I love Canada

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I am not sure why I love Canada, but I do. It could be because my great-grandparents were French Canadians who migrated to the US from Quebec. Maybe it is because I live in a border state. Over the weekend when Canada was threatened with tariffs, on exports to the US.

I have a few friends who live in Canada and the mood seems to be one of anger toward the US and I totally understand. I am also angry at the US for several reasons.

There are many recent Facebook posts from Canadians sharing tips on how to avoid buying American goods. They know that the tariffs and trade war have been postponed, but what they are doing makes sense and I want to help.

Some Canadians struggle to find mayonnaise that isn’t made in the US.

Fear not!  There is no reason to buy American mayonnaise when it can easily be made at home. If your home is in Canada then it is Canadian mayonnaise. It only requires six ingredients and does not need to be “cooked”:

1 egg

½ tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp white wine vinegar

¼ tsp Dijon mustard

¼ tsp sea salt or regular salt

1 cup avocado oilor light-flavored olive oil*

Honestly, these are ingredients that most of us have in our kitchens.  Nothing special here except of course the egg. Homemade mayo tastes much better than store-bought.

The only trick to making it is mixing it well. Use an immersion blender, food processor, or blender. I suppose a spoon or whisk could work but it would take a while.

You will find recipes for mayonnaise in cookbooks and there are a zillion of them online complete with walls of words and step-by-step instructions including pictures.

I dedicate this post to my friends in Canada. I am ashamed of my country and I wish I could join you. Maybe I’ll stop by for a visit this summer.

 

*Spain is the biggest producer of olive oil.

January 2025 home sales

January sure went fast! These numbers are from the NorthstarMLS and represent most of the residential real estate sales in St.Paul, MN during January 2025.  The number of pending home sales is unusually low. The number of homes on the market and new listings are also low. The number of homes on the market is also low. The only number that isn’t low is home prices. The median sold price is down from December but that is a normal seasonal decline. Most of the homes that sold in January were listed in November and December.

Table that shows home sales by neightborhood
Home sales by St. Paul neighborhood

Home sales numbers used to be more dynamic and more interesting. Currently, I would describe the housing market as slow.

 

2024 Home Sales hit new low

It has been all over the news that in 2024 home sales were at 1995 levels which means low. The population has grown since 1995 and there are more houses too.

I pulled some numbers from the MLS and made a chart that shows the number of home sales over the last five years. It isn’t that houses aren’t selling. They are selling and prices are at an all-time high. Home sales were lower last year because fewer homeowners decided to sell. Higher interest rates were partly responsible. Move-up buyers did not want to move up to a higher-interest mortgage.

The new Trump tariffs will lead to inflation and higher interest rates. I’ll go out on a limb and predict that there will be fewer home sales in 2025 than there were in 20204. I’ll have some numbers for January 2025 home sales tomorrow.

Graph of home sales in St. Paul for the last five years,
Total home sales in St. Paul, by year

Today is a good day to freeze your credit

Coins, moneyNow is a great time to freeze your credit. All US social security numbers have been compromised as people who have not been vetted or have security clearance have been allowed to access the U.S. Treasury payment system.
This is the first time an un-elected foreign national has the power to tamper with, destroy, or turn off the payment system for tax refunds, Social Security checks, Medicare payments and so much more. Think of it as the government checkbook.
You can find numerous news stories about how Elon Musk and his team can access and control the US treasury payment system have access to all of our social security numbers and more.
Our elected representatives in the legislative branch of government are posting about it on social media instead of trying to stop what looks like a hostile takeover of the government.
Why freeze your credit?
Freezing your credit prevents others from opening new lines of credit in your name. Once someone has your social security number they can use it to apply for credit cards and they can even get your tax refund.
To freeze your credit, you can contact each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can request a freeze by phone, mail, or online.
How to request a freeze
  1. Contact the credit bureau you want to freeze 
  2. Provide your name, Social Security number, date of birth, and address 
  3. If you’re requesting a freeze online, you may need to create an account and provide additional information to verify your identity 

How to contact the credit bureaus 

Equifax
You can call 1-800-349-9960 or mail a request to PO Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348
Experian
You can call 1-888-397-3742 or mail a request to PO Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013
TransUnion
You can call 1-888-909-8872 or mail a request to PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016

You can freeze and unfreeze your credit as many times as you want, and it’s free.  You will need to unfreeze it when applying for a mortgage or auto loan. 

Black History Month and Housing

It doesn’t matter who the president is, February is still Black History Month.

A few years ago I wanted to learn more about how we got to where we are today, especially as it concerns housing here in Minnesota.

So I read  “The Color Of Law” A Forgotten History of how our government segregated America. by Richard Rothstein. I have since read it a few times since.

The book helped me understand how and why our neighborhoods are racially segregated, and they are segregated.

Rothstein gives examples of how public housing helped segregate communities and how federal subsidies given to builders to create whites-only suburbs.

The houses in the suburbs that were built after WWll were a hot new product and were sold as housing exclusively for white people.

It is clear from reading the book that segregation wasn’t an accident but that it was by design. Rothstein outlines how cities from coast to coast became segregated through State, Federal, and local policy and zoning laws.

He shows how housing was built near jobs and how African American workers were not allowed to own the housing and had to drive long distances to work in lower-paying jobs because the best jobs were given to white people.

The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) promoted the idea that if African Americans moved into a neighborhood, property values would fall.

He makes an argument in the book for reparations. After reading it I have to agree because the racial disparities we see today have deep roots.

Please consider reading or listening to “The Color of Law”. You can get the book in almost any format from a library near you.

The last day of January 2025

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun.  The month of January is almost magical. On the first day of the month, the sun sets at 4:42 here in the cold bold North. Today the sun will set at 5:20 PM.  With an earlier sunrise and a later sunset, we gain 50 minutes of daylight in January. I like to celebrate by planning my garden.

I am planning a garden expansion this year. I am not sure which I enjoy more. Planning my garden or gardening. I have never liked winter, but it does give me a break from gardening so that I can do some planning.

 

November sunrise