It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I have been bombarded with emails for the last two weeks offering Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cyber Week discounts. I took advantage of one of the Cyber Monday deals and renewed a subscription for 60% off the regular price. Yesterday I got a half-price Cyber Week deal on some continuing education classes.
I just wish I could offer black or cyber discounts. I don’t get to decide how much my clients charge for their houses. I can make recommendations but in the end, it is up to them and so far no one is interested in offering seasonal discounts.
It is true. I have no control over the pricing or the quality of the products (houses) I sell. I don’t build them and I don’t control the inventory.
Mortgage interest rates are still too high, yet lower than they were a year ago. I guess “too high” is subjective, but the price of housing, sky-high property taxes, and higher-than-ever insurance rates make buying a house out of reach for many. Banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, and money managers benefit when interest rates are high. Home buyers do not benefit.
Mortgage interest rates were much higher when I bought my first home but housing prices were much lower in proportion to incomes.
Experts have been predicting that mortgage rates will go down. At the beginning of the year, forecasters predicted lower rates by the end of 2024. They are lower than they were last December (7.03%). Supposedly they will go down in 2025 and in 2026. We shall see.
Real estate sales are local and somewhat seasonal. Like most Novembers, we see a decrease in new listings and in home sales. Overall homes are selling quickly, for close to or slightly over the asking price. Yes houses do sell during the holidays. Often homeowners are unaware that the spring home sales season starts in January. We start getting calls in January from people who want to sell in the spring. Getting that house on the market by February is ideal.
The table below is a snapshot of home sales in November 2024 in St. Paul Minnesota. The numbers include single-family residential units and the data comes from the NorsthstarMLS which is deemed reliable but not guaranteed and includes most of the homes sold in St. Paul.
Home sales November 2024, St. Paul, MN
I’ll have some numbers for the whole state of Minnesota next week, and a look at mortgage interest rates tomorrow.
The median size of a newly built single-family home in the first quarter of 2024 was 2,140 square feet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During the same time period in 2023, it was 2,256. That shrinking trend tracks with data collected by the NAHB and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction.
In 2023, the median size of a new single-family home was 2,233 square feet, down 9% from 2015
In 2024, the median size of a new home was 2,179 square feet, the lowest since 2010.
Why are homes getting smaller? For years they were getting bigger. Buyer demand for small homes is up, partly due to lower costs.
As the owner of a small home with what I call a “micro kitchen”, I have always felt that smaller is better. Smaller means less cleaning and maintenance and less space to heat. It can also mean less storage space for storing all that excess stuff.
When I look for houses that I would like to own I am always looking for homes that are smaller than what I have now. Yes size does matter. It really is a matter of personal preference. Space costs money and it takes time too.
As does the “micro kitchen,” it has an efficient layout. It is a galley-style kitchen that opens into a dining room. There is plenty of food prep space because of an antique kitchen queen with a pull-out counter just outside the kitchen. There is enough cupboard space but some of it is in the dining room. I have too many pots and pans and have started moving the cookware I do not use to some shelves in the basement.
Most people don’t keep a case of creamed corn and a large Dutch oven under their antique buffet in the dining room but it works for me.
One thing we learn from living in a small house is how to get the most out of verticle space and we learn to put our stuff away to avoid that cluttered look.
When searching for your “dream house” dream smaller and enjoy the advantages of having less house.
At 1:00 AM Saturday, the power went out for about an hour. The temperature outside was 7 degrees. It didn’t take long for the temperature in the house to drop 5 degrees, which is what woke me up.
Xcel Energy got the power back on. The cause was a car hitting a pole with a transformer next to Patrick McGovern’s restaurant, which started a fire that damaged the building. Night-time power outages are scary on cold winter nights. Thanks to the Xcel Energy workers who were out there in the cold restoring power.
I hope the turret in the picture can be repaired.
Patrick McGovern’s – Restaurant, St. Paul, MN West 7th street and Chestnut Ave.
With so many bars on West 7th Street, it is amazing that there aren’t more incidents where cars crash into buildings but there have been a few.
I wrote this in 2008. Trust me everything changes and sometimes our holiday traditions change along with them. I’ll be cooking turkey this year along with a lot of other stuff. All gluten-free and mostly vegetarian and in some cases vegan. Back in 2008, my focus was on low-sodium and sugar-free which was easier.
No time to write, need to cook. We do this thing on Thanksgiving where we all sit down and eat, pretty much the same every year no surprises. We have turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. There is more wine and leftovers too. It is a great day to turn off the computer and disconnect.
Have a great day, don’t eat too much, we do that every day.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I have been bombarded with emails for the last two weeks offering Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Cyber Week discounts. I took advantage of one of the Cyber Monday deals and renewed a subscription for 60% off the regular price. Yesterday I got a half-price Cyber Week deal on some continuing education classes.
