Lancaster County Heads Retirement Relocation Options

August 11, 2009 Leave a comment

Lancaster County was recently cited in ”Where to Retire” magazine as one of the eight best places to live during one’s golden years.  What other locations did we share this distinction with?  Fort Myers, Fla.; Winston-Salem, N.C.; Greeley, Colo.; Spokane, Wash.; Chattanooga, Tn.; Salem, Ore. and Chico, Calif.  I’d say we’re in pretty fair company.

“Where to Retire” magazine was launched in 1992 with the goal of helping its readers find the ideal place to retire.  Now published six times a year, the magazine covers the best retirement regions, towns, and master-planned communities, and has a national average circulation of 220,000 and an average readership of 500,000.

According to the magazine’s editor, Mary Lu Abbott, it’s a prime time for retirees to find affordable places to relocate, as an excess inventory of homes provides great values at low cost.  She’s states that as the housing market recovers, much of the buyer traffic will be active adults looking toward retirement and the cities that offer the opportunity for a well-rounded lifestyle coupled with great home buys should see increased interest from relocating retirees.

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Existing Home Sales Rise – Again

July 26, 2009 Leave a comment

The NAR building and U.S. Capitol

Image via Wikipedia

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reported on Thursday of this past week that existing home sales for the month of June increased for the third month in a row fueling speculation that the housing downturn is starting to reverse direction.  Excerpts of NAR’s press release¹ follow:

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – increased 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units in June from a downwardly revised pace of 4.72 million in May, but are 0.2 percent lower than the 4.90 million-unit level in June 2008.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, is hopeful about the gain.  “The increase in existing-home sales occurred in all major regions of the country,” he said.  “We expect a gradual uptrend in sales to continue due to tax credit incentives and historically high affordability conditions . . . “

Much of the fuel for the fire of homes sales has occurred in the first-time homebuyer market which has accounted for 29 percent of transactions according to an NAR survey of its practitioners.  With the $8,000 tax credit deadline of December 1, 2009 (4½ months away) fast approaching, it will be interesting to see if this segment continues to stoke sales numbers.

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Lancaster City Bucks National Trend

July 15, 2009 Leave a comment

 Lookin' good Lancaster!

In a story that appeared in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era today, the Lancaster City Council Finance Committee touted the city’s recent positive trends in real estate activity and growth:

Despite a significant decline in the real estate market nationally, the city saw only a 0.5 percent drop in real estate transfer taxes last year.  That shows a strong interest in living in the city.

And, the transfer tax decrease comes from comparing 2008 to the previous three-year average.  Those three comparison years, 2005-2007, happened to be the city’s best three years ever.

And the city experienced a 10-year high in the number of building permits issued, with $115 million in new construction activity in 2008.  That level of investment is the third highest in city history, behind only 2006 and 2007.

New businesses are opening downtown, redevelopment is continuing in the northwestern quadrant of the city and the new Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott Lancaster at Penn Square Hotel recently opened. ¹

This is great news and should be shared with all Lancastrians - – - so why did it appear on page B4 buried at the bottom of the page?  The front page of the newspaper ran the following four stories:

  1. Jurors Hear 911 Call – Story about a local murder trial (negative slant).
  2. Good Man Who Got Greedy is Jailed – Story about a banker who swindled friends and customers (negative slant).
  3. Fumo Gets 55 Months in Prison – Story about sentencing of Pennsylvania lawmaker for corruption (negative slant).
  4. Welcome Back , Potter – Frivolous piece about the latest installment of J.K. Rowlings’s newest movie (fluffy slant).

Surely the powers that control which stories that are run on page one of the Intell/NE  could have found a small corner of the front page to trumpet the accomplishments of its own city?  I guess that’s the reason why I’m not working at LNP as a newspaper editor.

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¹ Harris, Bernard. “City Audit Shows Positives and Negatives.” Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era [Lancaster, PA] 15 July 2009, Metro Edition, Local Section : B4.

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Lancaster’s Real Estate Market Improves

July 10, 2009 Leave a comment

The gap between the 2008 and 2009 real estate markets in Lancaster County is down to a razor’s edge.  On Wednesday of this week, the front page of the Intelligencer Journal ran the following story:

Market Here For Housing Gets Better ¹
Numbers for pending home sales improve

The housing market in Lancaster County continued to rebound in May, creeping ever closer to 2008′s level, local Realtors reported Tuesday.

The number of pending home sales here was down only 2.5 percent from the May 2008 figure, the smallest gap so far this year, according to the Lancaster County Association of Realtors.

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Big Brother’s Watching You!

June 28, 2009 Leave a comment

Don't look now - you're being watched.

Image courtesy of Linda Johnson for the L.A. Times

When I read George Orwell‘s book “1984″ back in high school, I scoffed at some of the outlandish things that ‘Big Brother‘ was allowed to do.  Well it’s twenty-five years after Orwell’s fictional year and at least one of his predictions is coming true right here in Lancaster, PA.  Video cameras are being installed on the streets of Lancaster to keep an ever vigilant eye on it’s residents.  This story has caught the eyes of many cities across the country including Los Angeles, CA.  The L.A. Times published a story this past week on Lancaster’s very own eyes in the sky.

Lancaster, PA Keeps a Close Eye on Itself *

A vast and growing web of security cameras monitors the city of 55,000, operated by a private group of self-appointed gatekeepers.  There’s been surprisingly little outcry.

Reporting from Lancaster, Pa. — This historic town, where America’s founding fathers plotted during the Revolution and Milton Hershey later crafted his first chocolates, now boasts another distinction.

It may become the nation’s most closely watched small city.

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It’s Here!

June 18, 2009 Leave a comment

Open for business!

Lancaster County Convention Center

Whether you were an original fan or opponent of the downtown convention center, it’s time to unite.  It is now officially open for business.  Instead of a vacant, aging monstrosity of a building on Penn Square; Lancastrians now have a beautiful, state of the art showpiece that we can now be proud of.  You can take a virtual tour of the facility by visiting their website.  The website also does a good job of promoting events and businesses in downtown Lancaster. Take the time to visit the facility over the next couple of days and welcome our newest resident to the neighborhood.
    
The following article appeared on LancasterOnline this morning:

Long Road to a Ribbon Cutting for Convention Center
$174 million project opens this week

For the Penn Square hotel/convention center, today is one part finish line, one part starting gate.

Developers and backers of the $174 million hotel/convention center on Penn Square this morning will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, one day before the center is scheduled to open.

Yet, while it may look like construction is complete and the lights are ready to come on — after a decade of legal fights, building delays and skyrocketing material costs — today’s event is merely another milestone.

What begins when the facility opens Friday is a 20-year effort to pay back debt and confirm whether promises of a successful lodging and meeting center will prove true.

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Start YELPING!

May 18, 2009 1 Comment

  

Are you YELPING?
Screenshot of yelp.com

Found an interesting and useful website while browsing over the weekend.  The site is yelp.com.  The site is all about the power of ‘word-of-mouth’ amplified.  It is loaded with reviews of local businesses from real people on just about anything you can imagine in your area.  Want to know something about that new Italian restaurant that just opened up down the block?  How about which beauty spa gets high marks for service?  Where should you buy your next kitten?  I also found this website great to learn about businesses and service providers when you are traveling out of town.  Happy YELPING!

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The Planets Are Aligned

May 3, 2009 Leave a comment

Line 'em up!

Image courtesy of Flickr

    
If you take a moment and peer up into the sky you will actually see that we are at the crossroads of a real estate buying opportunity like we haven’t seen in my lifetime.  All the factors that go into making a real estate buying decision are perfectly configured.  But like most perfect planetary alignments, clouds and precipitation sometime make it difficult to see this truly amazing sight and before you know it, the moment has passed.  The four planets that I see aligning are as follows:

1.  Mortgage Financing - If you’re like most people, you will need a mortgage to assist you in purchasing a home.  Interest rates right now are the lowest that they have been in decades (see ‘Mortgage Info’ tab).  When I first got into the real estate business over twenty-five years ago, the 30 year fixed rate was about 17% (this is not a misprint).  To put that in easier terms to understand, a principal and interest payment on a $150,000 mortgage then was $2,138 – - – now $805.  Hopefully, President Obama’s programs and endeavors will start to have some positive effects on the economic growth in this country.  When that happens and consumer spending starts to pick up, what do you think will happen to interest rates?  I was not an Economics major in college, but even I can figure out that rates will tick up because of inflationary fears.  So if you have good credit, money to work with and an income that can be verified, there has never been a better time to get a mortgage.

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