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American Morning
A Promise Kept?; Early Midnight in Times Square; O'Donnell Under Investigation; Gas Explosion: Second Body Found; Another Blizzard?; Tips for Successful Home Selling
Aired December 30, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on this Thursday, December 30th, the last day of 2010. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Joe Johns. Coming up this hour of "AMERICAN MORNING," can you believe it, I'm sorry, I'm almost speechless.
CHETRY: Just one more.
JOHNS: Just one more day.
CHETRY: You're rushing it.
JOHNS: Another blizzard forming, making its way across the country. That storm is pummeling the western half of the country right now, heavy rains and snows inundating towns and cities. It's beginning to look a lot like last week.
CHETRY: That's Seattle.
JOHNS: Oh, that's just amazing. You know, I've driven up through those mountains there, the Cascade Mountains. A lot more snow up in the mountains then down in the ground. But anyway, Reynolds Wolf is monitoring the latest forecast. He's going to have that story in a couple minutes.
CHETRY: We talk about home prices falling. A lot of people trying to sell their house and saying they can't do it. This morning, we're talking to folks at HDTV getting real world advice on how to unload your property, especially if you're in a hard-hit state like Florida or Arizona.
First we want to get you updated on our top stories. One is the customer service nightmare for passengers stranded, many of them outraged at the airports, trying to find a way home after the blizzard of 2010 hit Sunday night. But they may not get there until 2011 airport officials saying. Solutions and customer satisfaction are very hard to come to at New York-area airports.
JOHNS: Christine O'Donnell facing a criminal investigation. The feds are trying to determine whether the Delaware Republican Senate candidate used campaign money for her personal expenses. She denies it, pointing her finger, instead, at Vice President Biden, among others. She'll explain when she joins us live at 7:30 eastern.
CHETRY: Also, Brett Favre refusing to talk to NFL investigators. Now, his silence will cost the Vikings quarterback $50,000. Meanwhile, the league says it cannot prove that the future hall of famer sent inappropriate texts to a former female New York Jets employee when he was playing for the Jets. Detail coming up.
JOHNS: But we begin this hour with a mea culpa from the mayor of New York as the city, its airports, and its people all are struggling to dig out of the worst blizzards in history. One of the biggest fears is that emergency crews and ambulances would not be able to get to the city's nearly 8.5 million is unfortunately coming true this morning.
CHETRY: Yes, there's as massive gridlock in the outer boroughs paralyzing what little traffic is out there and isolating these rescue vehicles. Mayor Bloomberg who earlier this week told New Yorkers to quit complaining, he's now toning down his comments and admitting the city did not do its job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (I) NEW YORK CITY: You know, you can grade us any way you want. Our focus, we did not do as good a job as we wanted to or that the city has a right to expect. And there's no question, we're an administration that has been built on accountability. When it works, it works so we take credit. And when it doesn't work, we stand up there and say, OK, we did it and we'll try to find out what went wrong and make that information public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, New York sanitation commissioner did promise that every city street would be plowed by 7:00 this morning. A lot of us are thinking it's hard to imagine how he can deliver on that. We're seeing a live picture, this is in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. You see those vehicles hard at work trying to clear the snow.
And you know, it is after 7:00, and we're getting pictures sent in from residents in the outer boroughs showing their streets still untouched by the plows now four days and counting after the storm.
JOHNS: This was a really tough situation for New York City. And it doesn't look like 7:00 was just going to make it go away.
CHETRY: Yes. Also this morning, we're learning of the slow response by the city's 911 system. It looks like it has a human toll here. Two people, including a newborn died, reportedly after waiting hours for emergency personnel to arrive. Susan Candiotti joins us with that part of the story. This is just tragic. We talked about these EMS vehicles, fire trucks in some cases, not being able to get to people who needs it. Now we're hearing about a very tragic situation.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They were swamped with the calls, they really were. It took ten hours to get an ambulance to this particular mother who had just given birth. The sequence of events actually began on Monday morning as the blizzard was winding down. At about 8:30 in the morning, a mother called for help saying she was in labor but they did not give her the highest priority because of the questions and answers she was giving them.
So by 4:30 in the afternoon, she calls again. And at this point, she says she's giving birth, the baby is crowning. But it took them two more hours before they could get an ambulance. And by the time they rushed both to the hospital the baby was then declared dead.
JOHNS: What do you do? A bad situation for the city. There's really nothing she could have done. It's just one of those horrible casualties of a terrible storm.
CANDIOTTI: I guess 49,000 calls they got to 911 on that Monday. So they were terribly busy. The streets were a mess. Now, the sanitation department in terms of the cleanup afterwards in the ensuing days are blaming these on budget cuts, 400 people who should have been on the job that weren't. Mayor Bloomberg denies that he cut anyone from the sanitation department.
CHETRY: Well, I mean -- let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: We take our emergency lifesaving responsibilities very seriously. And I'm extremely dissatisfied with the way our emergency response systems performed. As I announced yesterday, we're going to take a look at everything we did to see if it can be done better, starting with the communications and dispatching system.
Can we do a better job? We're going to try to find out. Could our ambulances have taken different routes? We're looking at that. Perhaps they could have stayed further away and walked to their places rather than try to get down the secondary roads.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: So, now, it's just a matter of trying to figure out what went wrong. Everyone address mistakes were made. They could have done better, they could have reacted quicker and sooner than they clearly did.
JOHNS: And everybody is obviously looking at New York City, up and down the east coast, so many cities look to this city to tell them shears how we do things. And when we screw up, here's how we'll do things better.
CANDIOTTI: Sure, because historically they've done a heck of a job. It just didn't work out this time. And you see the consequences, of course.
CHETRY: Susan Candiotti for us, thank you.
JOHNS: Now to the region's airports were relief is slow and hard to come by. Four days after the big storm thousands still stranded this morning. There are still long lines inside packed terminals. The airports and airlines are trying to catch up. Travelers are lashing out at the airlines for poor customer service. Some are saying the airlines are blaming everything on the weather to take themselves off the hook. So we called the Continental Airlines customer service line. Here's what we got for from them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for calling Continental Airlines. Due to the weather in the northeast we're experiencing unusual high call volume and are unable to take your call. You can check the status of your flight or check in for a flight from your handheld device by going to pda.continental.com. And enter your flight information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Not a lot of help here. There's a reason we got that recording and not a person. Continental 600 call center jobs in February. That's nearly a quarter its reservationists. United slashed 30 percent of its staff in its customer service department in the past decade. And American Airlines eliminated 500 positions when it closed a call center in Connecticut.
CHETRY: Now to the weather out west, and this could spell bi trouble in the east with another blizzard marking its way. But first we focus on what's going on. High winds literally ripping a tree with a six- foot wide trunk out of the ground. It crushed a semi-truck. This is in -- I believe this is Contra Costa County, a little outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. But scenes like this playing out in many parts of central California. Authorities say another tree that fell killed a woman in Santa Rosa.
JOHNS: And higher up, we mean altitude, anywhere from one to three feet in the Rockies and parts of the southwest.
Let's take a look now at the radar rate. The messy storm on the move to the Midwest and maybe the snow-covered east in time for New Years. We begin our team coverage this morning with Casey Wian reporting from Highland, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mud and water everywhere, up to five feet thick in Leslie Best's highland, California, backyard and inside her house. She was starting the cleanup from last week's storms when more rain hit Wednesday.
WIAN (on camera): Do you think the house is salvageable? I mean, these guys are --
LESLIE BEST, FLOODED HIGHLAND RESIDENT: I have no idea. I'm not an expert in this. I know that I need to do as much as I can when I can. That's why we're here today.
WIAN: Along with her 74-year-old father and a cleanup crew consisting largely of state prison inmate volunteers. They've helped lay 150,000 sandbags in Highland in the past week and cleaned out choked storm drains to try to contain the damage. The rain may be tapering off, but the danger remains.
BILL PETERS, CAL FIRE: I've lived in California all my life, for 57 years, and the one thing I've learned, once you start moving earth like this, any little bit of rain over the next few weeks can trigger it all again.
WIAN: Farther north in stormy Santa Rosa, a women camping was killed by a falling tree. Rain, ice, and several feet of snow covered much of the west, and heavy winds posed an additional danger. Heavy snow fell in Washington State. A state trooper says many residents were not prepared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to have a full tank of gas. We need to have proper traction tires or at least make sure you've got tread on your tires enough if you're in a snow situation or carry chains.
WIAN: In Arizona the main artery between Phoenix and Flagstaff was closed because so many big rigs slid off the road. The Department of Public Safety recommended no travel to northern Arizona.
WIAN (on camera): Back here in Highland, officials say it's a miracle to have had no fatalities and no serious injuries during these series of storms. Rescuers have had to pull more than two dozen people out of the raging floodwaters. Joe, Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: That's an unbelievable scene for the people trying to get their houses cleared out. What do you do? More rain on the way, more flooding and more mud slides.
JOHNS: Tough right now.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: In the meantime, we're going to be speaking to Christine O'Donnell, former Senate candidate out of Delaware in just a few minutes. The feds launched a criminal investigation into her campaign spending and want to know if the Delaware Republican misused those funds during the Senate run. She's going to be joining us live in less than 20 minutes.
JOHNS: Coffee, water, Gatorade, Advil, or just hair of the dog, what will you do to cure your hangover Saturday morning?
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: You're still talking Sunday. You're in trouble, Joe.
JOHNS: No, no, not at all. We may have the trick just in time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. Well, it is 16 minutes past 7:00 here in New York this morning. And it was a pretty tough bar to set, the big apple sanitation commissioner promising that every street would be cleared by 7:00 this morning. This was late yesterday as the mayor of New York accepted responsibility for a failed response to the blizzard of 2010.
JOHNS: So joining us now on the phone this morning, the man who made that promise, New York's Sanitation Commissioner, John Dougherty. We should note in the New York Sanitation Departments, they're the people who actually handle the snow removal.
For folks in other cities who aren't familiar with that. You know, some places it's separate responsibilities. So, Mr. Dougherty, I guess the question of the hour for you is has the city met its goal for having those streets cleaned or how close have you come to it?
JOHN DOUGHERTY, NEW YORK SANITATION COMMISSIONER (via telephone): Yes, we have, Joe. We do have a couple blocks in an area in Brooklyn that we're getting a count on now that haven't been completely cleaned because we have vehicles that have to be towed out of these blocks.
This was one of the major problems during the cleanup. But for all practical purposes, the streets have been plowed at least once. What we're running across now, people are complaining we haven't been plowed.
As we go in there to check them and replow them, we're finding that they're shoveling snow out of their driveways, off the cars into the roadways and it in some cases looks like it was never plowed. These are things that happen every ever storm. We'll have to work with it. We made our goal, I think, this morning.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we do want to show you another picture. These are some still photos that we're about to pop up that have been sent us by a man by the name of Joseph Caramano he's in Princess Bay in Staten Island.
He says it's been a real problem there. You know, they've been storms in the past. They've been out there, the plows, the salt spreaders, but he says this is the scene. He hasn't seen a plow go through these streets.
DOUGHERTY: I'm not looking at the pictures. Do you know what time they were taken?
CHETRY: He time stamped them at 6:30 this morning. Are you guys have plows out there at Staten Island now?
DOUGHERTY: Yes, we do. Staten Island should be cleaned, but I will have the Princess Bay area checked as soon as I hang up this phone. It was reported to me that all the streets were completed this morning.
I'll have to go out there and find out -- I don't know if it's a case of people shoveling out or actually we missed the block, but we will check it immediately.
CHETRY: The thing I want to ask, you've been doing this, you've been with the sanitation commission since the 1960s, I mean, the sanitation department.
You've handled snow removal in the past. So you know the city's been through this before and gotten pretty high marks. What do you think, taking your commissioner's hat off, what went wrong this time?
DOUGHERTY: Well, I mean, that's something that we're going to work on after it. I don't want to speculate. From the planning purpose, an operational purpose, we fought this storm, like we fought every storm. So there was no change in that.
Now, whether there was issues along the way or problems, I think one of the biggest problems we ran across so far was the depth of the snow in many places and snowplows getting stuck and not being able to get into the streets along with a tremendous number of abandoned vehicles.
People did not listen, went out with their vehicles and got stuck. Even after the storm, they tried to go through some of the blocks and the snow was anywhere in the city from 16 to 29 inches. Staten Island got the most, around 29 inches particularly on the southern area where Princess Bay is. It was registered as 29 inches from somebody's weather station out in that area. So that was our biggest difficulty, just trying to open up the streets.
JOHNS: One of the things that's sort of been attributed to the problem, is the fact, if I can call it a fact, that there are about 400 sanitation workers who were never replaced after they left their jobs. Are you short-staffed and what can be done about that?
DOUGHERTY: No, we're not short-staffed. I mean, there's a lot of talk about how many sanitation workers we have. We're just about at our 6,000 level for sanitation workers. That's what we had for the storm of 1996. We have the manpower there.
It's a question as to how many men should you have in a department. I mean, if you're running an operation, do you have all the people you need for a 29-inch snowstorm or do you operate on a level that's economical and what you need at most times. How do you address a storm when it comes to, say, 10,000 sanitation workers?
But the fact of the matter is, 6,000, I think, is a good number and I think we follow through on the plans. One of the things we're seeing in this particular snowstorm, in the past, we're able to get a lot of hired equipment in, the front end loader type of equipment that can open up the street.
In this storm, for whatever reason, we've noticed it the last couple years, but it really played a key role in this storm. They just don't come in anymore for whatever reason. That's something we have to look at. We did not get the response from the hired equipment that we count on.
CHETRY: We're reporting that they didn't ask for them to come in until 9:00 a.m. Sunday, there's also --
DOUGHERTY: Well --
CHETRY: Go ahead.
DOUGHERTY: Yes, let me answer that. I mean, we had people registered already. They weren't -- not many of them. But the fact of the matter is, we can't use them until we basically get our major plowing done so that we can manage the storm. Because if they want to come to us, we have to have the main, the primary streets opened up so they can travel to from wherever they're coming from.
CHETRY: I want to ask you one other question. This has been coming up. The Staten Island "Advance" has brought this up as well, questions about whether some of the sanitation workers slowed down on purpose in response to the budget cuts and layoffs to sort of get back at Michael Bloomberg and show how needed they are in the city. What's your response?
DOUGHERTY: Well, the response is they did not. There was no layoff. There was some reduction of, which has not happened yet, the reduction of some supervisors back to sanitation workers, but that move has not come yet. There is a lot of talk of that.
The union, of course, is looking to have more people, no doubt about it. I think that's driving it. Plus, the supervisors' union, as I said, have supervisors, the first-line supervisors, being reduced back to sanitation workers.
So from that point of view, I can see quickly how the press and everybody can pick up, based on comments by a few people that, this is what's causing it. Could there be one or two people out there that, you know, have a problem?
Possibly, I haven't seen it from the workforce as a whole. I think -- and I've talked with the head of the sanitation workers union. He's been cooperating with us fully trying to work with what we have. We would, quite frankly, would like to have 400 members, no question about it. But he has, and his men and women have been doing the job that they're supposed to do, from everything I've seen so far.
JOHNS: John Dougherty of the Sanitation Department here in New York City. Thanks for joining us here this on AMERICAN MORNING.
CHETRY: Good luck, thanks.
All right, we're going to take a break. It's 24 minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Right now, we're getting geared up for, of course, for New Year's Eve. The big Apple celebration, the big on in Times Square and the countdown before the countdown, this is when organizers test out confetti at the cross roads of the world. They did this yesterday.
JOHNS: I don't get that.
CHETRY: They want to see, there they go. They're testing it out right there.
JOHNS: If it's not, what are they going to do?
CHETRY: I guess they're going to make more confetti, go back to the paper shredded. Two thousand pounds of this stuff will be released as the clock hits midnight on New Year's Day.
JOHNS: All right, it could be a really happy New Year for someone perhaps the next shot at the mega millions jackpot on Friday night, New Year's Eve. There has not been a winner for a while. The jackpot is now at $237 million.
CHETRY: Nice.
JOHNS: We, of course, follow the rules here at CNN. There will be, on New Year's Eve, a program that you have seen for the last couple years. Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper live at 11:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll be right back in a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: It's 28 minutes after the hour. Time for this morning's top stories. Christine O'Donnell facing a criminal investigation. The Justice Department and the FBI trying to determine whether the Delaware Republican misused campaign funds during her recent run for the Senate. She denies it and she claims she knows who's out to get her. Christine O'Donnell is joining us in just a minute.
CHETRY: We have new developments this morning. An explosion that took place in Michigan at a furniture store, a second body now found in the rubble. A gas explosion could be heard some many miles away, according to witnesses. They got 300 people out after the blast. As of last night, residents of all but nine homes were able to return. The utility company is investigating what went wrong.
JOHNS: And brutal weather out west, it could spell big trouble in the east with another blizzard possibly storming across the country in time for the New Year. Powerful winds and mud causing damage and higher up in anywhere from 1 to 3 feet in the Rockies and parts of the southwest.
But, first, the case against Christine O'Donnell. The feds are coming after the former Senate candidate from Delaware for allegedly misusing campaign funds.
CHETRY: Christine O'Donnell denies it. She is here to make her case this morning. She joins us live from Philadelphia. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.
CHRISTINE O'DONNELL, FMR. DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you for having me giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Well, to this as thug tactics. You said that it's political enemies out to get you here. Have you been contacted by the FBI or prosecutors at this point without any case against you?
O'DONNELL: No. CHETRY: How did you find out about this?
O'DONNELL: We found out from media calls. We're like, "what?" So I find it awfully suspicious, that if there is an investigation that the "AP" was tipped off before we were tipped off or our lawyer or any other officials. And as we've looked into it, this is simply the same crude complaint that IS obviously politically motivated that's been circulating for the past couple of months. But if anything does materialize, we intend to continue to fully cooperate because we've always taken every measure to make sure that we're in full compliance with all of the rules and regulations. No matter how complicated they are.
JOHNS: Now, Ms. O'Donnell, just for the record, CNN has actually confirmed that there are people out there looking into this case. Although there's not a grand jury investigation.
O'DONNELL: Right.
JOHNS: One of the things that keeps coming up, as you know, this affidavit, we actually have it from David Keegan, that surfaced in the last campaign which essentially had said that you paid rent in 2009 and listed those rent payments as expenses, apparently. Which could be construed as in violation of the campaign laws. What is your response to that? Did you ever do that?
O'DONNELL: No.
JOHNS: And what's the thing that keeps you out of trouble in that issue?
O'DONNELL: Right. Well, the fact is that these are false accusations is what keeps me out of trouble. We've got a great attorney who's setting the record straight with us. But first, let's look at this, Dave Keegan was a volunteer in 2008 so how we know about anything in 2009.
We let him go because he gave so many people on the campaign the creeps. Since then, he's become obsessed for whatever reason with putting these charges out there. But he's even started posting pornographic statements about me on Facebook. So let's take a more serious look at their so-called credible witness.
Now, this whole thing about rent. We rent a townhouse that we use for the campaign headquarters. And because of things like eggs being thrown at my home and my home being broken into and vandalized, I use that town home as my legal residency, and I pay the campaign rent in order to do that. I give the campaign money to have that as my legal residency. Not the other way around.
So these things are being taken out of context. The check that they're referring to is where we reimbursed a former campaign worker for money that he put out of his own pocket. So this is being taken out of context in an effort to discredit my political credibility and to stop a movement in its tracks. Keep in mind, that we upset the Delaware political establishment. And we beat their so-called untouchable incumbent. There's a vendetta to stop this movement in its tracks because if the citizen politicians continue to rise up and put the career politicians on notice, we are going to continue to put the political establishment on notice.
CHETRY: Well, let me ask you about this. You said that they David Keegan is a disgruntled former volunteer that you let go because he gave people the creeps. What about the former staffer Christen Murray who also has accused you of living on campaign donations while the staff went unpaid.
O'DONNELL: Again, we fired her after a week and a half. Before she joined our campaign, she was fired by the Delaware GOP. I kind of felt sorry for her and wanted to give her chance. I saw that her accusation of incompetence was true and, we, too, fired her after a week and a half although we paid her for the full month. And now these accusations that she's making that she saw firsthand accounts you have to keep in mind that this is C.R.E.W. complaint is alleging 2009 misappropriation. She worked for us in 2008. So, what, she saw it through her crystal ball? I mean, you know, clearly, when you look closer, everything taken out of context. And there's no basis. Now, again -
JOHNS: Excuse me. I just wanted to jump in. Thank you, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt. But just to make clear, C.R.E.W. is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. That's what you're talking about.
O'DONNELL: Right. Right.
JOHNS: Just one last question for you. You've been on all the networks this morning. Now, just say there really is an investigation, a federal criminal investigation, isn't it a little bit risky for you to go out and make all of these public statements? I mean, are your lawyers sure that it's a good idea for you to be talking about this if you could really get into trouble with the feds right now?
O'DONNELL: Well, I'm very confident that there have been no impermissible use of campaign funds, and I'd like the opportunity to set the record straight. At least in the court of public opinion. Because as you see, if I remain silent and did not set the record straight, you know, months from now, we would be cleared. Again, this is the same C.R.E.W. complaint that is being sent through the process. And C.R.E.W. is a left-wing George Soros funded group who investigates only conservative candidates.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: let me ask you one quick question about this. You said they're trying to stop a movement in its tracks. What are you doing politically going forward that you think that perhaps people in the establishment are threatened by? Are you planning to run for office again? O'DONNELL: Well, we're starting a pact that encouraging more citizen activists to step up and run for office. Whether they win or not, the mere fact that non-typical candidates, non-establishment anointed candidates would step up and run for office puts the system on notice. And lets them know if you are not accountable to your constituents, you might not remain in office.
And that's something that threatens corrupt politics as usual. And I want to set the record straight, as these disgruntled 2008 former volunteers have stepped up and made these false accusations. Even more 2008 people who were genuinely and authentically involved with the campaign have stepped up to publicly set the record straight. And say, "look, I was involved with the campaign more than a week and a half. Were never saw anything inappropriate going on."
And I also want to set the record straight, that Melanie Sloan, the woman leading this C.R.E.W. complaint is a former Biden staffer who has a very left wing resume as to the left of most, you know, left wing people. So again, take this for what it is. And look at the facts in a real light, as opposed to the liberal spin that they're trying to put on it.
JOHNS: Well, just for the record, obviously, we haven't had a chance to talk to Melanie Sloan. I have been told by her that she's moving on from C.R.E.W. now and is actually going to work for a very well- known Washington attorney, Lonnie Davis. So you might not have her to kick around anymore.
Anyway, thank you so much, Christine O'Donnell for coming in and talking to us about the situation.
CHETRY: Thank you.
O'DONNELL: Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it's 37 minutes past the hour. We're going to take a quick break, coming back talking about how you can rebound out of these housing -
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: 40 minutes past the hour. If you've been hoping for a housing rebound, don't hold your breath. Unfortunately, the latest numbers that have come in from October show that home prices actually dropped for the third month in a row.
JOHNS: They're now at their lowest levels since May, so if you're already upside down on the mortgage, right side up is nowhere in sight. So, how do you sell that house? Well, it's value is declining. We're going to talk to Mike Aubrey, host of Home and Garden TV's "Real Estate Intervention" in just a moment.
But first, Christine Romans is here to tell us what the numbers mean.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It means a lot of people think we're in this housing market double dip. We thought that 2010 was going to be a recovery year. Almost every economists said at least you'd see stabilization this year and you see growth again in housing next year. It's just never happened. Your home prices across the country, you guys, it's down 30 percent from the peak. That's a third of almost the value of most homes wiped out. It's an incredible amount.
Many people thought there would be a bounce this year. We just haven't seen it. In fact, when you look at October, you guys, the volume of sales down a quarter, down 25 percent from last year. And last year was a miserable year.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: So what it means is the housing market has just not taken hold yet. People are still worried about another five, seven, maybe 10 percent lower for home prices makes it very difficult to sell and I can tell you this, for every house on the market, there are hundreds more people waiting to sell their house, when things get a little bit better.
So, the seller is in a real tough spot right now.
CHETRY: All right. So let's bring in Mike Aubrey right now. The bottom line, Mike, should you just be dealing in reality and thinking you're probably going to have to sell your home for a loss?
MIKE AUBREY, HOST HGTV'S "REAL ESTATE INTERVENTION": Well, I mean, really, I think you can't necessarily look at whether or not you're going to lose or create money in this market. You have to remember, worth is a measure of what the market will bear. And in the marketplace like the one that we're in, a buyer is only going to pay what a property is worth. And because of that they're not necessarily losing money, you never actually had it.
JOHNS: So what are some things you can do? I know there are like two or three real things that you really have to think about if you've got a house on the market or if you want to sell? Give us some ideas of what you got to do to get, you know, at least close to what you want out of that housing in terms of money?
AUBREY: Joe, in this marketplace, it is vital that you have two things in order to be successful. You have to be priced right and you have to look good. Make no mistake, you know, the boom days of 2005 are gone. I mean, this is a question of economics. It's supply and demand. There are far more homes on the market than there are qualified buyers that are looking for those homes. And if you haven't priced it right, you've not made it look good, no one's going to buy it at all.
ROMANS: You know, Mike, I wanted your opinion here because that's such good advice. You look at the renovation statistics. And if you put $100,000, some people do this, $100,000 into a kitchen remodel with a bump out for a family room, you're going to get maybe 60 percent or your money back on that. But if you put a steel front door, new garage doors, you put fiber cement siding on, or you do some landscaping in the front, that's where you return the money for a house. Those aren't big purchases. Big spending outlays?
AUBREY: You know what? They're really not. I'll tell you what else, I mean, I hate to give you the lipstick on a pig theory. Walls and floors sell houses. I mean, if you don't have money and you're in a position where you don't have a ton of cash to spend and invest on your property to get it to sell, paint it, put new carpet on it. Things like that have an amazing impact on what buyers think when they come into the property.
CHETRY: Yes, you also talk about the importance of neutrals. Your style simply may not be somebody else's style so they have to sort of picture themselves making your house their home. How do you do that?
AUBREY: You know, there's no doubt about it, things like HGTV has certainly raised the awareness of the American consumers who are buying houses right now. I think people don't want project homes anymore. What they're looking for is exactly what you said, neutral tones. They want to be able to drop their furniture and start living their life. This is really not what it was like when the baby boomers were buying houses. I think people want to come in and they just want to be able to start living there without having to do anything. That's why this idea of using neutral tones like that certainly is a key to a great success for a seller in this market.
JOHNS: You know, a lot of people really don't - I know that you were supposed to ask a question there, Christine?
ROMANS: No, I want to say gray is the new beige, right, Mike? I mean, I'm hearing from a lot of real estate insiders that gray is the new beige. Beige was very 2000, now - early 2000s, a lot of people are decorating with gray colors. And that seems to be something that's resonating with buyers. Three of the same houses on the block, if one of them has a much more modern, cooler palate, sometimes that's just enough to put you over the edge.
AUBREY: I mean, no doubt about it. That kind of contemporary feel, when there is this much competition in the marketplace is that sort of little thing that might carry you over the top and allow you to get the offer, instead of your competition.
CHETRY: All right. Quick question when it comes to the actual selling of the home, Mike, I mean, the bottom line is, you just -- are there deals out there to be had out there right now, if you are looking as a first-time home buyer? And conversely, if you're trying to sell your home but it doesn't have to be sold now, should you pull it from the market and wait?
AUBREY: Well, I think that those things are inversely correlated, right. I mean, if you're a buyer right now, it is an incredible time to buy a piece of property. Prices have come down like we haven't seen them in a long time.
I mean, some areas are down to prices where they're at in the year 2000. Plus, that coupled with the mortgage money as cheap as we've seen it maybe ever, and probably is as cheap as we will ever see it in our lives. I think the idea of being able to go out and get a stable loan product and pay a very low price for a house, for a buyer, yes, it's great to be out there.
But, I think you hit it on the head. As a seller in this marketplace, my advice to people is, if you don't have to sell it right now, try to outlast. Wait and see. I mean, the market has waxed and waned since the beginning of time. If you're able to sort of wait for the market to come back -- and I can assure you it will -- that's not a bad idea. But, if you can't, make sure you price it right or it's just going to sit.
ROMANS: Look at Bristol Palin. She just picked up something for $172,000 in cash. It's like half the price it was. There are deals to be had. Mike's absolutely right. I mean, somebody who's been sitting on the sidelines, it's a great time to be a buyer if you can afford it.
JOHNS: But for a seller, psychologically, it is hard to get your head around the idea of that number being reduced after you've poured so much money into the house.
CHETRY: It is tough.
JOHNS: Anyway, hey, Mike, Christine, thank you so much for this.
ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: And watch, Mike, by the way, "Real Estate Intervention." It's a great show. Thanks so much, Mike Aubrey.
AUBREY: Thanks, you guys, so much.
CHETRY: Well, Reynolds Wolf is going to be along. He has the morning travel forecast and there are a lot of hot spots out there right now that we're keeping an eye on where the weather is just downright awful. Forty-seven minutes past the hour.
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JOHNS: All right. You're going to wake up Saturday and say, I'm never drinking again. Heard that before? But what if we had the cure for hangover? One that really works. Elizabeth Cohen tells us the trick.
It's 50 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: You stumble home. You go to bed with your shoes on. You wake up the next morning with a dry mouth and a pounding headache. Happy New Year.
JOHNS: Yes, I know. It's tough life, right? if you're one of those guys or girls who may drink too much on New Year's Eve -- not saying this is you, of course -- you're going to want to hear this next segment. Our senior --
CHETRY: This is Just for your friends who might do this. We know you wouldn't
JOHNS: Or family members, or whatever.
Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from Miami, this morning, to tell us how to cure your hangover.
CHETRY: OK. If Elizabeth's in Miami, I mean, she's already starting her New Year's Eve celebrations.
JOHNS: In the right place, too. That's just fantastic.
Elizabeth, OK, let's break down the myths and realities of some supposedly tried and true hangover remedies. And perhaps we ought to start with the Bloody Mary.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. The hair of the dog that bit you, right? That's what everybody says. Try that. OK. Not a good idea.
According to the doctors we talked to, they said you might feel better in the beginning, because, well, you're getting drunk again, right? So you're going to feel a little bit better. But in the long run, you're actually making your hangover worse because you're adding more alcohol. So, not a good idea.
CHETRY: So the reason being, they say the reason you're hung over is because you're actually suffering withdrawal symptoms so you may feel a little bit better but then you're going to get withdrawal again, is the bottom line, right?
COHEN: Well, alcohol is toxic. So you're pouring more toxins you're your body. I mean, it just doesn't even make any sense. It might sound like a fun idea but it really doesn't make any sense.
CHETRY: You're right. I mean, that's a college trick.
All right. Alka-Seltzer to the rescue. Alka-Seltzer. A lot of people swear by this. What? This has been around for 80 years or something?
COHEN: Yes. Next year is its 80th anniversary. And, actually we're told that it really actually does do some good. It basically has baking soda in it and that can settle your stomach.
JOHNS: Really?
COHEN: So if your stomach is part of your hangover, this can actually do you some good.
JOHNS: All right. So -- and here's another one you'll find in the drugstores all the time; the hangover pills.
CHETRY: Yes, we were looking at these.
JOHNS: We were trying to figure out what's in them.
CHETRY: Yes. So this is interesting because these -- it looks like they have a bunch of different herbs and some things mixed in here. But you have to be set -- setting your mind to getting drunk, which a lot of people don't do. They do it accidentally.
JOHNS: Absolutely.
CHETRY: Because this one says you have to start taking these pills as you're drinking. It says take two more after four to six drinks. Take two more after -- I mean, after a while, I mean, you just know you're going to be drunk.
COHEN: Right. It takes -- right, exactly. How could you start timing all those hours when you're totally inebriated? Right. That doesn't make sense.
And, actually, believe it or not, researchers have studied this. I don't know if they had NIH funding you know, or not. I don't know if the taxpayers paid for this. But they actually studied this and they looked at a bunch of different hangover remedies and they found that they actually didn't work.
JOHNS: All right. So now we do have the aspirin, which is one of my very favorite things anyway, and ibuprofen. Both of these good ideas?
COHEN: Yes. Actually, you know what, to some extent they work. Aspirin or ibuprofen will take away the headache that can come along with a hangover. But on the flip side, they can also really irritate your stomach. So, if your headache is your main complaint, they might be a good idea. If your stomach's not feeling so good, you might want to think twice about it.
CHETRY: All right. Then, people always say hydrate. Drink up your Gatorade, drink water. Does that help?
COHEN: Yes. Water is actually probably the best hangover remedy. Because a lot of what you're feeling in a hangover is dehydration. And so, drink, drink, drink. Get that water into the system. That's really important.
And, you know what? I, since you guys have all your fun props, I brought one, too. And it's called a pillow. And a pillow is what you really need after you have a hangover. You need to drink it off, water. And you need to sleep it off. So those are the two things to remember.
CHETRY: Right. And the ultimate hangover cure is don't get too drunk in the first place.
JOHNS: Exactly.
CHETRY: Then you don't have to worry about it.
COHEN: There you go. Prevention's the best cure, isn't it, right?
CHETRY: All right, Elizabeth, thanks so much. And have a Happy New Year in Miami.
COHEN: Well, thank you. Happy New Year in New York.
JOHNS: No mojitos.
COHEN: All right. I'll try.
CHETRY: Fifty-seven minutes past the hour. We have your top stories coming right up.
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