This month, Forbes Magazine released their list of billionaires , and the country of Mexico is not happy with one of the people included.

Number 701 on the list, at an estimated $1 billion, is Joaqun “El Chapo” Guzman. Guzman is Mexico’s most notorious drug lords. He’s allegedly responsibly for some of the most violent crimes in the country and is Mexico’s most-wanted fugitive.

Both Mexico’s president and attorney general have spoken out against the magazine listing him. Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora says that Forbes is “comparing the deplorable activity of a criminal wanted in Mexico and abroad with that of honest businessmen” and thus, defending crime.

You can read the full story at Yahoo! News .

I’ve grown up in the Midwest, what the rest of the United States calls “fly-over country.” So it pained me to see the latest list by Forbes.com. The editors there put together a feature story on the United States’ fastest-dying cities. Of course, the Midwest — and Ohio, specifically — dominated the list.

Ohio, in fact, accounted for four of the 10 cities on Forbes’ list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland.

Michigan fared little better. The state had Detroit and Flint on the list. The two states, then, had six out of 10 cities on the list.

These cities made the list because, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, they face shrinking populations, rising unemployment and economies that are barely growing.

The other cities on the list are Scranton, Penn.; Springfield, Mass.; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Detroit.

If you’d like to see the full story, click here.

You have to feel sorry for these cities, most of which have never recovered from job losses in the manufacturing industry. I live close enough to the Michigan cities to know that municipal officials there have tried several plans to pump life back into their cities. Nothing, though, seems to work.

Do you live in one of these “dying” cities? If so, I’d love to hear from you. How does being on this list make you feel? Does your city deserve to be on the list? Do you see any bright spots coming for you municipality? And, most importantly of all, do you plan on leaving anytime soon?

Who says housing prices are only going down? In Mumbai, India, at least, that isn’t entirely true.

Construction crews there are now building the world’s most expensive and largest home. Mukesh and Nita Ambani expect early next year to move into the 27-story skyscraper. The project is expected to cost $2 billion.

Ambani, though, can afford it. The head of a Mumbai-based petrochemical company, Ambani is ranked as the fifth-richest person in the world.

What does $2 billion buy you? Ambani’s new home will boast 40,000 square feet of living space, a ballroom, nine elevators and, in that touch of extravagance we all look for from the super-rich, an ice room. This room, which will allow visitors to escape the heat of Mumbai, will be covered with man-made snow flurries.

If you’d like to read more about the home, and see a slide show, click here. The link takes you to a story on the Web site of Forbes magazine written by Matt Woolsey.

I hate traffic jams. Of course, that’s like saying I hate having heavy objects dropped onto my head. Everyone hates traffic jams.

I’m lucky, though. I work from home. So even though I live in Chicago, a city famous for its awful traffic, I rarely get stuck.

Most others, though, are not so lucky. Forbes.com recently ran a story by Elisabeth Eaves that reported what we all instinctively know: Traffic is getting worse in our major cities.

The story says that the average travel time to work is increasing steadily. Commuters today average a 25.5-minute trip each way to work. And in some parts of the country, commutes are downright unbearable. In Los Angeles, for instance, the average commuter spends 93 hours a year stuck in traffic. In fact, the Texas Transportation Institute, which studies traffic problems across the country, reports that the average commuter in cities with more than 1 million people spends 47 hours a year stuck in traffic. In cities with more than 3 million people, the average commuter spends 61 hours stuck in traffic each year.

That’s a lot of wasted time. That’s why I believe it is so important to live near where you work. If that’s not possible, buy a residence near public transportation. Commuter trains are a far easier way to get to work.

Fortunately, developers for several years have been focusing on what are called transit-oriented developments. These are usually a mix of residences and retail establishments located within walking distance of commuter rail lines. The point is to encourage people to leave their cars behind and walk to nearby shops and restaurants, and to their local train station when it’s time to head into the city or suburbs for work.

I know I couldn’t stand wasting 61 hours a year stuck in traffic. I can barely stand wasting 15 minutes in a traffic jam.

So how about you? Do you deal every day with a monster commute? And if so, how do you do it? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

The people at Forbes.com love their lists. So do readers, apparently, because Forbes sure isn’t printing fewer of them.

Their latest is an attention-grabber: the 10 best cities for home sellers. You can read the story here.

According to the story, if you’re trying to sell a home in San Jose, Calif., you’re in luck. Forbes ranks it as the best city in which to sell residential real estate. The biggest reason? New home construction in the city dropped 63 percent in 2007.

Second on the list is San Francisco. Next comes Salt Lake City and Austin, Texas. Kansas City, Mo., completes the top five.

Check out the story for a complete list of all 10 top cities. And if you happen to be selling  a home in one of them, rejoice.

I hate myself for writing this, but it’s too hard to resist. Forbes Magazine, which has a love affair with the list, recently compiled another one: its list of the biggest real estate losses taken by celebrities.

You can read the story, written by Dorothy Pomerantz, here. In a nutshell, it explains how the nation’s residential real estate slump has hit Los Angeles, too, home of many celebrities. It also explains that the slump has hit owners trying to sell multi-million-dollar homes hardest, and that, of course, is what celebrities do.

Now here’s what you came for: the biggest losers. Young rock star Avril Lavigne has reduced the price on her five-bedroom, six-bathroom house in Beverly Hills from $6.9 million to $5.8 million. Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash bought his house in 2006 for $6.2 million, but had to sell it last December for $5.7 million.

Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s former sidekick, put his 7,000-square-foot house on the market in July of 2006 for $7.7 million. He is now asking for $5.7 million.

You know, just because people become celebrities do they really need houses with six bathrooms, or mansions that cover 7,000 square feet of living space? Maybe these celebrities wouldn’t be having so much trouble selling their homes if they had bought something a bit more reasonable.

The country’s wealthiest people live in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. At least, that’s according to a story written by Matt Woolsey for Forbes.com. Woolsey compiled a list of the nation’s richest counties. You can read it, and its accompanying story, here.

Fairfax County, Va., Loudon County, Va., and Howard County, Md., all suburbs of Washington, D.C., top the list as the three wealthiest counties in the country, based on 2006 median household income.

In Fairfax County, the median household income comes in at $100,318 a year. In Loudoun County, that figure is $99,371. In Howard, the figure is $92,260.

This is another great list from Forbes, whose editors delight in publishing such snapshots of American wealth. Just be careful reading it:  You may get a little jealous.

Forbes Magazine, one publication that truly loves its lists, recently released another one guaranteed to get people talking. This one highlights the 10 most expensive cities for renters.

To no one’s surprise, New York City tops the list. The average monthly rent in the Big Apple, according to Forbes, comes in at $2,922. San Francisco, also no surprise, comes in second with an average monthly rent of $1,904. Rounding out the top three is Boston at $1,658.

The remaining seven cities on the list are: San Jose, Calif., at $1,612; Los Angeles, $1,452; San Diego, $1,304; Washington D.C., $1,302; Miami, $1,080; Philadelphia, $1,014; and Chicago, $1010.

Are there certain neighborhoods that are so high-profile, so desirable that they are immune from the slumping residential real estate market?

According to new research from Forbes Magazine, it would appear that, yes, some neighborhoods are slump-resistant.

Last week, the magazine published a report on what it calls the country’s 15 “blue chip” neighborhoods.  Housing values in these most desirable of neighborhoods not only held held steady during the housing downturn, they actually increased.

Where should you move, then, if you want to live in a neighborhood that’s immune from the whims of the housing industry? Well, if you can plunk down an average of $2.45 million for your home, try New York City’s Fifth Avenue and 70th Street neighborhood, where home values have risen 325 percent since 1990.

If that’s out of your range, try another neighborhood that ranked high in Forbes’ report: Homes near Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive and Route 41 area cost an average of $1.91 million and have jumped 236 percent since 1990. If that New York price seems a little low to you, try buying a residence in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Homes here cost an average of $3.1 million and have risen 440 percent since 1990.

I know that homes in these neighborhoods are a little out of most folks’ price ranges. But doesn’t it provide comfort to know that some homeowners aren’t struggling with declining housing values?

No. Well, maybe 2008 will be better than 2007. If you can’t hope the day after Christmas, when can you?