Lancaster County PA Realty Check: July 2008

Coldwell Banker Select Professionals, the fastest growing real estate company in Lancaster County, PA, held its annual picnic Saturday, July 26.

                     Approximately 120 people were expected, including spouses and children.

      A beautiful rural backdrop was complemented by beautiful summer weather and a slight breeze!

                                            The kids had plenty of things to keep them busy...

                                                          ...including a covered pool!

                                 Our Fearless Leader, Ryan Hess, with trusty companion Tucker.

                                                       Everyone brought a covered dish.

        As the evening darkened, tiki torches were lit... 

                                                                        Fireworks!

©2008BrianSchulman

Imagine a place where you could go daily to find the finest, most up-to-date real estate opinions and information.  A place where 100,000 of the best, most knowledgeable REALTORS, mortgage lenders, home stagers, virtual assistants, home inspectors, appraisers, title agents and more, share FREELY of their advice and secrets.

Of course, you don't have to imagine it.  You've found it!  www.ActiveRain.com now has over 100,000 members, most of whom contribute regularly to our ever-growing knowledge pool.

When I joined ActiveRain a year and a half ago, there were some 12,000 members.  Blogging was relatively new, but I had a suspicion that this platform, which made it easy to navigate the technical challenges of blogging, was going to be a popular place for both professionals and the public.  In any case, I thought it would be a good place to learn something, while finding my own blogging voice.

Boy, did I underestimate the unprecedented growth and popularity of ActiveRain!  There has been some 800% increase in membership since I got involved - not a shabby feat.  And the quality of the blogging, far from deteriorating with the huge increase in membership, has steadily grown more sophisticated!

Congratulations to the ActiveRain guys for the great success that their vision has produced. 

Over a year ago, I started noticing some excellent photographs being posted on localism.com for various towns and boroughs in Lancaster County, PA.  Since I was posting numerous photos myself, I soon became familiar with the professional quality photography of Jeff Geoghan.

It turned out that Jeff had taken notice of my blogging, too!  One day, out of the blue, I received a phone call:  "Guess who this is!"  Over the ensuing months, we had lunch together several times, also including fellow blogger Jeannie Kontis, and discussed blogging and Lancaster County real estate matters.

In the mean time, exciting things were happening in the Lancaster County real estate industry.  A large local company changed franchises, allowing the well-known and desirable Coldwell Banker name to be picked up by a top quality, aggressive local marketer.  The company that qualified to fill the bill is now known as Coldwell Banker Select Professionals.

Jeff Geoghan was asked to become Coldwell Banker Select Professional's Vice President of Marketing.  And Jeff, who specializes in Internet marketing, and who knows of my own involvement on the Internet, has asked me to join him as a team-mate.  And it's all due to our blogging!

Now, my mother didn't raise any foolish sons.  I recognized a great opportunity when I saw it.  Coldwell Banker Select Professionals has excellent marketing programs, plus an unmatched selection of affiliated services, including (but not limited to) in-house mortgage services, title services, and almost any home repair or remodeling need you can think of.

I look forward to working with Jeff, continuing to provide my clients with personal, customized real estate service, and joining Jeff to create a team that provides the highest quality experience to Lancaster County home buyers and sellers!

On Saturday, July 19, Caring Singles held its summer picnic.  This year we held it at the East Lampeter, PA Township Community Park, a beautiful park located between Routes 30 and 340.

The weather was ninety-five degrees and muggy, but we had electric service to our pavillion and several members brought electric fans.  Coupled with an occasional breeze and the shade of the pavillion, we were all quite comfortable!

                                   Setting up for the picnic.

                                           Lots of cold drinks and salads refrigerated in ice chests.

                        Hot dogs starting out on the grill.

                                                               "Don't forget to light the grill!"

Some of us took a walk around one of the park's scenic walking paths.  At the other end of the park, Dutch Wonderland could be seen in the distance.

                                                           Your Chefs:  Glen, myself, and Bob!

(Caring Singles is a non-profit, non-religious, non-discriminatory support group open to single, separated, divorced and widowed adults.  Caring Singles meets the first Tuesday of each month at the Quality Inn, 2363 Oregon Pike, Lancaster (569-0477).  Registration starts at 7:00 PM, and the meeting starts at 7:30 PM.  There is no charge for first-time guests.  The meetings alternate between group discussions, and speakers or entertainment.  Refreshments are served afterward.  For more information call Brian Schulman at 717-951-5552.)

©BrianSchulman2008

Ninety-four degrees and high humidity didn't stop Lancastrians from enjoying a a free evening of country music Friday evening!

Jasmine Morgan, a local girl now recording in Nashville, gave us two sets of country music, featuring the songs of Patsy Cline.  The concert series is sponsored by High Industries at the Greenfield Corporate Center.

Jasmine was backed up by the Green River Band, featuring some great pedal steel guitar and keyboards.

                         Once again, there were classic cars on display.

      A mint 1966 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 (Four-on-the-floor shifter, 4-barrel carburetor + dual exhausts!)

      My personal favorite of the evening, a 1957 T-Bird hardtop convertible in the rare bronze color.

                                                                 1967 'Stang!

                       An icon of 1950s American sports cars - the first Thunderbird.  (1955)

©2008BrianSchulman

Well, it's going to be a hot and sticky one this weekend in Lancaster, PA!  Temps in the 90s and high humidity.  Possibility of scattered showers on Sunday.

Every third Friday, the 200 and 300 blocks of North Queen Street will be featuring belly dancing, live music, art, antiques and shopping!  Many of the stores and galleries will be open 'til 9:00 pm.

Saturday, July 19 at Musser Park, corner of North Lime and East Chestnut Streets, there will be a Neighborhood Clean-Up between 9:00 am and 11:00 am.

Sunday, July 20, Jimmy Bosch and his 11-piece Salsa Band will be playing at Long's Park, 1401 Harrisburg Pike.  This is part of a summer-long FREE concert series.

Have a great summer weekend!

©2008BrianSchulman

              In May of last year, I wrote an article about the renovations at Musser Park. 

The park, located between North Lime, East Chestnut, North Shippen and East Marion Streets in Lancaster, PA had been closed for renovations since the fall of 2006, and was in the process of getting an extensive upgrade.

This year a beautifully improved Musser Park has been open to the public.  Saturday, July 19, 2008, a Neighborhood Clean-Up has been scheduled to take place between 9:00 am and 11:00 am.

If you would like to volunteer a bit of time to help pick up litter (really not too bad at all), your help would be appreciated!

©2008BrianSchulman

Last night when I went to bed after blogging, my cumulative points on ActiveRain totalled 199,993.  Close, but no cigar.  This morning when I logged on, your comments had put me over the top!  At a milestone like 200,000 blogging points, it seems like a good time to reflect on the journey with this great real estate community that has taken me so far.

This is my 281st post.  Three of them have been featured on ActiveRain, and five have been featured in Localism.com .  Over 7,500 comments have been made and received.  According to the statistics, my profile has been viewed over 8,000 times.  I am honored that 111 members have chosen to be my associates.

Along the way I have been privileged to have met and become friends with many of you.  I have had the pleasure of meeting several of you personally.  And there may be a move coming up in my future that could not have occurred were it not for our networking here.

At this moment I have managed to hold on to the #1 position in Pennsylvania.  It won't last long.  Position is a moving target.  Fran "The TitleMan" Gaspari is close behind me, and Don Bradbury is coming up fast enough to pass us both.  Gita Bantwal isn't far behind.  You're all consistent bloggers and I wish you the best.

As I join the ranks of the Gold Star Hall of Fame group, I look forward to continuing to provide you all with information on the real estate news, history, architectural and cultural heritage of beautiful Lancaster County, PA!

The figured compiled by the Lancaster County Association of REALTORS show a mixed picture for the local housing market.  On one hand, for the month of May, 2008, only 462 homes settled, down 13% from the 531 homes which sold in the same month of 2007.

On the other hand, the average sale price of $193,741 in May is actually slightly up (0.1%) from the $193,633 average of the previous May.  This may or may not signal a stabilizing of prices.  New residential listings are down to 795, from 912 at the same time last year.  That should be good news, indicating that our local inventory of houses is being absorbed.  Non-serious sellers are delaying putting their homes on the market, which should keep a floor under home prices.

The median sale price, which is the price at which half the homes sold above and half below, was $172,000 versus $179,000 for May the year before.  The number of sales for the first five months of the year is still 20.1% lower than the five months year-to-date of last year.

Our Lancaster County local lenders continue to be more competitive than the national averages, which makes our area a great opportunity for buyers right now!  Nationally, the 30-year fixed average rate was 6.45, and the 15-year fixed rate was 6.04%.  Locally, 30-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 6.02%, and 15-year rates averaged 5.66%.

It's still an excellent opportunity for anyone planning to trade up to save money on the home they're planning to trade up to.

Friday, July 11, 2008:  The U.S. Senate passed a housing stimulus bill today.  Among other things the bill increases the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which supports building affordable rental housing for low income families.

The bill also creates a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while at the same time removing some of the more draconian measures which would have severely limited those Government Sponsored Enterprises from purchasing mortgage loans.

The Senate, probably wisely, barred zero-down (100% loan-to-value) mortgages from being purchased by Fannie and Freddie.  The recent trend of foreclosures has been three times higher with 100% financing than with loans with a down payment.  In fact, the new bill raises the minimum down payment to 3.5% from the previous 3%.

This provision will affect down payment programs like Nehemiah and AmeriDream, which helped hundreds of thousands of low income families achieve the American dream of home ownership through seller-financed down payments.  That said, in today's credit climate it probably makes good sense not to subsidize 100% financing.

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives.