Afraid to Fly? This Might Help. Or Give You a Good Laugh!

Warning: I realized after writing this there is a lot of data here.. And this turned more into a story than a blog entry. :) This is probably a 20 minute read, so caution!

It seems lately I've found myself on a lot of flights with quite a few fearful travelers. I can completely empathize because not all that long ago (well okay 19 years ago, but it seems like yesterday) I had to take my first business trip - curled up in the fetal position crying my eyes out certain I was to meet my death that day. Having a crush on the gentleman you are traveling with doesn't exactly help the situation either - it's pretty hard to look cool when you are scared to death.

A few steps back before a few steps forward…

Why on Earth was I so afraid? I was working for a statistician at the time who did his best to help me, without success. I have vague memories of my only flight as a kid, parents and brother with, flying to four islands in Hawaii. With already-overprotective parents and a mother scared to death of flying you can only imagine the things discussed on this flight.. How to hold your head in crash position and "I hope the rivets on this plane door do not come off like on that DELTA flight leaving Honolulu." (When I was a kid, the mantra was DELTA stood for "Don't Ever Leave the Airport"). I don't blame my parents, they were afraid too.

At 17, I was a Technology Director and Stats Advisor while still in High School - and I had to fly to Michigan to take part in a global presentation on Information Technology and talk about what our University was doing that the others might benefit from. I remember laying awake nearly a week before taking that flight, wondering first how I could get out of it, second how I'd ever conquer this fear, and third that I would die - or maybe I could just resign first.

Quite literally. I was completely numb with fear to a point of being unable to function. I called in sick every day that week to work. Not long after my college boyfriend and I were on a trip to Arizona and he wanted to .. Ahh.. Fly! When the plane swung from wind sheer I literally screamed out loud. Thankfully being a super nice guy he just held my hand but the others on the plane wondered what the heck was wrong with me. This continued for some years, and as I boarded a flight in Paris to head back to LA (another terrible experience - GETTING THERE!) the Concord crashed on the runway behind me. We had to wait 4 hours for experts to "clear the runway" to make sure debris didn't cause the crash before we could leave. I spent the next 18 hours staring at the GPS to make sure that our altitude hadn't dropped without my awareness while everyone else slept and jumping at every slight bump along the way. I had images of fiery engines and wings coming off in every area of my brain and it was overwhelming.

So when I say I can empathize with these passengers, I mean it. I never understood how my boyfriends' parents traveled the world without a care in that same world.

I met a freaked out passenger on my very last flight that asked me to write about (and then email him) the way that I "got over it" and I realized that so many people struggle with the same thing, "why not post about it and get others to share their tips too". And now, you are reading this blog doing precisely that. :)

I told this man, Dan, that the key was forcing myself to realize the fear was irrational and then take action on it. His response? "flying in a tin can at 650mph and being afraid of it isn't irrational." Good point - sort of. Emotionally he's right, but using physics and math? He's wrong. I continued… after realizing I had no choice but to fly anyway so I might as well get used to it, I did what any crazy chick trying to overcome a fear would do after growing up in an overprotective household where every time you had to conquer a fear you had to push it to its limits to see "worst case" - do it to an extreme so that you have no choice but to see the worst of the worst - which will make the "average" seem so easy. Yes, I use this method a lot for various things. :)

Step 1 was to fly in little planes with a man that was like a cat on his 8th life. A private pilot that often flew IFR with a VFR license (when that wasn’t suspended) was my boss at my night job while in college (as opposed to the day job I wrote about above) and he flew a lot to Catalina Island (dubbed the aircraft landing strip for VERY good reason - Google it sometime!) and liked to graze mountains in an open-top plane and then stall the motor on purpose to watch mag lights float in the air at 0g's. Sometimes he would follow dirt bikers through the hills at 200 feet above ground - I'm not kidding. We would "wing the water", 30 feet above ground, and try to get out of there before someone gave the FAA his wing number. He was as extreme as extreme gets. And I flew with him every time I had a chance to, scared to death, and yes crying and yelling sometimes. Even hitting him wildly out of pure fear for an hour at a time. He laughed through the whole thing. How could he laugh when I couldn't function -- and then why did I continue to get on that plane? I was NOT having a good time. I had to.

So I continued, afraid. That is.. Until I took the stick. About a year later, not only did I know how to fly these little planes, but I loved every second of it. I loved stalling, I loved recovering, I loved it when we lost the fuel pump on take off and had to go to Plan B, and loved it when I would fly over my parents house at 2000 feet and call them from my brick-sized cell phone and tell them to look outside to try to freak my mother out. I was 20...21, and knew what it felt like to fly in IFR rules without even a VFR license (only a student license) not able to see even 20 meters in front of you, and to have your "instructor" (if you could call him that) say "shit! That's a mountain, holy crap where did THAT come from?" and then veer hard to the right at a stall angle… only to.. Stall, with a mountain right below. You haven't lived until that has happened - or you lose your landing gear on approach while the Ontario, CA airport tower is screaming at you in your headset and the real pilot is trying to jump into your seat so keep you out of trouble.

Never in a million years did I think that not only would I find that to be a blast with some damn funny stories to tell after, but most vitally? It would help me lose my fear of flying. Like truly, madly, deeply gone. What would American Airlines do that could POSSIBLY be worse than what he and I did in that plane? Absolutely nothing. (this guy didn’t have a drivers license, he lost it to reckless endangerment, so he had to fly to work, by the way.) Yes, head case.

So what happened to that 40's vintage plane without the top that soon became my favorite one to fly? He crashed it into a muddy ravine in Central California and it died a slow painful death as mud filled all the gears and open spaces. :( RIP. My friend got out of the mud and used his handheld GPS back in the day when they were the size of a backpack to get to a payphone 15 hours away. He still hadn't used up his lives. I think he's at 8.5 and counting.

Back to Dan and this recent flight. I was assuming Dan didn't want to take that much risk - but I had to tell him the story anyway so he could see that 1) planes can handle an incredible amount of force - in fact our limbs would come apart, as I told him, before the wings did from g forces (he didn't seem to think that was helpful) and are designed to do so, and 2) it could be much worse than a steady 37000 feet for 7 hours at 675 mph. Even if it is a flying tin can.

Now I teach stats, econ, and technology, and needless to say the statistics come in handy. So before I spent the rest of the flight telling Dan what each noise was (a big fear if you are afraid to fly and the Bose just don't block the sound and the Valium just hasn't kicked in) let me first tell you the same statistics I told Dan. There are many ways to calculate them so here are a few.

The odds of dying in a plane crash are about 1 in 22.8 million in the 90s; now roughly stated as 1 in 34 million. You would, statistically speaking, have a greater chance of winning the lottery twice than dying in a plane crash. Fatality rates are about 90% if your plane does crash. (okay that last point probably didn't help my case)

From the book Truly Mad Statistics, more people die in the US in six months in cars than in the air in the last 100 years.

There are about 36 crashes per year according to the NTSB. Here is a link to the NTSB's aviation accident log:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/aviation.htm and here is a table of accidents you can download:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/Stats.htm

Do you want to see stats from one place to another or on a specific carrier? http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp

IF air travel was only as safe as a car, a plane with 120 passengers would crash every single day of the year with no survivors.

A high crash rate was in 1994 with 239 people dying. 2.5 million Americans died that year total, 700,000 of heart disease and 500,000 of cancer. How many from medical screw-ups? 50,000 (now up at about 100,000 with prescription errors). (side note: I've yet to face my fear of surgery/hospitalization/anesthesia, partly because of these odds even though yes, they are small too! That I'm sure will come another day.. I'm just not sure how "extreme anything" will help me prepare LOL)

At any given time over the US alone, there are about 5000 planes in the air. Large aircraft. This doesn't include private planes or jets.

Highest risk flights are short flights in developing countries. Even there the odds are about 1 in 500,000.

The US Bureau of Transportation Stats calculates fatalities per million miles traveled. Car 9.3, Train 5, commercial flights 1.22. Flying is 8 times safer than driving.

Here is a link by year showing a graph of accidents:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/planecrash/risk-02.html

Pilots can't avoid pre-checks like drivers can. They can't use old unmaintained equipment like drivers can. They are forced to retire if there is a chance they can't see, and they are given tests often to make sure they're up to date on their procedures. Want to see how safe it is to be a pilot? http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/archive/spring2000brief1.pdf Far safer than in construction, in timber, a farmer, a truck driver, etc...

What should you be more worried about? The ride to the airport, not the ride once you get there.

Still, easier said than done if your fear is crippling you. In some cases it's the loss of control and lack of visibility into what is happening, at least it was for me. Remember this though. You'd have to ride on a plane every day of your life and still wait an average of 26,000 years to die in one.

Take a look at Greenspun's General Aviation Safety write up - great stats with fascinating stuff http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/safety

So what about those noises? I'll run through some of them - some that were the worst for me and were the worst for Dan and many other passengers. If you are afraid to fly, print this part out and take it with you. Even book a seat just in front of or just behind the wing or engines so you can see the movement, too.

1. Before takeoff, the AC and lights may go off and back on. This is when the pilot changes power sources from the generator to an internal source.

2. While the plane is making its way to the runway, or taxiing, parts of the wing will move down and back. This is partly a test, and partly to get ready for take off when the flaps have to extend to provide more lift. Lesson 101 from pilot school: lift has to be greater than weight (gravity) to take off. Lift puts pressure upward to make the plane go up, weight or gravity puts pressure downward to make the plane go down.

3. Right after take off, floor panels shake or make noise. This is the landing gear coming up.

4. While climbing up during take off, the sound of the engine goes down, as though the engines are winding down. I remember this being one of the scariest sounds. It's normal! The engines go to lower power outputs after the initial full throttle for take off. This is because during flight, thrust of the aircraft has to exceed drag caused by wind, air, pressure and so on. You don't need full throttle to maximize this, you just have to tweak out your controls to the optimal point. (The engines also go to "idle power" just before you start to descend, so that is another time you might feel "power loss".

5. During the climb, there is a change in the tone of the aircraft. Sometimes it sounds like "vr vr vr vr"… yeah good description huh? This is especially true on older aircraft. (and yes, well maintained older aircraft are very safe. No one has ever died from an accident on Southwest Airlines and they have some of the oldest aircraft period). This is a sound that the flaps make as they retract. You will hear it as they extend, and as you land.

6. Flashing lights. These are usually strobe lights on the wing tips that reflect off the clouds. Sometimes it's lightning but even if that happens and worst case your plane is hit (rare but it does happen and it's happened on one my flights), in almost all cases nothing catastrophic happens to the plane.

7. Wings move up and down and there are turbulence. They are designed to withstand many G's. They wont just come off. Your body will rip limb from limb first. Seriously. Nice mental picture, huh? If the wings come off, you won't even know. ;)

8. Landing produces a hard blowing sound and sometimes more engine sound. To stop, engines often use thrust reverser which redirect air forward to slow the plane. Normal!

And of course there is landing with pulsing brakes. This is much like the braking systems your car uses and they help control skidding. The length of the runway also impacts how intense your landing will be.

According to AA, I have flown over 2 million miles and I'm in my 30s.. And that is one airline. While I still think they are wrong, I'm guessing they'd air on their side and not mine if they were. That doesn’t count all the no-name airlines, the overseas airlines, the small plane trips, the airlines where I haven't checked.. So many millions of miles. I've had a large plane from Chicago into Charlotte lose power because it was struck by lightning, touch and go's in Miami that required diversion to Ft. Myers and bunches of other exciting things happen on flights.. Including just this past weekend simple stuff like a 777 tug overshooting the bridge and pushing back the plane 2 feet. Eventually it's all fun, and you come to enjoy your flight time as a way to get away from the cell phones (though I am liking GoGo a lot). After you start seeing the world and living with other cultures for weeks or months in a year all thanks to a 17 hour flight somewhere, you realize the fear is worth getting over. And it's pretty interesting to see that Air China departs without requiring the pilots shut the door sometimes and that they leave bags laying around "wherever" (not to mention those cool temperature sensors to see if you have h1n1), and which airlines don't have the stupid rules about having cell phones off (because NO, it does NOT cause planes to crash!) and all sorts of various random things you learn.

So if you are afraid to fly, I hope this helps. And if you aren't, thanks for laughing WITH me and not AT me (I hope?) :=)

Dani

MultiFamily Areas to Buy – And Avoid – In Today’s Turbulent Market

MultiFamily Areas to Buy – And Avoid – In Today’s Turbulent Market

In today’s turbulent markets, lots of people are speculating about where to buy -- or perhaps most importantly where not to buy. This analysis is mostly performed for the residential markets because of the gluttony of inventory and the high volume of press that the housing bubble receives – but those in the multifamily industry are trying to determine the same things.

Down payment requirements and loan terms, unlike residential properties, have not improved much for the multifamily borrower. In fact many banks are now requiring higher down payments than ever before, with units that have 4 or more residences requiring 30% or more down and 12 months or more of reserves to cover payments, taxes and insurance. Banks that used to assume a 75% occupancy rate often now assume as low as 60% to cover their proverbial behinds.

Given the restrictions and skin in the game the multifamily investor has in today’s market, analysis is even more vital than it was in the past. As an analyst, I am often asked where I would buy - and most importantly – why. Doing work in the media and calling an area “a wait and see” or a “bad buy” leads to hundreds of hate emails, letters to producers at networks and outcries by those in local markets. I experienced this most recently in the Ft. Myers, Florida area when speaking out against purchasing homes there.

The criteria I use when analyzing which markets I would go into are fairly simple. They focus on:

1. Jobs – are they moving in, or out?
2. Humans – are they moving in, or out?
3. Unemployment trends in the area (6 to 10 mile radius)
4. Type of jobs (healthcare would worry me, education doesn’t)
5. How stable prices have been in the past 90 to 180 days
6. Inventory on the market.
7. 
   

So given these criteria, I have a few places and recommendations for the residential or multihousing investor.

We know that high tech companies are moving into two areas: Omaha, Nebraska and Austin, Texas. In the interest of full disclosure, I own homes in Austin and Round Rock Texas – but I would continue to invest there if the down payment requirements weren’t so high. Median home prices have remained stable in Omaha, and are increasing in Austin. According to a Business Week article from June of 2009, Austin is seeing a lot of transplants from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City; partly people looking for work. The median price in Austin this time in 2008 was about $182,000; today it is $191,000. Austin grew about 4% in the past year while most markets declined. Texas tax structure is attracting big tech businesses like Sun MicroSystems.

Seattle, Washington hits my sixth point on the list above – inventory. Seattle had very strict building restrictions that did not allow significant overbuilding. As a result, while the rest of the market has an average of over 10 months of inventory, there is roughly 5 months inventory in Seattle. Many young people are “trying before they buy”, leading to a strong multihousing market. Prices have dropped a bit but appear by some indices to be leveling off.

Another interesting market? Salt Lake City, Utah. I haven’t been overly thrilled with numerous visits to the area partly due to the city seeming to shut down shortly after the sun does. But young people are moving there in droves – and it’s one of the fastest growing metro areas in the US. Prices are remaining stable over a six month period, so people are moving in and price stability seems to be setting in.

Nashville, Tennessee (I happen to be writing this story on the way to Nashville) also has a unique growth story. Nashville has one of the largest Kurdish populations outside of the Middle East (Business Week, 2009) and in the Muslim faith; persons are not allowed to pay interest on a home. Many turn to Habitat for Humanity which requires only principle payments on homes.

So what about places to avoid? I don’t like area where boomers are moving out of. Colorado and Idaho are two states that they’re moving from. I don’t recommend investing in areas with high foreclosure numbers unless you can get an amazing deal allowing for another 20% or more in price declines. As a result, I recommend doing a triple-take in the Riverside/San Bernardino markets in Southern California (referred to as the Inland Empire), and I would not jump into markets like Sacramento, Merced (which has seen up to 70% price declines since the beginning of the bubble burst; median of $230,000 in 2007 and $144,000 in 2008 for instance), Stockton, Ft. Myers, FL or Las Vegas, NV. Merced suffered from significant overbuilding. When the University of California system announced a new UC Merced, builders overestimated the size of the school and number of employees. It will take significant job growth to reduce the size of inventory there.

Today’s investment market is rocky, but this is the time I believe that we see about every decade to invest. Continuing this discussion on my website at The Babb Group, www.thebabbgroup.com, Forums/Real Estate.

Skewed Foreclosure Data

Skewed Data Creating Fear - Haven't We Had Enough of That?

The latest data released by Realtytrac, the leading online provider of foreclosure information (and darn accurate, which is more than I can say for various indexes that shall remain nameless -- for now...) shows that the month of April 2009 hit an all time high in foreclosure numbers.

Foreclosure filings, notice of defaults, auction sales and bank repos were reported as 342,038 in the US during the month of April - a 32% increase over April of 2008. The mainstream media (nawh, not them!) skewed this information and didn't explain WHY to the public.

Homes are selling at accelerated paces and the banks are (finally) helping most troubled homeowners (unless you are a "rich" jumbo borrower) - Condo Vultures recently reported on a news hit on Fox Business we did together that 2/3 of the inventory has been sold in the last year looking at number of homes on the market.

This is good news - so why does the data look so bad? For reasons the media won't tell you. The bad news is that one in 374 US housing units (note I didn't say primary owners, but UNITS - meaning investors are included here - something else the media won't tell you - far less actual FAMILIES are being affected by foreclosure than homes IN foreclosure) are in a state of default.

This number, 1:374 - is the highest since Realtytrac has collected data. So yes, that's bad. But there is more to this story.

Much of the activity in the foreclosure area right now is at the initial stages - bank repos are down - at their lowest levels actually since March 2008. The wonderful administration we've come to know and love decided that they'd institute a moratorium on foreclosure that is now lifted - which means banks are now allowed to process foreclosures again - and so as a survival mechanism (and contractual obligation) they have. THAT is why the number looks so bad but doesn't tell the entire story. They are artificially inflated.

The inserted heat map shows you the worst of the worst - the more red, the worse the foreclosure problem (source: Realtytrac)

So where is the getting good (if you're a buyer) and the market sucking (if you're a seller?)

Forget what the media tells you about that too. It isn't Florida. I am so tired of hearing Florida it is ridiculous! It's Nevada. 1 in 68 housing UNITS (see that word again? Remember I said investors? Yes this was the heaviest investor driven market in the nation) is in some state of foreclosure - 5 times the national average. Note though this is a 44% drop in bank repos from the previous month but default notices ALSO decreased! Yes, this is GOOD news. Is it up from last year? Yep, 111%. That's to be expected.

More investors are realizing they will be dead before the homes they own are worth what they owe (I'm one of them, I'm just foolish enough to wait it out anyway hoping I won't get hit by a bus tomorrow - oh and then there's the whole "I signed the paper" thing), and banks won't work with you unless it's your primary residence. Expect to see this happen even more in towns where lots of investors moved in. (By the way, anyone want to buy my homes in Bullhead City? Ill give you a good deal, I promise.) :-)

OK now onto Florida - it's 2nd highest -- not the highest -- in the nation. 1 in 135 UNITS is in foreclosure, about 2.7 times the national average and about half of what Nevada is dealing with. Repos are down 7% in Florida.. this is good. Total foreclosure activity though is up 75% from April of 08.

Foreclosure activity in California decreased 10 percent from March, but the state still has the nation’s third highest state foreclosure rate in April, with one in every 138 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month. Total foreclosure activity in California was up 42 percent from April 2008.

After that is Arizona and Idaho - yep Idaho making news for the first time in awhile. I still recall a lady about six months ago trying to sell me 20 "units" there. I wonder where those "units" would be today. Probably on someone's default list. ;)

Here is another noteworthy fact you won't read about in the media. The top 10 states? Yeah, they make upa full 75% of the nation's foreclosure activity! The highest total is Cali (96,000), then Florida (64,000), Nevada (16,000) and Arizona (16,000).

What about metro areas? My "friends" over at a certain index fund seem to think they are all that matters, so let's take a look. Las Vegas is tops on the list BUT has a 20% decrease from the previous month. Not all bad news. 1 in every 56 units in Vegas is in foreclosure right now. If you are an investor, it might be time to arrange a short sale or get out of dodge.

Next? Oh boy, do I even go here? I got beat up pretty badly by Ft. Myers residents who weren't happy with me after a CNN hit, but yep -- Cape Coral/Ft. Myers is second in the nation - 1 in 57. They were #1, so congrats - you are now in the #2 spot. Again deals abound. Also in Florida? Miami at Number 9, and Orlando at Number 10.

California is still getting slammed too; Merced posted the third highest metro rate at 1:65; then Modesto at #4, Riverside-San Bernardino (where I grew up) at #5, Bakersfield at 6, Vallejo-Fairfield at #7 and Stockton at #8. Congrats Stockton, you also moved up the food chain. The message here? Unless you are buying in Cali where the jobs are (LA/OC), just please say no.

Below is a chart from Realtytrac showing more info than you might like to know about each state. These are the real facts folks - forget the networks -- this is the real stuff.

U.S. Foreclosure Market Data by State – April 2009

		Properties with Foreclosure Filings
Rate Rank	State Name	NOD	LIS	NTS	NFS	REO	Total						%Change from Apr 08
--	U.S.	65,456	76,608	100,559	35,512	63,903	342,038						32.25
29	Alabama	0	0	1,763	0	545	2,308						269.28*
32	Alaska	1	0	190	0	45	236						61.64
4	Arizona	4	0	12,595	0	3,646	16,245						39.77
21	Arkansas	168	0	1,295	0	401	1,864						45.06
3	California	52,909	0	30,441	0	13,210	96,560						42.13
9	Colorado	31	0	4,213	0	1,251	5,495						-9.29
19	Connecticut	0	1,695	0	119	360	2,174						25.01
39	Delaware	0	0	0	95	91	186						33.81
	District of Columbia	129	0	191	0	78	398						42.14
2	Florida	0	41,674	0	16,800	6,114	64,588						75.41
7	Georgia	0	0	7,809	0	3,712	11,521						21.68
23	Hawaii	117	0	497	0	70	684						216.67
5	Idaho	1,040	0	1,399	0	39	2,478						220.98*
8	Illinois	0	6,407	0	3,942	3,298	13,647						54.40
15	Indiana	0	1,682	1	2,215	1,121	5,019						-0.57
40	Iowa	0	0	287	0	344	631						9.36
37	Kansas	0	214	0	392	181	787						5.64
41	Kentucky	0	296	0	392	203	891						80.73*
38	Louisiana	0	1	0	896	228	1,125						78.57
43	Maine	0	99	0	125	24	248						-20.77
17	Maryland	0	2,351	0	601	661	3,613						-39.89
13	Massachusetts	0	3,790	0	759	706	5,255						-23.59
11	Michigan	0	0	7,270	0	3,560	10,830						-11.77
18	Minnesota	62	0	2,280	0	1,205	3,547						82.84
44	Mississippi	0	0	323	0	12	335						98.22
30	Missouri	1	0	1,672	0	1,025	2,698						-21.06†
47	Montana	0	0	12	0	49	61						-43.52
46	Nebraska	0	106	0	3	9	118						-79.86
1	Nevada	8,657	0	5,131	0	2,478	16,266						111.25
16	New Hampshire	0	0	678	0	357	1,035						62.23
22	New Jersey	0	3,349	0	1,041	644	5,034						-3.51
33	New Mexico	0	380	0	238	95	713						100.28*
36	New York	0	4,256	0	872	463	5,591						-1.01
34	North Carolina	648	0	1,371	0	1,063	3,082						-14.91
48	North Dakota	0	0	0	22	15	37						85.00*
10	Ohio	0	5,107	0	3,890	3,327	12,324						-4.69
35	Oklahoma	431	0	553	0	193	1,177						-30.76
12	Oregon	124	0	3,109	0	604	3,837						127.04
31	Pennsylvania	0	1,928	0	1,806	1,315	5,049						54.55*
25	Rhode Island	13	0	310	0	233	556						-4.63
28	South Carolina	0	1,111	0	501	697	2,309						180.56*
49	South Dakota	0	0	0	15	2	17						-50.00
24	Tennessee	0	0	2,090	0	1,380	3,470						-25.68††
27	Texas	12	0	7,153	0	4,149	11,314						-9.02
6	Utah	1,104	0	1,162	0	703	2,969						120.25
50	Vermont	0	0	0	0	2	2						100.00*
14	Virginia	5	0	4,214	0	2,035	6,254						5.16†
26	Washington	0	0	2,352	0	1,007	3,359						33.88
45	West Virginia	0	0	137	0	8	145						95.95
20	Wisconsin	0	2,162	0	788	911	3,861						71.98*
42	Wyoming	0	0	61	0	34	95						196.88

*Actual increase may not be as high due to data collection changes or improvements
† Collection of some records previously classified as NOD in this state was discontinued starting in January 2009
†† Collection of some records previously classified as NOD in this state was discontinued starting in September 2008