Homebuilders like Lennar keep reporting losses and warn that it won’t get better soon. So why are the stocks among this year’s biggest winners?
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Honestly, Wall Street sometimes seems like Bizarro World in the old Superman comics.Case in point: Look what’s going on with homebuilders.
Lennar (LEN, Fortune 500), for example, is still […]

Rates have crept up from recent lows, but even now, a refi can be a smart move.
(Money Magazine) — Earlier this year, when mortgage rates dipped below 6% for the first time since 2005, homeowners rushed to refinance costlier loans. In fact, more than six out of 10 mortgage applications so far this year have […]

The word “gentrification” conjures up images of once-poor urban neighborhoods invaded by cappuccino bars and million-dollar condos. Now, broad swaths of rural America — from New England to the Rocky Mountain West — are being gussied up, too.Affluent retirees and other high-income types have descended on these remote areas, creating new demand for amenities like […]

Retirement-home sales are growing — among buyers still decades away from retiring.From New York’s Catskill Mountains to Oregon’s rocky coast, younger couples who might otherwise be focused on building a nest egg instead are buying a lakefront house or country cabin that they hope to one day use in retirement.
For these younger buyers, this isn’t […]

Steamboat Springs - Seth Davidson pulled on a strap to trigger a system of batteries and axles, and suddenly the wooden vehicle began rolling across the classroom floor like a miniature tank.

“It’s slow, but it’s powerful,” said Davidson, a Steamboat Springs High School junior and member of the Science Olympiad team. “We had to turn it on without touching it.”

Seth and his brother Jordan Davidson, a senior, built the vehicle in about two weeks with senior Vincent Abate. They entered it in the Science Olympiad competition held at Poudre High School in Fort Collins last weekend.

Steamboat science teacher Charlie Leech said 23 teams from 16 schools entered the competition, which included academic tests as well as building and design challenges. Steamboat’s high school team placed 12th, Leech said, good enough to qualify for the state competition April 12 at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

Fifteen Steamboat students are members of the Science Olympiad team, Leech said, including freshmen through seniors. Sophomore Stefan Palmer helped build bagpipes and a pipe-style xylophone for a “Sound of Music” event, which required two musical instruments that could be used to play “God Bless America.”

After a brief tune, Palmer cupped his hands and banged out notes to the song on the large-scale, modified xylophone made of PVC pipes held together with wooden planks.

The students used upholstered vinyl to build airbags for the bagpipes, which Jordan Davidson said included reeds made from yogurt cup materials and dental floss.

“It’s like MacGyver,” Jordan Davidson said, referring to the 1980s TV secret agent as he pulled a reed from the bagpipes. “You can even see the nutrition labels.”

Jordan Davidson said largely thanks to a stroke of luck, the bagpipes played in tune.

“It brought a tear to my eye,” Leech said.

Leech said the team will work on fine-tuning its competition entries in preparation for next month’s event and is looking for a local sponsor to help with some of the costs and to support young engineers.

He credited senior Victoria Lavington with handling much of the organizing duties for the team. Lavington said her role included designing the team T-shirts, coordinating team meetings and schedules, and keeping everyone on track for the regional competition.

She gave a simple reason for her involvement in Science Olympiad.

“Making new friends and getting out of the perspective of cliques,” Lavington said. “We all had fun.”

By Mike Lawrence

http://www.steamboatpilot.com/

 REACTING to the troubles in the nation’s housing and mortgage markets, Congress enacted measures late last year that will give tax breaks to some beleaguered home buyers.
The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which is effective from Jan. 1, 2007, through Dec. 31, 2009, is expected to provide more than $600 million of tax […]

  Two worrisome trends for the economy - falling house prices and the rising cost of everything else - picked up speed in data reported on Tuesday, putting policy makers in an increasingly tough position.If they move too aggressively to cut interest rates and stimulate the economy, they might stoke inflation at a time when […]

Steamboat Springs - Despite record snowfall levels that are prompting other Colorado ski resorts to add additional weeks to their calendars, the Steamboat Ski Area is planning to close as scheduled this season, on April 6.

Snow levels aside, additional weeks in April simply aren’t profitable enough to warrant pushing back closing day, Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp. spokeswoman Heidi Thomsen said.

Wolf Creek Ski Area, counting 489 inches of snow as of Thursday, opted to extend its season last week. Wolf Creek’s runs will now remain open until April 13, and the resort will host skiers and riders two additional weekends: April 19 and 20 and April 26 and 27.

Monarch Mountain and Durango Mountain Resort, or Purgatory, also have announced extensions to their 2007-08 seasons, Colorado Ski Country USA spokeswoman Jennifer Rudolph said. Durango and Monarch both added an additional week of skiing and are now scheduled to close April 6 and 13, respectively.

At the end of February, Steamboat’s 399 inches of snow already had made 2007-08 at least the sixth-snowiest winter on record at the ski area. And this season marked the first time Steamboat received at least 100 inches of snow in three straight months - December, January and February.

But expanding ski season is not a common practice at the Steamboat Ski Area and has not been done since April 1993, Thomsen said.

Some local business workers said they would welcome an extended-season boost.

“You’d think they’d throw us a little local bone, but no,” restaurateur Eric Delaney said. Delaney was holding down the fort Thursday at Saketumi while his brother, who owns the base area business, was out of town.

Delaney expressed frustration that Ski Corp. was “cutting the season on both sides.” In addition to losing nine days in November - due to an unseasonably warm, dry fall - the season lasted an additional nine days last year, when closing day was April 15.

“We lost business when people canceled their reservations at the beginning of the season,” Delaney said. “Even just another week would be huge.”

Spring drop-off

Big snow early in the season does not necessarily draw crowds as spring approaches, and people pack up their skis and snowboards and take mountain bikes and tents out of storage.

“Usually, we see the demand drop off as it gets warmer and sunnier,” Thomsen said. “If it’s 70 degrees in Denver, people are going to get excited about other spring sports and activities.”

Rental shops dependent on the ski area agreed that the expected tourist drop-off in April would not make additional weeks of skiing especially profitable.

By April, restaurants and lodging properties already are closing their doors, and marketing for additional weeks would have had to start months ago for paying tourists to be hitting the slopes instead of just locals, said Todd Fellows, a manager at Ski Haus.

“Certainly, they’re not going to pay to keep their staff on the mountain for locals who don’t buy lift tickets, don’t eat hamburgers and don’t pay for parking,” Fellows said.

Although Fellows said lengthening the 2007-08 season would not bring significant profits for Ski Haus, his inner powderhound was disappointed.

“It’s a bummer if you’re a skier,” he said.

Another major factor in Ski Corp.’s decision-making is that the ski season flights at Yampa Valley Regional Airport also are scheduled to make their final departures April 6, Thomsen said.

“When the flights stop, the revenue stops,” Fellows said.

The ski area also could run into problems with its 1800 seasonal workers, who make up 90 percent of its employees. Both domestic and international seasonal workers often have existing plans to return to their hometown, including pre-purchased flights, and could be unable to work longer than expected, Thomsen said.

www.steamboatpilot.com

Steamboat Springs - It’s official: Demolition of Ski Time Square will happen all at once, and it will start this summer.

Businesses were notified Friday that they’ll have to be out - some next month, some a few months later. The Atira Group and Washington, D.C.-based Cafritz Interests are partnering to raze and redevelop the buildings around the base of the Steamboat Ski Area.

Although the groups had talked about demolishing the properties in phases, that is no longer under consideration, said Jane Blackstone, a development manager with Atira. She cited concerns with the sprinkler system used in Ski Time Square buildings that has required tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of repairs and, in at least one case, 24-hour surveillance from local fire employees.

“This sprinkler issue is a safety issue, and our first priority is to keep the buildings safe,” Blackstone said. “We have made what we believe is a responsible decision to take all the buildings down this summer, roughly a year before they would come down in a phased approach.”

Steamboat Trading Co. owner Erich Esswein said he had expected the phased approach to go through. He figured that he could have about $200,000 in inventory to get rid of come the end of ski season.

To address that issue, Ski Time Square retailers are planning a garage sale the first week of April, Esswein said. The Butcher Shop will be selling decades’ worth of photos, antiques and collectibles, he said.

“I think it’s a sad time in Steamboat history, just seeing Ski Time Square go,” Esswein said. “Just the cast of characters who own the businesses here and work here - it’s a big change.”

Tenants will leave at different times during the next few months, depending on the terms of their leases and whether any decide to leave early, Atira officials said. All businesses will be out by September, said Mark Mathews, vice president of development at Atira.

Mathews and Blackstone stressed that the community has pushed for the changes at Ski Time Square.

“I do think that all of this redevelopment was encouraged and embraced by the city and the community,” Blackstone said.

She said the developers are not yet to the point where they can start talking about what will go into the new mixed-use property. Current tenants might have options in the new development, Blackstone said, but there will be a time gap between demolition and completion of construction. The groups also are redeveloping Thunderhead Lodge.

The city of Steamboat Springs is sponsoring a study to determine the retail needs of the base area.

“What we’re excited about is really using an integrated approach to having a vibrant, mixed-use property, looking at how all these are going to flow together,” Mathews said.

The Atira officials said Steamboat needs to improve the area to improve its status as a tourist destination.

“We have a world-class mountain; now we want a world-class base area,” Blackstone said.

www.steamboatpilot.com

If the worst happens, you can’t be sure you’ll collect enough to bring back the home you love. Here’s what to do.
 (Money Magazine) — If last fall’s devastating California wildfires weren’t enough of a wake-up call, consider this: Nearly 60% of homes nationwide don’t carry enough insurance coverage to be fully rebuilt. On average those […]