Marketplace: More than just my electric blanket

As we end our third week of challenging winter weather with snow, ice and wind, topped off with big rain and flooding, here’s a thank-you to the people working at Clark Public Utilities and with city, state and Clark County road maintenance operations for their effort in keeping the power on and roads open.

The most important benefit of this dedicated work (besides providing power for my electric blanket) was in keeping the local economy going. People could get to work and do their jobs. Stores could stay open and do business. Commerce and trade proceeded during a difficult time. So here’s to the people who worked — often in the middle of the night — to keep us going and the power on.

When it comes to prospective home buyers, single women may be the best buyer category in Clark County. Here’s my theory.

Women who have been living on their own have to be careful with their budgeting because on average, we earn less money than men. Because of that we may not actually own a house or a condo. We’re good money managers, we pay our bills, and we are possibly more secure in our jobs because we work in health care, education and financial services. Jobs in those sectors (more often held by women) are more secure right now than jobs in manufacturing and construction, where men outnumber women.

Friday’s national jobs report bears out the theory. The unemployment rate for adult women last month was 5.9 percent, compared to an overall national average of 7.2 percent.

Other research shows that single women make up more than one-third of the growth in real estate ownership since 1994. So, knowing there are a lot of houses for sale here, knowing that mortgage loan interest rates are at historic lows and your job may be more secure than most, maybe you ought to start looking around for a good buy. There are plenty of people out there who’d like to help you. Visit my 60 & Single blog at columbian.com for online comment and more information.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., already is lobbying hard for changes in Medicare reimbursement regulations that would even the playing field for Washington state and particularly Southwest Washington.

Medicare rules — based on a formula known as the Sustainable Growth Rate — uses outdated cost-of-living and health care cost formulas to determine how much hospital and health care providers receive in Medicare payments. Washington has one of the lowest on the scale.

Columbian.com is offering a new stock portfolio service that allows customers to access their personal list of stock prices in seconds. Provided through Zacks, a national Web service, users can go to columbian.com, click on Business, then click on Money & Markets, and go to Web portfolio (upper right).

JULIA ANDERSON is The Columbian’s business editor. Reach her at 360-735-4509 or julia.anderson@columbian.com.