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Here and across the country, the housing market is feeling the effects of a massive government intervention. The federal government not only is buying mortgages but it’s also backing many of them and it’s luring buyers into the market with incentives.
All of this has helped buoy the housing market and made buyers antsy to get in the game.
But it can’t last forever. As part of our series of posts on what to look for in 2010, Kelly Bennett lists three things to look for in 2010 if you’re watching the housing market. And more to look for in the general economy.
Like she said recently, the government has the housing market’s back. But for how long?
Related: Point Loma Nazarene University’s chief economist, Lynn Reaser was quoted in an Associated Press story today estimating that it will take until 2015 for the nation’s unemployment rate to drop down to 5.5 percent.
In other news:
- In the middle of the 20th century, San Diego’s Portuguese fishing community was at its peak with more than 160 vessels operating out of the bay. Now, only seven local Portuguese families own boats and a handful of others leave for months at a time to captain ships operating far away from here.
In an engaging profile of the community as it stands now, Adrian Florido captures how the Portuguese still color Point Loma. This month, when a ship captained by one of the neighborhood’s own caught fire and sank in the South Pacific, it “tugged on a heartstring” that runs through the community.
Elsewhere:
- In case you missed it, the Union-Tribune had an interesting story up Sunday about the history and future of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography “given the state’s deep budget cuts and the aging faculty.” Will it be able to reinvent itself again, as it has throughout its history, to remain such a powerful and well-respected institution among new rivals and revenue challenges?
- The U-T also captures a bit of a struggle in La Mesa as residents concerned about protecting the town’s “small-town sensibility” consider an 18-story high-rise.
- The New York Times wonders whether San Diego is losing what once made us unique. Focusing on Mayor Jerry Sanders’ determined effort to discontinue city funding of the 186 fire pits on San Diego beaches, the paper quotes a local declaring that things are just different now, in a bad way.
- The Associated Press highlighted a vigil many local Koreans held to “commend” a missionary they said was taken custody in North Korea on Christmas Day.
- Finally, do you like Nebraska and know how to play an instrument? If so, some Nebraska alumni want to enlist you to help them. The Cornhuskers will be playing in Wednesday’s Holiday Bowl, and as the U-T highlights, the team’s marching band couldn’t make the trip because of weather trouble. They’re hoping some of you might be able to get together and pipe out some fight songs at the game.
This is your dance to relive some glory. I’m sure it’s like riding a bike.
— SCOTT LEWIS