The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending rose $32.3 billion or 0.3% in March, just one-third of February’s increase. Personal income in March increased $50.3 billion or 0.4%, after a 0.3% rise in February.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that the monthly composite index of manufacturing activity rose to 54.8 in April from 53.4 in March. A reading above 50 signals expansion. It was the 33rd straight month of expansion.

Total construction spending rose 0.1% to $808.1 billion in March from a revised $807.3 billion in February. Economists had anticipated an increase of 0.5% in March. Compared to a year ago, construction spending is up 6%.

Factory orders fell 1.5% in March, the biggest drop in three years, to a seasonally adjusted $460.5 billion, following a revised 1.1% increase in February. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders increased slightly in March.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending April 27 rose 0.1%. Refinancing applications decreased 0.7%. Purchase volume rose 2.9%.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that the monthly composite index of non-manufacturing activity fell to 53.5 in April from 56 in March. A reading above 50 signals expansion. It was the 28th straight month of expansion in the services sector.

Thanks to my friends at Prospect Mtg

Monday June 18, 2012 at the Reno  Livestock Events Center in Reno NV.

The first four BFIs were held in Chowchilla. The BFI moved to Las Vegas in 1981, then to Denton, Texas, in 1982. That fall, Feist and Hartnell College student Bill Wittmer were in a car accident while on a fishing trip in Alaska. Wittmer died, and Feist just wasn’t up to a 1983 event.

The BFI has called Reno home since 1984, though the roping was held outside in the rodeo arena the first several years.

“We moved it inside to remove the weather factor,” Feist said. “One year when we were outside, the weather was atrocious. It rained, hailed, sleeted and the wind blew. It was typical Reno weather & three seasons in one day. It was terrible to see guys roping for that kind of money in those conditions.”

Tickets will be available starting June 1 at D-M Western Store
in Reno and at the Silver Legacy Hotel starting June 16th.
Plenty of tickets will also be available starting at 7:30 am
on Monday, June 18th at the Reno Livestock Events Center.

The World’s Richest One-Day Open Team Roping!

www.bobfeistinvitational.com

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Pending home sales, a forward-looking indicator based on signed contracts, rose 4.1% in March, the highest level since April 2010, after an upwardly revised 0.4% increase in February. On a year-over-year basis, pending home sales in March were up 12.8%.

The Commerce Department announced that gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services produced in the U.S. — increased at an annual rate of 2.2% in the first quarter of 2012. This follows a 3% pace of growth in the fourth quarter of 2011.

New home sales fell 7.1% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 328,000 units from an upwardly revised rate of 353,000 units in February. The initial February reading was 313,000. The January rate was revised higher to 329,000 units. On a year-over-year basis, new home sales in March were up 7.5%. At the current sales pace, there’s a 5.3-month supply of new homes on the market.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing price index — on a non-seasonally adjusted basis — fell 0.8% in February, after a 1% decrease in January. On a year-over-year basis, prices fell 3.5% compared with February 2011.

Orders for durable goods — items expected to last three or more years — fell $8.8 billion or 4.2% to $202.6 billion in March, the biggest drop in more than three years. This follows a revised 1.9% increase in February. Excluding volatile transportation-related goods, orders posted a monthly decrease of 1.1%.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending April 21 fell by 1,000 to 388,000 from a revised 389,000 the prior week. Continuing claims for the week ending April 14 rose by 3,000 to 3.315 million.

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Real Estate (Photo credit: allan.hane)

Investors are buying up foreclosures in bulk, viewing the potential returns from REOs-to-rentals as better than most other investments.

But experts caution investors to be careful that they don’t take on more than they can handle, and make sure they devote some attention — and budget — into the rehabilitation of many of the properties they buy.

Nearly 95 percent of distressed homes are in bad shape and unsuitable for renting out, Morgan Stanley analysts estimate.

“The importance of getting construction — or specifically, re-construction or rehabilitation — right cannot be overstated,” according to a recent report sent to Morgan Stanley clients. “The quality and cost of rehabilitation can continue to benefit or haunt the asset far past the initial completion of work. For example, shoddy plumbing or other infrastructure work can result in significantly higher maintenance costs over time, and can also affect eventual exit pricing.”

Morgan Stanley provided estimates to investors in the report, citing estimates of renovation work to cost about 25 percent of the purchase price.

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Retail sales rose 0.8% to $411.1 billion in March. This follows a downwardly revised 1% increase in February. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales increased 6.5%.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo monthly housing market index fell three points in April to 25 from a reading of 28 in March. It was the first drop after seven consecutive monthly gains. An index reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending April 13 rose 6.9%. Refinancing applications increased 13.5%. Purchase volume fell 11.2%.

The combined construction of new single-family homes and apartments in March fell 5.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 654,000 units, after a decrease of 2.8% in February. Compared to a year ago, housing starts are up 10.3%. Applications for new building permits, seen as an indicator of future activity, rose 4.5% to an annual rate of 747,000 units.

Existing home sales fell 2.6% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.48 million units from an upwardly revised 4.6 million units in February. The inventory of unsold homes on the market decreased 1.3% to 2.37 million, a 6.3-month supply at the current sales pace.

Thanks to my friends at Prospect Mtg

Mark your favorite properties and get instant updates price changes,  new pictures and status changes.

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

RENO, Nev. – The annual Silver and Blue Spring Game will be held on Saturday, April 21 at Mackay Stadium and will feature free posters, fun activities for children, great food and a sneak peak at the 2012 Wolf Pack football team.

Gates to Mackay Stadium will open at 9:30 a.m. and the intrasquad scrimmage, featuring a unique scoring system for the offense (Silver) and defense (Blue), will begin at 10 a.m. The entire event is free and open to the public. Fans are asked to enter Mackay through the main gate at the southwest corner of the stadium. Tailgating will be permitted prior to the event in the lot immediately north of Mackay Stadium. All fans must be in the seating areas at Mackay Stadium and stay off the field/track level.

Though the team will take a halftime break, a game clock will not be used. The offense can earn points with a first down (+1), converting a fourth down (+2), a 15-yard or longer running play (+2), a 20-yard or longer passing play (+2) or scoring a touchdown (+6).

The defense earns points with stopping the offense on a series (+1), forcing a fumble (+1), recovering a fumble (+2), making an interception (+3), recording a sack or tackle for loss (+2), forcing a three-and-out (+3), stopping the offense on fourth down (+2) or scoring a touchdown (+6).

Fans coming to the free event should aware of ongoing construction on North Virginia Street and Interstate-80. The Nevada Department of Transportation will close the Virginia Street exit on westbound I-80 this weekend. Drivers are encouraged to use Wells Avenue or Keystone Avenue as alternate routes from westbound I-80.

Additionally, due to construction on North Virginia Street, fans are encouraged to use North McCarran as primary route to Mackay Stadium. Sierra Street and Evans Avenue can be used as alternate routes instead of Virginia Street.

Those who attend the Silver and Blue Spring Game will receive a free ticket good for admission to the Nevada softball team’s doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. at Hixson Park against No. 14 Hawai`i. Or, stick around and watch the Nevada women’s soccer team play an exhibition game at 2 p.m. at Mackay Stadium.

The event will feature a game-like atmosphere with the Nevada cheer team and band performing throughout the game and the traditional cannon fire accompanying each score. The first 1,000 fans entering the game will receive a free poster.

Famous Dave’s BBQ will be on hand selling food and the concession stands will also be open during the game. There will also be bounce houses, provided by the Boys and Girls Club, available for children to play in throughout the event. The Wolf Pack coaches and players will be available for autographs and photos after the game and Silver and Blue Outfitters will have merchandise available for purchase.

Parking on campus is free for the event.

Fans will also be able to get information on the new pricing structure for Wolf Pack football and reserve season tickets for the upcoming 2012 season as the Pack enters a new era in the Mountain West.

Nevada Wolf Pack Football

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

ShareBenteen, come on, big village, be quick. Bring packs.

George Armstrong Custer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

George Armstrong Custer

I appeal to you as a soldier to spare me the humiliation of seeing my regiment march to meet the enemy and I not share its dangers.
George Armstrong Custer

I would be willing, yes glad, to see a battle every day during my life.
George Armstrong Custer

My purpose is to make my narrative as truthful as possible.
George Armstrong Custer

There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry.
George Armstrong Custer

You ask me if I will not be glad when the last battle is fought, so far as the country is concerned I, of course, must wish for peace, and will be glad when the war is ended, but if I answer for myself alone, I must say that I shall regret to see the war end.
George Armstrong Custer

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_armstrong_custer.html#AT0VbUPF0mPoStSR.99

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

Reno Aces Foundation Dream Week The Reno Aces Foundation Dream Week will serve to highlight people in our community deserving of recognition, by rewarding them with once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Driven by professional baseball, the Aces will grant wishes to outstanding and exceptional people that have helped made a positive impact on our community. Dreams will be granted during the week of June 25-29. The nomination process will begin very shortly; check back here for details.

Brett’s Big Leaguers The Reno Aces launched Brett’s Big Leaguers in 2010, as an initiative to benefit the lives of local underprivileged and seriously ill children. Each child selected for the program is given the chance to participate in once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, including one-on-one interaction with Butler and members of the Aces team. The program serves to offer positive role models for at-risk or underprivileged youth and tender a positive outlook for seriously ill children in the area. The Aces have partnered with the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation to select participants for the program. The Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation aims to enhance the quality of life for children with cancer and their families by providing financial assistance and compassionate support programs, while advocating for increased research funds and raising public awareness. Levy Restaurants, concessionaire for Aces Ballpark, will provide a complimentary meal for each child and his or her families during that day’s game.

United Federal Credit Union Extra Credit Challenge The Challenge, a partnership between the Reno Aces and United Federal Credit Union, is an incentive-based program open to students in pre-school through middle school. Participants must complete two book reports and take two online math tests during the summer. Students who complete the program will be honored at our Saturday, August 20 game with a pre-game ceremony and the chance to run the bases before the game. Click here to learn more and enroll in the program.

US Bank Student Heroes U.S. Bank is the exclusive sponsor of the Reno Aces Student Heroes Program. The center piece of the program consists of 5 school assemblies each spring, where U.S. Bank will donate more than 1,000 tickets to 5 elementary schools across Northern Nevada. U.S. Bank in partnership with the Aces will bring current players from the team for a Q&A session with the students, discussing education, hard work and the perseverance necessary to become a professional as well as a few minutes to meet the players. In addition, Archie, the beloved mascot of the Reno Aces, will be there to stress the importance of education.After the assemblies, all students in attendance will receive a Reno Aces ticket based on academic achievement, attendance and superior citizenship in the classroom as determined by their teachers. To add your school for consideration, click here.

Read More About the Reno Aces

As a Reno/Sparks Nevada real estate professional and property manager, I encourage all questions and comments on the Reno/Sparks real estate market or any of the articles posted in this blog. Please feel free to use my back door to the MLS and search the houses available in the Reno/Sparks and most Northwest Nevada neighborhoods. I can be reached by email @ chance@ballard-company.com http://www.myspace.com/chancegates .  You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/chancegates .  To checkout some of  my property manager services goto http://chancegates.com/property-management-services/

If you are behind on your house payment and looking for a loan modification, go to making homes affordable

If the modification fails, contact your local real estate professional to help short sale your home.  To make sure there is no deficiency judgment a homeowner might find it necessary to hire an attorney.

No sociologist should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time.
Max Weber

One can say that three pre-eminent qualities are decisive for the politician: passion, a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of proportion.
Max Weber

Only by strict specialization can the scientific worker become fully conscious, for once and perhaps never again in his lifetime, that he has achieved something that will endure. A really definitive and good accomplishment is today always a specialized act.
Max Weber

Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say In spite of all! has the calling for politics.
Max Weber

The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.
Max Weber