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...downturn in sunny San Diego that poses the far bigger risk to the U.S. economy. Detroit, Cleveland and some smaller Rust Belt cities are experiencing a traditional bust, in which economic woes spread to housing. In San Diego, the housing decline seems to be a self-generated phenomenon, the product of too-high prices and too-crazy lending practices. Now the "housing market is dragging down the rest of the economy," says Alan Gin, an economist at the University of San Diego. The same is true in and around Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Washington, New York...
...main reason for the boom's doom was that in the nation's San Diegos, double-digit annual price increases put most homes out of the reach of middle-income buyers. The mortgage industry and its funders on Wall Street responded with laxer lending standards and creative loans (no downpayment, teaser rate, interest only, etc.) that really made sense for borrowers only if prices kept going up and they could sell at a profit or refinance. When prices stopped rising last year, the edifice began to crumble...
Apart from the risk that it will bring a recession, though, a housing boom turned bust is far from an unmitigated disaster. Some buyers will get great deals on Miami condos, that's certain. And in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, the downturn has allowed Amy and John Tuttle to finally buy a house. "We tried to buy homes a few years ago, but the homes were too expensive," says Amy, 31, a clinical psychologist. "We put three bids on three different houses, and I think we were simply outbid." In August they closed on a recently foreclosed...
...upscale equipment and packaged kits to help them make their wines. Wineshops and vineyards are offering blending seminars, tutored tastings of grape varietals where you can create your own blend and take home a bottle of the mix. But for those who want the full winemaking experience, Crushpad, a San Francisco urban winery, allows clients to create a custom wine, from vine to uncorking, without having to move to wine country...
Crushpad is the creation of Michael Brill, a former home winemaker who once ripped up his San Francisco backyard to plant Pinot Noir and Syrah vines. He found that lots of people shared his desire for a wine-country lifestyle but lacked the millions of dollars needed to make their dream come true. Tired of his career in software marketing, he quit his job and created Crushpad in 2004 to connect amateur winemakers with West Coast vineyards. It's the best of both worlds. Customers get access to far finer grapes than they could grow themselves, at a fraction...