State of the Nation’s Housing, Mac News, & Crime Doesn’t Pay

Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies released it’s annual report on the State of the Nation’s Housing. Things are generally on the upswing, though foreclosure and falling house prices continue to impact many markets.

This week Apple announced updates to its laptop line along with new features coming soon in iOS 6. Goodbye 17-inch MacBook Pro, hello Retina display. Slate views the announced new MacBook Pro as the end of the line for what we know as a laptop.

HGTV’s House Hunters: Not as real as expected…

Domain names, the -.com, -.net, -.org cabooses to website addresses, are about to expand dramatically. The international organization that governs such things has been preparing for years to allow almost any suffix you can imagine. Applications have been coming in for everything from -.netflix to -.HBO as firms try to distinguish their brands at the URL level. Where it gets interesting is when multiple parties submit for the same domain. So far there have been 231 domains where two or more groups have registered applications, including -.web and -.sport. Competing claims are explored, parties can negotiate amongst themselves, but in the end if there are still multiple bidders, the domain will go up for auction. And just so you know, the National Association of REALTORS put in an application for -.REALTOR. Look for new domains to start to appear by the end of next year. See the complete list of requested domains here.

Does democracy mean a shared national Twitter account? Sweden thinks so. And as a post-script, controversy erupts just after this story was released.

Brazil is saving the real estate industry in Florida. Buyers from Brazil are ready to splurge in South Florida, buying up million-dollar properties for cash.  Drawn by the favorable dollar exchange rate, Brazilians are buying expensive property in a stable, beautiful vacation area.

Thinking of moonlighting as a bank robber to supplement your real estate income? Think again. A new study shows that crime really doesn’t pay. The average take per bank robbery is so low that it would take several heists per year to make it financially worthwhile. However with a third of all robberies thwarted and the capture rate of successful bank robbers at 20 percent, committing enough robberies to make it worthwhile will more than likely end in jail time.