The High Performers
Seven of the top 15 markets posted quarter-over-quarter property price gains in this month’s report, compared to none in last month’s, according to Clear Capital. Here are the seven highest-performing major real estate markets, according to the report.

1. Washington, D.C.-Arlington, Va.-Alexandria, Va.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 4.5%
Year-to-year price changes (May 2010-May 2011): 4.9%
REO saturation: 17.5%

2. St. Louis, Mo.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 2.2%
Year-to-year price changes: -11.4%
REO saturation: 35.3%

3. Pittsburgh, Pa.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 1.6%
Year-to-year price changes: 0.3%
REO saturation: 10.9%

4. New York, N.Y.-Long Island, N.Y.-No. New Jersey, N.J.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 1.5%
Year-to-year price changes: 1.4%
REO saturation: 9.6%

5. Virginia Beach, Va.-Norfolk, Va.-Newport News, Va.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 1.4%
Year-to-year price changes: -13.2%
REO saturation: 22.4%

6. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Miami Beach, Fla.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 0.6%
Year-to-year price changes: -5.2%
REO saturation: 39.6%

7. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.
Quarter-to-quarter home price change: 0.5%
Year-to-year price changes: -5%
REO saturation: 25%

Tthe lowest-performing market for the fifth straight month was Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., with a 13.2 percent decrease in quarter-over-quarter home price change and a 58 percent REO saturation rate.

Source: “Clear Capital Reports Quarterly Home Price Decline Slows; Signs of Market Stability as Summer Approaches,” Clear Capital (June 9, 2011)

Also falling in the ‘good news’ category, mortgage rates continue to be extremely low.  Our friend Glenn Hayhurst at First National Bank says 30 year fixed rates are in the 4.625 range right now.

Tuesday night, June 14, we kick off the summer season at Faust with the music of Bob Kuban.

If you’ve been to Faust, you know it’s one of the area’s incredible parks, featuring the Butterfly House, the carousel, playgrounds, walking paths, a lake and more.  The night begins at 5 when the gates open, and the concert starts at 7.  Immediately following, there will be a HUGE fireworks display, so bring chairs or a blanket.  At intermission, Robin and I, along with other agents from RE/MAX Suburban, will be serving up Chesterfield’s birthday cake.  The event is free to the public and so is the cake.

The Summer Concert Series features top notch area talent.  The rest of the summer will also feature:

June 14– Scott Laythem and Karl Holmes
June 21– Trilogy
June 28– Spectrum
July 5– No Concert
July 12– Non Stop Band
July 19– Fanfare
July 26– Ralph Butler
August 2– Sound Judgment
August 9– Billy Peek
August 16– Yes Sir

See you at Faust Park!

Our friend Mike Maupin from Titan Bank was able to find a glimmer of good news among the bad in economic headlines this week.  The bad news is, jobs have flattened as we only added 54,000 new jobs in May.  But because of that weak report, fixed mortgage rates will likely stay in the 4.25 to 4.5% range.

Great time to buy a house, if you can.  Let us know if you need a hand.

The Make Your Mark Mural Project is a beautification project for the Chesterfield levee wall, and you’re invited to help paint.  You don’t have to be artistically inclined, everyone can help.  Brushes and paint are provided, no supplies are required.

It’s this Saturday at 10:00 am.  More info here.

The event is sponsored in part by the City of Chesterfield, US Army Corps of Engineers and Magruder Construction.

Technology is a take-no-prisoners juggernaut, leaving the destruction of Americana in its wake.  Was that opening too heavy?

I love my HDTV, I am writing this on a high tech laptop while sipping coffee from an automatic grind, drip coffee maker. Technology and modern convenience are necessary ‘evils’ in this forward-thinking, evolving world. I get it.

But sometimes I mourn the loss of the Cowboy. Not the kind that melts down in the NFL playoffs. The real Cowboy.

He was the guy that didn’t need a GPS to know where to poke the cows. He knew instinctively where to go and what perils lie ahead.  The real cowboy knew the forecast by gut and by watching the horizon… not The Weather Channel, which was still 180 years away. Honestly, his forecast might have been more accurate.

Everything he needed was in his saddlebag. Rope, soap, beans and bacon, jerky, a kettle, flint rock, ammunition, coffee, cigarettes, salt, a good sharp knife, maybe a Bible, and most certainly a flask of whiskey. The essentials. No shampoo, no Blackberry, no 16 year old scotch, no pager.

He spent his time alone with his cattle. There was always enough time (and quiet) to think. His true love was likely the memory of a woman. His life was committed to his herd and the horizon.

Ironically, to those who enjoy today’s advanced technology, it’s popular to call those ‘simpler times.’ I would argue they were infinitely more complex and difficult.

Back in the day, it was common to find an occasional feral horse, saddle still on. That usually meant that somewhere, a cowboy had thrown his last rope and gone to meet his maker.  What I wouldn’t give to have him back.

Gotta run, I need to plug in the coordinates of a listing into Google Maps, then generate a QR code.

When a homebuilder wants you to ask him/her to build you a home, what kind of product does he tempt you with?  Generally, a completely decorated home with thousands and thousands of dollars of window treatments, furnishings, fancy lighting fixtures,  some fake popcorn in the ‘theatre’ room and chocolate on the pillow of the master bedroom.  We buy our homes based on how they make us ‘feel’ once we’ve decided on the other tangibles like affordability, style and location.   If we feel at home in your home, we may sit a while, test it out, and make a buying decision — or at least your home may be put on the short list.  With all the competition out there, homesellers who are serious about selling need to be on a buyer’s short list.

Homesellers are contestants and homebuyers are judges.  Put your best ‘evening gown’ on and hope they pick you.

Stay tuned for the ‘how to’ and ‘how much’ FAQs about in staging…

Help the Red Cross help our friends in Joplin.  Give if you can.  The Red Cross.

Let’s say you bought a home for  $250,000 and dumped 50 grand into updating your kitchen, building a deck and landscaping.  You now have 300-large invested in your home.  You ask us to do a CMA and find out its value is about $240,000.  Your assumption is, you will lose 60 thousand.

Not necessarily true.  Remember, you’re selling your house and buying another.  Chances are, you will be looking for a house with an updated kitchen, deck and nice landscaping.  The person selling THAT house is facing the same issue you are… a ‘loss.’  Your loss benefits your buyer, and the loss associated with your new house benefits you.

You only really lose if you sell your house and begin renting.  Think about it… and don’t be afraid.

Good jobs enable people to achieve the American dream of home ownership. And every time a house is built, bought, or sold, jobs are created—lots of them—right here at home.

• Home sales in this country generate more than 2.5 million private-sector jobs in an average year. For every two homes sold, a job is created.
• Each home sale touches dozens of different professions.
• Every home purchased pumps up to $60,000 into the economy over time for furniture, home improvements, and related items.
• Housing accounts for more than 15% of the Gross Domestic Product, making it a key driver in our national economy.
• Housing has led this country out of six of the last eight recessions.
America needs jobs. Housing creates jobs. That’s one of the many reasons home ownership matters to people, to communities, to America.

The upshot?  The market is tough, but if you are willing and able to consider entering the housing market, perhaps this information will make you ready.  It feels good to help our neighbors.

Stats and data that illustrate the impact of housing on the job market available here.

When you own a home, you’ve staked your claim.  No matter the size, it’s yours.  What’s more, you own the airspace above it to infinity, and the ground below it to the center of the earth.  Sounds big, eh?

Look at this picture.

It’s a rather ordinary looking photo that is, by today’s standards, not very good. You’ll notice a glare across it, and a pale blue dot in the center of the glare. That little dot is the only planet in the universe where we know, beyond any doubt, there is life.

It’s Earth, from four billion miles away, taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft 20 years ago. Astronomer Carl Sagan’s idea was to turn Voyager’s camera around for one last look at Mother Earth before we winked out of view. The Voyager is now reaching the boundaries of interstellar space, and that picture might be the most meaningful ever taken of anything in the universe. He wrote about it, and here is an exerpt (from his book “Pale Blue Dot”):

“We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.”

How far up do you own?  I suppose all the way to Voyager 1 and then some.  Staggering thought, eh?