Yes it is Friday and Friday's are for fun . . and so is Halloween, my second favorite Holiday. Second only because it doesn't get any better than April fools day.  My husband plays a cruel joke on me every year shortly after Halloween, if he is reading this, I would like to say just because it worked  for 27 years, don't be thinking it will work this year. Fool me 27 times shame on you, fool me 28, shame on me.

This years third annual virtual pumpkin carving contest turned out to be a bigger disaster than usual. No one followed the rules so I am going to break a few myself.   The rules were posted last Friday, no point in going into it all now and don't bother reading them it is too late.

Traditionally the winner is chosen by polling readers.  Well that isn't going to happen either because like I said I am breaking the rules.  There were four entries this year, and here are the winners:

The first entry, and winner is from the amazing and very talented Kelley Koehler, she broke a few rules but was the only person who got her entry in before the deadline instead of after.  Her talents go way beyond pumpkins. Kelley is also know as House Chick, and has a mighty fine blog. If you like her work, you can let her know by buying a house in Tuscon AZ. 

The second winner is a winner because it is from Minnesota and came in only a few hours after the deadline, Teri came very close to following the rules. Please don't hold it against her. Teri Eckholm is also amazingly talented.  She is a local Realtor and you can learn more about her by checking out her blog, the Minnesota Real estate update

The third entry is clearly a winner. Dale Chumley's pumpkin was voted last years winner.  If I  had chosen last years winner myself it would have been Dale's entry because it looked the most like me. He used the same strategy this year and I have to say what could be better than a pumpkin that looks kine of like me?  Dale is a Realtor in Clark County WA, and author of the Clark County Real Estate Guide.

The last entry and winner came in so late that I had almost finished this post when it arrived.  I was feeling kind of cranky about it all so Jim Whatley doesn't even know that it is being included, because I didn't even let him know I got it.   I decided to include it because it is against the rules like the rest of the entries and because it is by far the scariest entry. I don't know Jim all that well.  he follows me on twitter and says the kindest things.  That makes me a little suspicious but I guess I have gotten used to having him around.  Jim is a with Uber Realty in Florida

Thanks all for the entries, and I mean that. Next year I will have so few rules that anyone will be able to follow them.  I am sure I'll find some way to mess it up just like every year.

Have a happy Halloween and please be safe out there.

by G. Sax

Last week I had an opportunity to help coordinate the words and images of a fancy real estate meeting with a fancy guest list on the top floor of a fancy building in downtown Minneapolis. There were some major real estate players in the room—hailing from expensive local ZIP codes and working their important works in expensive commercial space.

I can't lie; I do get a charge out of this sort of thing. Not so much because I get to mingle with the elite (hang the rich), but because I like to be a participant in and perhaps influence the decision-making process in some small way.

I really believe in the power of a well-formed phrase, sentence, paragraph, page, and so on. Add a few sweet visuals, like a photo with good use of contrast or a video begging to go viral, and you've got 'em. If not forever, then at least for the moment. String along enough moments, and you've got a message. With the right message, you can make money, move mountains, motivate masses, and much more.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Which tends to happen when I feel as though I'm on the precipice of an interesting edge.

I'm rarely short for verbiage and dialogue when sitting in front of a computer screen. In person, I'm more apt to listen. And I listened real hard at this fancy meeting. The keynote speaker was Scott Anderson, PhD, Wells Fargo Senior Economist. He talked about the economy, go figure, and his outlook was realistic and not at all rosy. No surprise, really.

It's interesting to note that TB was across town listening to Lawrence Yun, the Chief Economist from the National Association of REALTORS at exactly the same time that I was listening to my economist. Ain't that something? Economists are the new must-see stage performers.

Where Yun was more optimistic, Anderson was tempered on his outlook for housing supply and price balance. I tend to agree with Anderson's assessment that 2009 will be mostly similar to 2008. There is no magic stick to hit this market with to make the candy fall out. And yet...

The message that struck me most on this day was to get out and buy what you can. Yeah, yeah, you've heard it all before, right? Especially from REALTOR-types. But how about REALTORS telling other REALTORS to buy?

That was the challenge presented by a panel of top real estate brokers. Practice what you preach. A good, solid adage for a comparatively solid time to pick up an extra home or two. Some deals out there are outlandish. Some are devils in disguise. You still have to do your due diligence, but maybe you're due to do something.

Good homes are still on the market. Good money is still available from lenders. 

The chart has data from the local MLS (Regional Multiple Listing Service). The data is for the city of St. Paul and includes all single family homes and condos that have been listed in the MLS this year.  The red line shows how many homes were listed each week and the blue line shows how many homes received offers on them that were accepted by the sellers each week. We call that number "pending sales".  Pending sales data is often used to determine the health of the real estate market.

I added trend lines to the chart, well actually I let MS excel do that for me. The lines show that the number of homes listed each week is slowly going down while the number of pending sales is going up, but even more slowly.

These numbers are important. As the lines get closer to each other the supply of homes and the demand will be more balanced and theoretically home prices will stabilize. Last year the number of homes on the market went way up.  Supply and demand were out of balance because while listings were going up, sales were going down.  This year the inventory has been slowly decreasing all year.

We don't really know how many people would like to sell but have decided not to, or how many people want to buy, and can buy but are not buying.  I am not sure there will ever be a way of getting that kind of information.  My sense is that there are people who want to sell, and those who want to buy that are not taking any action at the moment. That is based on my own daily contact with home buyers and sellers.

Last week I attended the Fall Forum put on by the St. Paul board of Realtors. I listened to Lawrence Yun's  as he talked about the economy and the housing market.  Yun has quite a resume but the reason he came to St. Paul is because he is the Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors.

He did not sugar coat anything but his outlook is fairly positive. He says that we are in a recession and that we just don't know how deep it will be or how long it will last.

I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about the clearance sale that seems to be going on in our local market.  The homes in the lowest price ranges are selling and I speculated as to what will happen once they are sold.  Yun says that when they are sold and the inventory goes down the market will be more balanced and stable, which means it won't favor buyers as much and the prices will stabilize as the inventory goes down.

In some neighborhoods prices seem to be stable.  The neighborhoods that have seen the sharpest decline in prices this year are the neighborhoods with the highest numbers of foreclosures in them.

The inventory of homes on the market in St. Paul has been declining. Yun predicts that there is a pent up demand and that home sales will be stronger in the spring.  The way I look at it home sales are always stronger in the spring in this part of the country so I would say it is a safe prediction.

I guess what we are all wondering is if we have hit bottom or if home prices will continue to slide in the metro area.  It is kind of like the stock market in that we won't know for sure until after the prices stabilize or go up, but at a much slower pace than they have in the last few years.

Also see local market conditions and housing prices

by Erik Hare

Halloween is Judgment Day in Irvine Park.  Our celebration of the event starts off with a contest where all the kids bring their works of art in the medium of pumpkin to the middle of Irvine Park.  There, a group of adults judge them based on their worthiness, and those declared unfit are cast into purgatory.

No, of course they don’t.  Everyone gets a caramel apple and we all stand around and talk for the last time before spring.  It’s a lot of fun, and it’s all in the spirit that Halloween started out with so long ago it’s hard to say.

Halloween is Samhain to the ancient Celts, the day when the world of the living is closest to the world of the dead.  For that reason, it’s important to light fires and put out lanterns to keep the would-be evil at bay.  Villages often got together on this night for the simple reason that it’s easier to build a credible defense around the town together than to try to defend each home by itself. 

A lot of other things happen on this night as well.  The fire in the home is extinguished to show that even Goddess Brigid of the hearth has to bow to the world of the dead, meaning that the bonfires around the town are the only blaze left in people’s lives.  It’s a brave thing to do as winter starts to close in around you, but it made for a good celebration among the Celts.  Before it gets too cold, the home bows to the community and the living bow to those who went before. 

Today, we think of the celebration as something for kids and cavities.  They dress in costumes in the tradition of disguising yourself just in case someone from the other world has a reason to want to get you.  No one worries about that any more, but we usually worry enough about our kids to keep them to our own neighborhood, just in case.  It’s still about community even in our own way.

For our neighborhood, it’s a lot of fun to go out and see the judging.  We don’t cast anyone or their pumpkin aside because we’re all one community.  It’s more fun as a group, just like it once seemed easier to craft a defense against the world of the dead by working together.  The old ways may seem a little strange, but they live on.

This year, my kids hope to get awards for the most fun or the silliest pumpkins as they put their artistic skills to work.  We’re not worried about defending the neighborhood, but we do want to have some fun.  That’s the kind of Judgment Day we all look forward to, every year at Halloween.

When I started this blog I had thought about writing a 'good neighbor' 'bad neighbor' column.  I never started it, but decided to give it a try today. 

The St. Paul Pioneer Press is today's bad neighbor.   For many years we had the paper delivered to our door but we stopped about a year ago because there are only two of us living here now and half the time the papers would go unread.  They take up a lot of room in the recycle bin.

We get much of our news through the internet and the nearest newspaper stand is half a block away so when we want a newspaper we get one. 

The folks at the newspaper keep calling our home.  We are on the do-no-call list, and we have repeatedly asked to be taken off of their list.  Yet they continue to call us, three to four times a month, with special offers for subscribing to the paper.  Our next step is to file a complaint because we can't stop the calls any other way, and the paper could be fined up to $10,000.

They also started delivering to our home a few weeks ago, and then they sent a bill for the papers they delivered.  I called and told them I didn't order the paper and would not pay the bill.   The reason I bring this up is because the same thing happened to my neighbors and to our son who lives at other address. In each case the home owner did not order the paper but it appeared and they they were billed for the paper.  Since it happened to all of us at the same time we have concluded that it was a ploy to sell papers.

I know the local newspapers are struggling because readership and advertising are down.  There have been layoffs and cut backs. That is how the business world is.  I am also working in an industry that is contracting but that does not give me the right to break the rules.  It doesn't work that way.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a bad neighbor and calling my home is not going to help their cause.  If you are having similar problems with the Pioneer Press you are not alone.

The Third Annual Virtual Pumpkin Carving Contest

The photo was taken at Twin Cities Magic & Costume Co.  A great place to go for Halloween customs and for magic too.   I would buy a costume there myself but I am frightening enough just the way I am, any more would be too much.

In 2006 I hosted  the first ever and perhaps the only virtual pumpkin carving contest ever held on the Internet.  To be honest it was kind of a disaster but we did get participation and a good time was had by all.  The rules were simple but people misunderstood them anyway. There was some cheating and a lot of whining too.   I ran it again last year and it went a little better but I think that is what caused the nervous twitch I still have.

It wouldn't be an annual contest if I didn't run it annually . . .so here we go . . . all you need to do is download this pumpkin, yes I really do mean this one.  

Using nothing but your imagination and the paint program that comes with your computer, decorate the pumpkin and send it, or a link to it to:  Teresa (at) Tboardman.com  To prove the paint program really does work read It's that time of year again and watch a video of  an artist at work.

Do not use photo-shop or any of those other fancy programs this has to be done using the paint program that comes with every computer.  On the PC it can be found in "accessories"  on the MAC there is a drawing program.

All entries are due by 0600 CST Thursday October 30th and there will be no exceptions this year.  I listened to your lame silly excuses last year, and the year before,  but I was nicer last year, and taller too.   Real estate blogs are not for wimps and I have the scars to prove it but you can't see them because they are all emotional scars, and besides you can't see me through the internet.  I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat . . . . never mind.

All entry's, or maybe both of them will be posted on this blog on the 31st,  Readers will vote and the winner will be announced on November 1st at 10:00 AM  CST.  There will of course be double voting and a lot of cheating but heck thats what makes it fun.  This year in the event of a tie, Erik Hare will determine who the winner is.  He doesn't know about any of this so please don't tell him.   

To see all the entries from 2007 Click here  and these were the winners

To see all the entries from 2006  click here

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