Yahoo Real Estate

170 existing homes and 14 foreclosures (FCs). So a month ago, there were fifty more existing homes for sale. There's no way they sold so my guess is that they were pulled off the market by the owners. The FCs haven't changed much so my guess is none of those fifty converted into FCs. I hadn't figured on this large of an inventory over the summer, into the fall, and now in the winter's dead sales season. I wonder if we'll lose more inventory as sales lag, seasonally and in this odd market, and owners remove their homes from the inventory. It's good news that the FCs haven't increased much for about a year.

Goat or Sheep on State Road Across from Rodgers Road

This scenic farm always has scores of these critters wandering around. A really scenic farm, don't you think?

Hickory Hill Covered Bridge Repairs and Beautiful House on Glen Mills

This house on Glen Mills is a couple of years old, and it really is one hell of a nice place. It sits on a ridge on glen Mills Road and overlooks the MD border and Patsy DuPont's property. Notice the three-story tower, which must have wonderful views of the rising and setting sun. Very nice.

Since Nov, 13, 2008, the Hickory Hill bridge has been closed. Notice the two signs and the two piles of gravel blocking vehicle access. Guess it's still OK for foot and bicycle traffic. Wonder what the improvement plan is since the bridge has felt--while driving across it--as solid and not in need of repairs. I've always thought that the township has missed a great opportunity with its covered bridges and winding roads to create a roadmap online so that day visitors could visit the bridges and perhaps buy lunch at, for instance, the pizza place Matteo's Pizza at the intersection of Hickory Hill and 472. There are maps, for instance, of winery tours in PA and MD, but none that combine the two states' winery tours--which a "covered bridge tour" could connect and exploit. Well here's hoping this bridge is back in service and looking better sooner than later. It's not really on any of my routes so I hardly ever go over it, but when I do, it's one of those elements of the country that is a real positive.

RE

213 and 19. Seems like there are several new homes for sale (not new homes, but newly on-the-market homes) as I drive around town. If memory serves me correctly we've had about 180 homes for the last few months, and this jump to over 200 is oddly timed in the sense that anyone looking to sell realistically would put their home on the market back in the summer. So why the extra inventory now, in late autumn, when no families will consider moving voluntarily (since their kids are in school--which is what the realtors tell us)? I'm wondering if we're looking at more inventory creeping into the market or we're looking at a few dozen new potential short sales or pre-FCs. I see some places selling--I've watched two sell in the last month or so--but where I've seen homes for sale since last spring, the signs are still out front and I notice that there are damned few open houses on Sundays anymore. Why waste a good weekend day?

RE This Week, plus a belated election note.

11 foreclosures and 215 homes for sale. A drop-off in FCs and and increase in the inventory of person to person homes. Some prognostication: When we get into single digits for FCs and back to under 75 in existing homes, we'll be looking past the worst times, which I think we are in now, given that we are a few months past the peak selling season of spring/summer, given that the teaser rates for the exotic mortgages are in the process or resetting (a process that should essentially finish by next spring), and another couple of months (especially past the holidays) and we should see what the bailout's effect on the loan market will be). Keep your fingers crossed since it's our money that's being used in this insane trickle-up gamble. 

On the other hand, if the economy keeps tanking (with the CRE problems, the chapter 11s in retail, and the layoffs throughout the finance sector, and, locally, GM shutting down operations in Newark), I don't see how any kind of government incentives (except a massive infrastructure spending plan that actually puts people to work and generates income that could be invested in homes again) can help us speed through this necessary correction.

And by correction, I mean to indicate that it was apparent back in 2005 or early 2006 that home prices were beginning to bear little to no relationship with incomes. A correction was necessary. However, combining the correction with the other economic conditions--especially the mortgage problems tanking, mortgage problems that had a position in the causal effect of the home price-escalation, and not insignificantly, the billion a month Iraq is costing us, the tax cuts on the richest, precisely when we most need government revenues, and the huge trade deficit of Bush II--suggest to this observer that home prices will stay flat or drop another ten or so percent until the 2011 spring season when we will see an increase in sales and a decrease in inventory. 

This is fairly optimistic given the reality that the Mid-Atlantic area was not troubled too much in the price run-up and so our fall-off is less severe (if you don't have to sell your house, that is) than places in Florida, CA, AZ, etc...

Oh, congrats to the winners in the recent election. Pitts ran a fair campaign. John Lawrence tried a last-minute smear of his opponent, claiming that he was pro-legalization of marijuana because he was a defense lawyer.  Nice to see him lose Art Hershey's vacant seat. 

RE This Week

11 foreclosures and 215 homes for sale. A dropoff in FCs and and increase in the inventory of person to person homes. 

That Other Roadside Shrine on Hickory HIll Road

When I first heard about this tragedy (two boys on ATVs; they had a collision and one died and I think the other lived but was very hurt; although, truth be told, the second kid might have been killed--it was a tragic loss and pain for many families) I wondered why the parents would let them drive so recklessly. Then I saw the shrine here when it was initially built, and then I recalled how I used to feel so immune to dangers when I was a teenager. It could have happened to me on any of the first motorcycles I owned and drove like I was Evel Knievel (sp?) with no riding skills. It could have happened when I drove around with my crazy friends who would drink and drive. I felt really sorry many, many months later, by the way, long after I had become accustomed to seeing the maintained shrine through the seasons. One day, I noticed that someone (A parent, I'm certain) had tied a balloon that had on it HAPPY GRADUATION! on it, and I realized that the kid(s?) would have graduated last summer. Very sad. I hope that some kids (and some idiot drivers like you know who here) will see this well-tended shrine and think about how quickly someone can go from having fun to dead, and realize that such a tragedy can happen here in our little town. 

New Commercial Business Just South of Elk on 213

Someone opened a new equestrian riding school just south of the Methodist church (which last week had RAOST BEEF DINNER mis-spelled on their sign for over a week), and it sure looks like business is doing great for him. Someday I'd love to see a few small businesses add some character to the Township building Post Office area.  

RE

182 and 16--a jump in a week for existing homes.

RE This Week

164 homes for sale and 16 foreclosures in 19363, says Yahoo.

Fatal Accident on 472; Two Teenagers Dead

Sad. I saw this roadside shrine on Monday morning, and on Wednesday, I found the online article about it. Three teens, two eighteen year olds and a sixteen year old, all from the Saginaw Road area. Accident around midnight; two dead (the 16 and 18 year old); driver in hospital, none in seatbelts (for what that was worth; the article noted it, and I remembered it). 

A year ago, a couple of teens on ATVs died (or one died and the other was really hurt; don't remember exactly anymore). A shrine on Hickory HIll Road.

A few years ago, a kid, who the Oxford or State police were trying to pull over, accelerated and flipped his pickup and died. Tragic! 

I can still recall the feeling of indestructibleness when I was about that age. Guess I was lucky, since these recent teenaged deaths should remind us all--especially parents--that driving around here is more dangerous than we probably think. Either way, no snark on this post because I feel such sympathy for the parents, friends, and families of these lost and hurt kids. 

Real Estate

21 foreclosures and 181 homes for sale this week. I hadn't done any changes/updates b/c I figured things were just moving along as they have been, but I was slightly surprised to find that both numbers had jumped in the last couple of weeks. I did notice that my first foreclosure (see earlier post) now seems to be in the hands of an investor/owner/renter. Contractors there over the last couple of weeks, lights on and off, and, finally, no realtor's keybox on the door. So that's good--one more bit of inventory of the market. I have noticed, though, that there are several other new (although existing) homes on the market. Oh, I haven't seen any new home construction in the last several months.

RE This Week

Yahoo says 163 houses and 15 foreclosures.

Oh and a note about the house in the "First Foreclosure" post: no realtor's lockbox on the doorknob, so maybe it's sold or maybe it's hidden inventory.

First Foreclosure I Ever Saw in Oxford

If you drive north on 472 for a couple of miles out of Elk and take a right on Glendale (another post on another nearby subject coming up), this is the first house on the right--but it's after the corner house and the mushroom factory just next to it. I don't know the address, but it's got to sit on an acre, and the first few pics don't really convey the depth of the property; those evergreens and yews and other pine-type trees hide a lot of open spots. It's a good-sized lot--maybe an acre and a half. So it's a good sized property and the colonial is nice (not my cup of tea, but that's not at issue here), and I'm betting that inside you'd find an older kitchen and old bathrooms, but probably three or four bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Probably thirty years old, it could have real hardwood floors. 

It must have been a year and a half ago, back when the bust of the RE boom was just beginning to be talked about as a local economic problem in CA, FL, and AZ. By the time people were talking about foreclosures more often, I noticed a realtor's keybox hanging on the door. It was listed online soon thereafter for $125,000, and that was at least half off what it would have fetched just six months earlier when sales were justing barely slowing. There used to be an aboveground pool that a shapely young woman would tan near and walk to and from on the odd coincidence when I would drive by. Also, once the contents were being unloaded, over the course of about a week, the water pump was pulled from the well. That made and makes me wonder if this qualifies as a trash-out and maybe a clean-out, meaning it was trashed intentionally and had all the wiring and copper pulled out on the way out. Who knows. On the bottom pic, you will notice the wide bay window on the front right, and the light coming through it is not a photographic trick: it's what they call a see-through house, in the sense that because it is empty you can see right through it from the outside.

Below, are some brief videos of my pass-by. 

I think the thing I wonder is how low will the price go for this place. It's a nice place on a nice lot, and if someone can handle the shitsmell from the mushroom factory next door, then this place is a good deal. I wonder if it's for sale, since the sign went down a couple of weeks ago, but it hasn't been maintained (notice the lawn height) since a one-time run-through by a contractor back in the early summer who pulled down the pool and did something with all the trash on the left of the house.

Real Estate from Yahoo RE using 19363

13 foreclosures and 157 homes for sale. Not very much change, even though it seems, from what I see driving around, that there are more homes for sale than around mid-summer. 

Hoping to grab a couple of images of the first and second foreclosures I saw back a couple of years ago, plus an exceedingly unsafe business. 

Yahoo Real Estate this week

166 homes and 12 foreclosures

Real Estate This Week

166 existing homes and 16 foreclosures. 

real estate

yahoo RE tells me that this morning there are 159 existing homes and 15 foreclosures for sale in 19363.

Real estate

150 homes for sale, 15 are foreclosures, says Yahoo RE

real estate this week: July 10, 2008

Decided to do something new: Yahoo real Estate has an Oxford inventory of homes for sale of 153, of which 14 are foreclosures. 

Foreclosures This Week

Yahoo Real Estate has fifteen for July 5, 2008.

Homes for Sale and Foreclosures

11 foreclosures in Oxford and an inventory of 144 for sale. Better than a week ago. BTW: I'm using Yahoo Real Estate (a simple search on "Oxford, PA") for these numbers.

Foreclosures This Week

15 listed for Oxford, which, I believe, is down about a half dozen or so, from last month. I can't see any in Elk.