I just bought my own home for more than it's worth, and I'm not too upset about it.

How did that happen? About two days after I'd closed on my mortgage refinance, the city's reassessment came through. I'd requested a new tax assessment, knowing that I couldn't possibly sell the house for what the city thought it was worth. The assessor's office responded promptly, without fuss, and the new assessment came it at just about what I'd thought it  should -- some $40,000 less than the previous assessment and the real estate appraisal.

All these assessments, the tax appraiser's and the real estate assessor's, are acts of best-guessing by knowledgeable people. Essentially, they are well-researched fiction. Your house is worth what someone decides to pay for it. Right now, that's less than I want, and that's why I refinanced.

Refinancing was part necessity and part an act of faith. Wauwatosa is a great and hugely under-recognized value. Housing prices here never soared to dizzying heights, so the market "correction" won't be as severe as in other places. It's not going to get any cheaper to build houses. And as the cost of fuel -- and everything else -- keeps rising, close-in communities like Tosa  that have it all already will look better and better. The far-out suburbs are fast losing their sheen.

But are we proactive enough to make the most of the great opportunities to make Tosa the first place people look to live and locate their businesses? Take a look at Shorewood's website."At the edge of the city and the heart of everything" says it all.  Now look at Wauwatosa's. Ours is a good place for residents to get information. But it does nothing to "sell" the city. Nothing to engage the imagination or give people something that says "that looks like my kind of place."

I suppose what we need is a marketing campaign. We don't need to wait for new city plans to be in place before we start to show people that this is where the real center of everything between Milwaukee and Waukesha really is.

The question is, can our leaders see the opportunity to step up what needs to be stepped up (schools, green spaces, and infrastructure) and stride out to lead the parade of people and pocketbooks marching into Tosa?

Everyone is pretty sure that we vote for candidates based on rational decision-making. But the research says we're not rational. Instead, we are rationalizers. We hunt and sift for good sounding reasons for our decisions after we've already made them.

That sounds about right to me. Researcher Richard Lau says that the real reasons for choosing as we do are:

1. The candidate shares our biases.
   
2. Our neighbors say nice things about them.  

According to Lau, who's coauthor of How Voters Decide: Information Processing in Election Campaigns, what doesn't sway people are policy analyses or arguments.

What's more, "the people who look at the most information. . . are not necessarily the people who are going to best be able to determine which candidate is best for them. Really, people often do better with little information than with a lot of information."

Who knew?  

If you're voting Tuesday, chances are you fall into one of these voting types:

1. Fast and frugal (the one issue voter)
2. Cognitive miser (looks for cue words and goes with them)
3. Rational (try to learn as much as possible)
4. Confirmatory (you already know you're going to like the liberal or conservative candidate better).
   

You'll have to read the article if you want to find out why "less information is more." But I'll use the advice for my endorsement:

Vote yes for the fire station. We need it, it's cheaper now than it will be later, and Dean Redman is an upright kinda guy who wouldn't steer us wrong.

As for the mayoral candidates, you've already known for a long time who you were going to vote for, haven't you? 

The past two weeks have been full of encounters that could have been  painful--but weren't. Trips to auto repair shops and trips to refinance a mortgage at a higher interest rate aren't on anybody's top ten list of life experiences. But both neighborhood trips were painless, even pleasant.

Kudos to Landry's Automotive Service Station at 115th and  Bluemound and Central States Mortgage on North Avenue across from Mayfair Mall.

Car repair

I walked into Landry's knowing I had a bull's eye tattooed on my forehead.

"Ah, well, she's running really rough. I don't know if it's the body or the engine, maybe both, but something's off. Oh, and the brake light's on. Just. . .fix it, you know? " The young woman who took the order smiled and nodded, but I wondered if she was thinking "could you be more stupid, lady?"

"Oh, don't worry. They'll figure it out for you," she said.

A couple hours and conversations later, I drove away in a car that was running much better. Total damages: $44 and some odd change.

The only problem was the mechanic guy didn't laugh at my jokes. As some of you know, I'm enormously entertained by myself and think everyone else should be too. When he said, "Those brakes'll last you another 20,000 miles, depending on how you drive," I rolled my eyes and tilted my head the old Nissan's way. "How do you THINK I drive?" I asked, looking at the crumpled bumper and missing side mirror.  The poor man looked puzzled. That, or he was a kind sort.

Mortgages

Now for the longer story. The other day at about 11:45 am, I locked in a new 30 year mortgage at a decent rate. If I'd have done it 15 minutes later, the rate would have been higher. That's how crazy the market is. I'm not going to mention the rate because it will sound high to some and low to most. It's all relative--these days, more than ever.

I might have found a cheaper rate, but not one that I could put so much confidence in. No hidden points or fine print hiding scary changes. No prepayment penalties. I know who they'll sell the loan to.

This will be the third mortgage I've gotten with the able guidance of Wendy at Central States Mortgage (CSM)

Maybe you don't know that CSM is the largest mortgage company in Milwaukee. A regional business headquartered here in Tosa at the Fairview Building, it employs 500 people at 14 offices in eight states. And while some mortgage giants are being cut down at the knees, Central States is doing very nicely, thank you. 

I called company CEO Dick Jungen to ask why.

He laughed and said, "In business there's a saying: if you can't win by being good, be lucky. I guess I've been lucky. We've been blessed with great partners in the credit unions and with working in the Midwest where housing prices never went crazy."

"Our niche," he added, "is our partnerships with credit unions. We've always been oriented to helping people buy houses, with not as much emphasis on refinancing. Like the credit unions, we're home-buyer advocates. It's great to put people into their first houses. And if they're happy, they come back to us."

One reason credit unions make great partners, according to Jungen, is that "they do a lot of consumer education, and when people come to us they are pretty knowledgeable--and often prequalified."

Educated consumers. Lasting relationships with customers and business partners. Straight-forward business practices. What a concept!

Jungen and four others started the business 24 years ago. CSM is now a Credit Union Service Organization with 26 credit union shareholders and relationships with hundreds of other credit unions. They've expanded into other related business.

But Jungen and his wife "live what we practice in business," residing in Wauwatosa and investing in real estate here. Some employees have been there 15 or 20 years. The company rewards them with certificates for local businesses, including Mayfair Mall across the street. And Jungen shapes the local scene as a board member for the Wauwatosa Economic Development Corporation, Educational Foundation of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin Mortgage Bankers Association, Better Business Bureau of Wisconsin, and more.

There's no question in my mind that this business has a stake in Wauwatosa and its homeowners doing well.

And you have to give props to a CEO who gives his direct line phone number to someone he's never met. It's so. . . neighborly!

The name "Wauwatosa" is disappearing from local institutions. Wauwatosa Credit Union is now Focus. Meanwhile, Wauwatosa Savings Bank announced that it's changing its name "because of recent growth and expansions," though it hasn't decided to what.

Growth and expansions?  From the Small Business Times: "Wauwatosa Holdings Inc., the parent company of Wauwatosa Savings Bank, reported this week that its net income declined substantially in the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2007. The company's fourth-quarter net income shrunk to $307,000, or 1 cent per share, from $2.3 million, or 7 cents per share, in the same period a year ago, as the company incurred an eight-fold increase in its provisions to cover bad loans, according to a filing with the the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. For the full year, the company's net income plummeted to $1.6 million from $8.1 million in 2006.

"A name change is necessary to better reflect what we are now, and what we plan to be in the future," said to bank President and Chief Executive Officer Doug Gordon in the Oconomowoc Focus (a news medium, not to be confused with the credit union).

Some of the proposed options: Granite Bank, Security First Bank and WaterStone Bank. Write-ins are also being accepted. I'm thinking Disappearing Bank, or maybe Bad Loans Bank, would be a better reflection of what they are now.

I'm not sure what's wrong with the name Wauwatosa. It's the only one in the world. If you do a Google search on Wauwatosa, you get directed where you want to go. Try that with Focus, Granite, or Credit Crunch.

The Bradley Center is also looking to change its name through the sale of naming rights. Which seems strange, since it's already named after the family of benefactor Jane Bradley Pettit. Center president Steve Costello said that "the changing economic realities of the sports and entertainment industry require that we explore all available options to help preserve Mrs. Pettit's gift." Her gift, but not her family legacy.

The Bradley name has been around as a corporate name (half of Allen-Bradley) since about 1910. Anyone want to place a wager on what the new name will be and how long it will last?

Or on which mayoral candidate is most likely to offer to sell the naming rights to Wauwatosa?

No, this isn't about Wauwatosa's real Cool Pool at Hoyt Park, whose friends invite everyone to a Valentine's celebration and fundraiser on February 9.

(Though if you go there, you'll get to hear West and East high school students sing and watch Roosevelt's fifth graders tap and fox trot their Mad Hot Ballroom hearts out. And what could be cooler than that?)

 It's about the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Cool Pool weekly round-up of consumer participation opportunities the Cool People recommend. Since the paper is desperately seeking younger readers, the main criterion for coolness seems to be youth--and unlimited disposable income. There's the occasional token Senior Cool Person, such as art gallerian Katie Gingrass. But for the most part, I'm thinking you have to be pretty young to keep up with the exhausting dinner-theater-bar-shopping marathon pace.

I've never been a Cool Pool qualifier. In college, I didn't have the temperament for social engagement-saturated weekends.  There wasn't money for spas, dinners out, and cocktails. Though I did know the Madison bars with great free hors d'oeuvres where you could buy one beer and get fed to last the weekend. Porta Bella comes to mind

This weekend, in addition to avoiding getting caught double dipping during Super Bowl, I'll spend most of my time at a convent facilitating a retreat. About a dozen other people in the four county region think that's a Cool Thing to do.

That leaves a visit to the dog park behind the Ronald McDonald House as my one recommendable Tosa Cool Move. It doesn't cost a thing.

If you want to jump into the Wauwatosa Cool Pool, regardless of your age, I'd love to hear what you are doing around town this weekend. Plugs for Wauwatosa business places from people who patronize them are welcome! So are tales of competitive snow-blowing.