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What goes up must come down, as they say. And nowhere is that more true right now than in the housing market. Home builders are reporting record lows, with about half of the orders on their books being cancelled. Builders were not aware of how many people building were actually speculators. So, those potential buyers are just walking away from deals, leaving significant deposits because the market is so bad. It’s unprecedented. The good news is that builders are offering all kinds of incentives to people who will build with them. Free maid service for a year and an included swimming pool are some of the deals. If you own a condo, you should definitely consider sweetening your deal with a free TV or furniture. So, the bottom line is that the sale of new homes is hitting a really rough patch and it’s probably going to get worse. If you are selling, you either need to do something big or hunker down and stay put for awhile. We haven’t reached the “capitulation” point yet, but it may come next year. With delinquency and foreclosure rates rising as they are, it’s going to get harder and harder to sell.

Christa, Clark’s executive producer, has three – count ‘em – three personal video recorders or DVRs. She thought Clark was crazy when he first talked about these in 1998, but now she can’t live without it. Now, Verizon is rolling out digital television service in many markets. It’s offering a DVR that serves the whole household. So, if you have a palatial household with 12 TVs, you only need one unit to service them all. The monthly fee is $20, or $240 a year. Slingbox and Sony don’t charge a monthly fee for their “play shifting” service. You just watch TV shows when you want on a laptop. So, if you’re traveling, you can watch your home news reports or how sports teams on a laptop for nothing. There is a difference in the free and paid programs though. With Tivo and the systems from television companies, services are super easy to use. With Slingbox and Sony, it’s a bit more complicated.

Clark was checking out the financial calculators on dinkytown.net, and he couldn’t believe how useful and plentiful they are. Then, he saw a story in Newsday about how little people are saving early in their working careers. About 75 percent of people in their 20s are not saving a nickel. And, 60 percent of people in their 30s aren’t saving a dime. You must know by now that the later you wait to save the harder it will be to meet your financial goal. If you have younger folks in your family, let them learn from your experience. Tell them to start early!

Did you know there have been 788 incidents of lost information on the part of the federal government? Federal workers at 19 agencies have lost information on the general public and on federal employees. The Commerce Department alone has lost more than 1,000 laptops used by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is scary stuff and right now there is little we can do about it. The one thing you can do is freeze your identity. Right now, it’s possible in about 23 states, and Clark suggests you freeze your credit even if nothing has happened. To check the list for your state, click here and then view the information on consumersunion.org. Clark hopes that someday soon people in all states will be able to freeze their credit.