Month: January 2010

The Divorce Season

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Halflillie January is the month that I get the most calls from people who have decided to get a divorce.  I don't think that more people get divorced in January but it seems to be the month when the decision to get a divorce is made.  They want to know how much their home is worth and how quickly I can sell it.

According to multiple sources the divorce rate has been lower than usual the last couple of years because of the economy.  Last year I met some couples who stayed together because they didn't have enough equity in their home to sell it and in most cases it took two of them to make the payment. There are people I know who would like to split up but who are staying together for financial reasons.

For the people who do decide to get a divorce and move on there are some pitfalls.  I have seen a pattern in my business especially when dealing with people who are in he baby boom generation.  They decide to get a divorce and then they start looking at downtown condos.  After that they look in the Crocus Hill and Summit avenue area. Every January like clock work I work with at least one person going through a divorce who goes through this house hunting process.

Some end up buying condos in these areas and for others it seems to be a kind of stage that they need to go through.  It is a huge life style change to go from a larger home to a small loft type unit downtown.

I wrote a post a couple of years ago about the rebound condo it is based on an experience with a friend who got divorced and then bought a small condo.  She was very unhappy with her choice and regretted buying it.  I guess from my point of view it seems like it might be wise to stay put for a while after a divorce. Maybe rent for a year and then move on. Buying any kind of a home is a huge decision and I am not all that sure that most people are capable of making the right decision as they are going through the emotional upheaval of the ending of a long term relationship. 

Another pattern I see in all of this is the accumulation of stuff.  As the soon to be divorced try to scale down and live separately in smaller places they always have one or two huge pieces of furniture that they need to accommodate.  As someone who has some stuff of my own I have to say that it might be best to sell some of the stuff.  All of that stuff greatly increases the need for living space and more living space means higher monthly payments.

There is no easy way to do all of this I am sure.  If you are reading this and going through the process your self all I can say is that you are not alone and there are no easy answers. Just don't make any hasty decisions that you will regret later.  It isn't as easy to sell real estate as it used to be and buying the wrong piece of real estate is a problem that can take years to resolve. 

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A quick look at 2009

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

A very local look at the 2009 real estate market. So far I have not heard anyone say that 2009 was a good year.  The chart below shows how many homes, including townhouses and condos were listed on the MLS in St. Paul and how many of those homes got offers that were accepted by the sellers, we call those pending listings.

Chart2009_sm_wm
The good thing about 2009 as compared to 2008 is that there is no longer a glut if houses on the market.  The average days on market went down too and so did the prices but about six months ago those prices started to stabilize.  The market appears to be a little more in balance than it was in 2007 or 2008, balanced between buyers and sellers but still favoring buyers.

The total number of homes on the market has gone up a little since December which is normal.  When I look at the numbers for 2009 there were 6,268 homes listed in St. Paul last year and 3777 were sold.  Some homes were re-listed a few times and others went off the market.  It is difficult to get the true number of foreclosures for several reasons, but I have some ideas on how I can get some better numbers if I go back a few months.

There are also houses like the ones that I wrote about yesterday that don't really show up in any numbers but they stand vacant and they were once on the market.  There are new construction units in downtown St. Paul that don't show up in the numbers either.

At the moment buying activity has slowed, and listing activity has increased which is actually kind of normal for this time of year.  I guess we are all waiting to see if the tax credit and the low interest rates and lower prices will get buyers to start buying.

The data used to make the chart above was gathered from the Northstar MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. 

For more very local real estate numbers see Local Market Conditions and Home Prices.  More numbers will be released later today and if there is any new news I will be writing another blog post some time this afternoon.

Foreclosure Alley

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

In some St. Paul neighborhoods the foreclosure rates are high and in others they are low, but with in the neighborhoods with the highest foreclosure rates  there are pockets here and there that have been devastated by foreclosures.  Entire blocks where 40 to 70% of the houses are boarded up and vacant.  Most of these homes are not on the market and many of them are those registered vacant buildings  l write about.  That means they need a lot of work. Many of these homes were rental properties.  The vacancy rate for rental properties is at the highest it has been in 30 years and is at around 8%, and rental rates have gone down. 

These homes are not really counted anywhere so I don't know how many there are. It is often hard to determine who owns them. Some that have been on and off the market.  In some cases they were purchased by an investor who never made a payment on them. 

Vacant Victorian Home

This home on Forbes street in St. Paul has been vacant for a couple of years. It sits next to four other homes that have the blue notices on the door. Just down the street there are more. There is one that isn't on a list anywhere that has been on the market most of the time since early 2006.  It sits vacant and has for a long time.  It is a huge house all chopped up into apartments and one of the few vacant homes that I have been in that creeped me out.  Mostly because of the small rooms and dark hallways.  The insides of some of these homes are such a mess that they would have to be gutted to be rehabbed and in some cases I suspect that it might be best to tear them down and start over.

When these homes were turned into rentals they used loads of paneling and put it in from floor to ceiling and covered the old floors with vinyl tile and cheap carpeting and painted everything that wasn't vinyl, cheap or paneling white.  Now they are what I call urban blight. 

The city attached a lot of rules to the category 2 and 3 registered vacant buildings, they are held to a much higher standard than the homes that most of us live in.  I doubt if many would have the funds to rehab them and even if they did the homes would be worth less than the amount of money that would have to go into them.

 

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Through the eyes of a child

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

By Jack Boardman

Sometime during 1950, my parents purchased the second Forepaugh Mansion built about 1889 and located at 302 Summit Avenue, only the third owners of that twenty-room, three story, red  brick home located next door to the colonial-style Weyerhauser Mansion. It is the lesser-known of the two Forepaugh homes, the more well-known of course is Forepaugh’s Restaurant adjacent to Irvine Park and across from the Ramsey House at 276 Exchange Street. It is today divided into condominiums.302 Summit Ave

The home had been in the Forepaugh family until 1948 when it was sold and the new owner converted it into “light housekeeping” apartments. Each apartment consisted of one room, furnished with a bed, a couple of chairs or perhaps a couch, a table, and a two-burner electric hot-plate for cooking. On each of the four floors (including the basement) there was a shared bathroom and refrigerator.

The owner/caretaker’s apartment consisted of three rooms: what was once the butler’s pantry became the eat-in kitchen, the former formal dining room was large enough for dining area and spacious living room and the former library, complete with cherry wood bookcases, was roomy enough for two or three bedrooms. The owner/caretaker however, had to share the single bathroom with the first floor tenants.

What I find interesting as I sort through my memories of 302, there was seldom a vacancy; people were willing to share a bathroom and refrigerator with several others and live in one room. Each floor became a micro-community over time with similar dynamics to those of a neighborhood. To be sure there were occasional problems…morning lines at the bathroom and food missing from the shared refrigerator, but for the most part the problems were few.  I have to wonder if people today would consider such accommodations…I think I already know the answer.

My parents owned 302 Summit until 1960, but we only lived there about four years; from 1950 to 1952 and 1958 until 1960. Realizing there was no elementary school within walking distance, my parents found and purchased a duplex at 1008 Ashland Avenue, two blocks from the James J. Hill School at Oxford and Selby. My childhood memories of Saint Paul are mostly from that neighborhood as it was there I really experienced the fifties.

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Standing on the corner

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

I should have made the title standing on every corner.  Do those brightly colored plastic news stands with free publications in them enrich our lives or do they just clutter up the street corners and take up space that we could put to better use?  Maybe one day they will be replaced by the internet and we can use our sidewalks and corners for snow banks.

on the corner

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Doing my part

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun no matter how cold they are.   A couple of Fridays a month just for fun I deliver meals on wheels. Today it will be fun keeping them warm.  Most of the seniors in our community have 800 locks on their doors so by the time they unlock them all the meal that was hot is warm or cool.   You have to love them though they almost always smile and say thank you when I hand them what used to be a warm meal.   

The fun thing about cold weather is that I can  dress like the uni-bomber when I go out and no one points or stares.  From a business point of view the cold isn't good, home sales slow down. The way it works is during these cold snaps is buyers like to go out and look around when it is minus – JustKillMeNowBeforeTheWeatherDoes outside and then buy a house in the spring.  

In other words when it is hella cold or there is a raging blizzard I  show some houses or look at the home of a seller who plans to sell in the spring.  It all works out in the end though. I would explain how it works but I can't because I don't understand it myself. 

I have written about buying locally a couple of times on this blog. Not just the local real estate which of course you should buy even when it is cold out, but also from local merchants in your neighborhood.  I want you to know that for the most part I practice what I preach. Yesterday I shopped locally and helped a local merchant who is trying to get rid of holiday items and has discounted them to move them out the door.

Whoppers_wm 

I love chocolate even though it messes up my keyboard and gets my steering wheel sticky.  I don't eat whoppers very often they don't really seem like chocolate but they are close enough. Tomorrow I may brave the cold and shop the neighborhood for dark chocolate. It is supposed to be healthier.  Besides I am out of whoppers this post took longer to write than I though it would.I suppose it would go fast if I stayed on topic but I am not sure there is a topic. 

Have a great weekend!

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