Numbers for Charlestown and our region are good news and bad news

Good news for rich people, Charlestown mortgage holders, beach goers

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 18^th 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. 

Click to enlarge

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) 

The Aquarium notes the chances of getting bitten by a shark are extremely low (and close to zero if you follow their advice). There were only 75 shark attacks last year, a dozen of them fatal. But there were more than 40,000 toilet-related accidents.

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.