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Week of March 24, 2008
On the House: Selling is all about marketing
By Al Heavens , Inquirer Real Estate Columnist
For years, even during the corpse that passed for a real estate market in the early to mid-1990s, every agent and broker passed along to sellers the same list of tips for getting their houses ready to show.
The list, I believe, was originally drawn up by William Penn's real estate broker, who could sell a cave on the Schuylkill to Martha Stewart for twice its 1682 value, about 2 pounds, 6 shillings and a cocked hat.
Apparently, Penn's broker also was into bread, cinnamon sticks and potpourri, because all three appear on the list of "what your house should smell like during a showing."
I remember baking bread, boiling sticks and potting pourri when we were trying to sell our Queen Village estate at the start of the late-1980s slowdown. It succeeded only in making me nauseated and the house-hunters suspicious.
"What are they trying to hide?" I heard one prospect say to his spouse as I passed them on my way inside after the open house.
I didn't know it at the time, but the aroma was masking the odor they add to natural gas so you know there's a leak before the house explodes. We had a faulty gas meter in the basement.
Today, with a lot of houses available, selling one is less about smell and more about marketing.
Clinton calls for expert panel on housing crisis
By: Charles Babington, The Associated Press
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton called on President Bush on Monday to appoint "an emergency working group on foreclosures" to recommend new ways to confront the nation's housing finance troubles.
The New York senator said the panel should be led by financial experts such as Robert Rubin, who was treasury secretary in her husband's administration, and former Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker.
Such a panel would recommend legislation and other steps to "help re-establish confidence in our economy," Clinton said in prepared remarks for a speech on the economy in Philadelphia. She and Sen. Barack Obama are campaigning heavily in Pennsylvania, which holds its presidential primary April 22.
Home sales rise unexpectedly but prices keep tumbling
After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February which may have reflected more aggressive price cutting by sellers in some parts of the country, a real estate trade group reported.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units. It was the biggest increase in a year and caught economists by surprise. They had been expecting a small decline.
The trade group reported that the median existing sales price in February fell to $195,900. That was the largest year-over-year drop on records that go back to 1999.
Keeping H2O in balance
By Edward G. Rendell
The issue of how to control flooding along the Delaware River is a difficult one made all the more complex because of the potential for unintended consequences. That is why I, along with the other Delaware basin governors, have worked to develop and research measures that balance the need for flood protection against our need for a reliable supply of drinking water.
For instance, for the first time in the 75-year history of the basin, operations of the New York City reservoirs today take into account flood mitigation needs. New interim measures were instituted in September by the parties to the U.S. Supreme Court decree that apportions the Delaware's water among the states and city (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and New York City).
New York City's reservoirs are now being managed to release water in order to produce storage space for floodwater; the reservoir's operational rules now create flood storage in all seasons of the year whenever storage is above normal. This flexible flow management system recently enabled us to immediately call for New York's maintenance shutdown of its aqueduct in February by releasing more water from the reservoirs to keep the storage down while New York City was not diverting water.
Home Prices and Consumer Sentiment Slide
Home prices across the country continued to fall in January at record rates while consumer confidence reached a five-year low, sending share markets down in early Tuesday trading.
The value of single-family homes plummeted 10.7 percent in January compared to a year previous, as measured by the Case-Shiller index, a closely watched survey of 20 major metropolitan regions.
It was the steepest year-over-year decline since the index began eight years ago, and economists said the slump was probably worse than the height of the last housing recession in the early 1990s.
Stocks on Wall Street dropped immediately after the report’s release. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, which had been slightly higher, dipped 0.3 percent and the Dow Jones industrials were off 70 points at 10:15 a.m.
Home prices fall a record 11.4 percent in January
A widely-watched index of U.S. home prices fell 11.4 percent in January, its steepest drop since data for the indicator was first collected in 1987.
The decline reported Tuesday in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index means prices have been growing more slowly or dropping for 19 consecutive months.
The index tracks the prices of single-family homes in 10 major metropolitan areas in the U.S.
The broader 20-city composite index also fell, dropping 10.7 percent in January from a year ago. That makes it the first time both indexes dropped by double-digit percentages.
"Home prices continue to fall, decelerate and reach record lows across the nation," said David Blitzer, index committee chairman at S&P. "No markets seem to be completely immune from the housing crisis."
Video: New life for the former Turbo building
By Bradley Schlegel
The stucco wall, installed several years ago after a fire ravaged the western end of the former Turbo building, has been replaced with a brick and glass facade, an elevator shaft that extends to the third floor and a new parking lot.
The entrance to the Village at West Main, which fronts Valley Forge Road near Main Street, will serve as the main entrance to a lobby, mailroom and a fitness center.
Developer Jim Moulton says his 45-unit facility, at the corner of Valley Forge Road and Derstine Avenue, will have a metropolitan feel, but lack the traditional drawbacks of urban living.
And more than 100 potential customers are clamoring for an interior preview of the loft-style condominiums in the three-story building, Moulton said.
Montgomery County's squeaky third wheel
By: Derrick Nunnally
Hope for a quick political detente in Montgomery County has a hard time lasting past a glimpse into Bruce L. Castor Jr.'s office bathroom.
On the wall next to the toilet hangs the certificate solemnizing Castor's position as a county commissioner - a display the outspoken Republican placed to symbolize his feelings about the top level of Montgomery County government.
"It will remain there," Castor said, "until we regain control of the commission."
Such are relations three months into the power-sharing arrangement that relegates Castor to anything-but-silent fuming from the sidelines while the commission's other two members, Republican James R. Matthews and Democrat Joseph M. Hoeffel, govern in a bipartisan coalition.
The results: Hoeffel's plans for economic and transportation development are moving along, as are a spate of county patronage appointments to Democrats - frequently over third-wheel Castor's objections.
"Jim and I see eye to eye on a lot of these big things," Hoeffel said. "It just developed. I wanted to see bipartisanship. Jim Matthews wanted the same thing. Bruce seemed to want the county run by Bruce."
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Construction of Route 202 parkway may begin in '08
By: Sandra Moyer,The Intelligencer
Construction for the long-awaited Route 202 parkway could begin by the end of this year.
Project officials gave a timeline for the $200 million transportation project, updating Montgomery Township supervisors at the board's meeting Monday night.
In a 15-minute presentation complete with computer-generated visuals of sections pertaining to the project, parkway design manager Eric Frary outlined some of the particulars.
Almost half of the 8.6-mile four-lane roadway passes through Montgomery Township. The entire project stretches from Welsh Road in Upper Gwynedd to Route 611 in Doylestown Township.
The project is divided into three sections: Welsh Road to Horsham Road, Horsham Road to Pickertown Road and Pickertown Road to Route 611.
