THE WHITE HOUSE LOST MARKET VALUE TOO…

   

The Palm Beach Post Real Estate News page reports that,  “you and your neighbors are not alone.  The place the president and his family call home was worth 5.1% less last year, one analyst says.”

Zillow “zestimates” 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC (The White House) at $288,494,000.  The residence has 16 bedrooms, 35 baths and is 55,000 sq ft.  They further estimate a monthly mortgage payment would be $1,216,562.

SAVE MONEY AT THE MOST POPULAR COUPON WEBSITES

The numbers are unique December 2009 traffic amounts.  Before you buy, take a look at each appropriate site and save yourself money, whether buying online or in a store.  There are now thousands of coupon sites, and the sites listed here are offering really good deals.  Today more than ever consumers are looking to save money.  Try store specific sites such as Target and Amazon.  Check out these sites!  Copy URL above to return to this site or left click in white space, right click, click BACK.

Coupons.Com (14.6MM). $300MM worth of coupons printed in 2009.  163 coupons for supermarket and drugstore items to print today. Enter your zip code for local deals. Call your store and be sure they accept these coupons. 

RetailMeNot.com (9.9MM).   Discounts at 40,000 online stores for toys, clothes, travel, electronics and more. Subscribe to weekly newsletter for Monday best deals.  Refreshes three times a day.  You can be alerted when new codes are posted for your favorite retailers.

CouponCabin.com (3.4MM).  Save up to 30%. Subscribe to newsletter. Many stores featured.

FatWallet.com  (2.1MM) Coupons and cash back from over 2500 merchants.

DealCatcher.com (1.3MM)  Technology and electronics-oriented and consumer products including groceries. 

CouponMom.com  (2MM members)  Get $25 Restaurant Gift Certificates for $10 at 13,000 restaurants nationwide.  Grocery and drug store items.

Let us know which sites worked best for you for which items. 

SNAKES AS INTERNATIONAL SYMBOLS

Serpents such as the snake have been symbols through eternity of fertility, immortality, eternal love, wisdom and much more.  At the Bruce Kodner Gallery Auction today, two exquisite reptile bangles will be sold.  One is a Victorian 22kt yellow gold 3 ct diamond snake bangle and the other is a 1970’s 18 kt yellow gold diamond and enamel snake bangle which appears menacing. The serpent looks on the alert, head raised, tongue out, and like it is hissing. 

Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs are pictured wearing sacred serpent pendants.  Aesculapius, the God of Medicine in ancient Greece, had a household snake wrapped around his staff, and even today that remains as the symbol of the medical profession.  Ancient Greeks and Romans revered the snake as a guardian spirit and symbol of wisdom.

Queen Victoria liked snakes and felt they were emblems of eternal love.  Her betrothal ring was an emerald-set serpent with its tail in its mouth.  The circular cold represented eternity and everlasting love.  She made snake jewelry fashionable in the 1890s, on rings, bracelets and necklaces.  From 1910 through 1930, Cartier’s sketchbooks pictured drawings of snake rings and bracelets and snake items are still popular at Cartier.  Lalique, the French glass and jewelry designer (1860-1945) was obsessed with snake and insect motifs and made such jewelry for Sarah Bernhardt.

In 2008 our local Palm Beach Zoo opened its 1000 sq ft Reptile House displaying a variety of venomous and non-venomous reptiles and amphibians found in the state of Florida.

REPORT ON THE ECONOMY

 The Washington Post reports that:

"There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

"Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 -- and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.

"And the net worth of American households -- the value of their houses, retirement funds and other assets minus debts -- has also declined when adjusted for inflation, compared with sharp gains in every previous decade since data were initially collected in the 1950s." (See: "Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers," Jan. 2, 2010)

Translation: The economy was downsized during the past decade.

We're just not going to have a better real estate market, or much of anything else, until demand for labor increases in terms of both jobs and real income.