Tuesday Links Stay Put

Homeownership and positive externalities – Felix Salmon

My feeling is that a lot of what we’re seeing is related to rental properties generally being designed for and marketed to the childless, while families, who tend to stay put if only to give the kids continuity, are more likely to own and to build up real local communities. Parent-teacher meetings are a great way of getting to know your neighbors. But if and when families start to rent nice places, they’re just as likely to build strong communities as those who own. It’s not homeownership that creates the positive externalities, so much as simply intending to stay where you are for a while.

Long Road to Adulthood Is Growing Even Longer – NYT

National surveys reveal that an overwhelming majority of Americans, including younger adults, agree that between 20 and 22, people should be finished with school, working and living on their own. But in practice many people in their 20s and early 30s have not yet reached these traditional milestones.

Are These Two Charts Showing A Sudden Stop In Economic Growth? – Clusterstock

Fed Weighs Growth Risks – WSJ

But there are other scenarios: if the recovery falters, or if inflation slows much further and a threat arises of deflation, a debilitating fall in prices across the economy. In such cases, there would be a few avenues the Fed could take.

NAHB Builder Confidence declines sharply in June – Calculated Risk

The housing market index (HMI) was at 17 in June. This was a sharp decline from 22 in May.

President Obama Is Not Impressed With Your High School Diploma. Neither is Wal-Mart. – The Atlantic

So if we’re in the middle of a culture-created, government-subsidized higher education bubble, is Wal-Mart part of the problem? Or is it the solution?

Las Vegas Home-Ownership Rate: Officially 59%, But Effectively 15% – Charles Hugh Smith

The conclusion of the Fed’s number-crunchers is sobering: The long-term financial hurdles facing most of those who are underwater are so high that the majority of these owners will revert to renters.

AXA fears ‘fatal flaw’ will destroy eurozone – Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Analysts at the French financial group AXA see a serious likelihood that the eurozone will break in half or disintegrate, dismissing Europe’s €750bn (£623bn) rescue package for Club Med debtors as a stop-gap measure that misdiagnoses the problem.

Lego Soccer: USA vs. England