Thursday Links

• City backs tax sales [baltimoresun.com]
• Development in Midtown due tax break [baltimoresun.com]
• The high cost of a green dream [cnn.money.com]
• Reverse mortgages: Beware the come-ons [cnn.money.com]
• Six county high schools among the nation’s best [gazette.net]
• Income tax, real estate fee will rise [gazette.net]
• Foreclosures mean opportunity for Habitat charity [miamiherald.com]
• HUD nominee promises to work hard [examiner.com]
• Rates on 30-year mortgages dip below 6 percent [examiner.com]
• A New Lease-Purchase on Life [washingtonpost.com]
• Profiles in Tenacity: Short-Sale Buyers [washingtonpost.com]
• A New System to Prepare for the Next Crisis [washingtonpost.com]
• Houses Even Bigger, Scores Way Above Average [nytimes.com]

To buy or Not to Buy- it sometimes depends on the class.

To buy or not to buy? This question could be an affirmative yes for many prospective homeowners depending to what school district they will belong to. Recently, Newsweek published a report on the top public high schools across the United States titled "The Top of the Class", and Maryland, Virginia, and the District had 13 high schools in the top 100.

Can you guess which ones they are? Here they are:

16 H-B Woodlawn, Arlington, Va.
32 Richard Montgomery ** Rockville, Md.
48 Clarke County ** Berryville, Va.
55 Langley McLean, Va
58 George Mason ** Falls Church, Va.
59 Wootton Rockville, Md.
63 Bethesda-Chevy Chase ** Bethesda, Md.
64 Washington-Lee ** Arlington, Va.
68 Walt Whitman Bethesda, Md.
73 W. T. Woodson Fairfax, Va.
74 Yorktown Arlington, Va.
75 Walter Johnson Bethesda, Md.
76 Bell Multicultural Washington D.C.
93 Lake Braddock Burke, Va.
96 Winston Churchill Potomac, Md.
97 McLean McLean, Va.