2006 •

U.S. Home Price Growth Slowed Down In August

October 28, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

In August, home-price growth slowed down, heaving back the annual pace among 20 major U.S. cities. It appeared to be the slowest rate in the past two years as per the data released Tuesday.

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller’s 20-city composite index released Tuesday, in August, the US home prices bumped up 0.2%, slower than the 0.6% rise in July. Amongst 20 followed cities, 3 saw prices fall, though Detroit posted the fastest growth.

In the meanwhile, annual growth slowed down, amid year-over-year home prices rising 5.6% in August, which is believed to be the slowest pace since November 2012 – compared to the annual growth of 6.7% in July.

Certainly, the sellers don’t like it when the prices slowed down, though the trend could entice buyers. Since November, the annual price appreciation in the residential market has tapered because more sellers have put their homes on the market. Additionally, increased mortgage rates and a rough winter hit sales earlier this year.

Millan Mulraine, deputy head of U.S. research and strategy at TD Securities, wrote in a research note “This report underscores the weak tone in housing market activity in recent months and the steady decline in prices is symptomatic of the erosion in housing demand.”

If the economy continues to add jobs at a strong pace, the sales rate could get a boost. Moreover, mortgage rates dropped recently, a trend that could entice buyers, however the hot spring and summer sales markets are over for 2014.

Stan Humphries, chief economist at real estate site Zillow said, “We are transitioning away from a period of hot and bothered market activity, characterized by lower inventory and rapid price growth, onto a more slow and steady trajectory, which is great news. As appreciation cools and more inventory come on line, buyers will start to gain a more competitive advantage, after years of sellers being in the driver’s seat.”

Since April, annual home-price growth hasn’t been in the double digits. Though it’s worth noting that in spite of slower growth, housing appreciation is still outpacing broad U.S. consumer inflation. Home prices that keep rising too quickly will become unaffordable for an increasingly large population.

After seasonal adjustments, home prices among the 20 cities declined by 0.1% in August, the strongest result in 4 months — compared with a 0.5% decline in July.

During August, home prices were declined by 16% from a 2006 peak.

A Long Mysterious Dinosaur Skeleton Completed, 50 Years After Finding Its Giant Arms

October 22, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Finally, scientists have succeeded to complete a long-mysterious dinosaur skeleton, revealing a form much more unusual than they had predicted.

Paleontologists exposed some fearsome Dino arms about 50 years ago. At 2.4 meters long, they held the record for the longest forelimbs of any two-legged animal. However, these remains belonged to the dinosaur species known as Deinocheirus, which didn’t reveal much information as paleontologists only discovered a few ribs and some pieces of vertebrae.

Though, these idiosyncratic remains were enough to differentiate the skeleton from other, previously known species. But the pieces weren’t complete enough to paint an accurate picture of the creature they had once belonged to.

Recently, the researchers claimed in a new Nature paper, the hunt for the Deinocheirus is complete. After finding two more partial skeletons in 2006 and 2009 (and then tracking down the missing pieces from each dig that had already been poached and sold into private collections when researchers arrived), Deinocheirus is complete enough to find its place in the tree of life.

Deinocheirus mirificus, (meaning “unusual horrible hand”) is certainly a ornithomimosaurs member, which is a group of dinosaurs that hazily resembled modern ostriches, as was theorized when its arms were discovered. However, it was by far the largest with host of features that haven’t been seen in its cousins.

The dinosaur that lived around Mongolia about 70 million years ago, had a large, toothless muzzle that flared out like a duck’s bill. Its curved spine probably formed a sail-like fin, and its feet were strangely broad. These flat-bottomed toes may have helped the dinosaur forage for food in aquatic areas by keeping it from sinking into mud. Since its bill seems similar to an herbivore’s and its stomach contents appears to contain fossilized fish, the researchers believe that Deinocheirus mirificus was omnivorous.

The Deinocheirus’s surprising figure should serve as a reminder that incomplete skeletons can be very deceptive, researchers said.

The authors of the study stated, “Around half a century ago, the discovery of the original specimen suggested that this was an unusual dinosaur, but did not prepare us for how distinctive Deinocheirus is—a true cautionary tale in predicting body forms from partial skeletons, even for animals in which the relationships are known.”

What would you have done if you were on Pluto?

October 16, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

NASA’s New Horizons explore was perched to attain several major milestones at once, when it flared off for Pluto way back in 2006. When the mission started off, Pluto was already a planet and it would be visiting the last planet still unexplored at close quarters. It was seemed to be the first mission in order to probe a class of planet vastly different from the solar system’s rocky inner worlds and also from the gas giants further out. Pluto symbolized adjacent to the ice worlds that prowl at the edges of the Sun’s influence, even after it was relegated to ‘dwarf planet’. In order to understand their true nature, a close encounter along with the New Horizons were designated to provide it.

However, once the search beats past Pluto and its moon Charon next July, it will still have operation equipments and fuel to burn. “It might have somewhere to go and other scientific goal to achieve,” NASA stated. The researchers told, a thorough search with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed three icy bodies more or less along New Horizons’ post-Pluto path and a billion miles (1.6 billion km) further out. Probably, in 2018 or 2019, the search could be getting a close look at Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO), which is a primordial remnant left from the very earliest days of the Solar System.

Alan Stern, a planetary scientist with the Southwest Research Institute, in Boulder, CO, and New Horizons’ Principal Investigator stated that, “The objects found by Hubble Telescope are much smaller than Pluto. They are the building blocks from which Pluto was actually made of.”

The Hubble Telescope found this discovery in just under the wire. The rocket burn that will readjust New Horizons path to interrupt one of the KBO’s won’t ensue until after the Pluto encounter. However, in order to analyze that intricate maneuver, ground controllers need to know precisely how the KBO’s themselves are moving. Stern stated, “We need to make a series of observations, to connect the dots.” And if they still didn’t have a first set of observations, they wouldn’t have enough dots to connect.

From one perspective, researchers have already gotten a close look at KBO’s: Europe’s Rosetta probe went into orbit around a comet in August, with plans to set down a lander on its surface on November 9 and a comet is essentially a KBO that has wandered into the inner Solar System.

Though, this eventually means it’s been exposed to the Sun’s heat, so contrasting to its cousins further out, it’s not truly primeval. Further, these 3 new objects are between 15 and 35 miles (24 and 56 km) across, which is about 10 times bigger and a 1000 times more massive than Rosetta’s comet, whereas still 1000 times lesscolossal than Pluto. The KBO New Horizons visits, whichever place, will therefore fill in a huge gap, helping scientists understand how Pluto itself formed.

Certainly, it will, if NASA approves the extended maneuver, funding the search for longer than it was already planned. Though, this type of second act is not strange as Hubble itself has had extended missions several times, and so did the Spirits and Opportunity rovers on the Mars. But, it’s not guaranteed and we need to make a proposal, but at least we now have something tangible to suggest Stern said.

Still, if the maneuver is green-lit and that 2nd encounter comes off, New Horizons still might not be done. Stern stated that, “We’re going to keep looking for other KBO’s even farther out.” If they are close enough to New Horizons’ path, and if there’s enough fuel left for another trajectory adjustment, next July’s Pluto flyby could be just the start of an extraordinary series of close encounters with the most remote colonies in the Sun’s cosmic empire.

Categories