Continued improvement is seen in rate of decline

The chart above depicts the annual returns of the 10-City and 20-City Composite Home Price Indices.

Data through July for released by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices show that the annual rate of decline of the 10-City and 20-City Composites improved compared with the previous month.  Although remaining negative, the statistics tell of approximately six months of improved readings, which omit apartments, beginning in early 2009.

In New York, prices increased 0.8 percent in July but were 10.3 percent lower than  last July.

Don’t wait for spring to clean out your closets

Sweet isn't she? The dog, not the bitch.

If you think your closets are overstuffed, if you’ve had to rent extra storage space, if you can’t find that chapeau that you well recall and if mushrooming clutter is your bane, you’ve got nothin’ on the folks listed by the New York Times in its blog recently.

I wrote about the list in my current e-newsletter, so you can skip this post if you saw it. But I’m adding some additional names below.