Word: booms
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...There was a brief boom of research into whether animals could be used to predict earthquakes in the 1970s, when a few scientists documented changes in the behavior of birds, mice and domestic animals immediately before the earth's beginning to shake. But the idea never gained much traction. The very difficulty of predicting earthquakes makes it hard to study how animals react to them. "This was a completely fortuitous event," says Halliday. "It would be practically impossible to plan research like this. You'd spend a lot of time watching toads with nothing happening." (Read "Why Chile's Quake...
There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that pirate money is still driving a real estate boom in Kenya. Brokers and Somalis in Eastleigh point to new buildings, housing estates and businesses said to have been started with piracy money. They tell stories of Somalis bidding two to three times the asking price for a plot of land. "I have friends who ... tell me, 'This is piracy money. Take advantage of the situation while the money's here,' " says a broker who identifies himself as Willy. (See pictures of dramatic pirate-hostage rescues...
Certain markets are faring better than others. Boston, parts of southern California, Houston and Dallas have seen sales and prices start to pick up. Even though California was the epicenter of the boom and bust, prices have bottomed in many of its markets, especially for entry-level buyers. "Whenever a foreclosed property comes onto the market [in California], usually there are 10 people ready to jump on it," says Yun. The weakest markets include Florida, Las Vegas and Phoenix, which saw the largest pricing gains in the bubble years, as well as Michigan and Ohio, where job losses have been...
...Keep Your Fingers Crossed When bubbles finally do burst, recent history has shown, they tend to do so with a bang. Is China, in fact, now at the end of its real estate boom? Many are not convinced. They point to a couple of factors that make China's situation different from that of the U.S. The first is that the real estate sector is nowhere near as reliant on debt financing as it is in the U.S. and much of the rest of the developed world. Consider the complex in which Yang, the cabbie, bought one of his three...
...decision and the stigma that comes with it have deferred dreams of a Gowanus renaissance, if not quashed them altogether. During the past decade, as the real estate boom drove New York housing prices higher and higher, there seemed to be no land in the city that couldn't somehow be salvaged. The city joined local activists to zero in on the Gowanus Canal, hoping it could become the anchor for a neighborhood renewal. Several developers announced plans to construct new apartments; Whole Foods, a harbinger of upward mobility, purchased a nearby parcel. In recent years, sightings of jellyfish, cormorants...