from tuesday on. >> alexandra steele. >> thanks for watching today. i'll see you back here at the top of the hour. >> good to be with us. 13 inch height difference but through the magic of television we made it work. "your bottom line" starts now. thanks for watching, everybody. good morning, thank you. see you at the top of the hour. if you have a pile of cash and sparkling credit now is the time to buy a home. what about everyone else? good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. the dow just wrapped up its best first quarter since 1998, anyone with a 401(k) is happy, since 46% of americans don't own stock there may be some who don't feel any richer. maybe you are feeling it in housing. this week home prices jumped more than 8% in january, the biggest year over year gain since june 2006, all 20 of the markets tracked by s&p case shiller showed home prices

driving, slim inventory, low interest rates and improving jab market and fewer distressed sales, but some people have been locked out, lenders have gotten much stricter about rirlts. requirements. if you have a resume with gaps you're going to have a hard time getting a mortgage and if you can't afford a hefty downpayment the rock bottom interest rates may be out of reach. you're missing out but investors are not. they are making huge moves, investors made up 22% of february's existing home sales, 32% of february's home sales were all cash, theser hedge funds, moguls, international players with fat bank accounts. imagine not needing a mortgage for the biggest purchase most of us will ever make. is the housing recovery just more evidence we're living in one america with two economies? ali velshi is cnn's business correspondent, mark moreale, private rich investors smell money in real estate.

they're scooping up properties in atlanta, detroit, las vegas, phoenix, l.a., those markets have seen huge price jumps. is the average american getting squeezed out of here? more than a quarter of the sales are to people who are buying five, ten, 15 properties at a time. >> the question is, is the average american in danger of being squeezed out again? the run-up in prices before 2006-2007 average investors in california there was zero chance you were going to buy a house and rents were going up. at this point the problem is i always encourage people two ways to make money in housing or the stock market. the stock market i can get anybody into it at any time with any amount of money and i encourage people to understand that. house something tricky. lot of people wanted to get into housing but couldn't get the mortgage. there are people who want to refinance for lower rates. if you have the access to get into the market it is accessible to everyone with good credit, a downpayment and an income. if you don't, you're getting squeezed out and missing this

rally because there's nothing you can do about it. >> most people worry about a job. you can make money in housing and the stock market but most of us make money in our paycheck, that's how we forward or grow our wealth. home ownership that rate has been declining, still declining. it's a long way from where it was before the housing collapse. should we be loosening lending standards so that people can participate in this or is that the lesson from the bubble, we shouldn't have people sketchy on the job front able to get in the housing market. >> the lending standard should be fair but pricing should be fair. one of the things that caused the housing bubble were mortgage products and interest rates that varied. there were teaser rates and there were huge jumps. we need fair mortgage products. >> that's coming. >> we need fair statements. >> that's coming, isn't it? >> the fact of the matter is -- i think it's on the way but without a job you can't afford any house, you can't afford to rent or buy so as the job market comes back i think we'll see

improvement in the housing market. >> fewer people are underwater. >> sure. >> the house prices are rising. 10.4 million people still have negative equity. that means they owe the bank more than the home is worth. but that number is 200,000 fewer than the previous quarter, that's a sign that everybody who has their hands in housing -- >> there are ways everybody benefits even if you can't afford to buy a house. when people buy houses even if it's a group of investors, apollo, blackstone, big companies buying houses, renovating them, renting them out and keeping them in better condition that creates jobs for people, new houses, it's only about 8% or 9% of the market, new houses mean construction jobs for people which can help you get wealthy. what we saw in the late '80s and '90s and 2000s, home prices were appreciating faster than wages. you'd make more and more money and the house is more expensive. >> with all the free money. >> we'll get to that point. we'll have fairer lending standards but we're not going to get to the point where anybody who can spell their name gets a

loan. >> there's some idea the whole idea of chasing after american home ownership is dead, you should be renting, saving money for your kids through college, saving money to retrain, making sure that you have everything else, all your other ducks in the row before you jump into the housing market. >> americans should have choices and a house is more than an investment. house is a home. it's a secure place for your family, it's a secure place for you to raise your kids, it's a secure place for your longevity when you get to your senior years. maybe you have a house that's fully paid for, so home ownership is still central to the american dream, but the consumer should have choices and that choice should be to rent or to own or to invest in the stock market. >> rents are rising. 12 quarters rents are rising. >> the rental market is tight, so many people have been pushed into the rental market. >> who otherwise would have been owning houses. >> and someone e-mailed or tweeted it's not two economies, christine, it's three, four,

five, six, depending on what kind of job, where you live and how underwater you are on the loan. housing market is recovering. we know who is winning in that, big, big investors and certainly hope it trickles to the rest of us. for those of you who do own a home do you know there's money in it. i'll show where you to get the money by opening your front door. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula. to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. o: i'm pretty conservative. to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. very logical thinker. (laughs) i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. (screams) i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours.

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cnnmoney.com/ultimateportfolio, my quiz will figure out what your risk tolerance is. pay yourself first, are you getting a tax refund, raise or bonus, save it before you notice it. do not spend your raise. put it into savings or college education fund. life insurance, make sure it is up to date and homeowners' policy is up to date and refinance your mortgage, if you still have a mortgage at 5%, get moving, average rates now on a 30-year fixed are around 3.5%. speaking of your house this is the time of the year to make sure you don't leave money on the table, tax season. companies have the kay man islands inb bermuda, those are their tax shelters. when it comes to a tax shelter for the middle class you can open up the door. your home can be a money pit but come april 15 your daily shelter can become your tax shelter.

you can deduction mortgage interest, worth nearly $1 hub billion a year. >> when you're looking at your house for deductions the biggest chunk in is in the interest for your mortgage. >> the first $1 million of debt on a property is tax deductible on your primarys redebs and second residence combined. >> mortgage insurance is deductible and state and local property taxes but if you lost money when you sold your house, too bad. >> unfortunately, you can't deduct the loss on the sale of a personal residence. the irs would want to tax the gains. >> the first $250,000 of that gain is tax free if you're single, $500,000 if you're married. get your calculator and any receipts for work that boosted your home's value. >> the original cost plus any closing costs, legal fees and of course any improvements that you may have made throughout the course of the ownership of that home. >> so like everything in taxes, keep good records. good records are also key if you're taking a home office

deduction. figure out how many square footage you use for business and deduct that portion of your home's expenses, but be careful. if you have an office someplace else can you, but working from home a lot can you use the home office deduction? >> no, as an employee working for an employer, it really has to be for the convenience of the employer, so if you just decide that you want to work from home on a friday for example, you won't be able to deduct those expenses as a home office. >> reporter: next year you can use $5 per square foot limited to 300 square feet for a maximum of $1,500. >> they simplified it with no questions asked so there's no risk of being audited if you're eligible. >> reporter: two more tax good ease hiding in your house, certain energy efficient improvements can knock 500 bucks off your taxes although that's down from $1,500 in 2011 and if you move more than 50 miles for a job, you can deduct those expenses, too. up next, americans are fat, getting fatter. from health insurance to

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if you weigh more should you pay more? the debate has been getting louder and with it the controversy over what to do about it. two-thirds of americans are overweight or obese. the private sector started to push back. cvs caremark, the pharmacy benefit manager recently said it

would require its 200,000 employees to share information about their weight or face a $600 penalty. other companies are following suit. recent survey of u.s. employers showed that more than half plan to penalize employees who do not take "appropriate action" to improve their health. one reason may be the costs associated with obesity. the robert wood johnson foundation suggests the costs of preventing obesity related diseases will rise to $66 billion by 2030, that could cost up to $580 billion in lost productivity and 2011 gallup poll found overweight or obese workers missed an estimated 450 million additional days of work compared with healthy weight workers. so the question is, should we have the freedom to be fat or should we be paying for it? president of the national action against obesity, sunny hostin is a cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.

this controversy has a lot of people talking about health care costs, how about on an airplane if your body takes up more space than someone else's, even takes up into two seats, is it reasonable that someone who is bigger should have to pay more for the space they're taking on the plane? >> i think if you use two seats on an airplane you should be paying for two seats on an airplane. i don't know how you feel but when i sit down in a seat i'm hoping to use the whole thing and a lot of times if they can get the armrest down they're in their seat. you and i both know somebody can be spilling over under and into your area. if you use two seats you should be paying for two seats. >> there's racism, sexism, all the isms, gender, things you cannot discriminate against. if someone is bigger, could be genetic, may not be their fault. do they have to pay, should they pay more? is that even legal? >> discriminating against people that are obese is actually sort of legal at this point. there's no federal protection

against fatism, which is sort of what people are calling it these days but i will say this, airlines already have policies in place regarding the situation. if someone is large, as you just mentioned and can't fit the two arms down, yes, they have to pay more. if they can't buckle their seatbelt, they have to pay more and these folks just aren't legally protected, but i've got to tell you, it almost seems to me that this is sort of the last area that you can discriminate against. >> i want to say something, obesity is not genetic. actually all the studies show just about no one has to be obese. the cure is eating night and exercise, which is available to just about everyone, water is the choice, it's free. so i don't want to mislead people into believing somehow obesity is like sexual orientation or race. it's absolutely not. >> what about companies? companies look and they're spending all this money to pay for their part of our health insurance for example, if you have a job. can a company, should a company

be able to say i don't like how you're living your life so i am going to require to you pay a higher premium. is that fair? >> absolutely. these higher costs of lifestyle choices are making us all pay the price. it's lifestyle choices are making us all pay the price. >> it fair to call it a lifestyle choice? >> absolutely. the way you eat and exercise is absolutely a lifestyle choice. we've seen the cleveland clinic not want to hire smokers and they said they shouldn't be really hiring the obese. you are seeing the companies do this and the cost is passed on to all of us. we may not like to hear it, but the airline industry is a weight and freight business and we are precious cargo but that's how they make their money so i think the total cost of a passenger, you plus your luggage, is manage to look at and possibly paying a premium over a certain threshold. >> i can't imagine a world that you have a scale coming into your job interview or for your airline flight. >> i don't know that they can't care because they do things that

make our lives miserable but i can't imagine that our large airlines are going to force people to get on a scale. >> they want someone to do it first and take the heat. >> car insurance, you way more car insurance if you have a history of accidents or if you drive a kind of car that may be something that their studies show is more likely to be involved in an accident. could they do that? could health insurance companies do it about our bodies? >> they are doing. >> the actuarial tables. why can't companies say, sunny, you run three times a week i'm going to give you a lower premium than christine who doesn't run three times a week? >> i think -- there tends to be -- if you're sort of following this story, i think companies are looking at ways of being able to do that but, again, is that where we want our society to go? do we want our society to in effect shroud discrimination and i do believe there is some discrimination there. shroud discrimination in terms of health costs. >> i disagree with sunny completely. it's a lifestyle choice. if you understand the workings

of the great economists, they'll tell you a personal choice ending up costing others means that someone else has to pick up the tab. >> i have to ask you, do you get hate mail from people who are overweight? >> i get both. i get some that say you've changed my life i appreciate and a lot of people say they hate me. i come from a place of having seen my family suffer and if i can do anything to avert that suffering for other people, i'm willing to do it. >> sunny hostin, on the legal an. and meme roth who is an advocate clearly against obesity. thank you very much for both of you. it may be the biggest civil rights dispute that the supreme court has taken on since brown v. board of education. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. life brings obstacles. usaa brings retirement advice. and be good for your face? [ female announcer ] now there's new neutrogena® naturals acne cleanser. acne medicine from the wintergreen leaf treats breakouts. no parabens or harsh sulfates.

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so, the people in charge of starbucks and chick-fil-a are not standing outside the supreme court holding signs but they haven't been shy about telling americans what they think about same-sex marriage. first, chick-fil-a's president dan kathy enraged lgbt activists when he defended what he calls the traditional family. >> i think we're inviting god's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, you know, we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. >> very popular chicken chain, despite the backlash his statements didn't damage sales. thousands came out to support chick-fil-a and the restaurant reported that 2012 sales jumped 14% from the year before. starbucks decided that its company culture supports same-sex marriage. howard schultz pushed back after an investor complains that

starbucks stance had cost the company sales. >> we did provide a 38% shareholder return over the last year. i don't know how many things you invest in, but i would suspect not many things, companies, products, investments have returned 38% over the last 12 months. >> take that. he said the company stance is a moral decision not an economic one. but is starbucks actually taking a moral stand or taking advantage of a growing support for same-sex marriage? a new poll finds 53% of americans support same-sex marriage up from 40% in 2007. the winds have been changing very swiftly on this. i want to bring in susan mcpherson who is a director at global market for fenton a company that helps clients create campaigns around social issues. susan, starbucks, lloyd blankfein from goldman sachs, google co-founders have all come out publicly for same-sex marriage. are these corporate leaders

trying to make a moral stand or is it also good business? >> chrischristine, it's a good question. it is good business. they are looking at the polls and they are specifically looking at the polls that coveted demographic age 19 through 34. the social generation. and they are seeing that those folks massively are supportive of this. >> i mean, i did the exit polling for cnn for the election and we looked at that and we saw how young people, they want open-minded. they want leaders who are open-minded. they value being open-minded and they also support same-sex marriage more than those other statistics we were showing you. >> and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no doubt. but companies are think iing abt it. >> chick-fil-a was the first one out on it. the chain doesn't take on any debt. restaurants are closed on sundays. it stands on same-sex marriage actually boosted sales but they later released a statement saying, quote, going forward our

intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to government and political arena. will, public opinion ultimately force this company to reverse its position do you think? >> quite inevitably could. >> wow. >> exciting times. >> an issue that so many corporate chieftains were talking about? >> no. >> maybe the civil rights movement and i wasn't covering business during the civil rights movement, but maybe that was something in the corporate suites companies had to really decide how they would deal with it. >> most definitely they did. if you look back in 2004 only 40% of companies covered same-sex benefits. this past year we're now up to 75% of companies are supporting same-sex benefits. so, we are seeing the trajectory grow. >> interesting. they're ahead of the government really. >> and we've seen that through history. business tends to move faster than the government. >> all right, susan mcpherson with fenton, so nice to see you. have a good weekend. >> thank you, christine. >> see us on facebook and twitter. i'm going to be back