For those interested in taking part of State Attorney General Jerry Brown’s lawsuit against Countrywide’s alleging “deceptive” business practices, take heart! We have the information you need:

Consumers who believe they have been victimized by Countrywide Consumers should file a complaint by contacting the Attorney General’s Public Inquiry Unit in writing at Attorney General’s Office California Department of Justice Attn: Public Inquiry Unit P.O. Box 944255, Sacramento, California ZIP code is 94203 or through an online complaint form you can find here.

The case is People v. Countrywide, Los Angeles Superior Court case number LC081846.

If you saw my article this morning (and I sincerely hope you did!) you will see that Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ view of the housing market – kind of depressing:

The center’s “State of the Nation’s Housing 2008″ compares housing markets to other recessions of the past few decades and McCue said that complete recovery can take five to 12 years, but the nation’s already 26 months into the housing crisis.

McCue said that if unemployment worsens, there may be “forced sales” that will bring down prices and compete with foreclosures.

Paul Leonard, California director of the Center for Responsible Lending, a policy and research organization in Oakland, said the economy is “shaping into a perfect storm” of tight mortgage credit, shrinking credit card limits, higher unemployment and prices for consumer staples.

What does this mean? It means my 72-year-old mom is starting a vegetable garden because she refuses to pay $3.99 a pound for tomatoes (they went down, right?)  Even I’m thinking about it. I draw the line at canning and pickling, though. Gaaack!

Public transportation is back! According to various reports, the high gas prices are causing people to rethink their gas consumption — including thinking about moving closer to their jobs in urban centers. There’s even reports of people in border towns going to Mexico for gas, of course the stealing of gasoline and even Realtors dealing with the higher prices. But the Inland Empire in SoCal may be hardest hit, so says the WSJ:

Even though falling prices in California’s Inland Empire are making homes more affordable, rising gasoline prices are crushing hopes of a housing recovery in this area, east of Los Angeles.

Deutsche Bank analyst Nishu Sood estimates that gas expenditures in the Inland Empire have increased to $1,322 a month from $534 a month in 2003 among local residents who commute about 120 miles a day, round trip.

Mr. Sood says soaring gas prices are hurting home builders that generated much of their profits during the housing boom by building in the far-flung suburbs of California. But it’s also hurting builders in non-bubble markets in Texas and Atlanta with long commutes.

And from the buying $2.66 a gallon gas in Mexico story in the New York Times, where people dodge bullets from drug cartels for cheaper gas:

Mr. Terrazas, a 48-year-old maintenance worker, is among a flow of American “gas tourists” who, Mexican service stations near the border with El Paso estimate, account for a 50 percent surge in gasoline sales here over the last several months. (Similar increases are reported along the border all the way to Tijuana.) Even the Mexico Tourism Board is promoting the journey.

My colleague, Eve Mitchell, wrote about house-swapping, a new way of vacationing that may not cost you a bundle. In it, she says there is a level of trust involved, but many are happy with their decisions. A couple from San Francisco used www.homeforswap and traded for Paris digs, but even if you’re from the San Joaquin Valley, there’s still hope for you.  Read on:

Homes in famous cities are likely to get a lot of requests, but places outside of tourist meccas also attract home swappers.

Just ask Modesto resident John Mensinger, a home-swapping veteran.

“We did our first in 1997, my wife and three young children,” said Mensinger, president of American Lumber Co., a Modesto-based lumber supplier. “We’ve been to Denmark, Stockholm, Wales, England, France and the Netherlands and have been living in Modesto the entire time. You will have an advantage — without question — if you live in a well-known tourist location. Home exchange is much easier if you live in San Francisco than if you are from Stockton. But it’s also a lot easier to do a home exchange if you live in Modesto or Stockton than if you are from North or South Dakota.”

As you might expect, those with second homes are attempting to make money by renting out their home for weeks or weekends to make some serious bank. (The Times personal finance reporter, Eve Mitchell is writing about swapping houses as a cheaper way to vacation in Monday’s issue.) On that note, the Washington Post writes about how people who have vacation rentals are having to do a bit more to lure renters, such as dropping prices, giving them free produce (yeah, I don’t get that one, either) and gas cards. However, only one owner said he hasn’t lost business: (please read this post to the end for a surprise.)

Michael Bryan, a Winchester, Va., lawyer, said he thinks he has found the right balance to offset economic downturns. He has not raised the rents on his four Rehoboth Beach, Del., properties in four years, despite the money he spends on them. Some years, Bryan paints the homes; others, he focuses on upgrades to the appliances or carpet.

Facing competition from new condos nearby, Bryan said, he wants to ensure that repeat renters, who make up more than half of his business, do not go elsewhere. That has helped offset the economic downturn, said Bryan, who said he has not seen a drop in business.

“Instead of trying to wring every nickel out of it,” Bryan said, “I find it is important to invest some. To keep them nice.”

He goes on to say that owners have to think longterm for the best results. His 10-year-old properties are doing well, his newer ones haven’t made a profit.

CONTEST ALERT! The first poster who guesses where the photo in the upper left corner of this post was taken gets a $10 gift card to Panera Bread for ooey-gooey sandwiches. Please include your guess, name and address (so I can send the card) in an e-mail addressed to me: bhernandez AT bayareanewsgroup DOT com or click on About Property Lines for a link. Sorry, no MediaNews employees. Good luck!

(Hint: It’s an island.)

I was looking at Countrywide’s “financial hardship assistance”where they lay out possibilities of short sale, deed in lieu, forbearance and loan modification. On loan modification, it had this to say with an asterisk:

** Loan Modifications are not available with all loan products.

I usually don’t write about personal finance much, but I saw this today and realized it’s probably as good a time as any. It’s Michelle Singletary on what to do if a financial emergency (layoff, death, foreclosure, etc.) happens:

The time to start cutting back is the day you know or are pretty sure you’re being laid off. Get the least expensive (cell phone) plan possible, with the fewest minutes, and actually use the phone only for emergencies or as a contact during the job search. Or, be radical and cut out the service altogether.

If you eat out less and cut entertainment expenses, you could find $200 to $300 in your budget, which will at least help pay for (some) gas to look for another job. Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite home show is A&E’s “Sell This House” with perky Tanya Memme. They come look at your house and figure out why it’s not selling. It was more of a conundrum when it was a hot market, but usually the reasons were a) too cluttered or dirty, b) smelly dogs or cigarette smoke or c) bad taste. I love watching the show.

Anyway, apparently the New York Times says that all these networks dealing with the home, like HGTV and the illustrious A&E are changing focus to show the tougher times now.

On “Flip That House,” a three-year-old series, the opening scenes summarize flipping in five seemingly easy steps: “Find a bargain, clean it up, make smart upgrades, add sparkle, get it sold quickly.”

But a warning was added to the episodes in February. “The following program features real people taking risks with real money,” the narrator intones. “Flip at your own risk.”

Honestly? I watch ”Flip That House” to laugh at the owners who are way overbudget, have blown their six-week timetable and make horrible, horrible decisions. Yes, schadenfreude is hell.

If you peruse every business Web site like I do (OK, maybe only 12 of them) you will soon start to notice a trend, like this:

Nowadays, a lot of comparisons are being made to the 1970s. This is because the U.S. economy is once again in the throes of stagflation.

And, of course, their buying power is falling because wages are not keeping up with the jump in prices. Read the rest of this entry »

We had this story today, about how Stanford and UC Santa Cruz is now officially allowing co-ed dorm rooms for those who have friends of the opposite sex this fall:

College-age students, ages 18-24, are nearly four times as likely as their older colleagues, ages 55 and up, to have a best friend of the opposite sex, according to a Time magazine study based on a 2002 survey by Synovate and American Demographics. And overall, more than 12 percent of U.S. men say their best buddy was a woman, and 8 percent of women said their best friend was a man.

“There’s not as big a gap between genders,” says Ruscitti, who just finished her freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh. “A lot of my close friends are male. I would have no problem living with one of them.”

Although some worry that this might result in many opposite-sex couples rooming together, others worry that it may be more likely to result in “roomcest.” Either way, I hope no girls have to deal with someone leaving the seat up.

When I lived and worked in the San Joaquin Valley  a significant number of the Hmong community (originally from the highlands of Vietnam and Laos) grew strawberries in empty lots. Some obviously had permission to create mini-plantations and offered the owners a few trays of fresh strawberries in payment. Admiring their ingenuity, people buy their produce each spring.  Now they are losing business with vacant land disappearing. (Photo of strawberry fields in Fresno/USDA)

I thought of them when I saw this story in the L.A. Times:

Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of green enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that’s not theirs. In London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, these free-range tillers are sowing a new kind of flower power. In nighttime planting parties or solo “seed bombing” runs, they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts.

One of a slew of DIY gardening currents, such as permaculture (design of highly sustainable ecosystems), urban homesteading, composting and free fruit movement, guerrilla gardening is a response to dwindling green space, limited land and suspicions about food sources, say experts. It’s also part of a time-honored American tradition of gardening public spaces.

The story goes on to explain how to “seed bomb” an empty space with wildflowers by placing little seed pellets in your purse and digging a hole with a stiletto heel. Subversion was never so glamorous! (Photo is of Caroline Kim cycling in her high heels and armed with a trendy red bag full of seedbombs/Gina Ferrazi-LATimes)