Foreclosure sales still pummeling home prices

Nearly five years into the crisis, foreclosures are still weighing heavily on home prices.

A whopping 46% of homes sold in November were either short sales or REOs -- as homes repossessed by lenders are called, according to a survey by Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance.

One problem: Distressed homes sell for a lot less than homes sold by conventional sellers. The average price for a short sale (when borrowers owe the bank more than their homes are worth) was $209,000 in November. For a regular sale, the average was about $259,000.The numbers are even worse for REOs, which averaged about $190,000 for properties in move-in condition.

For a damaged REO, the price was just $99,000. That's a common problem, since homeowners who've been foreclosed on don't typically devote resources to upkeep.

There is no shortage of distressed properties: More than 6 million borrowers are delinquent 30 or more days, according to LPS Applied Analytics. Two million are already in the foreclosure process, and most of these homes will be repossessed or sold as short sales.

"The huge glut of distressed properties coming to market is why there will be no home price rebound this coming year and maybe into 2013," said Guy Cecala of Inside Mortgage Finance, a publisher of mortgage information and news.

There's another problem: getting financing for REOs in poor shape can be difficult, according to Cecala. Lenders don't like to issue mortgages for homes in need of extensive repairs.

And in an insidious twist, as distressed properties are sold, they can also bring down the price of homes that aren't in trouble. That's because mortgage appraisers assessing a regular home's value typically compare it to short sales and REOs in the area.

Since distressed properties sell for so much less, using them as comparables drags the appraised values of regular homes way down.

"It's the No. 1 reason why transactions fall through," said Cecala. "If you can't get an appraisal to support the price, the deal will won't close."

When working from home just doesn't work

 Once a year, leaders of Community Options come together from its 35 locations for a retreat. The nonprofit organization runs a variety of entrepreneurial ventures that create job opportunities and provide housing for people with disabilities.

At the most recent summit, the chief financial officer was bemoaning the wasted flowers at the organization's New Brunswick, N.J. floral store, due to the inevitable difficulty in managing inventory to meet customer orders.

Listening in, a graphic designer from Community Options' Daily Plan It, which rents shared office space and provides support services such as document shredding, thought they could use the dead, unsold flowers to create potpourri. As a result, Community Options is now launching a line of potpourri, which will be packaged and sold by people with disabilities.

"It's all because a group of people got together and came up with this idea," says Robert Stack, founder and chief executive of Princeton, N.J.-based Community Options. "People play off each other."

In a world of video conferencing, cloud computing, and shared online workspaces, it's easy to imagine that people can work together from anywhere, just as if they were sitting in the cubicle next door.

It's true that telework reduces pollution, improves productivity, and cuts real estate costs for employers while increasing retention and employee loyalty. But no matter how advanced the technology, something is lost when face-to-face contact disappears.

Indeed, a new report found that the number of teleworkers declined in 2010 for the first time since data collection began nearly a decade ago. While there's no denying that telecommuting can provide tremendous benefits, organizations are finding that virtual collaboration has its limits.

"We've tried the cloud stuff; it's good. We've tried the Skype where you have four or five people on the screen. It ain't the same thing," says Community Options' Stack, who holds quarterly in-person meetings for each region in addition to the annual summit. "Collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas doesn't happen by me sending you an email and you sending one back."

When face time trumps convenience

WorldatWork, a human resources association, found that the number of people who telecommuted at least one day a month in 2010 dropped to 26.2 million, down from 33.7 million in 2008, in a report released earlier this year. Even with the drop, teleworkers represent 20% of the working adult population.

WorldatWork argues that the uncertain economy has heightened employees' fears that they risk losing their job if they are not seen. "We found that teleworking went down during the most recent economic downturn, more due to a mindset than to an organization's change in policy," says Rose Stanley, work-life practice leader for WorldatWork.

To be sure, a slight majority (54%) of the decline in remote workers is attributed to a rise in unemployment levels over the past few years, according to WorldatWork's survey; the remainder was attributed to factors such as employees' fear of retribution and increased use of independent contractors by employers.

The association recommends that employees who work remotely visit their home office at least once a quarter. "You have to put in place ways for that employee to reconnect to their co-workers," Stanley says.

Peter Wride, 27, understands well the limits of telecommuting. He was hired to manage a sales team for an online school based in Texas -- when he was based in Utah. Aside from an initial week in Texas, he relied on quarterly in-person meetings with his staff and other colleagues.

"It became hard to deal with different people in the company who I was meeting for the first time over the phone," Wride recalls. "I'd show up in person and spend a week putting out fires or trying to meet people so the next time I had to call them, I had a bit of a relationship with them."

Under his leadership, his team boosted profits at the school by 200%, but he felt cut off and unfulfilled by the work experience. "I really didn't feel that I was part of the team," he says.

Inserting community into telework: No simple feat

CUNA Mutual Group is trying to solve the puzzle of how to build virtual teamwork. The company, which provides financial services to credit unions, has about 70 employees across the country working in its lender development program. To help everyone get to know one other, the team uses Web cameras and encourages breakout discussions among smaller groups on topics like a Christmas memory or favorite vacation spot, says Terri Smith, director of product management.

"We take every opportunity to continue to connect our team. If we're doing a team meeting, we're all on webcams, so you're getting that face-to-face interaction," Smith says.

The webcam technology also allows a presenter to see people's faces, so she can stop a presentation to address puzzled looks. The group has celebrated life events like a baby shower or birthday by sending the individual a cookie bouquet or having everyone sing happy birthday via webcam.

State Street Corp. (STT) is trying to unite an even bigger group: its global work force. Last week, the financial services company launched a global Flex Employee Network with, naturally, virtual events for employees around the globe such as a talk about best practices in telework. The initiative is part of the company's new approach to flexible work, which includes technological support for telecommuters, online tools for tracking productivity, and the option to reserve shared office space for those days when virtual workers are on site.

State Street has found that telecommuters enjoy having more moments of serendipitous in-person connection with colleagues because when they are in the office, they may be assigned a space next to someone they previously didn't know, says Maia Germain, vice president of the Flex Program Office. But when a team was recently giving a colleague a gift for a life event, they realized they forgot to pass the collection hat to the people who were working from home. They resolved never to make that mistake again.

"We've learned a lot about virtual teams and connecting the intangible things," Germain says. "We've been able to come up with a lot of needs we'll be focusing on in 2012."

Some jobs cannot be done from home

People who work three days at home are very productive on those days, but they value even more the ability to interact with colleagues in person when they come to the office. Nonetheless, "some of the jobs really, truly can't be done at home. Certain financial services roles can only be done with technology that only exists within the organization," she says.

When telework isn't possible, employers should find other ways to be flexible with their workers, Stanley suggests. State Street, for instance, offers five types of flexible work arrangements: flex time (your daily work schedule is flexible), flex place (where you work is flexible), compressed workweeks, reduced hours, and job sharing (you split the job duties with a partner).

Stark agrees: "Flexibility is worth more than money if you want to land the best person for a position."

Army may be the real winner in Egypt

At the end of the first round of voting in Egypt's historic elections, Islamist parties appear headed for a decisive majority in the first freely elected parliament since the ouster of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

So far, the Freedom and Justice Party operated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and best organized political movement, has won nearly 40% of the vote, followed by the ultraconservative Salafist parties with another 25%.

The "Islamist tsunami," as some have dubbed it, has raised eyebrows in the West and raised concerns in Egypt over the future status of women, secular-minded Egyptians and the country's substantial Christian minority.

The Muslim Brotherhood is attempting to reassure anxious Egyptians and foreigners alike and are reframing their imminent victory as a win for Egypt's nascent democracy.

As one Brotherhood leader recently wrote in The Guardian, "There will be winners and losers. But the real -- and only -- victor is Egypt."

Indeed, many democracy advocates inside and outside Egypt had long seen the elections as the surest way to force the ruling military council to cede power to a civilian-led government. While a democratic outcome may still be possible in the long run, for now the real winners may be neither the Islamists nor the Egyptian people but the country's interim rulers, the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF).

Once universally viewed as a pillar of stability for a country in transition, the SCAF's foot-dragging on basic reforms and its increasingly repressive tactics against all forms of dissent, including the trial of some 12,000 civilians before military tribunals and the use of deadly violence against young protesters in Tahrir Square in the lead-up to the elections, have convinced most Egyptians of the need to end military rule as quickly as possible.

SCAF has already violated its pledge to hand over power within six months and has made clear it wants to remain the power behind the power. The military says it will cede power to a civilian president by July 2012, but at the same time it seeks to preserve its myriad social, economic and political benefits, including its immunity from governmental oversight and its highly secretive shadow economy, estimated at around one-third of the national economy.

Despite SCAF's attempts to cast itself as politically neutral, it has aggressively manipulated the political scene throughout the transition process in a bid to protect its interests. Indeed, Egypt's military rulers have demonstrated a shrewd, almost Machiavellian, ability to keep the opposition weak and fractured, especially when it comes to exploiting decades-old animosities between Egypt's Islamist and secular forces.

After having promoted the Islamists throughout most of the transition period, the unlikely alliance finally broke down in the weeks leading up to elections over the military's attempts to usurp the incoming parliament's authority in appointing a constituent assembly to draft the country's next constitution. Up until then, both the Brotherhood and the Salafists had been relatively accommodating of the military, largely shunning mass protests and resisting calls for the military to cede power, which further helped inflame Islamist-secularist tensions.

The existing climate of social and political polarization is likely to be compounded by the unrepresentative nature of the new parliament, where liberal forces won only 18% of the vote.

The biggest losers in the electoral process have been the revolutionary youth groups that spearheaded the uprising in January and have been at the forefront of the democracy movement ever since. But they have largely shunned electoral politics in favor of continued street protests. In addition to the marginalization of the youth, much of it self-inflicted, a decisive Islamist majority will probably, as feared, leave groups such as women and Christians severely underrepresented as well.

All this comes at an especially sensitive moment in Egypt's transition.

The Brotherhood's electoral dominance cements its position as the chief power broker of the transitional period. In particular, the process of writing the country's first post-revolutionary constitution will require consensus-building among Egypt's disparate constituencies.

The Brotherhood's ability to forge an alliance with secular liberal parties, which it says it prefers, will prove difficult in light of the deep mistrust on both sides. At the same time, a coalition with the Salafists may prove equally unworkable, if only because it would embody the worst fears of many Egyptians and foreigners alike. An all-Islamist parliamentary alliance could force Egyptian liberals into the arms of SCAF while providing the military with the perfect pretext to put off civilian rule. Indeed, SCAF officials wasted no time in minimizing the outcome of the elections, even suggesting the parliament's role in writing the constitution would be severely curtailed.

Either way, the Brotherhood is likely to preside over a deeply divided parliament with vaguely defined powers. This is also to the advantage of SCAF, as any political stalemate, especially one marked by deepening social divisions, is likely to prolong military rule and forestall serious democratic reforms.

The Islamists' parliamentary victory will no doubt fuel fears of an "Islamist takeover." However, American and other Western policy makers should not lose sight of the big picture.

Although there may be reason to question the democratic credentials of Islamist groups, they have thus far played by the rules. The same cannot be said of Egypt's military rulers, however, whose growing repression and desire to remain above the law pose a far more real and tangible threat to Egyptian democracy. Rather than fretting over an outcome whose implications are not yet known, the United States should pressure the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces to disentangle itself from the political process, respect the outcome of the elections, and return to the barracks as soon as possible.

Taylor Swift donates 6,000 books to library

This is great!! I am so happy a celebrity has chosen to step up to the plate and support a very important American Institution - A Library! 

Will Taylor Swift’s reign of preciousness never end? The bubbly blonde superstar has graciously donated 6,000 books to a library in Reading, Pennsylvania, the town's paper The Reading Eagle reports.

The Grammy-winning singer hails from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, and chose nearby Reading for her donation because she wants to aid economically troubled libraries.

The 6,000 children’s and young adult titles were chosen by local librarians. Publisher Scholastic Inc. helped Taylor make the hefty book donation.

Librarians say they hope the pop star’s popularity will encourage youngsters to read. The books donated by Swift bear special white star stickers, making it easy for kids to identify the celebrity connection.

Reading, Pennsylvania has some famous young residents who might enjoy the new children’s books – the Gosselins! That’s right, Kate and her brood of eight reside in "The Pretzel City.”

Steve Jobs in his own words

I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back

-- Steve Jobs, 1985

That's a quote from a Playboy interview Steve Jobs gave back in 1985. February of 1985, to be specific, right before Steve would be ousted from the company that he co-founded with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976. Apple of course famously grew out of a garage, the brains of Woz, the drive of Jobs building the company over the next nine years into a powerhouse in the burgeoning home computer market.

Join us for a look back at the life of Steve Jobs. 

Steve has always had his own way of doing things, a famous temper that left many engineers crying. When things were going well, he was worshipped. But, when things started turning sour, that unique way didn't earn him so many fans. In May of 1985 Jobs was effectively fired by John Sculley, who'd joined Apple from Pepsi as CEO. Steve Jobs was free to do his own thing.

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

-- Steve Jobs, 2005

Steve went on to found NeXT Computer, a highly advanced (and highly expensive) desktop computer that won favor among developers for its object-oriented foundations. But, it never found financial success. His other main diversion, however, would find plenty.

There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

-- Steve Jobs, 2003

In 1986 Jobs bought a company called Graphics Group, a small firm that was responsible for visuals like the Genesis effect in Star Trek II. Jobs paid $5 million for the company. In 2006, 20 years after Jobs acquired it, Disney purchased that company (now called Pixar) for $7.4 billion.

A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.

-- Steve Jobs, 1998

Apple acquired Steve's NeXT in 1996, bringing the man back into the fold and, before long, bumping him back up to the CEO position. From here, Steve went on a spree of killing off unsuccessful projects (like Newton) before ushering in many of the changes that would, ultimately, turn Apple into the company we know today.

When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.

-- Steve Jobs, 2006

Steve would come up with many, many elegant solutions to problems that many people didn't know they had over his next 15 years at Apple. The iMac would be released in 1998 under his watch, a device that he said marries "the excitement of the internet with the simplicity of Macintosh." But, in 2001, Apple would really hit its stride.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.

-- Steve Jobs

It would be in 2001 that Apple really turned into the company that we know today. It re-invented the Mac operating system with OS X (built from NeXT foundations), launched its own retail chain of Apple stores, and launched both the iPod and the accompanying iTunes. At first, these were curiosities. They'd soon become unshakable industry behemoths.

We're just enthusiastic about what we do.

-- Steve Jobs, 1985

From here Apple would launch the iPhone in 2007, the App Store in 2008, and the iPad in 2010. All three launched as curiosities, all three having their doubters, and all three following the (ever-expanding) iPod line to heights that nobody could have foreseen -- surely even Jobs himself. People may have been a little disappointed with the iPhone 4S recently, but that's only because Apple has impressed everyone so much in the past.

I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time.

-- Steve Jobs, 1993

Steve Jobs has had a remarkable effect on the industry as a whole. His impact on the progression of personal electronics cannot be overstated and his swift departure leaves a hole none could fill, but he has built a legacy that few could ever hope rival. Apple computer now stands firmly as a leader in consumer electronics, and for many it will always be known as The House that Steve Built.

Iran planning to send ships near U.S. waters

Iran plans to send ships near the Atlantic coast of the United States, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting a commander.

"The Navy of the Iranian Army will have a powerful presence near the United States borders," read the headline of the story, in Farsi.

"Commander of the Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran broke the news about the plans for the presence of this force in the Atlantic Ocean and said that the same way that the world arrogant power is present near our marine borders, we, with the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence, shall also establish a powerful presence near the marine borders of the United States," the story said. The reference to the "world arrogant power" was presumably intended to refer to the United States.

IRNA cited the force's website as saying that the announcement was made by Adm. Habibollah Sayari on the 31st anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war.

State-run Press TV said Sayari had announced similar plans in July. In February, two Iranian Navy ships traversed the Suez Canal in the first such voyages by Iranian ships since 1979.

U.S. Defense Department officials had no immediate reaction to Tuesday's announcement. The United States has deployed fleets to the Persian Gulf in the past.

State-run Press TV, citing IRNA, said Tuesday's announcement came as Iran also plans to send its 16th fleet of warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian vessels and oil tankers from pirates, who have hijacked dozens of ships and exchanged their crews for ransom.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that Tehran's defense doctrine is based only on deterrence, Press TV reported in a story in July about the deployment of submarines to international waters.

U.S. is in falling satellite's potential strike zone, NASA says

A satellite on the verge of falling back to Earth appears to have begun slowing down but will not re-enter the atmosphere until late Friday or early Saturday U.S. time, according to NASA.

The United States is once again an unlikely but potential target for the 26 pieces of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, expected to survive the descent. Those pieces, made of stainless steel, titanium and beryllium that won't burn, will range from about 10 pounds to hundreds of pounds, according to NASA.

NASA said Friday morning that it would be hours before it would be able to zero in on the time and place of the re-entry.

Mark Matney of NASA's Orbital Debris team in Houston said there's no way to know exactly where the pieces will come down.

"Keep in mind, they won't be traveling at those high orbital velocities. As they hit the air, they tend to slow down. ... They're still traveling fast, a few tens to hundreds of miles per hour, but no longer those tremendous orbital velocities," he explained.

Because the satellite travels thousands of miles in a matter of minutes as it orbits -- even just before it begins re-entry -- it will be impossible to pinpoint the exact location the pieces will come down. On top of that, Matney said, the satellite is not stable.

"Part of the problem is, the spacecraft is tumbling in unpredictable ways, and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it's coming down even right before the re-entry."

Because water covers 70% of the Earth's surface, NASA has said that most if not all of the surviving debris will land in water. Even if pieces strike dry land, there's very little risk any of it will hit people.

However, in an abundance of caution, the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday released an advisory warning pilots about the falling satellite, calling it a potential hazard.

"It is critical that all pilots/flight crew members report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility and include position, altitude, time and direction of debris observed," the FAA statement said.

The FAA said warnings of this sort typically are sent out to pilots concerning specific hazards they may encounter during flights such as air shows, rocket launches, kites and inoperable radio navigational aids.

NASA says space debris the size of the satellite's components re-enters the atmosphere about once year. Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that the satellite is far from being the biggest space junk to come back.

"This is nothing like the old Skylab scare of the '70s, when you had a 70-ton space station crashing out of the sky. So, I agree with the folks in Houston. It's nothing to be worried about," McDowell said.

Pieces of Skylab came down in western Australia in 1979.

The only wild card McDowell sees is if somehow a chunk hits a populated area.

"If the thing happens to come down in a city, that would be bad. The chances of it causing extensive damage or injuring someone are much higher."

NASA said that once the debris hits the atmosphere 50 miles up, it will take only a matter of minutes before the surviving pieces hit the Earth.

Are you a gambler or investor?

John Mowen once had a 2 handicap, a level of accomplishment most amateur golfers can only dream of. But like many seemingly benign pursuits, golf can have a dark side. Mowen admits that about ten years ago he had become so hypercompetitive that the game lost its joy for him and he gave it up.

In the same way, investing is a pursuit that can be healthy or unhealthy. Taking an unhealthy approach to investing can slide into gambling and make it a losing proposition. This is a subject that Mowen, a professor in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University and an expert in consumer behavior, has explored in depth. Most recently, he coauthored a paper that examines differences between gambling and investing.

The two aren't as different as you might think. In both cases, you're placing your money in ventures with uncertain outcomes. But the consequences of treating your portfolio as a gambling stake instead of a nest egg are dramatic.

Whereas gamblers in the stock market think short term and trade a few stocks frequently based on little information, investors understand that the odds tip decisively in their favor if they invest broadly and for the long term. An investor has a greater need for education and information than a gambler, says Mowen.

"Investors also have a future focus, and to me that's the hallmark of investing." Gamblers often have a penchant for risk-taking, which they find stimulating, Mowen says. In addition, they have a tendency to be more materialistic, impulsive and superstitious.

Few of us, however, can be neatly classified as thoughtful and sober or wild-eyed and impulsive. We all fall somewhere along a spectrum that stretches between those extremes, says Frank Murtha, a behavioral-finance consultant with MarketPsych, which offers psychological training and other services to financial professionals.

Penny for Your Stocks

Another way to approach the investing-as-gambling phenomenon is to consider not only how securities are traded but also which securities are purchased. One class of stocks is a gamble almost by definition. I'm talking, of course, about penny stocks — those low-priced, high-risk securities for which you'll almost certainly find solicitations as close as your spam folder. In fact, you may be receiving more penny-stock tout sheets than usual. Alok Kumar, a finance professor at the University of Miami, found that the demand for penny stocks increases during tough economic times.

Further, Kumar compared behavioral patterns of people who bought lottery tickets with those of people who bought "lottery-type" stocks, or penny stocks. His research showed that those who were predisposed to buy lottery tickets also favored penny stocks.

People who spent a lot on both tended to be poor, young African-American or Hispanic men who lived in cities. Investors in the lowest income group, with annual incomes of less than $15,000, lost an average of $4,725 per year on penny stocks — or about a third of their income. Those with higher annual incomes lost about the same dollar amount in penny stocks — but their losses were a smaller fraction of their income.

Huge Gladiator School Found Buried in Austria

The newly located facility includes features never before seen at a Roman gladiators' school, or ludus, such as traces of a wooden training dummy. And outside the gates, the researchers discovered what they call the first known gladiators' cemetery on the grounds of a ludus.

The complex "is absolutely huge," said Franz Humer, scientific director ofCarnuntum Archaeological Park, where the gladiator school was discovered—and where much of the ancient city has been reconstructed, a la Colonial Williamsburg.

The discovery, near the River Danube, is "one of the most interesting things I can imagine here in my career," Humer added.

The newfound school "is important," added the University of Buffalo's Stephen Dyson, an expert on the history and archaeology of the Roman Empire.

"It's the only one of this size and scale to be found anywhere in the Roman provinces," said Dyson, who wasn't involved in the discovery.

And though the Carnuntum ludus may not change historians' fundamental image of gladiators, "it's an important addition to our evidence."

Gladiator School Linked to Gladiator?

The school was probably built at the same time as the adjacent 13,000-person amphitheater, which was erected around A.D. 150, during the reign of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and excavated in the 1920s and 1930s.

Aurelius is known to have spent time in Carnuntum, and it's possible his son Commodus—the namesake of the villainous emperor in the 2000 blockbusterGladiator—saw his first gladiator matches in the town.

"Maybe he got an appetite" for the bloody sport at Carnuntum, Humer said. "We can't prove it … but from the chronology, it would be possible."

Gladiator School Twice the Size of a Walmart

Archaeologists detected the school with tractor-mounted radar equipment that penetrates the earth to produce three-dimensional images of buried objects.

The radar revealed a range of subterranean structures around a central courtyard, from tiny dormitory rooms to a large room with heated floors—collapsed flooring suggests hollow areas for underfloor heating, the researchers say.

Within the courtyard, a mini-amphitheater—complete with the Roman equivalent of spectators' bleachers—allowed gladiators to practice their moves. Perhaps gladiators, who were mostly slaves, performed there for potential purchasers, Humer speculated.

Next to the training complex stood a walled field, or campus, which may have been used for housing wild animals intended for gladiatorial combat or for exercising horses—a feature never before found at a ludus, Humer said.

The entire complex occupies some 200,000 square feet (19,000 square meters)—nearly twice as big as the average Walmart.

The central buildings of the Carnuntum gladiator school do, however, closely resemble the remains of known gladiator schools uncovered at Rome and Pompeii. That similarity gives the researchers confidence that the Carnuntum find is indeed a gladiator school, even though it hasn't been excavated.

Rivaling Rome

Excavation of the cemetery and other structures could add detail to historians' understanding of gladiators' lives, said Newcastle University's Ian Haynes, an archaeologist who specializes in the Roman Empire.

Even if excavators never turn over a single shovelful of dirt at the site, the Carnuntum ludus "is a powerful reminder of how the cultures of the empire's urban centers are linked together," said Haynes, who isn’t part of the Carnuntum research.

"The work that is found here on the Danubian border stands in direct comparison with finds from the center of Rome itself. ... [That] brings home quite forcefully that cities like Carnuntum were absolutely brimming with aspects of this Roman, cosmopolitan culture."