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.