A small price to pay

It's a wonder UC Merced didn't also take credit for helping invent some of the grimmest real estate statistics in the country. It certainly has a right to that "honor" along with all the awards and recognitions it's claimed in recent Golden Bobcatflak.
Too humble, evidently.
Badlands Journal editorial board
1-14-10
Merced Sun-Star
Grim real estate statistics: Merced County leads state in foreclosures, #6 in nation
In 2009, 1 out of 10 properties got bank repossession filings...DANIELLE E. GAINES
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1269527.html
One out of 10.
That's how many properties in Merced County got foreclosure filings last year.
The grim numbers thrust the county into the top spot for the state of California, according to a new report by RealtyTrac.
Last year, 8,389 properties here received foreclosure filings -- which include default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions.
That's up slightly from the 8,291 foreclosure filings in 2008.
Both figures are light years above the 743 foreclosures filed in 2006.
Nationwide, a total of 3,957,643 foreclosure filings were reported on 2,824,674 properties in 2009 -- a 21 percent increase in total properties over 2008.
Merced has the sixth-highest countywide foreclosure rate in the country. The county with the highest rate was Osceola County, Fla., where one in every eight housing units received a foreclosure filing in 2009.
"I'm tired of being No. 1," said Merced Mayor Bill Spriggs. "It's not a fun time right now."
Spriggs said he wasn't surprised by the county's presence at the top of the foreclosure rankings.
"I think this market was way too speculative," he said. "When the downturn hit, I think we were more impacted than other markets. We had lots and lots of out-of-area investors which really compounded things, too."
RealtyTrac reports countywide numbers. Spriggs said the city has about 750 vacant homes right now, measured by the number of homes that have canceled garbage service.
About 215 homes in the city are up for sale right now.
"So you know the numbers don't add up. Lenders are holding foreclosed homes off the market. If they flooded the market, it would really hurt value," Spriggs said.
County Assessor Kent Christensen said banks had taken over 4,471 property rights from owners in Merced County in 2009. That number could still rise because of home sales at the end of December, but will fall short of the 5,795 county homes that went back to banks in '08.
Nevada, Arizona and Florida posted the top state foreclosure rates in 2009. California, Florida, Arizona and Illinois account for 50 percent of the total national foreclosure filings.
A total of 632,573 California properties received a foreclosure filing in 2009. While Merced posted the highest rate statewide, nearby counties weren't far behind. San Joaquin County had the third-highest foreclosure rate, with 8.62 percent of homes with some sort of filing.
Stanislaus County was ranked fourth in the state with an 8.53 percent foreclosure rate and 14,812 homes headed back to the bank. One of every 12 homes there received a foreclosure filing last year.
(San Joaquin and Stanislaus are also the only two counties in California to experience a drop in foreclosure rates in 2009, compared to the year before.)
James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, said the numbers paint a more optimistic picture of the housing market than the reality stalking the streets.
"As bad as the 2009 numbers are, they probably would have been worse if not for legislative and industry-related delays in processing delinquent loans," he said.
Saccacio explained that foreclosures ebbed after July because more distressed homeowners began receiving loan modifications.
Plus, a state law put off foreclosure actions on borrowers who were behind on payments.
"In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond," Saccacio said.
A total of 21,154 properties received some foreclosure filing in Merced County since 2006, according to RealtyTrac.
Homeowners in need of help can contact No Homeowner Left Behind of the Central Valley at (559) 221-6919. The organization is a nonprofit and is approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for foreclosure prevention programs.

UC Merced publishes report listing inventions by its researchers...Sun-Star Staff
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1268809.html
UC Merced said it published a report that highlights more than 40 market-ready inventions created by campus researchers.
The report, “Inventions of the Research Enterprise,” was compiled by UC Merced’s Office of Technology Transfer, which is within the campus’ Office of Research, the university said in a news release.
The 50-page document catalogues inventions created at the university from January 2007 to June 2009. The technologies listed in the report have the potential to transform the fields of natural sciences, engineering and beyond, the news release said.
“This report illustrates that UC Merced is on track to fulfill its mission to become a premiere research institution,” said Samuel J. Traina, vice chancellor for research.
The report includes background information on the problem each invention was created to address, a description of how the device or process works and its potential applications. Other information includes the invention’s creators, its patent and licensing status and the advantages new technology. Faculty from UC Merced’s School of Engineering, School of Natural Sciences and School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Arts are represented in the report.
Examples of inventions listed include:
--a less expensive therapy that could suppress the ability of the hepatitis C virus to replicate. --a low-cost method to concentrate the efficiency of photovoltaic cells, which in turn can help make using solar energy less expensive. --a faster, more efficient method to identify the purity of drugs, pharmaceuticals and agricultural compounds. --a new technique that increases the power of lasers without reducing their wavelength agility.
For more on research at UC Merced, link to “Inventions of the Research Enterprise” at http://research.ucmerced.edu/docs/Inventions%20of%20the%20Research%20Enterprise.pdf
1-16-10
Merced Sun-Star
UC Merced prof wins prestigious scientific achievement award...Sun-Star Staff
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1270229.html
UC Merced said cognitive science Professor Michael Spivey was awarded the 2010 William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement.
Spivey joins the ranks of many other researchers who have received the national award, including such scholars as Stephen Jay Gould, Jane Goodall, Margaret Mead and Vannevar Bush, the university said in a news release.
The award is given by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to scientific research and has successfully communicated its value and significance to scholars in various disciplines, the release said.
“I am simultaneously humbled and honored to be on the same list as these luminaries,” Spivey said. “These are people who have made really awe-inspiring contributions to their sciences.”
Spivey will accept the award at Sigma Xi’s annual meeting in November and deliver a lecture to an audience of distinguished scientists and engineers. The presentation will focus on his research and how it has contributed to cognitive science.
Using eye-tracking and reach-tracking equipment, Spivey studies how humans perceive and respond to what they hear and see. The equipment records people’s actual responses, but also reveals what options they considered in making their decision. Spivey’s research shows that different brain regions simultaneously communicate with each other in what’s called a continuous loop, the release said.
Spivey received his Ph.D. in brain and cognitive sciences from the University of Rochester in 1996, and was faculty at Cornell University’s Psychology Department for 12 years.
In 2008 he became a faculty member at UC Merced. He has published more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers on research topics including sentence processing, word recognition and visual memory.
Spivey will receive a Steuben glass sculpture, a certificate of recognition, a $5,000 honorarium and a $5,000 research grant to be awarded to a young scholar in his field.
His book, “The Continuity of Mind,” was published by Oxford University Press in 2007.