When my friend was in college, he minored in English and enrolled in a course called “Feminist Literature” (don’t worry, we’re not about to get political, I promise), which was taught by a very outspoken and intelligent professor who polarized the small university community.   On the first day of class, the professor introduced herself and welcomed everyone to the new semester, and then she handed out the reading list for the course.   As the professor was giving an overview of what she wanted the students to take away from her course, my friend started scanning the reading list.   The authors and their subjects didn’t surprise him in the least – he went into this happily and with eyes wide open.   What made him do a double take, though, was the sheer number of books he and the rest of the class were going to be required to read fully and be prepared to discuss at length and cover in exams.   At that moment, he knew he was going to need to make a beeline t...

Depending on which news channel you watch or which website you follow, the economy and the world are either going to Hell in a hand basket or we’re exactly nine seconds away from entering Nirvana.   We could go into the reasons for the differing perspectives, but since you’re readin g this column, the only perspective that REALLY matters is mine, right?   I say that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, of course, but I would like to take a moment and just point out a few things that are devoid of passions and politics that should help us all gain a little non-partisan perspective about the housing market.   I know I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeatin g: we are not approaching a bubble.  “That’s your opinion, you filthy animal,” some of you may say, but let me give you some data to let you decide for yourself (data about it not being opinion – I can’t do anything, really, to dissuade you from thinking I’m a filthy animal).  Usin...

There are times when I come home from the grocery store, set the bags on the counter, and start unloading the bags’ contents to place them in the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, and the thought hits me: I just shopped like my parents are out of town for the weekend and they handed me some cash to tide me over until they return on Sunday evening!   Just as I’m on the verge of setting up an intervention for myself, I spy a package of frozen spinach under an opened bag of tater tots, collect my wits about me, and take a moment to calm down.   (There’s not a chance I’m going to come close to thawing out that package of spinach, but it’s the thought that counts.) Tired of the multiple fad diets being pitched and talked about on the internet and other forms of media, a man took it upon himself to prove he could eat ONLY junk food for a month and lose weight – and thirty days later, he had lost eleven pounds!   Now, he didn’t lock himself inside a Dunkin Donuts an...

You may be saying to yourself, as you begin to read this week’s installment of possibly the best mortgage newsletter in the world if not the universe, that this better not be about how we’re in a seller’s market and that I need to be “armed and ready” to fight tooth and nail (now THAT is a weird saying) for the house I want when it hits the market.   Relax.   I promise I’m not going to write about that . . . b ecause if you didn’t listen to me in previous weeks, you’re already behind the eight ball, and you need some other wise advice.   I’ve got your back, don’t worry.   A bunch of people with pointy heads bulging with bigger brains than mine got together in a Holiday Inn conference room in Des Moines recently, and the leader in a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, an old walnut pipe jauntily hanging from the side of his mouth, said, “Ok, people, no one leaves this room until we come up with a method to classify homes for sale in this ever-competitive...