March, 2010

The Obama Administration has been under fire for its handling of the 75 billion dollar Home Assistance Modification Program. Initially, the White House said 3 to 4 million homeowners would be receiving assistance, but, as Congressman Edolphus Towns from NY points out, fewer than 200-thousand have received permanent load modifications so far.

This is actually pretty good news, considering that not one, but two major snow storms nearly paralyzed the Northeast U.S. for a good part of the month. In fact, the THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® says those storms may actually mask some underlying demand, because some buyers who would have been home-hunting couldn’t get out, and some closings were simply postponed by the storms.

You can expect that abnormal weather to negatively impact sales figures in the near future, but while the recovery of the housing market is fragile at the moment, we should also point out that year-to-year sales have now increased for the past eight months in a row.

The national median for existing homes was 165-thousand dollars in February, a drop of 1-point-eight percent from the previous year, influenced by the sales of distressed properties, which accounted for 35 percent of home sales last month.

Now , when will we see those prices start to flatten out? That could depend on how buyers react to the looming tax credit deadline at the end of April. If the market reacts as it did to the original deadline last fall, and enough homes are grabbed up by home buyers, that could absorb enough inventory to cause prices to stabilize.

Vicki Cox Golder, the President of THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, says, “If you’re sure about the kind of home you want and the neighborhood where you’d like to live, you need to begin working with a REALTOR® now to help you find what you want, negotiate on your behalf and ensure that you meet the necessary deadlines, including loan qualification.”

Broken down regionally, home sales for the month of February were as follows:

Northeast

Even with the snow, sales rose nearly 2-and-a-half percent last month from January, to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 840-thousand. That rate is 12 percent higher than a year ago. The median price in the northeast, nearly 255-thousand dollars, is 7 and a half percent higher than in February of 2009.

Midwest

Sales increased 2.8 percent month to month, and nearly nine percent year to year, to a rate of 1-point-1 million homes. The median price, 128-thousand dollars, did drop two percent from last February, however.

South

Existing home sales in the South dipped to an annual rate of 1-point-eight-five million homes, a one percent monthly drop, but 7 percent more than the previous year. The median home price in the south did take a 4 percent hit compared to last February.

West

Home sales struggles continue out west, where the annualized pace was 1-point-22 million in February – down nearly 5 percent from January, but still a 3-point-four percent year-to-year increase. Median prices did take a 10 percent year-to-year hit, falling to 208-thousand dollars.

Check back next week for more valuable information from this report.

Blasphemy for many of you, but stay with us on this for a moment. We are not suggesting giving up on television altogether. The fact is, with most American homes hooked up to cable or a satellite for several years now, and many of you don’t even realize what else is available to you over the airwaves for free.

Before cable television, most markets had 3 or 4 channels available, over the air – one for each broadcast network — and if you were lucky, one or two more independent stations that carried mostly old movies and re-runs, and eventually, public television as well. Everyone had either a big rooftop antenna, or rabbit ears. And the picture was either very clear or very snowy, depending on how far you were from the TV station’s broadcast tower.

But just under a year ago, everything changed. Remember when the nation switched from analog to all-digital channels in the summer of 2009? Sure, it was a hassle if you had an old TV and you had to get that digital adapter. But the real story is, the television picture and sound quality, as well as the number of channels, just went way up!

All stations are now required to broadcast digitally and most now broadcast in high definition. High definition picture is stunning compared to the old snowy analog picture of the past. Experts say the best high definition picture you can get is from a rooftop antenna — better than cable, better than satellite, and even better than fiber-optic.

Along with improved picture quality channel selection has gone way up as well. Stations that used to have just one program on their digital channel now have 2, 3 or even 4 digital channels broadcasting separate programs simultaneously. If you do the math, you could easily find yourself with 15 to 20 viewing choices larger markets, which are channels that you can pick up with a digital antenna absolutely free.

Try hooking up that old antenna on your roof to your HD set, or digital converter and do a complete channel scan. You will be amazed at the number of free channels you get. And, if you tossed out that old antenna, you can get a fantastic new rooftop antenna for under a hundred dollars.

We know for many of you, the bigger issue here is channel selection. You want it all. Ask yourself, just how many of those 200 or so channels do you really watch? Take note of your viewing habits, and we bet you’ll find you’re actually using just a small fraction of them. So why are you paying for them all?

Take a good look at the programs you’d be missing without cable TV, and you may very well find that you can find them elsewhere. Renting the shows on DVD is one option, of course, but you can often find the shows for free at websites like Hulu, or sometimes for a small fee on demand at sites including Amazon.com.

Many cable-watchers have heard these arguments and say “We don’t want to watch TV on the computer. We want to watch it on television, thank you!”

Well, have you considered running a cable from your computer to your TV? Most modern digital sets can double as perfectly usable big-screen computer monitors. Plus, if you already own your own DVR, such as a TiVo, you can also download programs to it and watch them on TV at your own leisure. And yes, high definition TiVos can record from your rooftop antenna.

But remember, TiVo, and the Tivo Service is not free and after all, we’re trying to help you save money!

The bottom line? We’re not here to tell you you need to get rid of cable. For most people, it will remain a convenient source of entertainment and information. We’re just saying that if you find yourself pinching your pennies, or find you’re not getting enough bang for that hundred-dollar-plus cable bill every month, you have some choices that can save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, over time.

Your Roof

When heavy snow falls, ice dams can form in your gutters and cause serious damage. Your gutters could collapse from the weight, and that ice can creep under your shingles, damaging the roof and causing leaks inside your home. Many of those problems can be avoided by having your gutters cleaned once or twice a year, at a fraction of the cost of making repairs.

Your Deck

And here’s another “pay-me now- or pay-me-later” idea. Pressure cleaning, and then water-proofing, your deck. The pressure-treated wood used in modern decks does a great job against rain and sunlight, but over the long run, nature’s elements will win 100 percent of the time. You could find yourself looking out at gray, splintered rails that will need to be replaced in the next few years, or you can keep your investment looking fresh with just a little bit of annual T.L.C.

Heating / Air Conditioning

Speaking of Tender Loving Care… Are you giving some to your heating and air conditioning units? Those air filters you keep forgetting to replace really do keep your furnace running efficiently. If you don’t replace them every 30 to 60 days, it takes your system more energy to keep conditioned air blowing through the house. And you really DO need those annual service checkups, too. An air conditioner that is just 10 percent low on Freon will cost about 20 percent more to operate!

Sometimes, preventative maintenance requires nothing but a calendar to remind you to do your seasonal chores. Did you remember to shut off the outside water supply before the cold of winter struck? You’ll have the answer to your question the first time you turn the spigot in the spring.

If you find water gushing from a broken pipe, you’ll realize you forgot, and the plumber will thank you for your absent-mindedness.

As long as you’re marking the calendar, also remind yourself to drain or run the gas from your lawn mower at the end of the summer, and the snow blower at the end of winter. Or if you can’t empty the tank, at least add in some gasoline stabilizer. The reason? If gas is left sitting in an engine for months at a time, it becomes as thick and sticky as shellack…and it can ruin the engine…and you could be paying for expensive repairs, to get it running again.

These are just a few examples of things you can do around your home today to save you from facing much more extensive and expensive repairs later.

And yes, unfortunately, we can tell you that some of these lessons have in fact been learned by us the hard way! Your granddad taught you a long time ago that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And you know what? As usual, Granddad was right!

And if Old Grandad had a chance to save $500? He’d take it…wouldn’t he!