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School is out and pleasure reading beckons! This summer vacation, teens can enjoy a variety of books offering effortlessly engaging, well-crafted stories. The subjects and genres may vary, but these [...]

Foreign investors will continue to buy US real estate, encouraged by their strong national currencies and confidence in the US economy. However, they often lack property management expertise or the free time to actively control their assets. Foreign investors often make contact through intermediary firms such as banks, insurance companies, and real estate firms in their own countries. The qualified management firm has a chance to attract and keep foreign investor-clients by positioning to meet client needs, helping in decision-making on investments, and overcoming cultural and communication barriers. Building and maintaining the confidence of the foreign client requires patience as trust is established and decisions slowly made.

A sample of elderly parents in the state of Florida was contrasted with a national sample of parents in their childbearing years with respect to the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of having children. For both groups, children were most commonly seen as satisfying the needs for love and companionship and fun and stimulation. The Older group was more likely than the younger to report that children fill economic-utility needs. The older group was also more likely to indicate that there were no disadvantages to having children, and they were less likely to specifically mention disadvantages such as restrictions on freedom or financial costs. This study found that elderly parents are actually more likely to be giving financial help to their children than receiving it, and that contact with children was frequent despite geographical barriers.

This study sought to identify some important characteristics of women who reject hospitals as a place of birth and to determine whether those characteristics are also associated with choice between the two nontraditional alternatives available, ie, birth in a free‐standing birth center and birth at home. Data were obtained from 200 mothers on demographics and health‐promoting behaviors, with particular focus on exposure to and information about drugs during pregnancy and childbirth, perceived locus of control, factors entering into the decision to choose one or the other nontraditional birthplaces, and extent of satisfaction with this choice. There were differences between groups in the use of drugs for health‐related complaints, in information about drugs, and in consumption of drugs (including drugs implicated as teratogenic) during pregnancy and childbirth. There were no differences in the extent to which mothers perceived themselves as being in control of their environments or in the extent to which they engaged in behavior known to promote health and prevent disease.

Tax-oriented real estate syndicates will cease to invest in the industry since the Tax Reform Act of 1986 has effectively eliminated tax shelters in the form of real estate investments. The lack of tax incentives has resulted in rapidly declining property values and an increasing number of foreclosures. Quality properties with good cash flow histories will not be affected by these 'soft market' developments. The master limited partnership (MLP) has been created as a response to the tax reform. MLPs allow real estate to be publicly traded on a daily basis in terms of partnership units, rather than being privately placed in larger dollar amounts as was traditionally the case. Other tax reform effects include: an industry emphasis on cash; investor demand for cash-maximizing properties such as parking garages and warehouses; and reduced creation of low- to middle-income housing for the next several years.