Chance Gates' Blog

Market Report Commentary

Summary
– “November sales are up 22% over last year and year-to-date unit sales have exceeded 2010 by 10%,” said Kevin Sigstad,
2011 president-elect of the Reno/Sparks Association of REALTORS and a REALTOR with Re/Max Premier Properties. “We have also seen relative stable prices for the past seven months. These are positive indicators for the residential housing market.”

Median Sales Price
– November 2011 median price was up less than 1% to $149,506 compared to $149,000 in October 2011.
– Median price is defined as the mid-point, where, for the time period identified, the price for one-half of the sales are higher and
one-half are lower.

Price per Square Foot Solds
– Price per square foot is at $88.30.
– Price per square foot by area groups, as provided in the Detailed Report, is a good way to compare similar homes for current
value.

Number of Units Sold
– November ended the month with 488 sold transactions, down 1% from the prior month.
– Sales are up 22.3% from the same period last year. November 2011 is the second month of comparing year-over-year figures
without the influence of tax incentives.

Average Days on Market
– The average days on market are 146 days, slightly down from October 2011.

Days on Market (DOM) by Special Conditions
– Short sales continue to influence the average days on market at 222 DOM.
– Properties with no special conditions, and Other are comparatively close at 117 and 113 DOM respectively.
– REO properties average days on market remain level at 96.

New Listings
– 499 new listings were taken in November compared to 516 in October, a 3.3% decrease and an 8% decrease from November
2010.

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.

www.almanac.com

How to Have a Happy New Year

by Victoria Doudera

Many New Year customs that we take for granted actually date from ancient times. This year, ring out the old and ring in the new with a New Year tradition—or two!

Make Some Noise

• In ancient Thailand, guns were fired to frighten off demons.
• In China, firecrackers routed the forces of darkness.
• In the early American colonies, the sounds of pistol shots rang through the air.
• Today, Italians let their church bells peal, the Swiss beat drums, and the North Americans sound sirens and party horns to bid the old year farewell.

Eat Lucky Food

Many New Year’s traditions surround food. Here are a few:

• In the southern US, black-eyed peas and pork foretell good fortune. See our recipe for Good Luck Hoppin’ John.
• Eating any ring-shaped treat (such as a donut) symbolize “coming full circle” and leads to good fortune. In Dutch homes, fritters called olie bollen are served.
• The Irish enjoy pastries called bannocks.
• The tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight comes from Spain.
• In India and Pakistan, rice promises prosperity.
• Apples dipped in honey are a Rosh Hashanah tradition.
• In Swiss homes, dollops of whipped cream, symbolizing the richness of the year to come, are dropped on the floors (and allowed to remain there!)

Drink a Beverage

Although the pop of a champagne cork signals the arrival of the New Year around the world, some countries have their own traditions.

• Wassail, the Gaelic term for “good health” is served in some parts of England.
• Spiced “hot pot” is the Scottish version of Wassail. It’s customary to drink a glass or two at home before sharing with neighbors.
• In Holland, toasts are made with hot, spiced wine.

See our Holiday Punch Hints and Recipes!

Give a Gift

New Year’s Day was once the time to swap presents.

• Gifts of gilded nuts or coins marked the start of the new year in Rome.
• Eggs, the symbol of fertility, were exchanged by the Persians.
• Early Egyptians traded earthenware flasks.
• In Scotland, coal, shortbread and silverware are exchanged for good luck.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

In Scotland, the custom of first-footing is an important part of the celebration of Hogmanay, or New Year’s Eve Day.

This practice holds that the first foot to cross a threshold after midnight will predict the next year’s fortune. Although the tradition varies, those deemed especially fortunate as “first footers” are new brides, new mothers, those who are tall and dark (and handsome?) or anyone born on January 1.

Turn Over a New Leaf

The dawn of a new year is an opportune time to take stock of your life.

• Jews who observe Rosh Hashanah make time for personal introspection and prayer, as well as visiting graves.
• Christian churches hold “watch-night” services, a custom that began in 1770 at Old St. Georges Methodist Church in Philadelphia.
• The practice of making New Year’s resolutions, said to have begun with the Babylonians as early as 2600 B.C., is another way to reflect on the past and plan ahead.

New Year’s Folklore

Some customs and beliefs are simply passed down through the ages. Here are some of our favorite age-old sayings and proverbs.

On New Year’s Eve, kiss the person you hope to keep kissing.

If New Year’s Eve night wind blow south, It betokeneth warmth and growth.

For abundance in the new year, fill your pockets and cupboards today.

If the old year goes out like a lion, the new year will come in like a lamb.

Begin the new year square with every man. (i.e., pay your debts!) –Robert B. Thomas, founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac

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.

Pending home sales, a forward-looking indicator based on signed contracts, rose 7.3% in November after a 10.4% increase in October. On a year-over-year basis, pending home sales are up 5.9%. The number of pending home sales in November was the highest level in 19 months.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing price index — on a non-seasonally adjusted basis — fell 1.2% in October after a revised 0.7% decrease in September. On a year-over-year basis, prices fell 3.4% compared with October 2010.

Retail sales rose 0.9% for the week ending December 24, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index. On a year-over-year basis, retailers saw sales increase 4.5%.

The consumer confidence index rose to 64.5 in December from a revised 55.2 in November. It was the highest level since April. The index was benchmarked at 100 in 1985, a year chosen because it was neither a peak nor a trough in consumer confidence. Economists consider a reading of 90 to be the threshold for a healthy economy.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 15,000 to 381,000 for the week ending December 24. However, the four-week moving average for initial claims — considered a less volatile measure — fell to 375,000, the lowest level since June 2008. Continuing claims for the week ending December 17 rose by 34,000 to 3.6 million.

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.

I believe that we are here for each other, not against each other. Everything comes from an understanding that you are a gift in my life – whoever you are, whatever our differences.
John Denver

I get an awful lot of fan mail, and I read all that I can.
John Denver

I think the biggest problem in the world is that we have a generation of young people, and maybe two, who don’t think it’s going to get any better.
John Denver

I would so much like young people to have a sense of the gift that they are. Not many of them feel like that.
John Denver

Peace is a conscious choice.
John Denver

We don’t teach kids how to feel, we don’t give them the words to go by.
John Denver

We must begin to make what I call “conscious choices,” and to really recognize that we are the same. It’s from that place in my heart that I write my songs.
John Denver

The combined construction of new single-family homes and apartments in November rose 9.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 units. Single-family starts increased 2.3%. Multifamily starts rose 25.3%. Applications for new building permits, seen as an indicator of future activity, rose 5.7% to an annual rate of 681,000 units.

Existing home sales rose 4% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million units from 4.25 million units in October. The inventory of unsold homes on the market decreased to 2.58 million, a 7-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 7.7-month supply in October.

The Commerce Department announced that gross domestic product — the total output of goods and services produced in the U.S. — increased at a revised annual rate of 1.8% in the third quarter of 2011.

New home sales rose 1.6% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 315,000 units from a revised rate of 310,000 units in October. Compared to a year ago, new home sales were up 9.8%.

The index of leading economic indicators — designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months — rose a strong 0.5% in November, following a 0.9% increase in October.

Orders for durable goods — items expected to last three or more years — rose $7.5 billion or 3.8% to $207 billion in November. Excluding volatile transportation-related goods, orders posted a monthly increase of 0.3%.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 4,000 to 364,000 for the week ending December 17. Continuing claims for the week ending December 10 fell by 79,000 to 3.546 million.

Upcoming on the economic calendar are reports on the housing price index on December 27 and pending home sales on December 29.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has extended the temporary waiver of anti-flipping regulations through December 31, 2012.

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.

Santa won’t have any trouble finding the home of the Richards family this Christmas.

The property in the Canberra suburb of Forrest in Australia is illuminated with 331,038 fairy lights making it the Guinness World Record holder for the Most Christmas Lights on a Residential Property.

David Richards, a barrister and father of three, has worked on the decorations for over four years, with the number of lights having doubled from last year.  David said: “It started four years ago with one string above the door and has really grown from there”.

David is reluctant to say how much the decorations cost, but all the money he receives from visitors goes to the charity ‘SIDS and Kids’ which he says helped his family out during a difficult period in 2002.

Despite the four year investment in the light display David said that he won’t be doing it again next year, saying he hoped to be able to donate the lights to someone else who would continue to use them to raise money for charity.

Watch video

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.

www.nevadawolfpack.com

The Wolf Pack

The Nevada Wolf Pack, one of only two teams nationally to use the designation (North Carolina State is the other, though they use Wolfpack as one word while Nevada uses two words with a capital ‘P’), has been using the Wolf Pack designation since at least the early 1920s.

Nevada’s first athletic teams in the late 1890s and early 1900s were referred to as the Sagebrushers or even the Sage Hens after Nevada’s state flowering plant, the sagebrush. There are references in print to the ‘Sage Warriors’, although none of these names were the official mascot of Nevada’s athletic teams.

In the 1921-22 athletic season, a local writer described the spirited play of a Nevada team as a ‘pack of wolves’. The name stuck and soon almost every reference to the athletic teams was the Nevada Wolves. In 1923, the students officially designated ‘Wolves’ as the school’s mascot.

Since all teams are a group of players, the word pack followed quickly. In 1928-29, the Nevada student handbook referred to the athletic teams as Wolf Pack and two school songs were adopted, entitled ‘The Wolf Pack’ and ‘Here Comes the Wolf Pack’.

The Nevada Fight Song

HAIL to our sturdy team, loyal and true,
MARCH, march on down the field oh Silver and Blue!

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.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending December 2 rose 12.8%. Refinancing applications increased 15.3%. Purchase volume rose 8.3%.

Factory orders fell 0.4% in October to a seasonally adjusted $450.03 billion, following a revised 0.1% decrease in September. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders rose 0.2% in October.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that the monthly composite index of non-manufacturing activity fell slightly to 52 in November from 52.9 in October. A reading above 50 signals expansion. It was the 24th straight month of expansion in the services sector.

Retail sales fell 2.3% for the week ending December 3, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index. On a year-over-year basis, retailers saw sales increase 3.8%.

Wholesalers increased their inventories 1.6% to $470.2 billion in October. This followed a revised 0.2% rise in September. Sales at the wholesale level rose 0.9% to $406 billion in October. On a year-over-year basis, sales were 13.1% higher since October 2010.

The trade deficit decreased to $43.5 billion in October from an upwardly revised $44.2 billion in September. Exports fell 0.8% to $179.2 billion. Imports decreased 1% to $222.6 billion.

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for December’s preliminary reading rose to 67.7 from 64.1 in November. It was the fourth monthly gain in a row for the index.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 to 381,000 for the week ending December 3. Continuing claims for the week ending November 26 fell by 174,000 to 3.583 million, the lowest level since September 2008.

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.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted composite index of mortgage applications for the week ending December 2 rose 12.8%. Refinancing applications increased 15.3%. Purchase volume rose 8.3%.

Factory orders fell 0.4% in October to a seasonally adjusted $450.03 billion, following a revised 0.1% decrease in September. Excluding the volatile transportation sector, orders rose 0.2% in October.

The Institute for Supply Management reported that the monthly composite index of non-manufacturing activity fell slightly to 52 in November from 52.9 in October. A reading above 50 signals expansion. It was the 24th straight month of expansion in the services sector.

Retail sales fell 2.3% for the week ending December 3, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index. On a year-over-year basis, retailers saw sales increase 3.8%.

Wholesalers increased their inventories 1.6% to $470.2 billion in October. This followed a revised 0.2% rise in September. Sales at the wholesale level rose 0.9% to $406 billion in October. On a year-over-year basis, sales were 13.1% higher since October 2010.

The trade deficit decreased to $43.5 billion in October from an upwardly revised $44.2 billion in September. Exports fell 0.8% to $179.2 billion. Imports decreased 1% to $222.6 billion.

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for December’s preliminary reading rose to 67.7 from 64.1 in November. It was the fourth monthly gain in a row for the index.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 to 381,000 for the week ending December 3. Continuing claims for the week ending November 26 fell by 174,000 to 3.583 million, the lowest level since September 2008.

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.