High-end Southie condos going fast

In a testament to just how hot the South Boston condo market is, four high-end condos just went on sale at 45 A St. and two are already sold.

This four-unit building on a short spur of A Street just past West Broadway has direct elevator access to each condo, contemporary custom cabinetry, red oak floors and even garage parking spaces. Two 1,580-square-foot units are still available on the second and third floors, listing for $899,000 and $949,000.

The white Hardiplank building with a brick first floor is styled to suggest a Southie rowhouse and it has front balconies that overlook the gentrified area around the Broadway Red Line T station.

The interiors have a contemporary European look as seen in the staged model unit. The large open kitchen/dining/living areas has eight windows on two sides bringing in lots of light.

The recessed-lit kitchens have custom two-tone Leicht oak cabinetry, stylish white quartz counters and waterfall-style island, glass-mosaic backsplashes and Thermador appliances, including a refrigerator and dishwasher behind cabinets, a gas stovetop and double wall ovens — plus a wine cooler and lots of drawer space.

The living area features a 60-inch Heat-n-Glo gas fireplace with a large honed black granite surround, and a glass door from the recessed-lit dining room opens onto a Trex-decked front-facing balcony.

The master bedroom suite, which also has access to the balcony, features a large walk-in closet and en-suite master bathroom with heated porcelain tile floor, a large glass-doored walk-in shower with multiple Hans Grohe shower heads, and a floating white quartz-topped vanity also with Grohe fixtures.

The slightly smaller second bedroom faces the rear, and there's a second full bath across the hall with heated tile floors, a floating vanity with Grohe fixtures and deep soaking tub/shower.

At the end of the hall is a bit awkward leftover space styled as an office alcove, adjacent to the direct access elevator. There's three closets along a sconce-lit hallway, one holding a stacked white Electrolux washer and dryer, a second with a Navien tankless water heater system and a third with a gas-fired heating and central air system.

Each unit comes with a deeded garage parking space on the first floor of the building. But 45 A St. sits on a small lot and there isn't any common yard space.

Home Showcase

• Address: 45 A St., South Boston, Units 1 and 2
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: Two full
• List price: $899,000-$ 949,000
• Square feet: 1,580
• Price per square foot: $569-$601
• Annual taxes: To be determined
• Monthly condo fee: $350 (estimated)
• Location: Near the corner of A Street and West Broadway a half-block from retail and restaurants along Broadway as well as Broadway Red Line T station.
• Built in: 2014
• Broker: Dom Lange and Lindsay Smith of Broadway Village Real Estate at 617-482-9200

Pros:

• High-end kitchen with Leicht cabinetry, Thermador appliances
• Living room has 60-inch granite-surrounded gas fireplace
• Private front balcony with access from dining area and master bedroom
• Lots of windows and red oak floors
• Deeded parking garage space on first floor

Cons:

• Home office alcove an awkward use of leftover space
• No common yard space

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City wants projects more 
accessible to the disabled

The city wants to change the mindset of real estate developers "hard-wired" to comply with only "bare-minimum" federal and state accessibility mandates for people with disabilities.

New development review guidelines adopted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority on Thursday are intended to instead convince developers to incorporate "ideal" accessibility and "visitability" accommodations into their building projects.

Developers will be required to complete an accessibility checklist at the start of the project review process. The city's Commission for Persons with Disabilities also will play a greater role in the process, starting with "pre-filing" meetings between the BRA and developers so issues can be considered during initial project design.

"Our expectation is … it will yield projects that do more than mere compliance with minimum standards," said acting BRA executive director Brian Golden, referring to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and state Architectural Access Board requirements.

"This is not a coercive device, because we don't have the authority to coerce in this regard," Golden said. "We think that if developers are shown options and discuss options early, they can incorporate them at minimal costs and maybe at no cost."

But while the BRA technically can't force developers to include "ideal" accessibility features in projects, it can use the permitting process as leverage, said David Begelfer, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, a commercial real estate development trade group.

Begelfer, who had yet to see the new BRA guidelines, said he's "cautiously concerned," citing already strict federal mandates and state requirements that exceed them, and possible added costs. "To go beyond the state and federal (requirements) … seems to be asking a lot," he said.

But, getting all city departments involved early in the project review process would be a good thing, Begelfer said. "There are a lot of other departments that don't get involved until much later ... and that gets to be a problem," he said.

The Commission on Persons with Disabilities previously got involved in the BRA development reviews about halfway through the process, when many design decisions already had been made, commissioner Kristen McCosh said.

"The goal is really to map out the accessibility features of a project at the beginning … rather than having them try to fit them in at the end," she said.

More than 77,000 Bostonians identify themselves as disabled. The city wants to develop not only accessible buildings, but accessible routes to accommodate them, McCosh said.

"We ask the developers to look at things like accessible transit stations in proximity to the development, sidewalk conditions ... accessible pathways … and visitability," she said. "Developers don't have that lens when they look at their projects.

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Massachusetts job creation strong in May

Massachusetts added more than 9,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate dropped to 
5.6 percent in what economists called an "encouraging" report after the state lost 2,000 jobs in the previous month.

"It's undeniably a strong report," said Michael Goodman, an economist with UMass Dartmouth. "It's striking that the state has a level of employment that is not only above the pre-great recession peak but above the pre-dot-com bubble peak."

The state added 9,100 jobs across a variety of industries in May.

Leisure and Hospitality, Construction and Education and Health Services were among the sectors that saw solid gains last month.

"The jobs are widespread," said Robert Nakosteen, a UMass Amherst economist. "Very encouraging."

The unemployment rate fell to a near six-year low at 5.6 percent, down from 6 percent last month. The jobless rate has now dropped 1.5 percent since October.

"We are in a strong place within our borders," said Rachel Kaprelian, the state's secretary of labor and workforce development.

The national rate was 6.3 percent in May, unchanged from the previous month.

Despite the down month in April — now revised to 2,000 jobs lost instead of 1,600 — the state job market in is good shape, economists said.

"The trajectory has been upward," Goodman said.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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The Ticker

Wynn: No criminals to profit from casino site

Wynn Resorts says all three owners of the former chemical plant in Everett where it wants to develop a $1.6 billion resort casino have signed statements that no criminals will secretly profit from the land deal.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has said signing the disclosure document was critical as it decided whether to award Wynn the lone casino license in the lucrative Boston region. The state's 2011 casino law expressly prohibits felons from profiting from a casino.

The commission's investigators are concerned at least two convicted felons are still silent partners in the land venture and at least one of the owners of the land had refused to sign the statement in recent months.

Mohegan Sun is also vying for the Boston-area casino license with a Revere proposal.

Coach to close 70 stores

Upscale retailer Coach Inc. warned of lower sales next year and said it would close about 70 stores in North America as it struggles against fast-growing rivals in its biggest market.

Coach's stock fell as much as 11 percent and was one of the top losers on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.

The clothes, shoes and handbags retailer said it expected revenue to fall in low double digits in percentage terms in the year ending next June, with North American same-store sales falling in "high teens" in percentage terms.

Known for its Poppy handbags, the company has struggled to keep up with rivals Kate Spade & Co. and Michael Kors Holdings Ltd.

Silver, gold rise as Fed holds rates low

Gold and silver futures rose yesterday, a day after the Federal Reserve said it saw no immediate end to its low-interest rate policy.

Gold for August delivery rose $41.40, or 3.3 percent, to $1,314 an ounce. Silver for July delivery rose 87 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $20.65 an ounce.

Today

 Darden Restaurants reports quarterly financial results before the market opens.

THE SHUFFLE

Peabody Essex Museum in Salem has announced the appointment of Amanda Clark MacMullan as chief philanthropy officer. Recently managing partner and chief development officer for the venture philanthropy fund New Profit Inc., MacMullan brings nearly 15 years of high-level fundraising experience from the education and nonprofit sectors.

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The Ticker

Fed slows bond buy pace but stays mum on rates

The Federal Reserve will further slow the pace of its bond purchases, saying a strengthening U.S. job market needs less support. But it's offering no clear signal about when it will start raising its benchmark short-term rate.

Most economists think a rate increase is at least a year away, despite signs of rising inflation.

The Fed announced its decisions in a statement yesterday after it ended a two-day policy meeting. The statement was nearly identical to the one the Fed issued after its last meeting in April. It reiterated its plan to keep short-term rates low "for a considerable time" after it ends its bond purchases, which have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low.

Minimum wage hike advances through state Legislature

A bill that would raise Massachusetts' $8 per hour minimum wage to $11 per hour by 2017 could soon be law.

The House of Representatives approved a compromise measure yesterday on a 124-24 vote after a brief debate. It was passed by the Senate on a 35-4 vote last week.

The bill does not include automatic adjustments in the minimum wage for inflation, as the Senate had called for in an earlier version.

The bill now goes back to both chambers for a final procedural vote before heading to Gov. Deval Patrick's desk.

Today

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Kroger reports quarterly financial results before the market opens.

TOMORROW

• Darden Restaurants reports quarterly financial results before the market opens.
• ProEx, a physical therapist-owned private practice specializing in orthopedics, spine and sports medicine, has announced that Ryan Higgins, left, MPT, OMT, of York, Maine, has been named a staff physical therapist at its Woburn location. Higgins graduated from California State University, Fresno with a masters in physical therapy degree and is a certified orthopaedic manual therapist.
• Pepper Hamilton LLP has announced that Judith Kay Crosby has joined the firm as a partner in the Affordable Housing and Community Development Group within the Financial Services Practice Group resident in the firm's Boston office.

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Life sciences field flourishing in Massachusetts

Massachusetts now ranks sixth in the nation in total life sciences employment but No. 1 in industry jobs per capita, in part due to support from the state, according to Northeastern University's Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

By 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the state had 113,678 jobs in the industry, ranking it behind California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But controlling for population size, Massachusetts, with its smaller population, ranked first in per capita employment, with 17,363 life sciences jobs for every 1 million people — 1.8 times as many as California and 2.3 times as many as New York, said Alan Clayton-Matthews, director of quantitative methods at Northeastern's School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs.

"As of 2014, all 10 of the top 10 drug companies in the world have set up shop in Massachusetts," said Barry Bluestone, director of the Dukakis Center. "Why? Because they wanted a front-row seat to acquire small life science firms and their discoveries."

Bluestone cited the accelerator loans, research and development funds, and other support those firms have received from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the agency charged with implementing the state's $1 billion Life Sciences Initiative.

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Mainers paying $99 in monthly premium on exchange

AUGUSTA, Maine — Mainers who signed up for health care coverage on the federally-run exchange are paying an average of $99 per month in premiums.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services figures released Wednesday show that 89 percent of Mainers who signed up on the exchange selected plans that the federal government helps pay for with tax credits.

The department said that the average monthly premium in Maine before credits were taken into account was $443 and fell 78 percent with the subsidy.

The average tax credit for Maine plans was $344 a month. The federal government pays the credit directly to insurers. Mainers who chose silver plans, the most common, paid an average monthly premium of $87.

More than 44,000 Mainers signed up on the exchange during open enrollment period.

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Investors to seek clues from Fed on rate increase

WASHINGTON — A stay-the-course message is expected from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday after it ends a two-day policy meeting.

The Fed will likely approve a fifth cut in its monthly bond purchases because the job market has steadily strengthened. But no clear signal is expected on when the Fed will start raising short-term interest rates from record lows.

The meeting will end with a statement outlining the Fed's plans. The central bank will also update its economic forecasts, and Janet Yellen will hold her second news conference since becoming Fed chair in February.

The Fed got some further cause for discussion just before it started this week's meeting with a report Tuesday of a surprising jump in consumer inflation.

Yet most economists aren't altering their view that the Fed's first rate increase is at least a year away. Analysts cautioned that that time frame could change if inflation were to accelerate. The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in May, the government said, and has risen 2.1 percent over the past 12 months — roughly at the level of the Fed's target rate for inflation.

It's why the Fed might actually welcome the news of slightly higher inflation. It will help ease long-standing concerns that inflation might be too low. For the past two years, inflation by one key measure has remained under the Fed's 2 percent target.

Investors will be seeking any new clues the central bank might send about when it will finally raise its benchmark short-term rate. That rate has been at a record low near zero since 2008. They will also be looking for hints about how and when the Fed will start unloading its vast investment holdings.

The answers will affect loan rates for individuals and businesses — and perhaps the direction of the economy. Yet few expect to hear anything definitive. The Fed remains in a tentative wait-and-see stance.

Though the central bank has signaled optimism, officials are unsure how much the economy will strengthen the rest of the year. In its updated forecasts, the Fed may downgrade its estimate of growth for 2014 after the government said last month that the economy shrank in the first quarter, depressed by a harsh winter.

Yellen has suggested that the U.S. unemployment rate, now 6.3 percent, overstates the health of the job market and economy. She's also expressed concern that a high percentage of the unemployed — 35 percent — have been out of work for six months or more and that pay is scarcely rising for people who do have jobs.

The minutes of the Fed's last meeting in late April indicated that the central bank has begun discussing the tools it could use to finally pull back the extraordinary stimulus it's provided the U.S. economy since 2008.

Analysts expect at least one announcement when the two-day policy meeting ends Wednesday: That the Fed will make a fifth $10 billion cut in the pace of its monthly bond purchases to $35 billion, a sign of a steadily, if slowly, improving economy. The Fed has been buying Treasury and mortgage bonds to try to keep long-term loan rates low to stimulate the economy.

The Fed will likely end its bond purchases this fall, with its investment portfolio nearing $4.5 trillion. But officials have said that even when they stop buying bonds, they don't plan to start selling any. They plan to keep the Fed's holdings steady by re-investing maturing bonds. In doing so, the Fed will still exert downward pressure on long-term rates.

The Fed has said it will keep its key short-term rate at a record low near zero for a "considerable time" after its bond purchases end. At her news conference, Yellen will likely avoid being pinned down on how long a "considerable time" might be. Last month, she said the Fed expects to start raising rates once it sees enough progress in restoring full employment and inflation has risen to its 2 percent target rate.

Most Fed members expect the Fed to start raising short-term rates between mid-2015 and early 2016. The central bank has stressed that even after it starts raising rates, it will likely keep them unusually low to support the economy.

While economic growth went into reverse in the first quarter, the job market has shown consistent improvement this year. Employers have added 200,000-plus jobs for four straight months. The unemployment rate has dropped to a level the Fed hadn't expected to see until year's end.

But Yellen has stressed that she is studying barometers of the job market beyond the unemployment rate — from the percentage of long-term unemployed among the jobless to the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs and the percentage of adults either working or looking for work. By those measures, the job market remains subpar, a reason Yellen has cited for the Fed's continued support.

She has also expressed worries that the housing recovery may be faltering. In addition, Fed officials have discussed such geopolitical risks as slow growth in Europe and Russia's aggression toward Ukraine. The newest threat is rising sectarian violence in Iraq, which has sent oil prices up.

This week's meeting brought new faces to debate the issues. Stanley Fischer, former head of Israel's central bank, participated for the first time as the Fed's vice chair, as did Lael Brainard, a former Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, and Loretta Mester, who has succeeded Sandra Pianalto as president of the Fed's Cleveland regional bank.

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44 luxury Condos eyed for Greenway

A Boston developer is looking to build a 12-story luxury condominium building to fill in one of the missing "teeth" facing the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway.

Boston Residential Development's plans for the estimated $40 million India Street project call for 44 condos and some 4,000 square feet of restaurant/retail space on a 7,100-square-foot site that's now a small parking lot.

"It's really a connection of trying to bring the downtown in with the waterfront," said Michael Durand, principal of the real estate development company. "There's been a huge public investment with the Greenway, and now is the time for the private investment to come in and really make it work."

The condos would be a mix of one- to three-bedrooms from 600 square feet to 1,750 square feet.

"There's just been so much apartment development in the city recently that we feel there's some strong demand for some new condominiums," Durand said.

The proposed 117-foot building's height is within the recently codified 120-foot restriction for the Wharf District area known as the Town Cove, which is anchored on the southern portion by Broad Street. That restriction came out of a Greenway district planning study by the Boston Redevelopment Authority that calls for "preserving the scale, character and historic street patterns that mark Town Cove as a distinct and legible Boston neighborhood."

The study also dictates that new development along the Greenway must minimize any shadow impacts over and above those that might be cast by a 100-foot, as-of-right development. Documents filed by the developer yesterday state both would cast a similar shadow that generally would be limited to nearby streets and sidewalks.

"All our results show very minimal impact," Durand said.

A Greenway Conservancy representative could not be reached for comment.

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Forbes: If US isn’t careful there will be another crisis

Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media and former presidential candidate, joined Boston Herald Radio's "Trending Now" yesterday to discuss his new book "Money" and the state of the American economy. Here are excerpts:

Q: How is this book going to help people?

A: It strips away all the confusing jargon of the high priests of the Federal Reserve and others in Washington. Money simply is a measure of value, the way, say, clocks measure time. Money makes it easy to do transactions ... but it must have a fixed value. Imagine what life would be like if we changed the number of minutes in an hour. It would be very confusing, but that's what they do with money. What we advocate in the book ... when we have unstable money you get the kind of crisis we have today. We should go to what we did for the first 180 years of our existence when we had the dollar linked to gold. If we had maintained the growth rates in the last 40 years, our economy today would be 50 percent larger than it is now.

Q: Why are they so resistant to doing this?

A: Because of the way they've been taught economics. It's also a power game. If they're not allowed to print money out of thin air, that means they have to exercise more restraint. They have to be more honest with people about the cost of things. If you're in politics, who wants that?

Q: You warn in your book that if we don't change we're heading for another economic disaster.

A: If they don't know what they're doing, it's like doctors in the days of old who would bleed patients. These folks today are guilty of economic malpractice and as a result, it's just a matter of time until they lurch into another crisis.

Q: Do you think things would have changed if Mitt Romney was president?

A: I think it would have been a very positive change. In 2016 we have a lot of exciting candidates who are going to come up with a lot of Reaganesque positive platforms to run on ... I think we're going to have a very healthy debate going in 2016, which will be good for the country and the world.

Q: Do you see yourself entering politics again?

A: My role now is that of an agitator. I'll get my exercise another way.

Listen to the complete interview at bostonherald.com.

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Medtronic to buy Irish medical-device manufacturer

U.S. medical device manufacturer Medtronic announced Sunday night that it has agreed to buy Ireland-based competitor Covidien for $42.9 billion in cash and stock.

The combined company would have its executive offices in Dublin, where it could benefit from Ireland's lower corporate tax rates. But the merged company would continue to operate in Minneapolis, where Medtronic employs more than 8,000, the companies said in a statement.

Medtronic is paying a 29 percent premium on Covidien's stock price as of Friday.

The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions by medical-device manufacturers. The companies are seeking to expand their offerings and contain costs in response to price curbs forced by the nation's new health care law.

In April, Zimmer Holdings, an orthopedic device maker, announced that it was buying Biomet in a $13 billion deal.

Medtronic makes pacemakers and insulin pumps, among other products. Covidien specializes in surgical equipment.

As a result of savings from the deal, Medtronic said it would spend an additional $10 billion over the next decade in investments, acquisitions and research and development in the United States.

"The medical technology industry is critical to the U.S. economy, and we will continue to invest and innovate and create well-paying jobs," Omar Ishrak, Medtronic's CEO, said in a statement.

Efforts by domestic companies to use mergers to reincorporate overseas for tax reasons have raised concern among some U.S. lawmakers. Ireland taxes corporate income at 12.5 percent, compared with a top marginal rate of 39.6 percent in the United States, according to the tax advisory firm KPMG.

Drug-maker Pfizer recently tried unsuccessfully to acquire U.K.-based Astra-Zeneca. The banana-seller Chiquita agreed to buy an Irish firm, Fyffes, in March.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, and 13 other senators introduced a bill in May to restrict the deals.

"These transactions are about tax avoidance, plain and simple," Levin said in a statement. "Our legislation would clamp down on this loophole to prevent corporations from shifting their tax burden onto their competitors and average Americans."

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Kasem was an island of calm in swirl of pop music

LOS ANGELES — In pop culture, Casey Kasem was as sweet and dependable as a glass of warm milk and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, which only made the ugliness of his last few years of life seem more bizarre and tragic.

The radio host of "American Top 40" and voice of animated television characters like Scooby-Doo's sidekick Shaggy died Sunday morning at a hospital in Gig Harbor, Washington. He was 82. He suffered from a form of dementia, and his three adult children from his first wife fought a bitter legal battle with Kasem's second wife, Jean, over control of his health care in his final months.

That made Kasem a fixture on news outlets that feed on the sleazier side of celebrity life at a time when it wasn't clear he was aware of it or even able to understand.

This wouldn't seem all that remarkable for a bad-behaving pop star or actor who shed spouses with the frequency of changing characters. But this was Casey Kasem, whose work epitomized the gentler, romantic side of pop culture, of a time when stars were admired for their celebrity and worshipped for their talent.

"American Top 40," with Kasem's soft, homey voice counting down the hits, was a refuge from shock jocks or the screaming big-city radio voices. It was dependable, broadcast on some 1,000 stations at its peak, so if you were driving in Connecticut or Kansas, California or Kentucky, you could always take a measure of the pop charts with Casey.

Kasem weaved stories around the songs, anecdotes about interactions with fans or gee-whiz tales about how stars got their starts. Seldom was heard a discouraging word, unless it was a starting point for a narrative about coming back from hardship, the darkness before the dawn.

Interspersed in the countdowns were the long-distance dedications, songs played for a long-lost or distant lover in the hope a heart would be stirred. You'd wince at some of the hokey song selections, but only the truly cynic would laugh at the emotion that spilled out of the letters Kasem read.

At the end of the show, always, would come Kasem's signature words of advice: "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars."

On the first "American Top 40" in July 1970, Kasem counted down to Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me Not to Come" at the No. 1 spot. As the years went on, Kasem progressed through disco and punk, arena rock and rap. All were welcome under Casey's big tent.

That made him the rare personality who could count the stars among his fans. Reaction to his death Sunday was widespread, from tweeted memories to a dedication from the stage by Elton John at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.

John sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and said, "Travel safely, my angel," in front of 80,000 fans in Manchester, Tennessee.

Kasem was of Lebanese descent, born in Detroit as Kemal Amin Kasem, and he spoke out on issues promoting greater understanding of Arab-Americans throughout his life. He made his name as a disc jockey, and when his career blossomed in the Los Angeles area, he took on other voice work. He was Robin in the animated "Batman" series. He once said his work on "Scooby-Doo" would outlast anything he did.

He was succeeded at "American Top 40" in 2004 by Ryan Seacrest, a fan who said he used to imitate Kasem counting down the hits when he was a boy.

"When decades later I took over his AT40 countdown show, it was a surreal moment," Seacrest said in a statement. "Casey had a distinctive friendly on-air voice, and he was just as affable and nice if you had the privilege to be in his company. He'll be greatly missed by all of us."

"Scooby-Doo" may last longer, but we'll bet Kasem will most be remembered for "American Top 40" and his place in the continuum of pop music accounting, from "American Bandstand" to "Soul Train," ''Total Request Live" to Spotify playlists.

Hard feelings being what they are, it's difficult to imagine the fight between the people Kasem is leaving behind will simply end with his death. Kasem, at least, is at peace.

And instead of thinking about squabbling, his fans can imagine what it would have sounded like to hear Casey Kasem counting down to John Legend, Pharrell Williams and Iggy Azalea.

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Should new Mustang tires go on the front or back?

I have a 2011 Mustang GT 5.0-liter with 36,000 miles. It has the Brembo brake package and Goodyear F1 tires on it. I'm ready to replace the worn rear tires again with the new OE Goodyears. Last time I replaced the rear tires, I placed the new tires on the front and moved the older front tires to the rear. Now people are telling me that I should place the new tires on the rear drive-axle to reduce the chance of oversteer that might be induced by having too much fun in a curve. With an everyday car I believe that understeer would be the greatest concern, but with 412 horsepower and almost 400 pound-feet of torque, maybe the new tires should be on the back. Which end of the car should the two new tires be placed on my Mustang and is a nitrogen fill worthwhile?

On the back. Like you, my first thought was that new tires should be mounted on the front and the older, worn front tires moved to the rear. Because the front tires do a far higher percentage of braking and, of course, steer the vehicle, my instincts said put the best tires on the front.

However, since loss of traction from the front tires — the "understeer" you mention — is easier to correct than "oversteer" — loss of traction from the rear tires — the recommendation for replacing just two tires is to mount the new ones on the rear.

In short, correcting understeer involves "breathing" back the throttle or modulating brake pressure to help the front tires regain traction. Oversteer, on the other hand, requires an instantaneous steering correction in the direction the back end is trying to go in order to keep the front tires pointed where the vehicle is headed, while at the same time neutralizing the throttle — not accelerating and not decelerating — to stop any wheelspin. If and when the rear end regains traction and wants to snap back — so-called "overcorrecting," a complete misnomer — the steering must be straightened in time with the rear end snapping back to keep the front wheels pointed where the vehicle is traveling.

In the racing schools I teach, we label the correction for oversteer as a three-step process: correct/pause/recover, CPR for short, an easy acronym to remember.

Nitrogen contains no moisture and is less prone to pressure changes with temperature changes, so filling tires with nitrogen makes some sense, but only if you continue to use nitrogen to top up tire pressures.

I own a 2001 Dodge Dakota and would like to clean the engine. Is it OK to take it to a self-service car wash and power-wash it?

It must be. Ever seen a used car on a dealer lot with a dirty engine? It's OK to clean the engine and engine compartment as long as you cover any sensitive wiring and electronics and don't aim the high-pressure spray directly at these components. Remember, engines and drivetrains get wet when vehicles are driven in the rain. The wiring harnesses and connectors used on modern automobiles are designed to be relatively weatherproof.

Motoring Note: Regarding white smoke from the 2003 Honda, reader Paul Harvey offered a good suggestion. "I had a similar problem involving my 2002 Toyota Sienna. One mechanic told me it was caused by a sludge problem and would require an engine replacement. I had thought it was a head gasket problem and took the van to another mechanic, who diagnosed a bad PCV valve. After he replaced it, the problem was solved."

A stuck or clogged PCV valve typically forces oil into the combustion chamber, where it is burned, creating a bluish smoke. So checking the PCV system for proper function is a simple step to possibly explain the sudden appearance of smoke from the tailpipe. Thanks for the suggestion, Paul.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race -car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number.

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With prices rising, home equity makes a comeback

WASHINGTON — If you're like most homeowners, it's your biggest asset. You can't track it online or check monthly statements sent to you by a bank, but it's crucially important for your personal financial well-being and your retirement planning.

It's your home equity — the difference between the market value of your house and whatever debt you've got on it. Equity for most of us is a big deal and, based on data released last week by the Federal Reserve, Americans' home-equity holdings are booming.

That's great news for most owners — though not all — and for the economy as a whole. The more equity we have, the more likely we are to spend money on goods and services that create more jobs — the so-called "wealth effect."

Now consider these brain-bending big numbers: Thanks to rising prices and substantial continuing pay-downs of mortgage debt, owners' combined 
equity holdings increased by 
$795 billion during the three months between the end of last December and March 31 of this year. Homeowners' equity holdings at the end of the first quarter totaled $10.8 trillion, the highest amount since late 2007 — but still well below the bubble-era record of $13.4 trillion reached in early 2006.

The ongoing boom is also pulling thousands of owners across the country out of real estate purgatory — they've been stuck in negative equity positions, but are now transitioning to positive. According to new estimates from mortgage and housing analytics firm CoreLogic, the owners of 312,000 houses moved out of negative territory during the first three months of 2014.

Now for the sobering side of the home-equity story: Despite the boom in housing wealth underway, many owners are still not able to join the party. About 6.3 million of them remain underwater on their loans. The average amount of negative equity they're carrying is often significant — they owe an average 33 percent more than their house could command in a sale today. That gives you an idea of the widespread pain still being felt in the wake of the bust and recession.

The impact is especially severe for owners who bought with little or nothing down and then loaded on additional debt with second mortgages. The average negative equity balance for owners with two mortgages is about $75,000, according to CoreLogic. For households with one mortgage, the average negative equity is around $52,000.

Also on the sobering side, millions of owners continue to have less equity than they'll need if they want to sell or even refinance. At the end of March, 10 million owners had less than 20 percent equity in their properties and 1.6 million of them had less than 5 percent. Given real estate transaction costs, most people with less than 5 percent equity would have to bring money to the table to pay off the debt on their house when they sell.

Equity holdings are closely linked to market segments — higher-cost houses are less likely to be in negative equity positions than lower-cost homes — and geography. According to CoreLogic, only about 3 percent of homes costing more than $500,000 have negative equity. By contrast, 17 percent of homes costing less than $200,000 are in negative positions.

Not surprisingly, areas of the country that performed worst during the bust — where easy-money financing was most common during the boom — continue to have high rates of negative equity, even well into the housing rebound. But there's one dazzling exception: California. In some inland counties during the recession, toxic financing contributed to home value losses of
50 percent and higher. Yet today, thanks to the most vigorous marketplace rebound of any state, just above 11 percent of California homes are in negative equity. Compare that with 29 percent in Nevada, 27 percent in Florida, 20 percent in Arizona.

Where are average equity levels highest? Texas, where home prices remained modest and affordable during the boom, is at the top. Just 
3.3 percent of Texas homes have debt exceeding their resale values. Rounding out the top five, Montana, Alaska, North Dakota and Hawaii all have less than 5 percent negative equity on average. The District of Columbia, a high-cost market that has seen significant home-price appreciation in the past several years, ranks sixth best in the country with a 5.1 percent negative equity rate.

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