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Shoe Repair Shops Put Best Foot Forward Despite Pandemic

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NEW YORK – It’s something Nelson Yanza has been doing since he was a youngster growing up in Ecuador — repairing shoes. 

His hard work that started working at his brother’s shop has paid off. When he came to the United States, he worked at a Midtown Manhattan shoe repair shop for 15 years.

What You Need To Know

  • Nelson Yanza and Wife Yesica bought Yanz Leather Services on the Upper East Side three years ago

  • Nelson Yanza worked at a Midtown Shoe and Leather Repair Shop for 15 years before buying his own place

  • The Yanzas met while working at The Leather Spa in Midtown

  • Nelson Yanza learned shoe repair as a youngster at his brother’s shop in Ecuador

It’s where he met his wife Yesica. Now, they own their own shop on Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side. 

At any given moment, the Yanza’s can be rescuing

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Home closings increase in 2020 along coastal SC counties despite COVID pandemic | Myrtle Beach Business

home improvement loans

Myrtle Beach Realtor Travis Muir put a condo up for sale in September at Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard and within an hour, it was sold.

Not an every day occurrence, the realtor for The Hoffman Group admits. But, after all, it’s 2020 and anything can happen.

“The biggest thing is pricing it within realistic market price,” Muir said, adding 2020 has been his best year for sales, pushing nearly triple what he normally does.

“With this one being an investment property, the price point for the rate of return… I think one of the biggest things, too, is the interest rates are lower than they have been in a very long time. That gives people more incentive to go ahead and make that jump. They were thinking of buying in a two- or three-year window, but now with the interest rates so low, people are moving faster.”

Closed

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Wellness Home Design Tips For Weight Management During The Pandemic

kitchen remodel

Hundreds of headlines blare daily warnings about the dreaded “Covid 19” pounds packed on during these long pandemic months. Americans are locked out of their local gyms and yoga studios, locked down in their homes, and locked away from friends and family members for support. What isn’t locked down are the refrigerator and pantry, and comfort food eating is on the rise. What impact is this having on your health, and what can you do about it?

Weighing In

First, the good news: “Much like the myth of the ‘Freshman 15,’ which has been disproven through numerous studies, the ‘Covid 19’ phenomenon is more myth than reality,” declares Jennifer Lombardi, a certified eating disorder psychotherapist at Kaiser Permanente’s Eating Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program in Sacramento.  That doesn’t mean

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Vacation home demand soars during coronavirus pandemic

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National Housing Conference CEO David Dworkin on how the coronavirus outbreak has impacted the housing market and home buying trends.

Home sales are booming in popular vacation spots, as the pandemic leads more Americans to seek places to work or relax within driving distance of home.

In traditional vacation destinations such as Key West, Fla., Ocean City, N.J., and Traverse City, Mich., online house shopping and pending sales are up relative to the country overall, according to a new analysis by Zillow Group Inc.

CONDOS COULD MAKE COMEBACK IN HOUSING MARKET IF SINGLE-FAMILY HOME PRICES KEEP RISING 

Similar to the recent rise in interest for suburban and rural homes that are a car ride from major cities, the growth in demand for homes in vacation towns shows how Covid-19 is reshaping home shoppers’ priorities, said Jeff Tucker, senior economist at Zillow.

“Home shoppers are particularly motivated to shop for a

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Upcoming home improvement show at Expo Center to meet spike in projects during pandemic

home remodeling

ROYAL PALM BEACH — Taking advantage of this prolonged stretch at home to make some changes to your surroundings? 



a group of people standing in front of a store: The Expo Center at the South Florida Fairgrounds, seen here during an Antiques Festival in 2009, will play host to the Home Improvement and More Show on Oct. 23-25.

© Palm Beach Post File Photo
The Expo Center at the South Florida Fairgrounds, seen here during an Antiques Festival in 2009, will play host to the Home Improvement and More Show on Oct. 23-25.

You’re not alone, and the staff of the South Florida Fair wants to help.

The Home Improvement and More Show is Oct. 23-25 at the fairgrounds’ Expo Center, 9067 Southern Blvd. The event features more than 60 vendors across 35 categories related to home improvement, said Tim Pachis, corporate sales manager for the South Florida Fair.

More: No stickball in Wellington this year, but Wycliffe league has terrific plan for $60 dues

The show will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday,

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Home Improvement Market Sees Surge During Pandemic

home remodeling

Financialnewsmedia.com Market Commentary

PALM BEACH,  Fla., Oct. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Analysts expect home improvement spending to reach $439.9 billion in 2020 – In the time of a global pandemic, there is indeed no place like home. As millions of Americans practice social distancing while working and learning remotely, the home has become the focal point of our lives. The desire to make residences safer, more comfortable and more enjoyable has led to a home improvement boom.   Mentioned in today’s commentary includes:  NeoVolta (OTCQB: NEOV), Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW).

The Home Improvement Research Institute predicts Americans will spend $439.9 billion on home improvement products in 2020. The online home remodeling platform Houzz reports that demand for kitchen and bath remodeling was up 40% year over date in June 2020, while home additions increased 52% and fencing projects jumped 166%. Pool and

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Home sales rise despite low inventory and pandemic

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New-home sales also rose sharply in August to their highest level since September 2006. Sales of newly built homes reached an annual rate of 1.01 million in August 2020, 43.2 percent higher than in August 2019, according to the Census Bureau. New-home sales were also up 4.8 percent compared to July 2020.

Low inventory and high prices

While demand for houses is strong despite the coronavirus pandemic, the shortage of homes for sale means that prices are rising rapidly in many markets. The number of existing homes for sale dropped by 18.6 percent in August 2020 compared to August 2019, according to NAR. Inventory of newly built but unsold homes also dropped dramatically by 40 percent compared to August 2019 to the lowest supply since the data has been tracked beginning in 1963.

For the Washington area, the median listing price was up 9.2 percent for the week ending Sept.

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No Home, No Wi-Fi: Pandemic Adds to Strain on Poor College Students

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Mr. Sawyer, who wants to become a pastor, is using his time off to work for civil rights organizations and to fund-raise so that he can re-enroll in the spring and obtain a doctorate in theology. “It’s definitely a delay, but sometimes stumbling blocks come,” he said.

Many students like Mr. Sawyer have been looking for alternative ways to pay for their education. As the coronavirus was closing campuses this past spring, Rise, a student-led organization that advocates college affordability, created an online network to help students find emergency financial aid, apply for public benefits and locate food pantries.

Rise has continued to serve more than 1,000 students a month who have struggled to pay rent, keep jobs and secure internet access, said Max Lubin, the organization’s chief executive. “We’re overwhelmed by the need,” he said.

Stable housing and healthy food were already major concerns before the pandemic. A 2019

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Nursing Home Residents Struggle to Vote Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

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Rosewood Care Center in Inverness, Ill. on April 13, 2019. (Danielle Scruggs/The New York Times)
Rosewood Care Center in Inverness, Ill. on April 13, 2019. (Danielle Scruggs/The New York Times)

Rosewood Care Center in Inverness, Ill. on April 13, 2019. Credit – Danielle A. Scruggs—The New York Times/Redux

Ivan Lakos was born in Hungary and came to the United States in 1951 as a displaced person after World War II. He became a citizen after about five years and has voted consistently ever since. But this year, with COVID-19 cases again on the rise in the U.S., the 96-year-old worried whether he’d be able to continue that tradition.

Lakos lives in a skilled nursing home at the Carol Woods Retirement Community in North Carolina, which is home to roughly 500 residents and usually hosts its own polling place with volunteers on hand to help residents fill out ballots and navigate voting machines. But this year, that isn’t an option for him. To protect against COVID-19,

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Smoking from home: Imperial Brands sees revenue lift from pandemic

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LONDON (Reuters) – Demand for cigarettes has picked up in the COVID-19 pandemic, helped by a rise in home working that has given smokers more opportunities to light up, Imperial Brands said on Thursday.

The maker of Gauloises and West cigarettes nudged up its full-year revenue forecast.

A spokesman for the British firm said consumers appeared to be spending more on tobacco as they saved money in other areas, such as travel and holidays, while working from home meant many of them were not restricted by when they could smoke.

The news came as Ladbrokes and bwin owner GVC Holdings raised its annual earnings outlook, helped by a surge in online gaming, in another sign consumers are looking to escape the stresses of the pandemic.

Imperial said it expected full-year net revenue to be broadly flat, with a 1% increase in its tobacco business offsetting a 30% drop in its

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