"State home sales decline in May; Tally hits 18-year low; prices drop 8.6% so far in '08" by Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | June 24, 2008
The spring housing market is shaping up as one of Massachusetts' slowest ever.
Home sales fell steeply in May, completing a three-month run of declines during the prime selling season for real estate.... Continued sales declines also knocked house prices down further: The January-May price decline - 8.6 percent - was the biggest since Warren Group began collecting the data in 1987.
"The market is still generally pretty terrible," said Alan Pasnik, Warren Group's data analyst.
Things are bad for sellers, that is, who are having to lower prices if they want any chance of making a deal in this slow market. However, with each decline in prices, the market becomes more appealing for prospective buyers who find that properties in more desirable neighborhoods or closer to urban centers or mass transit are becoming more affordable.
Translation: Richers can swoop in and buy properties for pennies on the dollar!
I mean, with the foreclosures zooming and the credit tightening up, who can afford to move or buy -- except for a richer looking for bargain basement prices?
But the May sales figures confirmed many analysts' fears that a recovery in the housing market may be years away. A study yesterday by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies said the number of distressed properties on the US market caused by foreclosures of homes financed by high-risk subprime mortgages has created a downturn that is "the worst in a generation."
"A recovery is not anywhere near in sight," said Eric Belsky, the Joint Center's executive director....
The rest of the article is basically, things are good, but!!
Well, at least you have your universal health coverage, citizen of Massachusetts:
"Error puts 16,000 in dark about benefits; MassHealth mailing on eligibility delayed" by Jeffrey Krasner, Globe Staff | June 24, 2008
A mailing glitch by a state agency last month left 16,000 residents without proper notice that they might be losing their healthcare coverage or information on how to appeal a denial of coverage.
The notices were mailed last week, about a month after they should have been sent. In the meantime, some residents may have lacked health insurance, potentially leaving them at risk for enormous out-of-pocket medical bills.
MassHealth, the state Medicaid provider, yesterday acknowledged the notices were sent late and said it would cover medical bills for any resident that was left without coverage as a result....
Yeah, SURE THEY WILL!!!
That HASN'T BEEN MY EXPERIENCE AT ALL!!!!
The error, discovered by healthcare advocates, illustrates some of the bureaucratic complications involved in extending healthcare coverage to all Massachusetts residents as a result of the state's healthcare reform law....
This is why someone who was once a big-time advocate for National Health Insurance doesn't want it now.
Unless this shit hole nation can do it like the English, Canadians or French, fuck that!!!
The last thing I need is MORE "bureaucratic complications!"
Residents whose coverage was terminated will now be given 30 days to appeal the decision, said Poley, and those whose coverage ends June 30 are encouraged to submit their appeals as soon as possible.
Yeah, now YOU gotta take the time to go and FILE an APPEAL because of THEIR FUCK-UP!!!
You don't think I'm fucking angry about this?
"We are deeply concerned about the potential havoc that this bureaucratic error will have on thousands of Massachusetts citizens," said Barbara Anthony, executive director of Health Law Advocates, a Boston advocacy group. "The term of one's healthcare coverage is a very serious matter and it should have been handled much more efficiently and with great sensitivity by the state authorities."
Like the state authorities give a shit about us.
Brian Rosman, research director of Health Care for All, an advocacy group that has supported the creation of a universal health coverage policy, said, "We hope the state finds a way to provide retroactive coverage so people do not interrupt their medical care when they've been terminated through no fault of their own."
Yeah, fuck the national health care.
I used to believe, but no longer, not in AmeriKa, anyway.
