Well today was the first significant snow that we received that actually affected travel early this morning in nearby Williston.  I left Burlington at 7:30 am with a few flakes seen intermittingly on may way to an 8:00 appointment in Williston only 15 minutes away. What a difference 15 minutes makes. As soon as I hit the middle of Williston, the snow just hits. There is an inch of snow on the ground and there is black ice on the roads. The traffic slows to a crawl and the road I am on gets closed due to an accident. As I head back towards the office in South Burlington there is another accident on a side street, so they have that blocked off. As I travel a half mile further, the traffic comes to a stand still and the police and ambulance go flying by me again.  I take a side street and a bit of a detour to try to get back to the office. I am about a 1/4 a way from the office and a car darts out of a side street right in front of me. I hit the breaks only to go sideways on the ice and almost end up against a pole. I ended up straightening it out furious that someone would do that under these conditions. I make it into the office no worse for wear, but am truly glad that most of my days don’t start out like  today.

Well, it’s official, Burlington,  Vermont was just declared the healthiest city in America by one of the pollsters out there. I have been talking about this for a long time. We live in a wonderful area with so many opportunities to exercise and take advantage of our surroundings. It truly is nice to see that we are getting recognized on a national level for what we feel is a local paradise.

There are some incredible buys out there right now and the interest rates have dropped about a half a percent this week. The rates are highly volatile right now and there is no predicting what they may be doing in the future with the economy in such disarray. In fact, our prediction is that they may ultimately go up causing the anticipated savings on further price drops to dissappear. I saw a deal yesterday that someone jumped on and saved themselves about $50,000. Now that’s a lot of dough. I also have seen starter homes finally sell for starter home prices. If you want to buy, now is THE time. If you don’t think you can get a loan, call me because If you have good credit i know I can find a banker that is more than willing to give you a loan. They are back knocking on our door again looking for business.  Brian

There always seems to be two sides to every story and that is what we are going to talk about today. The bad news is that the economy is taking one on the chin, with the mortgage debacle, the economic doldrums and the increase in unemployment numbers. With that said, there is a bright spot with the cost of gasoline. In the past year we have seen gas prices go from over $4 a gallon, now down to around the $2.75 mark. I know eventually it will more than likely go back up, but for now let’s be happy with the direction that those prices have recently gone.  Click here to see what the prices are around your neighborhood. Hope this helps in choosing your route to work and back.

 

          
Jim/Linda          Shawn  

Jim Ross/Linda Murphy, and Shawn Kelley,  Sales Associates with CENTURY 21 Advantage in South Burlington, were named the office’s top sales associate in the month of October.

The United States and Barack Obama made history yesterday in his winning the Presidential election.  What an incredible time to be an American. Whether you voted for him or not, I think everyone should be proud of what he accomplished and what America was willing to do with courage and forthrightness. It wasn’t that long ago that this would not have even been a remote possibility, but now it has transpired and for that, Democracy has become the victor again. My biggest hope now, is for him to be able to develop the plan that will reduce America’s debt and get the economy rolling again. There are too many people suffering right now because of the past mistakes made by so many Wall Street executives, mortgage bankers  and life-time politicians.

Recently, there was a great article in the New York Times about outstanding places to visit and Burlington was the featured place and destination. It was fun to see them highlight a number of venues that I have talked about in the past, and the ambiance of the Church Street Market place. It really is such a quaint and diversified setting, whether you want a feel of Paris at Leunigs Restaurant, to the casual dining experience of locally grown vegetables on your pizza at Flatbread Pizza on St. Paul street. On Saturdays  and Sundays in the summer, the local farmer’s market on the lawn of City Hall makes for a wonderful experience. Walk a bit further West and you are the waterfront where you can rent a bike, stroll the path along the lake or visit the Echo Center and all it has to offer in Lake History and more. If you have never been here, you are really missing out on one of the best places to not only visit, but to absolutely reside as well.

Today’s real estate market has changed from years ago and consumers have access to more information than ever before. With that said, there is always one common denominator that we have found for people searching for homes on the web. They love pictures. Not only pictures, but home virtual tours. If a picture says a thousands words than the photo stories we provide speaks millions. Our customers tell us that it makes them feel like they are in the home. Because of this, we are moving to have all our listings have a video tour. It takes additional time and money, but in the end, we feel like it doesn’t get any better than like being there. 

We had our first light snow here the other day, just in time for Halloween. Ok, that’s not funny, but we did. It was odd to see the white blanket of cold as I headed East towards Williston.  Burlington did not get any to cover the ground, but we got to see snow flakes. When I was driving downtown in the early morning, I saw what looked to be a college student with his ski boots slung over his shoulder heading to his car. I thought at the time, oh to be young again. The first snow is always exciting to the young, and not so much to  me.There will be plenty of time to shovel. Don’t get me wrong, I really do enjoy skiing, I just prefer to do it in December and beyond rather than starting in October.

Have you noticed how negative the print media and television new’s anchors have been recently concerning the economy? Well I certainly have and I wonder to myself, do you think they might be creating some of the misconceptions out there? Sure things are not what we would like them to be, but on a local level, the real estate market is prime to be taken advantage of. We have a better than average supply  of homes (homes for sale between $100,000 and $250,000) with better than average interest rates and people can make great purchases at this time. Don’t believe that you can’t get a loan. We have a number of local lenders that are more than happy to loan to a good qualified customer. Are you trying to time the market? If so, you are gambling a potential good thing away.