11 Indicted in ‘Eco Terrorism’ Case
Federal prosecutors in Oregon recently announced indictments against 11 members of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front for 17 attacks between 1996 and 2001 causing an estimated $23 million in damage to lumber companies, a ski resort, meat plants, federal ranger stations and a high-voltage tower. U.S. Attorney Karin J. Immergut predicted that the indictments “will put a significant dent in the movement,” but ELF has just claimed responsibility for burning down a mansion under construction on an island in Puget Sound, the latest in a string of arsons in Washington state in the past two years. In California in recent years, ELF has taken credit for arson in housing developments and attacks on SUV sales lots. There are 188 open investigations of crimes by the two groups, dating to 1987, according to Carl J. Truscott, director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. About 25-30 of those cases are being actively pursued, he said, about half of them in the Pacific Northwest, California and Utah. (www.Washingtonpost.com)
Washington Post (1/21/06); Blaine Harden
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Eminent Domain Will Get Airing in 2006 Legislative Session
Following up on the Kelo decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last year allowing governments to take property under eminent domain for the purpose of economic development, members of the Minnesota legislature are lining up reform bills that will be debated in the session that begins in St. Paul on March 1. A proposal by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party would prohibit eminent domain from being used as a vehicle to transfer private residential property to another private entity. “If you do your part to keep your house or cabin in good repair, the government will not have the power to take your property merely to hand it over to another private property owner,” said state Rep. Nora Slawik. In his majority opinion in the Kelo case, Justice John Paul Stevens said that states could limit eminent domain if they wanted. The League of Minnesota Cities said that it is opposed to reform measures because state law on eminent domain has enabled affordable housing and environmental cleanup projects to be completed. In a poll of its members, it found that only 100 cities in the state had used eminent domain since the start of 1999; and of those, only 34 used it for redevelopment, removal of a hazardous building or economic development purposes in which the land was turned over to a private owner. (www.knowledgeplex.org)
Knowledgeplex (1/12/06); Charley Shaw
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Preservation Row
With no cohesive redevelopment strategy yet in place in New Orleans, various groups are acting on their own and large numbers of renters and home owners from low-income areas of the city remain scattered out of state and remain uninformed and voiceless during the decision-making process that will affect the fate of their homes. When bulldozers appeared in the low-income Ninth Ward earlier this month to remove such safety hazards as homes in the middle of the street or about to collapse, the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund obtained a temporary restraining order preventing the city from entering the neighborhood and tearing anything down. The problem, according to Charmaine Marchand, a state representative from the ward, is that the city has not been using consistent methods to assess home damage and that some of the homes tagged for removal may be salvageable. Meanwhile, wealthier areas that have been equally hurt by flooding, such as Lakeview, are already being rebuilt by residents who have the financial resources to do so on their own. ACORN, a grassroots housing advocacy organization, is running a program to gut homes in low-income neighborhoods of the city, including the Ninth Ward, a prerequisite for rebuilding them, and hopes to have gutted 1,000 to 2,000 homes by the end of March. (www.thestakinreport.com)
The Slatin Report (1/24/06); Anna Holtzman
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D.C.-Area Landlord’s Bets Ride on Metro-Stop Properties
Richard Villegas, 30 years old, left his law career in Washington, D.C. recently to invest full-time in real estate. He owns 12 one-bedroom or studio apartments in the metropolitan area, which he is holding as rental properties For $130,000 in cash, he recently purchased a 367-square-foot studio apartment in Rosslyn, Va., close to two Metro train stops, and spent an additional $8,000 on it for new flooring, a refurbished kitchen, wood blinds, moving a wall and plumbing and electrical tasks. Typically, Mr. Villegas likes to begin renovations before closing on the property so that it is ready to be marketed as soon as the sale goes through. Most sellers are amenable to this, he says. He also looks for properties before they go on the market, to avoid facing competition from rival bidders. The studio, for example, would have listed for $160,000, he says. It is now under contract for $176,000. With the buyer agreeing to pay his own buyer’s agent commissions, Mr. Villegas assumes he will pay a 30% capital gains tax, or $11,400, on the $38,000 he will realize, for a net profit of $26,600. (www.realestatejournal.com)
RealEstateJournal.com (1/24/06); Jane Hodges
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Extreme Home Selling
The Gregory Group, a market-research company, reported that the value of incentives offered by home builders to buyers in the fourth quarter of last year in Sacramento, Calif. averaged $8,965, double the amount of the previous quarter. Incentives include price discounts, upgrades and promotions. Some recent freebies have included trips to Las Vegas, home-entertainment and security packages, furniture store gift certificates, golf club passes for a year and swimming pools. According to NAHB’s Steve Melman, in a recent survey of the association’s builder members, 56% reported featuring non-price incentives. About 16% of NAHB members are now offering to absorb financing points, up from 13% six months ago, and 33% are paying at least some closing costs, up from 27%. Forty percent of the builders surveyed by NAHB are offering optional non-price incentives at no extra charge to help close deals, up from 28% a year earlier. The most popular incentives seem to revolve around the kitchen, according to Melman: granite countertops, commercial quality appliances, wine storage and bamboo floors — a relatively new option — have all emerged as deal makers. (www.money.cnn.com)
CNNMoney (1/26/06); Les Christie
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Higher Ceilings a Hit With Home Buyers
Philadelphia builder J.S. Hovnanian & Sons made 9-foot ceilings a standard in its houses during the 1990s, but now that everyone is offering them, the company has begun featuring “sunken” kitchens and family rooms, bringing their height up to 10-feet by lowering the floors. Nine feet has become the new standard, according to Gopal Ahluwalia, NAHB’s vice president of research. Sometime between 1995 and 2004, 9-foot ceilings replaced 8-foot as the most common ceiling height for single-family homes, according to data gathered by NAHB. And 9-foot ceilings on the second floor of the house are nearly twice as common as they were 10 years ago. The trend is being driven by consumers, he said, who have made it loud and clear that higher ceilings are among the extras they want in a house. (www.therecord.com)
Kitchener-Waterloo Record (1/26/06); New York Times News Service
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