Downhill ice racing

crashed ice
Saint Paul Cathedral – Crashed ice 2018

I cheated and took this shot the day before the event. Normally the venue would be packed with people but I have found that it is easier to get the shot before the event and before the security guards start guarding.

Once the jumbotron and the big spotlights are turned on it gets harder to photograph the venue.

Downhill ice racing is a thing and it draws huge crowds. Those crowds drink lots and lots of beer in crashed ice village along West 7th street.

The Saint Paul Winter Carnival starts this week and then it is on to the Super Bowl. It all helps take the long and boring out of Winter. 🙂

 

The bank taketh away

It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. Earlier this week I got an overdraft notice from Wells Fargo for a huge amount of money. It seems that there was a glitch and they honored the same check twice and it was a large check.

There isn’t any money to pay other bills this month and of course, to add insult to injury they went ahead and charged an overdraft fee.

It is possible that there are thousands of people who had their bills paid twice by Wells Fargo and are now flat broke.

I was told that it takes 10 days for Wells Fargo to investigate and take action. They made me swear that I didn’t steal the money but refused to swear that they did not steal the money.

At the very least Wells Fargo should pay me an overdraft fee for every day until the money they accidentally removed from my account is restored.

I am fortunate in that I don’t need to make a payment on a credit card bill or pay rent or a mortgage from that account.  Condolences to all who lost all of their money and who still have bills to pay and to those who wrote checks or made payments that bounced.

Even though Wells Fargo is considered too big to fail, I give them an epic fail.

 

New lower than ever low

Dash board grpahic
MLS dashboard

Fresh from the NorthstarMLS this morning. This is a snapshot of real estate activity in St. Paul. In the last week only 32 homes have come on the market but in that same time 45, have gone into the pending status which means the sellers have accepted offers. Homes are selling faster than they are being listed for sale. As a result that Record-breaking new low

that I wrote about on January 3rd is no longer a record. There are only 315 homes on the market in St. Paul right now and about 100 of those have contingent offers on them.

The real estate market has contracted. This is not a healthy market but a strong seller’s market. Now would be a good time to build some new homes and rehab some of those vacant houses instead of turning them into vacant lots.

I am a huge fan of sustainable, affordable tiny houses.

Home buyers will need to be patient and explore new listings as they come on the market.

know when to reduce the price

downtown st. paul
Downtown St. Paul

Even in a hot seller’s market homes can be overpriced. 66% of the homes that sold last year had at least one price reduction while they were on the market. On average 2017 home sellers got 99.6% of their asking price.

Most of the homes that were sold without a price reduction sold quickly but there were some exceptions like the home that was on the market for a year before it sold.

Properly pricing a house is more of an art than a science. Ultimately it is the buyer who sets the price.

Knowing when to reduce the price if the home is priced too high is priceless.

Apparently we are not getting any younger

The population of the twin cities isn’t getting any younger. We are getting older.

FACT: 60,000 Minnesotans turn 65 this year, next year and every year through 2030. Soon 25% of our adult population will be 65+ [Facing aging MN]

The counties with the lowest average age in Minnesota are the counties that make up the metro area.

the number 25 is important to remember because, by 2025, 25% of the population of Ramsey County will be 65 or older.  That is exactly like one in 4. In just two years 22% of the population of Ramsey County will be 65+ years of age.

It is easy to blame baby boomers for this but I would be more inclined to blame the parents of baby boomers if someone needs to be blamed. What were they thinking?

It is also important to understand that people who are over 50 move far less often than those who are under 50. I believe that part of the reason for the shortage of homes for sale has to do with a population that has aged past the prime moving years.

My own parents will both turn 90 this year. The 90 to 94-year-old age group is the fastest growing age group.

Aging in Ramsey county
Ramsey County & aging – source “Face aging MN

 

Together we can keep the dream alive

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018, Monday, Jan. 15,  honors the slain civil rights icon on what would have been his 89th birthday.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr 1963

Let’s keep the dream alive and the hope that one day even a black man can drive a car with a burned out tail light and live to tell about it.

The Twin Cities are home to some of the worst racial disparities in the country. In metrics across the board—household income, unemployment rates, poverty rates and educational attainment—the gap between white people and people of color is significantly larger in Minnesota than it is most everywhere else. There is also a large gap in homeownership between people who are white and people of color. Homeowners have a significantly higher net worth than renters have.

 

Dr. Martin Luther King Speaking at the University of Minnesota
Dr. Martin Luther King Speaking at the University of Minnesota –

Photograph from the Minnesota Historical Society collection