Neighborhood 2010 Real Estate Summary

2010 was a turbulent year in the real estate market to say the least.
An uncertain job market and economy held back many 1st time homebuyers after the tax credit ended on April 30. These buyers are the driving force for the real estate market as they create new demand and lead the charge for home sales.
Adding to this, the issues affecting foreclosures in 2010 such as the federal foreclosure remediation programs (HAFA and HAMP) as well as robo-signing, there were at least two noticeable pauses in foreclosure activity that reduced foreclosures but increased the "shadow inventory" of homes that are 60 or more days past due on their mortgages. This foreclosure shadow inventory will likely lead to an up-tick in foreclosure activity in 2011 and further downward pressure on prices.


Click here to see the bank-involved activity summary. (link will expire in March 2011)






Click here to see the non-bank-involved activity summary.
(link will expire in March 2011)

Energy Audit

First, my conclusion. An energy audit is well-worth the $100 cost.

I contacted CenterPoint, my natural gas provider to schedule the advertised most thorough audit which included an infra-red camera search of my house. It took almost a month for the appointment after my initial call and the audit itself took around 2 hours.


First, they set-up a fan in my front door to pull a vacuum on the house. Then went around with an infra-red camera looking for air leaks into the house and cold spots. I'm happy to report that my attic looked good (see my previous blog post about blowing hundreds of pounds of insulation into the attic).

Some of the problems they found:
- leaking or poorly insulated rim joists in my basement
- leaking cracks around dryer duct penetrations and exposed holes in the top of the cinder block basement walls

- leaking attic access covers
- leaking around my window trim
- cold exterior wall next to the garage

Many of these I fixed with caulk and spray foam. For the cold exterior wall next to the garage, I attached 2" foam insulation sheet to the wall. The leaking window frames - I gently removed a portion of the window trim and sealed the crack between the window frame and the wall before re-installing the trim, and I caulked around the attic access and installed paper-faced fiberglass insulation in the rim joist areas of my basement.


Time will tell but I'm pretty certain that we'll see a reduction in our energy bills.

Maple Grove Crime Reports

The City of Maple Grove website has a useful and user-friendly tool to research and locate crimes in Maple Grove.

You just select what types of crimes you want to research and the map comes up showing where and what types of crimes have occurred in the past 90 days.

FYI -- it looks like our neighborhood is one of the safer neighborhoods in Maple Grove.

http://gis.logis.org/MapleGrove/PIMAWeb/PIMAWeb.aspx

MN Encouraging Energy Conservation

Minnesota and CenterPoint Energy are experimenting with tiered energy prices with the hope that higher prices targeting the heavier users of natural gas will lead to more efficient usage...

Will it work?

http://bit.ly/MNTieredEnergyPrices

Mortgage Interest Deduction and Government Spending

The federal government is bleeding red. Is this news to anyone? Per the National Debt Clock, every man, woman and child in the U.S. currently owes just under $45,000 -- that means that a typical family of four such as mine owes $180,000 just because we're American citizens.



I believe and not just as a Realtor, that housing plays a crucial role in our economy - from employing construction workers to industries that supply the housing market (interior furnishings, building materials, ...), housing feeds into our ecomony in many large ways.



We need to look at all of our government spending to determine how we can not only balance our out-of-control budget but also start paying down some of our debt. More taxes aren't the answer so I am not outright in favor of eliminating the mortgage interest deduction (MID) which would add another $3000 onto the tax bill of a typical family with a $220,000 mortgage at 5% interest rate and a 25% tax bracket. We all need to realize however that NOTHING IS OFF-LIMITS -- no protectionism of our individual pet interests or prevention of self-sacrifice! To get us and U.S. through this crisis and yes, it IS A CRISIS, there will be plenty of sacrifice to go around.


Many other countries (notably Canada and the U.K.) have eliminated the mortgage interest deduction and lived to tell about it. It won't ruin the real estate or housing industry so it is something that should be considered but again, it would be something of a new tax. REDUCING SPENDING is key, not new taxes. Raising more money for government isn't the answer as this will just lead to bigger government and more spending. We should look at all areas of government spending for areas to cut so we can LIVE WITHIN OUR MEANS. There are ALWAYS reasons to spend more -- financial crisis and war just to name two. This doesn't work with my family budget and it shouldn't work with our elected and WELL-PAID elected officials.

Congresses deficit panel is recommending a limit on the MID, limiting it to 1st homes and up to $500,000 rather than doing away with it altogether.

It's time for our elected officials to make the hard (and sometimes unpopular) decisions we elected them to make. There will be short-term pain, discomfort and disagreement but our long-term survival as a nation depends on it.

Visit the U.S. National Debt Clock

Ice Dams and Aging Insulation

After 30 years, many of our home's attic insulation is beginning to show its age.

In my house, after a few remodeling jobs that required me to venture up into the attic and disturb or pack down the insulation, I knew the time was now to add some additional cellulose insulation.

First, I measured various areas of the insulation's thickness. What should have been around 12" of insulation in many areas was less than 6". So, I went to Lowe's and estimating my home's 1200 square foot foundation size, I estimated I wanted to add a minimum of 6" of insulation through-out the attic. The salesman at the commercial desk told me I should order 30 bags of cellulose insulation (22 pounds each). Since I want to over-insulate rather than under-insulate, I ordered 50 bags and the blower which came free for 24 hours with a 20 bag purchase.

Going up into the attic, especially on hot summer or cold winter days is NOT my favorite activity! Add to that, the thought of blowing insulation and the resulting dusty conditions -- yuck!

The blower and insulation arrived on two pallets which were placed in our garage near the attic access. The blower looks like a large shop vac and has around 100 feet of 4" plastic hose that you drag into the attic with you.

You'll need:

-two people (one in the attic and one at the blower to feed the bales of insulation)

-a measuring stick to keep track of how thick the insulation is as you're blowing it

-walkie talkies or some other method to communicate between the two people

-flashlight or troublelights in the attic

-dust mask and goggles

It took us around 5 hours to blow 41 bags of insulation into the attic which included time to fix 3 stoppages to unclog the blower unit. The blower only blows the insulation around 10 feet from the end of the hose so you'll want to start at the far reaches of the attic and move toward the access hatch. Be careful not to cover or clog the vent chutes at the edges of the roof line. It's too early to tell how much energy we'll save but I'm certain the $300 cost will be well worth it.

Bathroom Remodel

Bathroom BEFORE starting the remodel

Our home like most in the neighborhood was built around 1980 so some of the interior decor was starting to show its age.
Since moving into our home in 1998, we have wanted to remodel the walk-thru master bathroom but the project seemed daunting and the cost was another unknown factor.

Going into the project, there were several features we wanted to include:
- double sink vanity
- heated floors (eventually ruled out)
- skylight or solar tube
- all tile floor

We found the vanity on sale at Costco which jumpstarted the whole process. We knew we had 60" of space for the vanity which limited our double sink vanity choices since most are 72" long. When a 60" long double sink vanity and granite top that we liked went on sale, we immediately began researching the other choices and costs.

Some of the decision points:
- Tile the entire bathroom walls? We decided on only the shower surround and the floor due to cost and thought tiling the walls may make the bathroom more echo'y and also more harsh/hard feeling
- tile all the way to the ceiling in the shower -- we decided to do this and are very glad we did

- Replace the tub also? We left the original tub based mainly on our contractor's recommendation. It was in decent shape and was a cast iron Kohler tub so it was a quality tub.
- What color tile? We made several trips to Home Depot, Lowes, Menard's and the Ceramic Tile Shop on Zachary Lane in Maple Grove (one of our favorite tile shops). We also brought our remodeler, Jerry LeMire out one evening to help us decide on tile color, accent tiles and bullnose tile (the tile that goes along the edge of the shower and also along the baseboard). We eventually decided on a lighter tile to help with bathroom lighting and a matching grout.

It was difficult to find tile we liked that was affordable and that had matching bullnose. We purchased the tile from Home Depot and learned all Home Depots are not the same - the store in Fridley just north of I694 is a larger store and has a larger selection.

- Grout color - match the tile (per Jerry's advice)
- Replace the exhaust fan? We decided not to against Jerry's recommendation and of course the exhaust fan failed not long after we were done so I replaced it but it wasn't a fun job for a novice -- nothing ever fits or lines up like you think it should!

- build a shelf into the shower wall for shampoo bottles - we followed Jerry's recommendation and are VERY glad we had him install this and the tile shelf/ledge on the wall (see picture)

The project took around 2 weeks and the major steps were:
1. Called Jerry to get on his schedule
2. Purchase the long lead item, the vanity
3. Begin shopping for flooring, lights, faucets, toilet - I think we made a dozen trips to the home stores to finalize these details
4. Demo the bathroom (saved us some $$$) and took around 8-10 hours. Probably should have ordered a small dumpster as it was challenging to get rid of the demo'd materials and building scrap.

Sources:
- floor tile, mirrors and odds and ends - Home Depot
- accent tiles - Ceramic Tileworks (Zachary Lane in Maple Grove)
- tub and sink faucets - Delta from Lowe's

- carpet expert to finish the carpet where it meets the tile - John Thibodeau
- toilet - Kohler from Lowe's
- solar tube - Lowe's

- custom cabinet doors on the walls (linen closets) - custom made to match the vanity - Rich Hipp, Hipp Cabinetry and Contruction - did a great job matching the doors, everyone asks how we got them to match exactly
Contractor/Remodeler - Jerry LeMire. Jerry did a GREAT job and was very devoted to completing the job as efficiently as possible. His final bill came in right at what he estimated at the beginning of the project and his expertise and honest answers to our questions was refreshing.

Total cost for the project -- around $5900

Finished Product