October 24, 2008

Housing Update

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HOUSING UPDATE….The latest news on the housing market:

Although prices continued to fall, existing-home sales climbed more than expected during September, marking the highest level of home sales activity in more than a year.

Home resales rose to a 5.18 million annual rate, a 5.5% increase from August’s unrevised 4.91 million annual pace, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.

….The home sales increase represents “a nice jump,” said NAR economist Lawrence Yun. “Hopefully, this trend can continue.”

OK, I admit it. I’m just trying to cheer you up. That “nice jump” appears to be about the only good news around today amidst an ocean of gloom. Here in California, the latest news is that home foreclosures, after jumping about a million percent over the last year, are now down. But only because of a new law that makes banks delay proceedings until 30 days after contacting the borrower. Woo hoo!

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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