Springfield Area Blog

Top 5 Restaurants

1 Ocean Zen
It was already extremely popular, but when the Tan family’s Asian/fusion place moved from cramped Glenstone Avenue quarters to a revamped former Tony Roma’s on Sunshine Street last year, it suddenly became the It Restaurant of All 417-land. Audible oohs and aahs can be heard near its glass-and-metal wine cave near the restaurant’s entrance. As food goes, the Asian/ Western mix is consistently wonderful and inventive.

2 Flame Steakhouse & Wine Bar
This year, the Jalili family’s steakhouse has outclassed its original Springfield restaurant, Bijan’s, in readers’ rankings. Finely done beef is paired with an extensive wine list—also showcased in glass and metal—and ancillary dishes such as the Garbage Salad or the Boursin-topped appetizer cheeseburgers add fun fillips to classic steakhouse fare.

3 Bijan’s Sea & Grille
If you’re a newcomer to town wondering if this restaurant is somehow connected to the Bijan’s Bistro in Chicago, the answer is no: Our Bijan’s, which signaled a new era in Springfield when it opened in 1997—is both indie and serves higher-end cuisine than its Windy City sound-alike. Owned by the Jalili family, Bijan’s embodies the notion of “whimsical gourmet bistro” in Springfield’s imagination.

4 Haruno
Young Jun’s Japanese restaurant stands out for the quality of its fish, which is flown in from the West Coast on a six-hour turnaround. The restaurant expanded in 2003, adding a slick bar/dining area that prefigured the atmospherics of Kai, its new downtown outpost.

5 Metropolitan Grill
Could you eat flash-fried spinach all day long? For certain members of our editorial department, the answer is yes, please. When chef-owner Pat Duran took over the reins from former owner Fred Coco in 2005, Metro Grill began a journey toward updating itself with new dishes like pumpkin manicotti. This year, it became the social restaurant for the Millwood–Highland Springs set.

Source:  417 Magazine

The study, which doesn't necessarily reflect the views of Fed policy makers, suggests prices would have to fall 15% over five years, assuming rents rose 4% a year. House prices would have to fall further if the adjustment took place more quickly.

The study tracks rents and home prices back to 1960 and found annual rents fluctuated at around 5% to 5.25% of home prices until 1995. At the end of that year, the average monthly rent was about $553 (or about $6,600 a year) and the average home price was about $134,000.

But starting in 1996, home prices started to grow much more rapidly than rents. By the end of 2006, they had more than doubled to an average of $282,000, while the average rent had risen 48% to $818. That drove the annual rent/price ratio down to 3.48%.

That means the rent/price ratio is about a third below its long-term average. To return to normal would require some combination of falling prices and rising rents. The paper suggests house prices would need to fall about 3% a year, if rents grew in line with their 4% average annual growth this decade.

Of course, the link between house prices and rents can remain out of whack for years.

The U.S. study is by Morris Davis, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and until 2006 a staff economist at the Fed; and Andreas Lehnert and Robert F. Martin, staff economists at the Fed.

The authors' methodology was based in part on previously published work by Fed economist Joshua Gallin. The same approach is used by many other analysts, including the Congressional Budget Office, which arrived at similar conclusions.

In an interview, Mr. Davis said lower long-term interest rates can explain only a small part of the drop in the ratio. "To justify current price levels, you need rapid growth in rents." But it's hard to imagine the scenario that would justify such rapid growth in rents, he added. Indeed, it's possible rents will grow more slowly than 4%, reflecting the overhang of unsold homes that might be rented out.

Mr. Davis said the authors postulated a five-year horizon for the rent/price ratio to return to normal by looking at previous downturns. "When a downturn begins, it will last for a while."

Source: The Wall Street Journal Online

Local housing market is stable…

The Markets. Goldman Sachs is in the news this week predicting a recession for 2008 along with a growing unemployment rate to reach 6.5% by 2009 from the current rate of 5.0%.  Goldman is also forecasting the Fed will continue to slash the Fed Funds rate until it reaches 2.5% by the third quarter of this year in an effort to achieve a “soft landing” for the economy.  According to Goldman, this would mean the Fed will cut Fed Funds by another 1.75% from their present level of 4.25%.   That would be aggressive for a Fed that is also very mindful of rising inflation pressures.  But the folks at Goldman are very smart and have a great track record.  It will be interesting to see this play out.

Greetings!

If you are reading this, you may already know that the internet is truly revolutionizing real estate and home searches.  In fact:

86% of home buyers started using the Internet as part of their process

BEFORE they started looking for a specific home; and another 14% did after they started looking, but

BEFORE they contacted a real estate agent.

That is why we at the GNR team are committed to providing you with the best real estate site in southwest Missouri.  We know you don't want to be bothered until you have done your own research.  Our home buyers scouting report is a powerful tool to help you do just that.  If you do need our help, we are of course available.  Text message, email, blog, and phone make it easier than ever to reach us.  You can schedule showings on line as well!

If Huckabee is the populist rock and roller who wants to shake up the Republican Party, Mitt Romney represents the polished, yet buttoned-down establishment. While Hillary Clinton is respected for her experience, Obama is the fresh face inspiring a new generation.

In Iowa, on both sides, populism trumped the pocketbook; soaring sermons supplanted scripted speeches; and change overpowered the establishment.

"We've got to stand for change we can believe in," Obama said in his stump speeches.

"I want to be part of the process that changes some things, that changes our own Republican Party, that changes the future of this nation," Huckabee told his audiences.

Iowa is usually won on organization but Huckabee proved message mattered more than money. Evangelical voters put him over the top but now his challenge will be broadening his coalition for the primaries ahead.

"I think we have a lot of support with the fiscal conservatives out there. And hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about our economic record in Arkansas," Huckabee’s campaign manager said.

Going forward, Huckabee and Obama's challenges to clinching their parties’ nominations are similar. Both will come under scrutiny for their lack of foreign policy experience. Both will face questions about electability. And, if they are able to win beyond Iowa, their messages will say as much about the future of their political parties as they do about the men who want to take them there.

Source:  KY3 TV Springfield

The History of New Year's Resolutions

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.

With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The New Year has not always begun on January 1, and it doesn't begin on that date everywhere today. It begins on that date only for cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar. January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.

The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new. The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year's gifts.

In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New Year's Day to December 25, the birth of Jesus. Then they changed it to March 25, a holiday called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.

The Julian and Gregorian calendars are solar calendars. Some cultures have lunar calendars, however. A year in a lunar calendar is less than 365 days because the months are based on the phases of the moon. The Chinese use a lunar calendar. Their new year begins at the time of the first full moon (over the Far East) after the sun enters Aquarius- sometime between January 19 and February 21.

Although the date for New Year's Day is not the same in every culture, it is always a time for celebration and for customs to ensure good luck in the coming year.

Ancient New Years

The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23, although they themselves had no written calendar.

Late March actually is a logical choice for the beginning of a new year. It is the time of year that spring begins and new crops are planted. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.

The Romans continued to observe the New Year on March 25, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun. In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the New Year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the New Year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.