Bad news on
the weather, for Bradford mortgage holders, people
with indoor plumbing, Uncle Fluffy’s Porsche
By Will Collette
Hot enough fer ya? |
Here it is, the official start of summer, and we’re
getting hammered with dangerously high heat and heat-related bad air.
Better get used to it.
We’re #1!!!
Scientists
from Climate Central, a research and public outreach
organization, recently issued a rating of the states based on how quickly average
temperatures are rising. Coming in first place is Rhode Island , rated tops for the fastest
warming trend over the past 100 years. Yep, hooray for Little Rhody for winning
a national state competition. Even though this is certainly a dubious
distinction, we Rhode Islanders do love it when we come in first in something.
Right behind us in the rankings are Massachusetts and New
Jersey . According to this report, West Virginia has shown the slowest warming
trend over the past 100 years. Click here for the complete list.
Maybe it’s the heat.
According to the conservative think tank, the Tax Foundation, Rhode
Island saw a 10 year increase of 63% in the number of high-income taxpayers.
That increase placed Rhode Island in 18th place
nationwide. Surprisingly, we beat out both Connecticut
and Massachusetts .
Remember this statistic, a 63% increase, the next time the RI Statewide
Coalition repeats its discredited claim that Rhode Island is driving out all its rich
people.
Home Values,
mortgages.
As regular Progressive Charlestown readers know, I often report
on fluctuations in Charlestown ’s
real estate market. Even though Zillow.com still shows Charlestown
home values as stuck at 2009’s record low (average of $296,000) and we’re down
7.5% from last year, these numbers seem to have leveled off.
That’s good news
although a little price recovery would be nice. Zillow.com continues to show no
year-round rental available in Charlestown
at any price.
Zillow also released data
recently showing the percentage of homeowners with mortgages who are “underwater”
(you owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth). Being “underwater” for
a long time is bad news – you can’t re-finance or borrow because you have no
equity. Plus, it’s an incentive for distressed homeowners to simply walk away.
According to Zillow.com’s
numbers, Charlestown
has a relatively low percentage of “underwater” homeowners at 15%. By contrast, Bradford has nearly double that number at 28%. It’s going
to continue to be hard to grow our economy out of the recession until the
housing market shows more improvement.
But, compared to previous months, there are some
rays of hope.
Here’s one
that’s both good news and bad news.
Researchers at North Carolina Aquarium released a series of tips for beach-goers on how to avoid getting
bitten by a shark. For example, they say to avoid swimming anywhere near
schooling fish (watch for patches of ocean where lots of sea birds are feeding)
because these schools attract hungry sharks.
Boss Gentz is the driver (not the passenger) |
Too bad the CCA didn’t know that statistic about killer toilets last
year – they could have made a public safety argument against Charlestown ’s
brand-new and recently opened town beach toilet facilities.
Bad News for
Uncle Fluffy. According to a newly released British survey, birds are far more likely to take a dump on a
bright and shiny red car. Just like Town Council Boss Tom
Gentz ’s lovingly restored cherry red Porsche (see photo, above).
According to this survey, birds are least likely to
crap on green cars. Sorry, Boss.