200 + coal fired electric generators face shutdown by 2017.

Click here for a previous article about rising utility costs resulting from decreased coal production.  Electric distributors (including those in Pennsylvania) have already signed contracts to pay massive cost increases for electric capacity beginning in 2015.  These increases will be passed on to consumers.

For those who would like more bad news, the Daily Caller reports the following:

Within the next three to five years, more than 200 coal-fired electric generating units will be shut down across 25 states due to EPA regulations and factors including cheap natural gas, according to a new report by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

Pennsylvania is one of the states facing shutdowns. 

Homeowners and investors must consider the potentially massive utility increases.  Investors in particular must factor these costs into potential purchases as well as decisions regarding rental rates and income qualifications for tenants.

My own prediction is that properties serving fixed income residents will face the most hardships from these increases - unless there are corresponding government subsidies for fixed income tenants to cover the costs of rising utility prices.  In that event, owners of middle class properties (and their tenants) will be the hardest hit. 

Green Urban Initiative; Urban garden demolished in Harrisburg

Click here for previous posts on urban farming and here for a past story on urban farming on multiple lots in Harrisburg City. 

From Fox43 comes the story of Green Urban Initiative, an urban farming organization that leases and operates multiple lots in Harrisburg.  On Wednesday, the City demolished one of GUI's lots at 6th and Curtin streets due to allegations that the property had fallen into disrepair and was being used to hide contraband, an allegation that GUI disputes. 

Additional details have been reported on Pennlive.  GUI's website can be found here.

What is most significant about this story goes beyond the demolition of this one garden.  We are not talking about your average backyard vegetable garden with only a handful of various plants. Gardens of this type often encompass entire vacant lots - or even multiple contiguous lots.

GUI operates "multiple gardens throughout the City," according to the Fox-43 story.  GUI apparently leases vacant lots from the City for this purpose.  This practice provides further indication that gardening provides a more profitable use of certain vacant urban lots than traditional residential or commercial uses. That gardening is more profitable reflects not only increased prices in food and farm products, but also many obstacles to land development and investment, such as increased lending restrictions, real estate taxes, municipal regulations and fees, title defects due to prior tax sales and urban crime.  The demolished lot in this case was located in a high crime area. All of those obstacles, while preventing building, repair or other development, would not interfere with gardening on land leased from the City.

In some cities outside of Pennsylvania, the possibility of increased urban farming has played a key factor in municipal plans for urban consolidation and population relocation. 

Global economic slowdown to continue?; Nouriel Roubini

CNBC reported earlier this month on the predictions of Nouriel Roubini for a worsening economic slowdown worldwide. The factors contributing to this slowdown include a slowing Chinese economy (resulting in slower commodity purchases worldwide). 

Last week, he told CNBC that there is “virtually zero chance” that pump-priming by central banks will succeed, suggesting that policymakers should instead let the economic bust work itself through the system.

This prediction if true, would indicate that real estate prices would continue to stagnate both locally and nationwide.

Blair County faces shortage of real estate in business parks.

The Altoona Mirror reports that there exists a shortage of available real estate in Blair County's 8 business parks.  This shortage has caused the County to lose potential businesses. 

IRS employee attempts to initimidate her landlord

If  you are a landlord, be careful about renting your unit to an employee of the IRS.  From the Philadelphia Inquirer comes the story of a tenant who used her position as an IRS employee to attempt to intimidate her landlord for the purpose of committing identity theft:

Using IRS letterhead, Flowers allegedly threatened her landlord with an audit unless she faxed copies her driver's license and Social Security card to a machine at the IRS which Flowers could access.

The attempt was thwarted by the Treasury Department, but there is a lesson in this story somewhere. It pays for landlords to know where their tenants work (not only for the traditional credit check purposes) and to retain that knowledge in case they receive threatening letters from those same agencies. 

This story also provides additional reasons for the landlords to obey all tax laws.  Had this landlord failed to report income from the property at issue, the tenant might have had a more dangerous basis on which to threaten the landlord and would not have needed to hijack IRS' letterhead. 

Stink bugs in 38 states

According to this item in the Washington Examiner, "stink bugs" have reached 38 states, prompting the federal government to devote additional funds to research a solution.  Observers in Central Pennsylvania have noted stink bugs for several years.

Farmland is most immediately impacted.  Stink bugs have  "ruined apple, peach and grape harvests up and down the East Coast" and have caused "losses of nearly $40 million a year" to Mid-Atlantic apple growers.  Loss of such revenue will affect prices of farmland.

Pittsburgh Urban Chicken Coop Tour

I have written previously about "urban farming" (especially in Pittsburgh) - the trend in many large cities to encourage farming of abandoned or empty lots and even to incorporate such plans into the larger goal of urban consolidation.

In Pittsburgh last week, hundreds attended the "Pittsburgh second annual chicken coop tours."
This story is more significant than it might appear. The City of Pittsburgh and local residents have made a concerted effort for several years to devote more space to urban farming. This trend may grow as more properties become abandoned due to tighter lending restrictions on investors, title defects resulting from tax sales, municipal regulations and fees, and the collapsing real estate bubble in general. We may see a time when the most profitable use of certain urban space will be agricultural.

The following video is from the 2011 Pittsburgh Urban Chicken Coop Tour (courtesy of Transition Pittsburgh).