Moving and Retirement
Julia Sneden Wrote: A Look Back at Boomers and Welcome To the Other Side Of the Hill
Julia Sneden wrote: As the Boomers moved into adulthood, they proved themselves able to make huge changes in laws and customs. They have immeasurably furthered tolerance among people of different races and religions. The causes they embraced have brought about new attitudes toward same-sex relationships, single parenting, women in the work force, the environment, and physical fitness. New marketing strategies were developed to entice Boomers. (Remember when you could buy shoes without a company's logo on it, or a shirt without the designer's name on the pocket?) more »
US Government Accountability Office (aka GAO): US Postal Service: Customer Complaints Process
GAO: "The US Postal Service's financial viability has been on our High Risk List since 2009. Declining mail volumes and increased costs have made it harder for USPS to cover all its costs. USPS cites quality customer service as important to sustaining its business. We looked at USPS's process for addressing residential customer complaints. In fiscal year 2020, USPS received 10.7 million complaints, with 69% of those related to missing or delayed packages. USPS started using a new software system in 2019 to track complaints and customer service issues. The system collects more detailed data and may help identify the causes of some problems." more »
Prices are Spiking for Homes, Cars and Gas; Don’t Be Alarmed, Economists Say
Republican political leaders are blaming Democratic President Joe Biden for accelerating inflation. But Jerome Powell, chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, was appointed by Republican President Donald Trump — and the Fed says inflation will not be a long-term problem. Those numbers suggest that inflationary pressures are modest. Other dynamics, however, are unprecedented, reflecting deeper changes in the economy that may have accelerated with the pandemic. But at UC Berkeley, high-level economists are offering some calming advice: A measure of inflation is inevitable as the US economy comes back online, but it will likely be modest. And it will almost certainly blow over as the economy stabilizes. more »
From the US Census: Highlights of Annual 2020 Characteristics of New Housing
Of the 912,000 single-family homes completed in 2020:
870,000 had air-conditioning.
90,000 had two bedrooms or less and 401,000 had four bedrooms or more.
29,000 had one and one-half bathrooms or less and 309,000 homes had three or more bathrooms.
353,000 had a heat pump. Of these, 344,000 were air-source and 9,000 were ground-source.
831,000 were framed in wood and 75,000 were framed using concrete.
306,000 had a patio and a porch, while 71,000 had no outdoor features.
The median size of a completed single-family house was 2,261 square feet. more »