Another round of real estate incentives? The Century 21 real estate company is asking Congress for more help boosting the real estate market. Tom Kunz, Century 21's president and chief executive, stopped by The Post Thursday morning. He and some of the company's franchisees had just made the rounds on Capitol Hill, asking lawmakers to boost the current, and temporary, $8,000 first-time-buyer tax credit to $15,000 -- and to make it available to anyone buying their principal home.He also thinks government should push 30-year fixed mortgage rates down to 4-4.5 percent for about a year.

The $8,000 credit has been great for first-timers, Kunz said, but the market needs more. "Some first-time buyers are taking the foreclosed properties. What we wanted was to open up these markets above it" -- the higher-priced move-up homes -- "and get that same kind of effect going forward," he said.

Kunz said the large number of re-defaults among people who have received loan modifications is a reason to direct more incentives away from foreclosure prevention and toward the rest of the market. "Let's work more on the demand side versus trying to halt what's probably going to happen anyway," he said.

"There is no way that first-time buyers are going to solve this issue by themselves," Kunz said.

Weekend reading: In Saturday's Real Estate Section, Renae Merle reports on homeowners who are looking at the toughest real estate market in a generation -- and deciding it's a good time to try selling without an agent.

The Weekend Poll

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In one of every five U.S. homes in the U.S., there is no traditional land-line telephone anymore, according to an Associated Press story by Alan Fram. And the share of households that relies only on a cell phone rose rapidly last year, driven in large part by household cost-cutting.

The statistics come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why do the folks who are charged with figuring out the ways of flu pandemics bother to track the number of cell-only households? It's because cell-only households are not covered by their telephone surveys, reducing the accuracy of the CDC's health studies.

I've been considering cutting the cord myself--or at least drastically reducing my land-line service. Why spend for overlapping phone service when I already have a phone in my pocket? My daughter, who is living away at college, won't consider using anything but her cell. Even my 70-something year-old aunt, who began her career as a Bell Telephone operator, calls me on her cell so she can avoid long-distance charges. (She would be appalled at the idea of doing without the old copper-wire phone, however.)

Reliable access to 911 emergency service is probably the most compelling argument for keeping a land line, but even that is becoming less of an issue. Pete Piringer, spokesman for Montgomery County Fire and Rescue, said most of the new cell phones have GPS technology that enables dispatchers to figure out where callers are. But the switch to the new technology is not complete, and they can have trouble tracing calls to an address if there's a problem such as a dropped call, a dead battery or a caller who simply doesn't know where he is. They have the same problem with internet-based phone services.

Before you cut the cord, you should make sure your cell has the latest GPS technology so emergency responders can find you even if you're too flustered to blurt out your address.

I will admit to one frivolous reason why I would like to keep at least minimal land-line service. I own a reconditioned antique phone from the 1940s, and I would like to continue to hear its bright ring. (Children are shocked at how long it takes to actually dial a phone number.)

Are you ready to cut the cord?

Privacy and sanctuary have long been important to the people who run Miriam's House, a rehabbed apartment building in the District's Shaw-Cardozo neighborhood where as many as 15 women at a time can find nurturing support as they struggle with HIV, and often a history of substance abuse and homelessness. But it's hard for a charity to garner public support -- and donations -- if people don't know they're there.

The garden at Miriam's House in Washington. (Courtesy Miriam's House)

"We're so careful about privacy and security, we've not done much about getting our name out," said Carol D. Marsh, who runs the organization with her husband, Tim Fretz. They live on the premises, along with three resident volunteers. "Given the current economic reality, we've really had to change that."

One result: A fundraiser scheduled for May 12, to mark their 13th anniversary. It will be held off-site at the True Reformer Building, 1200 U St., NW, beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets range from $5 (for folks not earning a wage) to $20, for the program. It will include an exhibit of art and music by residents, along with an oral presentation of the stories of two former residents. Marsh said they hope to raise $10,000 through ticket sales and donations.

Marsh said most residents now are women in their 40s and 50s. Their stays can be as brief as a week for those needing hospice care near the end of their lives, or as long as 12 years. On average, the stay is 2 1/2 to 3 years. Some women recover to a point where they can move to another form of housing; sometimes a substance-abuse relapse forces someone to leave.

Miriam's House provides more than a roof overhead. Onsite, they offer addiction counseling, secondary medical care, respite care for mothers, personal care, and a sense of community. They also help residents take advantage of offsite services such as physical, occupational and speech therapy, and medical care.

Miriam's House recently began opening to visitors and potential volunteers for monthly "Come and Learn" sessions. "It's not a fundraiser, it's a friend-raiser," Marsh said. "We never had people come to the house. It's these women's home. We thought it was an invasion."

But, with fundraising made more difficult by the recession, she and Fretz presented the idea to residents. "To a woman, they said 'go ahead, do it. We want Miriam's House to keep going,' " she said. The next one is scheduled for June 11. Contact Marsh for details at 202-667-1758, ext. 105, or at cmarsh@miriamshouse.org.

If you know of a housing-related charity that deserves attention in Local Address's Department of Hopeful News, let us know with a quick comment, or send me an e-mail at razzie@washpost.com.

Fair housing complaints spiked up 17 percent over the past year, according to a report just out from the National Fair Housing Alliance, a DC-based consortium of more than 220 private, nonprofit fair housing groups around the country. They blame the foreclosure crisis, which has forced a lot of families into the rental market, and the rise of Internet advertising, which has scant gatekeeping regarding the content that's posted.

After I saw alliance's report, I spent about half an hour searching Washington-area for-rent ads on Craigslist just to see what I might find. In just that brief search, I found a few eye-openers--and then called Shanna Smith, president and chief executive of the alliance, for her reactions.

From an ad for a one-bedroom apartment: "Mt. Pleasant also has a great ethnic mix of professionals and young families ... The other three units are occupied by professionals in their early 30s."
Smith said, "Yeah, that is an example. When you talk about young professionals and families, you have to think of everybody who is excluded from that." What about people who work in service industries or building construction, she asked. Would they feel welcome? And she acknowledged that the ad-writer may have thought it was a positive to talk about "a great ethnic mix," she said it's important to realize how some may see ethnic as a code word meaning "oh, that's where African-Americans live so maybe I don't want to live there."

Btw, that was not the only ad I found that referred to "young professionals."

Another example, this one for a one-bedroom basement apartment in Lanham. It referred to a "quiet home," a "quiet neighborhood," and a "peaceful home."
Smith laughed when I read that one. "If you're a family with kids, well, kids aren't quiet," she said. An ad like that would not, by itself, be cause for her organization to bring a fair housing lawsuit, she said, but it could cause them to have trained testers investigate to see if they were treated differently because of race, color, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin--the classifications protected under federal fair housing laws.

How to do the right thing when advertising a property for sale or rent? Talk about the property, not the people. That simple principle should apply whether you place your ad in a print publication or on a free online site.

Smith said anyone who suspects they have been a victim of discriminatory treatment should contact their local nonprofit fair-housing center. In the Washington area, that's the Equal Rights Center, 202-234-3062.