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So what does this all mean? Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, says bad weather is largely to blame for the drop in pending sales in January, and he expects the index to fall again, because February’s weather was even worse, with three major storms dumping record amounts of snow in the Eastern U.S. But Yun expects pent-up demand will create a big surge of home sales in April, May and June.

If you believe what billionaire investor Warren Buffett says - and given his track record, there’s really no reason not to - the nation’s housing crisis will be over by this time next year. In his annual letter to shareholders of his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett says: “Prices will remain far below ‘bubble’ levels, of course, but for every seller or lender hurt by this, there will be a buyer who benefits. Indeed, many families that couldn’t afford to buy an appropriate home a few years ago now find it well within their means.” Buffett certainly has an incentive to be right in his assessment – According to USA Today, Berkshire owns several businesses that are involved in the housing industry, including a real estate brokerage, a carpet company, and a business that builds prefabricated houses.

Nationally, the pending home sales index for January dropped eight percent from December, but they were still 12 percent better than the previous year. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the NAR, says the results are much lower than expected, given that a large number of potential buyers are eligible for the expanded federal home buyer tax credit. Yun adds that the abnormally severe and prolonged winter weather that we’ve seen across much of the country is largely responsible for the downturn. Now, keep in mind – this report is from January, and with 3 major storms striking parts of the country in February, so Yun expects those sales figures to be severely impacted as well.

Looking at the index by region, the Northeast say the index drop nearly 9 percent from December to 71-point 3 in January. That’s still more than 20 percent better than in January of ’09.

In the Midwest, the index for January was 81-point-2, a nine percent month-to-month drop, but still, a 12 percent improvement year-to-year. As you might expect, pending sales were less affected by weather in the South and West.

The South saw the index drop just 2 percent from December to January, to 98-point-one, and improve 18 percent compared to the previous year, while out west, the index actually tops the century mark at 102-point-nine… that’s a 13 percent drop from December, but still a point and a half better than for January of ’09.

So – if January was a wash, and we can expect February to be snowed out, where do we go from here? Economist Yun says all of that pent-up demand caused by buyers and sellers being snowbound will create a surge of existing home sales in April, May and June. And as for the second half of the year, Yun says the economy will decide how that goes. Keep in mind that the existing homebuyer tax credit program is set to expire at the end of April, so that won’t be around to support the market. However, Yun says If there is sufficient job creation, we should see the housing market become self-sustaining with stable to modestly rising home prices because inventory has been trending downward.

Let’s start with the basics:

• You need at least one flashlight with fresh batteries for each person in your house. Candles are not the answer, because you also need matches, and because they are a fire hazard.
• Make sure you also have a portable radio, and a telephone that can be plugged in to the wall. Your cordless phone will be useless, and your cell phone may be as well.
• You need shelf-stable food that doesn’t need to be cooked - several days worth - and you need a hand-cranked can opener to open it with.
• You will need several gallons of water. You may be able to fill your bathtub to get water for cleaning and flushing your toilet, but depending on the emergency, you may quickly lose pressure, or have water that is unsafe to drink, so make sure you also keep bottled water on hand – At least three days worth, at one gallon per person per day.
• The food in your refrigerator will only stay cold for about four hours. After that, you have a decision to make. Eat it, or throw it away.
• A full freezer will remain frozen for as long as 48 hours, but again – anything inside must be cooked and consumed or discarded after two days, otherwise it will no longer be safe to eat.
• Think about keeping containers of water frozen in your freezer . If you do lose power for extended periods, it will keep your food frozen longer, and provide you with drinking water as well.
• If the power goes out in the winter, do NOT use your kitchen oven or a portable gas stove or heater to stay warm, because they can emit poisonous carbon monoxide. Your best bet is to keep your curtains drawn and use towels or blankets to stop drafts, then wear several layers of clothes to keep warm.

If you want to avoid some of these hassles, you can go another route and get a generator for your home. Generators are not a cure-all, but even the little ones can provide you with light and usually enough juice to run a small space heater, your refrigerator, and maybe an electric griddle. You can buy a portable generator for as little as a few hundred dollars. These units are typically gasoline-powered, and are designed to be operated outdoors only. Running a gasoline engine in your home is a huge carbon monoxide hazard. Portable generators are rated to carry a specific electrical load. Generally, the larger the load, the more expensive the generator. You want to make sure to buy one that can handle all of the appliances that you want to plug in. Your dealer can help you with that decision.

If you can swing the cost, having a permanent home generator professionally installed may be a better bet. These generators run on gasoline or natural gas, and they are incorporated into your home’s electrical system, so using it can be as simple as plugging a device into a wall socket. Stationary generators do run into the thousands of dollars, but they are very convenient, and they can add quite a bit to the value of your home.

Eventually, the power is going to come back on in your house, and when it does, sometimes it comes back like a tsunami — in a big surge — and ends up destroying anything with a circuit board…like computers, or your big-screen hi-def television, or just about every appliance in your house. Just like generators, there are two ways to address these power spikes…big, or small.

If you want to go big? Get a ‘whole house surge protector.’ You’ll need a professional electrician to install it, and it will be hundreds of dollars. But if you’d rather address power spikes for less money….you can take three steps:

1. You could invest in power strips with surge protectors for any sensitive electronic equipment. These will protect your devices both when the power goes out and when it’s restored, because the power could surge in both instances.
2. When you do lose power, you could unplug everything you can, except for a lamp or two – and turn off the furnace or air conditioner as well.
3. If you can’t unplug some of the bigger things, like your dishwasher, then…trip the circuit breaker. Once the lights are back on, it will be safe to plug everything back in again. And the reset the breakers, and all your gear will be just fine.

Losing power is a pain in the neck. How painful is really up to you — It’s all a matter of how well you prepare for it in advance!

Let’s go room-by-room, starting in the kitchen - perhaps the most potentially dangerous place in the house, because it’s where water, electricity - and in some cases, natural gas - all come together.

• Make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy near the stove, and make sure everyone in the house knows how and when to use it. You should never fight a fire if it compromises your ability to escape.
• If you have any electrical outlets near the kitchen sink, they need to have ground-fault circuit breakers on them, to reduce the threat of shocks near spilled water.
• If you have small children in the house, you need child safety latches on all of the under-counter doors and drawers - not only for poisons, but also for possible cutting or choking hazards.
  Keep a list of emergency numbers: police, fire, ambulance and poison control, by the telephone in the kitchen, or loaded on your auto dialer – just in case.

Moving to the bathroom, where the biggest danger comes from potentially slipping on that wet tile floor:

• Replace that towel on the floor with a REAL bath mat – one with a non-skid surface on the bottom.
• Line the bottom of your tub or shower with adhesive non-slip strips.
• And install grab bars by the shower and toilet. Learn your lesson in advance and make sure you have something to grab BEFORE you need it.

Out in the garage, you’re storing all sorts of things, including your cars, so it’s important to keep them protected as well:

• Make sure you are using shelves that can be anchored to the walls, and that are strong enough to hold the items that you’re storing.
• Don’t store gasoline in your garage, use an outdoor shed or storage bin instead. Gasoline vapors can explode with just one spark.
• Make sure your garage door has an auto-reverse function, to prevent a pet or small child from becoming trapped underneath it.

And finally – just a few common-sense things to think about for the entire home:

• Are your hallways and stairwells well-lit? Replace those burned-out or dim bulbs with some of the bright new compact florescent bulbs, so you can save energy and see where you’re going.
• Keep an extra stock of batteries on hand for your smoke detectors, and make sure you replace them every time you change the clocks. It’s simply an easy habit to get into.
• Come up with an evacuation plan for your home, and make sure everyone in your family knows how to use it. If you have small children or pets, think about who will be responsible for getting them out of the home safely as well.

And speaking of children – if you have them, there are many other steps in addition these that you should be taking to childproof your home – visit the Home Safety Council which has these and many other safety tips.