What the experts say

Coming next: A housing shortage?

With home sales still slowing and foreclosures working their way through the system, it may seem premature to worry about the steep decline in new-home construction, said Lisa Scherzer in SmartMoney. Still, the numbers are stark: “At the peak of the housing bubble in 2005, nearly 2.1 million new units were built,” while just 550,000 units were built in 2009. Some experts think that, in many parts of the country, demand for new construction could soon exceed supply. While many overdeveloped areas, such as Las Vegas, Miami, and Phoenix, certainly have enough inventory to last years, markets elsewhere—including in parts of New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—may already have swung too far in the other direction.

No ordinary annuity

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Adventurous investors are “abuzz” over so-called factored structured settlements—a type of annuity that’s yielding about twice as much as Treasurys, said Jason Zweig in The Wall Street Journal. “It all starts with the plaintiff in a wrongful death or injury lawsuit,” who receives a settlement in the form of an annuity but then sells the rights to future payments in exchange for a lump sum. Buyers of such annuities can net yields as high as 7 percent, but the downside is that these hand-me-downs are virtually impossible to resell. “These are the financial equivalent of fugu, that special kind of sushi,” says Thomas Hamlin, CEO of Somerset Wealth Strategies, a broker of such settlements. “It’s a wonderful delicacy if it’s prepared with proper care and diligence. If not, it’s a death sentence.”

Clocking in at 10 p.m.

While most people dread burning the midnight oil, professionals who prefer the “wee hours” are finding camaraderie in ad-hoc groups springing up around the world, said Jenna Wortham in The New York Times. One such organization, the New York Nightowls, is “a sort of study hall for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and software developers, who gather at 10 every Thursday night and stay as late as 4 a.m.” Some use the time to work on “side ventures” or to catch up on e-mail. Others simply consider the late shift all part of a day’s—or night’s—work. “It’s six hours of uninterrupted, productive time,” says Amber Lambke, one of the group’s founders.