I recently got a question on Trulia from a prospective buyer who is moving to our fair state this August.  She informed me that they were relocating here for a short period of time (4 Yrs) and wanted to buy in an area where the home they purchase would at least maintain its value over that time, or even (god forbid) appreciate a little bit.

My first instinct was to tell her to buy in Southwest Minneapolis or Edina.  Turns out my instincts were correct, but I wanted to back it up with facts and data.

Going back 7 years, below is the average sales price for Edina, MN.

           YEAR              AVG Sales Price

1. 2008                 $528,724
2. 2007                 $490,257
3. 2006                 $502,437
4. 2005                 $450,131
5. 2004                 $402,321
6. 2003                 $396,287
7. 2002                 $353,081

The % change from 2007 to 2008 was an increase of 7.8% and from 2002 to 2008 Edina’s Average Sales Prices went up 49% making Edina the best performing community in the Minneapolis Metro Area…for sustaining consistent appreciation.

NOTE:  I researched this information on the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors Website: www.mplsrealtor.com and to see the full report - click here historical-average-mpls.pdf

And, while the homes are more expensive - it is a safe bet, that you can buy a home in Edina, and not lose.  (Most of the time.  There are always exceptions for every rule.)

But - if you are in the market to buy in Edina - then you can see a complete list of active homes  by clicking here.

Yesterday was one of the most ridiculous days I have had in a long time showing homes.  It was like a snow globe outside.  You have to be really committed to buying a home to brave the elements the way Shelli (and her sisters) did here.  At every listing, we forged our way through the deep snow.  One nice seller took the time to snow blow a path for us.  After viewing his home, we understood why he was being so accomodating.  Needless to say, that one was scratched off the list.

Only in Minnesota (and certain parts of Wisconsin) do you see and experience dedication like this.  Well, at least, I would like to think so anyway.  We looked 10 homes in total, narrowed it down to one and we will be headed back for a second look this week. 

Lots of good deals out there…we were in Shakopee, Savage and Prior Lake.  The home in this photo happened to be a foreclosure.  Not quite what Shelli was looking for.  By the way, anyone who says that Webdigs Agents don’t provide “full service” …. all evidence to the contrary. 

Today it’s a “balmy” -5 degrees outsite with a wind chill facotr of 21 degrees below zero.  While I have a tremendous amount of pride to be a resident of the great state of Minnesota…today I would be just as proud to be from Florida, Arizona or Southern California.

 A TIP for you agents out there listing vacant homes…spend the extra couple hundred dollars on a snow plowing contract.  There were a few listings where the drifts were so high, we just drove right on by.  You can’t sell it if people can’t get in it. 

Just my two cents. 

Jaime and Michael Proman put down 20 percent when they bought their home this fall in Lowry Hill in Minneapolis as seen in the Money Section of December 5th’s NYT.

The New York Time’s Rob Lieber has now joined the chorus of journalists quoting experts who say the time is now to buy in his recent article, ” It May Be Time to Think About Buying a House.”

Lieber predicts that people “…will kick themselves for not taking advantage of what may turn out to be the buying opportunity of a lifetime.”

And he’s probably right.  With interest rates low, prices low and less buyers out there, it may be considered the golden time for first time buyers (especially if they get a rebate from Webdigs!)

There seems to be some evidence that buyers are catching on. Here’s a story I heard on MPR today about buyers starting to pull the trigger on homes - and the possibility that it could start the economic turnaround we’ve all been hoping for.

Special thanks to Tom’s wife for finding the New York Times story.

I missed out on all the warm fall weather to put up outdoor holiday lights this year. If you haven’t untangled your string yet either, here are some reasons to consider the switch over to LED Christmas lights.

What research has found is that we tend to fire up the holiday spirit to the tune of 400 watts at dusk - but, also add on an addition 200 daytime watts. This means we tend to leave our lights on more than we care to admit. This averages out to about $15 a day for an “average” home. Of course, if you’re the Grindwald’s (Chevy Chase’s movie family in Christmas Vacation) you’re paying more.

But even if your display is modest, you’re probably forking out some cash to make it the Season of Lights so you might as well be smart about it.

Here are a few reasons to consider buying the newer energy-efficient bulbs: LED lights use a fraction of what a similarly sized incandescent light would use.The Fun Times Guide to Going Green claims it takes  5 watts per bulb in the average incandescent mini-light while an entire string of LED mini-lights uses around 4 watts. Wow.

In addition to drawing less electricity, the LEDs hold up longer. How many times have you had a cheap string of lights fail the same year you’ve bought them? The LED bulbs are more substantial and also cool to the touch - always a nice bonus.

Okay, the not great news about LEDs: The color is not the same as the incandescent lights that you probably grew up with that signals grandma’s cookies, Asti Spumante and Santa rolling by in a Norelco Shaver - in short, all things Christmas.

The closest color to that would be the LEDs marketed as “warm” or “soft” and guess what - they cost more.

And on that note, all LEDs cost more. A strand of 50-60 white LED mini-lights will cost you around $10 which could get you nearly 500 incadescent mini-lights. So you’re unlikely to break even on energy savings the first year, but you do have durability going for ya.

Now if they only they self-strung, then we’d really be talking…

Send me photos of your light display (LED or traditional) and I’ll be sure to post ‘em.

A friend of mine confessed that she’s upside down. Of course what she meant by that is if they were to sell right now, their home wouldn’t fetch as much as the balance of their mortgage - and she’d be bringing money to the closing.

She’s been doing a fair amount of research on the subject and what keeps coming up are two things: Stay in the house if you can AND if you can’t, use a discount broker (like Webdigs) to salvage as much cash in the transaction as possible.

My friends are planning to ride it out and take the advice that’s out there to fix up their home as nicely as they can afford . This accomplishes a couple things. Like Buddha says, the key to happiness it wanting what you have. By making their little home as nice as possible, they can reframe the feeling of “I’m trapped here” to more of a “bloom where you’re planted” scenrio.

This motivated them to watch the sales and they scored an excellent deal on click flooring at Ikea. It was almost 2/3rds off its normally good price. They’re installing it themselves and then plan to move on to painting their kitchen cabinets.

So now, when they feel the time is right, they’ll be ready to plunge into the market and  avoid that resentful feeling of “I’m doing this all these improvements for the next people.”

My friend was also very interested in the Webdig’s concept of being a full-service brokerage that is able to charge less. I explained that’s because consumers are so savvy now and do some much of the legwork themselves on the Internet - usually way before they ever meet with a Realtor. She was pretty excited about paying a reasonable flat-fee to eventually sell their home, while knowing that there is a professional there to dot the i’s and cross the t’s for her.

You won’t see a For Sale sign in front of their bungalow anytime soon, but when there is she won’t be looking at any Realtor who wants to charge 6.

Well, I’ve been rung through the ringer of another house shopping experience. It wasn’t the dream house, but it sure is in a dreamy location. We bid a bid my husband said we could afford, they countered, he countered and then, through the genius of my Webdigs Realtor, they landed on a not so faraway number.  For a moment, I was delighted.

Then I did our numbers again - just to be sure. I’ve since decided I’m a subscriber to “downer math” while her husband is a practitioner of the “audacity of hope math”. Either way, we’re not getting the house and my spouse and I will continue to “share” 2 feet of closet space in a comfortable, but small house we’re renting.

His numbers were based on my clients paying me. Just as we were in decision making mode, I heard from yet another magazine  that they “weren’t cutting checks to the end of the month.” This sealed the deal. I’m in no position to take on another debt when I’m not sure how I’ll pay for my kids’ Rx - even with Webdigs giving half of their commission to me, the buyer. (And not just because they know me, it’s a deal open to everyone.)

I’ve been sending out story pitches everyday this week and I’m sure I’ll get work - but it has been an average of 12 weeks to get paid recently. Just because I somehow have a credit score of 810, doesn’t make me a magician.

But this isn’t a total bummer of a post. People with steady jobs own the market right now - and honestly, the deals I’m seeing out here are amazing to me. That I was this far from owning a beach house is shocking. My advice, if you have the ability, now is a fantastic time to buy.

Yeah, I’m a little down right now. But maybe this is what an adult decision is supposed to feel like.

Lucie

On the first Friday of every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report. 

More commonly, it’s called the “jobs report” and the October’s data is trending with the rest of 2008.

After shedding another 240,000 jobs last month, the economy has now put 1.2 million Americans out of work this year and unemployment rates have climbed to 14-year highs.

As a strange twist, though, today’s weak jobs data may lead to a positive turn for the economy and for housing in 2009. 

In the wake of the jobs report, members of Congress are already calling for both tax cuts and direct stimulus to reverse the course of the economy.  Both of these actions would put money back into U.S. citizens’ household budgets, spurring consumer spending nationwide.

Because consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy, this would be expected to push the economy forward at a time when it natural forces are slowing it down.

In addition, markets are betting that the Federal Reserve will cut the Fed Funds Rate below its current 1.000 percent level.  This, too, would spur spending because the Fed Funds Rate is directly tied to consumer credit card rates and business credit lines.

Expectations for stimulus are one reason why mortgage rates have not risen today as high as they otherwise would have if this were a “normal” market.

Mortgage rates are slightly elevated as we head into the weekend, but don’t be surprised if there’s a late-afternoon push that brings them lower. For active home buyers, this could help home affordability as we cruise towards the holiday season.

(Image courtesy: USA Today)

Now that I’ve moved a considerable distance away from my Webdigs pals, I was relieved to find out how easy they made it to still use them.

Of course, I should have known this. Webdig’s is all about making things cheaper/easier by using the Internet as much as possible, but until you call about an offer and the whole thing arrives in your email box with places to click to sign - well, then it’s when you know it’s handled.

And as the Twin Cities get bigger, it’s a nice conveniece whether you’re living in Shakopee or Blaine not to have to drag yourself across town to John Hancock a document.

I’m pretty calm about the offer. I guess I feel supported and mostly, while I like the home, I’m using my head and not my heart. If the offer doesn’t happen, I’m truly okay with walking away from the deal.

I’ll keep you posted.

Unless you live in a cave, you know it’s election day. I was up and out the door  early to catch students participating in Kids Voting. They were at polling places casting non-binding ballots along with their parents. (My daughter shows how it’s done in the photo above.)

I took the interviews I recorded and created a story for MPR’s All Things Considered. It will run during drive time this afternoon.

And, in addition to having the work, I’m happy to have the distraction. We put a bid a house and I’ve scarcely had a chance to fret about it. I’m trusting Webdigs to take care of business.  It’s nice to have folks to trust.

 As you know, we’re renting out our primary residence because we were unable to sell it. This allowed my family to be reunited after 7 long months apart - and most people are truly happy for us. We feel blessed to be together and think we’re descent landlords. We’ve provided lawn care, someone to tend the garden, a handyman and all the HVAC and appliances are covered with the Home Service Plus insurance.

Some people are less than happy. Our home is in a solid neighborhood and I think there’s concern that should it become overrun with renters, it’s reputation will slip. I get that, I really do.  But should I keep my children away from their father 5-days a week to benefit the neighborhood?

We’ve had a change in tenants this week and I got an email from a neighbor who hasn’t reached out to us since we left. She had been very clear about her disappointment that we were becoming landlords. But she saw the truck and wanted to know what was going on.

Instead I wrote her a long email about how we’re liking our new location,  new friends, new jobs and opportunities — and everything else, but the direct question. I was hoping she’d get that I didn’t want to get into it with her about the house.

But my subtlety was lost and she wrote something like, “good to hear …and back to my question.” So I told her that the former tenants had a job transfer and new tenants were in. Also remembering our last conversation about the situation, I stated that renting out the house still remained the best choice for my family at the moment.

She replied that I shouldn’t mind her opinion, but did go on to tell me that my lawn didn’t look very good this summer and was a “yardful of weeds” and once it was “long overdue for a haircut.”

Sigh.

I certainly hope there is never a foreclosed home on the block.

This is where I must insert that this is actually a very nice person. One of the only people to acknowledge that we had a new baby and even brought over a homemade gift. I haven’t forgotten that kindness.

I think it just goes to show how that when it comes to home values, emotions run very high - and I lump myself into this lot. We’re all just trying to protect our lifestyles as we ride out this economic wave of hardship.

And hopefully the tide will turn soon and I’ll feel confident to put the Webdigs sign back out in the yard- after taking care of those weeds.