Retail therapy: It's the answer for almost any problem. Girlfriend broke up with you? Didn't get that promotion? Buy yourself something pretty. People like to shop, especially for high-status items, when they're feeling down. But parting with cash is also a painful process, so what gives? In a new paper in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers Niro Sivanathan of the London Business School and Nathan Pettit of Cornell University describe how they think people resolve this conflict. more ›

Thinking about kicking off 2009 by buying a home? It seems prices are falling month after month, but you may be interested to know where the biggest price drops are happening around Los Angeles. Real Estate website Redfin put together their monthly index of rate-drops and compiled some charts representing area cities and towns as well as L.A. neighborhoods to help potential buyers, or the just plain curious, see where things are getting cheaper. They explain that the charts "show the percent of MLS, FSBO or REO listings that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days," excluding areas too small to provide helpful data. (A full ranking of areas is available to download from their site, too.) more ›

With high gas prices, the sales in scooters has risen. We should know. We've been trying to buy a Vespa for the past three months in the height of summer and found that most SoCal Vespa dealerships had a hard time holding onto their stock. Not that they were complaining as they were able to easily charge a premium for the much sought-after scooters boasting fuel economy 78 mpg and up. more ›

Another Earth Day is upon us, and to me the 'celebration' of such seems to be about encouraging folks to hop in the Prius, rush out to the nearest participating retail establishment, whip out the charge card and purchase some (imported, of course) environmentally conscious thingamajig or three. In between the free concerts serving organic micro-brew, of course. more ›

An article in the NY Times advises renters are better off paying that monthly check to the landlord than actually buying property. In “A Word of Advice During a Housing Slump: Rent” writer David Leonhardt takes data from every metropolitan area (including LA) to forecast the benefits of buying vs. renting. Leonhardt writes: “Over the next five years, which is about the average amount of time recent buyers have remained in their homes, prices... more ›