Houses

There is a new house (or maybe it is a duplex) under construction in the Sunset Ridge subdivision. It is at the westernmost part of Monnett Street.

I visited a different kind of house a week or so ago, the hoophouse at Saint Joseph's College. It is now producing spinach and lettuce. Chard and endive seedlings are emerging in some of the rows nearest the camera. Notice the metal hoops over the rows. When it gets really cold, they are covered with a cloth mesh and that keeps the plants from freezing even on cold winter nights. Apparently spinach sells for enough to make hoophouses profitable and it may be the most profitable crop to put in a hoophouse. There is a class of business students who will find out this year whether or not it can be profitable--the course will explore the profitability of this venture.

 I learned that the best spinach grows at about 40 degrees. At that temperature the sugars in the plants are at their optimum.

I noticed this sign on a house a few weeks ago.

 Here is the other sign that was on the door.

What happens to a house in this situation? How does the owner clean it up? It would seem that this would be a problem for people who rent houses.

Speaking of problems in housing, this year I have been introduced to short sales in real estate. I had always thought of a short sale as something a speculator did--borrow an asset and sell it in hopes of buying it back later at a reduced price. But in the real estate market a short sale is when the value of the house has sunk below the value of the mortgage on the house. Apparently there are a lot of them and two of my sons have gotten caught in short-sale nightmares. They are trying to buy but the banks, which have to approve the transactions, are overwhelmed with the number of short sales. I have not seen anything in the news or on the Internet that explores this subject and I have no idea if it is a problem in the local real estate market. Anyone know?