grill, located in the outskirts of on Iliff and Peoria in Aurora.

Tropical Grill
12203 East Iliff Avenue
Aurora, CO
303-369-2677

MAP IT

If you decide to check it out, get the chicken adobo and the turon. You won’t be disappointed!
Check out the review on Westword: http://www.westword.com/2007-09-27/dining/tropical-grill/

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When real estate is involved, scams will surely follow

First, the part:

A 1031 Exchange, also known as a Like Kind Exchange, is a way of structuring a sale of certain kinds of property so that the seller’s profit or gain is not currently taxed. Instead, the property that is sold is replaced with another “like kind” . If the transaction is properly structured, the seller’s profit or gain is deferred to a future date.

Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code:

No gain or loss shall be recognized on the exchange of property held for productive use in a trade or business or for investment if such property is exchanged solely for of like kind which is to be held either for productive use in a trade or business or for investment.

Next, the scam part:

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t want investors touching their money during a 1031 exchange. Anyone who wants to do this transaction must entrust their money to someone they don’t really know. It can’t be their lawyer, their broker, their lender, or their friend. It has to be a qualified intermediary, according to IRS rules.

There are no actual qualifications to become a qualified intermediary. Sometimes, these qualified intermediaries will take your money and run.

You hand them all the equity in your house, and they blow it on whatever they want. Your 1031 fails, and you then end up owing capital- gains taxes on money that was basically stolen from you. Your only recourse is to sue.

If you love reading about scams then read the full article: Legal tax deal could cost you

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Option Arms are in the news again

File this under: Unsuspecting borrower duped into getting a difficult loan to comprehend.

From Sunday’s Post: Crushing ARMs squeeze homeowners

In 2003, 1.1 percent of mortgages originated for a or in were option-ARMs and another 2.5 percent were interest- only loans that didn’t pay down principal, according to First American LoanPerformance, a San Francisco research firm.

…

Many borrowers don’t understand , how their payments are rising, and why the loans they expected to rescue them are dragging them into , he said.

The brokers who sold these loans were (most of them are out of the industry) dumber than dirt yet were great at selling these products. If you went with a mortgage broker because they sold you on a loan products, who’s really to blame?

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Rockies - WOW, Mortgages - WOE

Mortgage article from the Rocky Mountain News:

The nation’s more than $2 trillion home mortgage business won’t halt its current slide anytime soon, with mortgage originations expected to fall 18 percent next year and decline another 6 percent in 2009, the Bankers Association predicts.

Read the full story: Mortgage woes won’t end soon, group says

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What are your chances of getting tickets to the World Series?

If you wanted tickets for the World Series, how many people will you be competing against? I like to think in numbers so here’s my quick math:

According to the swami known as Wikipedia, ’s population was approximately 2.5 Million in 2006. I’d guess that the population was risen a few thousand in the last year.

There are approximately 18,000 tickets available for each World Series game at Coors Field.

There are 3 possible games for a grand total of 54,000 tickets available.

Each person can up to 4 tickets and lets assume most people will buy 4 tickets for only one of the games. (If you had a brain you’d buy 4.)

That leaves only 13,500 sets of 4 tickets.

Here’s the kicker, they’re only available online.

Children typically make 25% of the population so the 2.5 million drops to 1.8.

Let’s just say that half the people don’t care about the Rockies or at least don’t care about going to the game. We’re now at 900K.

And not everyone has access to the internet so again lets slash by 50% to 450K.

And not everyone that has access to the internet will be available at 10 AM next Monday again slash by 50% to 225K.

And not everyone that has access to the internet next Monday has broadband again slash by 50% to 113K.

113K will be competing for 13K tickets.

Ever been to a game at the Big House? Imagine going through the turnstile at Michigan Stadium with that many people at the same time. Qwest, Comcast, and all other internet providers better be ready. Throw statistics and probability out the window, getting tickets to the World Series is going to be MADNESS!

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