i'm natasha curry. here are some of the stories we're following for you today. two members of the space shuttle "endeavour" are on a spacewalk right now, installing the final piece of japan's space lab to the international space station. it's the first of five planned spacewalks for "endeavour's" crew. nasa says the shuttle looks to be in good shape. a large amount of foam broke off a fuel tank during liftoff damaging some of the shuttle's thermal tiles. tributes are pouring in from across the world for legendary newscaster walter cronkite. one person remembering cronkite is president barack obama who said that cronkite, quote, was the news. the former cbs news anchorman died yesterday at 92.

he is survived by three children and four grandchildren. investigators in jakarta, indonesia, say they've found another victim in the rubble of yesterday's bombing attack. police say they don't know if the person is a hotel guest or one of the suicide bombers. authorities suspect a malaysian militant fugitive known as noordin top may be behind the attacks. he allegedly has ties to al qaeda. at least nine people died in the blast. your bottom line with jerri willis starts right now. >> hello. i'm jerri willis. this is "your bottom line" the show that saves you money. the two faces of america's housing market. we'll take a look at the communities hit hardest by the foreclosure epidemic as well as those rated among the best places to live. also, a new study says african-americans and hispanics are significantly less prepared for retirement than their white and asian counterparts. we'll get to the bottom of why that is and what can be done about it. and the minimum wage goes up

this week. that means more money in the pockets of millions of americans. "your bottom line" starts right now. we begin with the mid year u.s. foreclosure market report out just this week from realty track. foreclosure filings are up in the first half of 2009 from the previous six months to a total of 1.9 million. now, to break that number down for you, that's roughly one in every 84 american homes, and that translates into a 9% increase in foreclosure filings and about a 15% increase from the beginning of 2008. here to help us break down those numbers and what they mean for the housing market is the senior vice president of realty track and the founder and ceo of americana mortgage. welcome to both of you. >> good morning, jerri. thank you very much. >> rick, i want to start with you with these foreclosure numbers. i was expecting maybe, maybe we might get some kind of improvement but not yet the

numbers are worse. why is that? >> well, it's clear that despite an industry wide moratorium, numerous legislative delays and state of activity on the loan modification front we don't have a handle on how to stem the tide of these foreclosures so we're seeing a runup that's probably beyond what anybody expected at this point. >> you know, bob, i look at mortgage rates all the time. i'm obsessed with them. 5.4% according to bank rate.com and you would think with rates that low people would be running to get new mortgages, refinancing old mortgages and yet i still hear there is trouble in the marketplace. what does it take these days to get a new mortgage? >> there's an influx of borrowers refinancing their homes right now but the key ingredient is qualifying. those homeowners who are upside down on their mortgages. >> meaning they owe -- >> they owe more money than the house is worth. and those people who have maybe derogatory credit or can't necessarily show enough income right now are having a hard time qualifying. so the people that are

benefiting are showing the tax returns, have a 700 credit score, and have at least 20% equity in their home. >> that's a high hurdle for a lot of people, rick. who are the buyers in the marketplace out there? i recently read vegas has the highest number of sales ever in the previous months. who's buying? >> i think what bob just said is absolutely correct. you're having first-time home buyers who are qualifying for fha loans and you have investors and in a lot of cases the investors are using nontraditional financing, either cash or private lending. so those really comprise probably about 80% of the buyers' market right now. >> private lenders. wow. i think a lot of regular americans would be hard pressed to even define what a private banker is. bob, what is the right strategy, the right kind of institution to go to? the small banks, the big banks, s & ls, credit unions? >> with the obama administration they put $50 billion into the loan modification program and to help people that are upside down

or first-time home buyers. that money is not necessarily trickling down to the street level. so when that money comes down to the street level things should loosen up. they need to shop that mortgage around because each lender has different criteria and one lender that might allow 60% of your income to go toward housing, another lender might allow 30% or 40% so you need to work with a qualified loan officer to find the right bank for your situation. >> all right. very quickly, we don't have a lot of time left, but i do want to know if you're out there and thinking you might want to buy one of these foreclosures, you might want to get in the marketplace, what do you need to know right now? >> well, obviously you need to know what you're qualified to get in terms of a loan. fannie and fha both have programs that will allow you to build repair costs into your mortgage which are helpful but understand the repair costs that are going to be involved in buying one of these houses, get an inspection of the property. also, try and figure out what the discount needs to be to make

that foreclosure property more of a bargain than the other properties. even though a foreclosure home might be selling for 30% or 40% less than last time, it doesn't mean it's a bargain if the rest of the homes in the neighborhood have also dropped in value by that much. know what the house is really worth and what it will cost to fix it to the way you want to make it and know what you're qualified to spend. >> bob, what is the pro-porpgs of your monthly budget you should be spending on housing? >> traditional vending guidelines is three times income. so if you're making $50,000 a year you should be looking at a mortgage of $150,000. >> great advice. great guests. thanks for the help today. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> thanks. detroit has become a symbol of all that is wrong with the so-called rust belt of america. shuttered factories, rampant crime and nearly one in six people out of a job. but is there gold beneath all that rust? cnn money.com's poppy harlow has more now on how some folks are making a bet on a motor city

renaissance. >> reporter: this house in northwest detroit recently sold for $7500 bucks. just $4,000 would have bought you this one right across the street. you may have missed the investment opportunity of a lifetime. >> we have actually a waiting list of people to rent and to buy. >> this man thinks he didn't. michael alexander has purchased 250 homes in detroit, betting the motor city will rise again. >> when we find a nice street like this, we try to buy all of the available inventory on this street. >> why on earth is this a good place to put your money to work? >> well, that's a good question and i get asked it a lot. we're buying homes in that particular market range and able to offer them at better prices so since everyone is going to need a place to live, we're offering value. >> alexander's company invests between $10,000 and $20,000 rehabilitating the homes which they say they've been able to flip for a 20% to 30% profit.

even with buyers scarce, alexander says he's been able to rent many of the homes. it's far from a safe bet. home values in detroit are down 45% from their peak in 2005 and the city continues to battle a high crime rate. >> this house since we've acquired it has been broken into and i didn't know that until just a minute ago when we walked into the kitchen. >> really. >> but if you turn around you'll see someone has kicked in this door. >> reporter: so you've seen a home that's foreclosed and in shambles and you've seen a home in the process of getting fixed up. here's the finished product. and for this investment to work out, you have to get someone to rent or buy this home and the man in charge of doing that is eric. he's a property manager. >> since winter we've done 70 homes and we have 64 of those homes right now that have already been filled with families. >> my partner and i have both been investing in real estate for over 30 years. we're at a point where we want

to give back as well. and we saw an opportunity here where we could both make money and give back and help revitalize this community. >> reporter: as far as the rest of the city, there are some parts where alexander just isn't willing to make the same bet. >> there's a lot of properties available in the inner city, which can be bought for little to next to nothing, but if i turn around and then invest $15,000 to $20,000 in a renovation even though i may have bought it really cheap, if people are afraid to live there, my house is going to be empty. >> reporter: in detroit, poppy harlow, cnn money.com. for more up to the minute news about your bottom line, your house, your job, your savings, your debt, log on any time to cnn money.com. saving for retirement is vital to your finances.

a new study shows african-americans and hispanics are significantly less prepared for retirement than their white and asian counterparts. why is that? what can be done about it? here to discuss and of course offer some advice is one of the partners in the study along with the education initiative. also joining us is ryan mack the president of optimum capital management. welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> guys, i want to start by showing some of these numbers from your study, barbara, which i think are so interesting. participation rates, 77% of white workers, 76% of asian workers. and then a big gap, a big drop among african-american workers, 66%, hispanics 65%. you can see the numbers right now. what's going on here? >> i think there are a lot of things that could be impacting that. what we saw in this study of

over 3 million workers, it was really designed to look at the differences by race ethnicity. there can be a lot of factors going into it but even when we adjust it for factors like age or service or pay we still saw disparities by race and ethnicity. >> all right. so when you look at reasons why this might be, i think a lot of people might say oh, it's financial education. is that enough of an answer here? >> well, i think you also -- you can't remiss by looking at these -- poverty level in the black community is about 32%. with three times the level of poverty you might have less propensity to be able to invest. >> so african-americans are put tlg money into food on the table. >> exactly. >> a roof over your head instead of maybe a 401(k). let's look at participation rates or contribution rates for a second. asian and whites leading the pack. african-americans and hispanics behind. barbara, let's talk about this for a minute. you know what's interesting about this is a lot of companies now are doing automatic 401(k)

enrollments. more people will be contributing but why do we see such a disparity here? >> well, so this is the next part of the equation. the first step is do they get in the plan? that's the participation rate. once they're in at what rate are they saving? here we saw large disparity, even after we adjusted for things like pay, age, and service. so the why behind it could be affected by a lot of factors such as their situation outside of the home or how much total household income they may vor it could be attributable to their comfort level with saving in a 401(k). >> doesn't this set up racial minorities in this country to be not stable in retirement, to have issues, problems, you know, paying for their households? >> well, it's definitely a lot of issues in terms of we need to be more diligent in making sure we're paying for retirement. on one side we're celebrating the 55th anniversary when lyndon

johns ob passed the civil rights act in 1964 so precivil rights era there are a lot of things we were not given access to that could help us accumulate wealth. therefore you're getting a lot of first generation investors that might not have had as much inheritance. secondly we have over a 90% consumption rate within black and hispanic communities. >> of income. >> yes. what we're doing is sometimes using debt to purchase things that we don't need to impress people we don't like so we have to make sure we're being a lot more diligent about what we have to make sure we can save and start thinking more toward the future. >> we all need to be more diligent i think. barb, i want to dig into your study a little more here. you have another interesting finding i was surprised by and that's who invests in stocks and at what rate. tell us your findings and what they tell you. >> right. when it came to how much people invested in equities, we saw a disparate especially among the african-american community where less money was going into stocks

overall and we saw this consistently across age. you look at age and can argue that people at younger ages should be invested more in stocks but regardless of age we saw a difference there. >> i think that's fascinating. you know, i have to ask you. the madoff headlines, what's gone on in the financial markets, is it possible that racial minorities just don't trust the system enough to invest? >> well, i think that's a huge component of it. i do believe if you ask my grandmother her bank was actually her bosom. she didn't trust the banks. didn't want to go to the banks. but also in addition to that, we have to make sure that in terms of just exposure and knowledge of the markets, you know, wunsch my aun -- one of my aunts called one time and said what as stock? and there are not enough discussions around the dinner table about investments and fiscal responsibility. we need to up that. you can bekweegt investments and wealth but also knowledge from

one generation to the next. if you're teaching your children and having those conversations you can increase the likelihood they'll be able to increase their investments and equities in stock. >> great information. thank you both for being with us today. >> thank you. from low unemployment to great school systems to below average crime the small towns on "money magazine's" best places to live have a lot to offer. we'll tell you where they are next.

it's that time of year again. time for "money" magazine's list of the best places to live. the senior writer is here to give us their picks. okay. your magazine has been doing this list for 25 years. you're really experts at picking the towns that have great jobs, great places to live, lots of opportunities for families. at the top of your list is a little town called lewisville, colorado. >> that's right. lewisville, colorado is between denver and boulder, so in the rocky mountains. outdoors, you know, there's hiking, skiing, biking. you know, you name it. but it's got more than great stuff to do outside. there are a wealth of industries that have helped it really weather the recession. its unemployment for the county is the lowest in the state and it's got jobs in energy, health

care, as well as education and of course high tech. >> let's go over to minnesota to chanhassen, another tiny town not very big but you say wonderful. why? >> it's 24 miles west of minneapolis. it's a great little town. it's got, never got the memo it was in a recession. >> nice. >> the bond rating has been upgraded twice in the last year. it's got home prices have gone up slightly there in the last year and property taxes have gone down every year for the past five years. >> people love that. >> yes. a brand new high school is opening this fall. it's a lovely little town. it's got 11 lakes, 34 parks, and every house is within a half mile of a park. >> wow. that is truly impressive. let's go to a suburb of omaha. >> all right. this is about 20 minutes from omaha. and it's got also amazing combination of a strong local economy, lots of jobs, and very affordable homes. the unemployment rate there is 4.5%, less than half of the

national unemployment rate. >> very nice. average three bedroom, two bath house -- >> what are the jobs there? >> an extremely diverse town. you've got insurance, conagra is headquartered there, you've got transportation, agriculture. there is a military airforce base there. there are a lot of defense contractors. >> all right. milton, mass. this is a massachusetts town right outside of boston. >> it's only 11 miles from downtown boston but people we interviewed said it feels like a little slice of vermont living there. it's classic new england town. it's got a very beautiful sort of quiet country feel to it. it's also got relatively low unemployment and lots to do. >> all right. now we have to get to my favorite. peach tree city, georgia where people get around by golf cart. >> this is a planned community that's got five villages that are connected by roads but also 90 miles of golf cart paths. people take bikes or ride the golf carts to school, to work.

it's really a great way to get around and, boy, talk about keeping low stress as well. >> thank you so much for your help today. really appreciate it. the cost of organic foods can add up so how do you know which products are worth it? we'll help you stretch your dollar and still keep your family healthy. ñ;?;?;?;?;?;?;??