Mike’s Real Estate Show

The rates above courtesy of:

Stacy Desjardins First Priority Financial Phone: 707-526-6119 Fax: 707-526-6203 stacy@stacydoesloans.com On the Web: http://www.stacydoesloans.com

  Yes, it’s that time of year again when we begin our count down to Xmas and start playing our favorite ditty for the Season: “I’ll be Home for Xmas”. And you can!! We’ve got plenty of time to get you in. As of today’s count we have exactly 27 days to get you approved, find you a house, do our inspections, fund the loan and close by December 22nd which is the last Friday before Xmas day which falls on December 25th!! Can we do it! Piece of Cake! Read the rest of this entry »

Shark Alert! Beware of this type of seductive deal.

I’ve heard rumors of offers being submitted over $200,000 over asking price! I think we all know what’s happening in these situations. Be advised new legislation is underway at the Federal level for an additional $32 Million in funding for the FBI to combat one thing: Lender Fraud! Please read on! Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving Around The World
Thanking God for a bountiful harvest is not unknown in other parts of the world. Apart from America, there are a number of religions and countries that celebrate Thanksgiving Day in their own various forms during the harvest season. The festivals are dedicated to thank the Lord for his blessings and the abundance and prosperity that he bestowed upon us are their underlying themes. We discuss here some of the similar festivals from ancient Greece, Rome, China and Egypt and all the other places:

In Ancient Greece:

An autumn festival held for three days known as Thesmosphoria was celebrated by the Greeks to honor Goddess Demeter, the deity of food grains. The interesting festival was related with fertility and thus, fertile married women used to build a home for the Goddess to stay on the first day and equipped it with all the comforts. They purified their souls and body on the second day by keeping a fast in her honor and then prepared a grand feast on the third day. Since, it came around harvest season, the specialties of the table included first fruits of the season, plump pigs, seed corn delicacies and yummy cakes.

In Rome:

The Roman festival known as Cerelia was celebrated annually on the 4th of October to honor Ceres, the Goddess of Corn and the offerings made to her included first fruits of the harvest and pigs. Other highlights of its celebration was a grand feast, music, parades, games and sports.

In China:

The festival similar to the Thanksgiving Day in China is known as ‘Chung Ch’ui.’ It is a three-day long harvest festival celebrated on the full moon day of the 8th Chinese month and was believed to be the birthday of the moon. The specialty of the festival was its round and yellow ‘moon cakes’ with an image of rabbit on them. Their feast featured roasted pigs and first fruits of the harvest. A legend says that anyone who sees flowers falling from the moon on this day is blessed with a good fortune. An interesting anecdote to these moon cakes narrates that at the times when Chinese were surrounded by enemies, their women used these moon cakes to deliver secret messages in the name of their rituals and thus, helped the men to win back their liberty.

Sukkoth:

The harvest festival of Jews is known as ‘Sukkoth.’ For more than 3000 years, the autumn festival also known by the names of ‘Hag ha Succot’ or ‘The Feast of the Tabernacles’ and ‘Hag ha Asif’ or ‘The Feast of Ingathering.’ This eight-day long festival is to remind the people of the hardships and sufferings of Moses and his follower Israelites while they were wandering in the desert for forty years. Succots were actually the makeshift huts or tents used by them that were built up of branches resembling the tabernacles of their ancestors. They used to hang fruits from the roof of these huts such as apples, grapes, corn, and pomegranates.

In Egypt:

The Spring harvest festival of Egypt was dedicated to Min, the deity of vegetation and fertility. Its highlights were a parade headed by the Pharaoh, a gala feast, music, dance and sports. The most interesting and unique feature of the festival was the mass grief, weeping and howling by the farmers to trick the spirit of corn into thinking that they were grieved to cut the corn and thus, prevent it from taking revenge.

Thanksgiving In Canada:

Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day similar to their neighboring Americans on the second Monday of October since 1879. In 2007 Thanksgiving Day in Canada will be celebrated on 10th of October.
(Source: http://www.thanksgivingworld.com)

While attending the National Association of Realtors national convention I of course visited many a fine eating establishment! One of the great traditions of Nawlins is The Café du Monde, world famous for their beignets. This is a deep-fried (where in the South! Everything is deep fried) type of donut. It comes to your table covered in mounds of powdered sugar and still hot. A glazing forms and the taste is heaven if you like your patries not on the light and airy side! And don’t sneeze while eating one pr you’ll set in place a powdered sugar blizzard of epic proportions. And speaking of epic proportions–just down the street you can indulge in a surely unique “only in Nawlins” culinary classic: The vaunted and daunting sandwich called the “Muffuletta”, so leave room as you leave the Café du Monde as it is a short waddle of just a half block to 923 Decatur Street.

Central Grocery is where you’ll find this great New Orleans’sandwiche. Sure, you can find Muffulettas around town but Central Market seems to have it down cold. They are made and “stacked” in white butcher paper where the unique blend of relish and cold cuts create a rather heady aroma only available in old style Italian delis. The sandwich consists of a large, circular loaf of soft Italian bread. They then slice it horizontally and proceed to pile high with salami, Mortedello, ham, and provolone, which are in turn topped with a great, spicy mélange of chopped green and black olives fragrant with anchovies and garlic. This lunch leviathan is then quartered and wrapped allowing the flavors to meld with the bread. I think the aging process, about a half an hour, is needed to produce a vintage Muffuletta. You can buy them to go or sit down on a stool and eat along the counters that have been installed at the back of the store. This ain’t dainty eating. No little finger raised on high! You grab a Barq’s Root Beer and sit in the funky atmosphere and partake.
  To me it’s a toss-up over Mother’s custom made ham sandwich with “debris” or the Muffelatta. Then again an oyster po-boy is nice too! Top the whole experience by going back for desert at Cafe du Monde!! 

Good morning!! How was the Real Estate Show this morning!!?? I’m writing this blog from the Best Buy booth at the National Association of Realtors trade show and exposition in New Orleans!! This trade show is one of the largest in the nation as our association is THE largest trade organization extant. Over 25,000 of us are here in New Orleans to network, learn new ideas to market your properties and help this beleagured city. Read the rest of this entry »

Listeners,

  Today we’ll discuss in more detail a number of disturbing forecasts for Real Estate here in Sonoma County. Dr. Chris Thornberg who cut his economic forecasting teeth with the UCLA School of Economics, has now gone out on his own with the “Beacon Group”. He was the guest of our own Sonoma County Economic Development Board and gave his annual forecast of the economy for California. A large component of this annual forecast is the real estate market. I’ve published the Press Democrat article also on the blog so check it out. I’ll give you my take on this and our CAR (California Assoc. of Realtors) annual forecast. Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Thornberg, late of the UCLA Economic School, has made his forecast of the California Real Estate market and it’s NOT pretty! I’ve included the Press Democrat article below:

Forecast: Housing to hit bottom in 2007
Economist predicts no rebound in area market for five years
By MICHAEL COIT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

 

Falling home prices will likely hit bottom early next year, but it may not be a soft landing and housing likely won’t rebound for five years, an economist told Sonoma County business leaders Friday. Read the rest of this entry »

PENDING HOME SALES INDICATE STEADY MARKET IN COMING MONTHS
Home sales will remain stable in the months ahead, according to NAR’s most recent Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI). In September, the PHSI stood at 109.1, down 1.1 percent from the previous month and down 13.6 percent from September 2005. The index gauges home sales activity for upcoming months based on the number of transactions that have signed contracts but are not yet closed. A PHSI of 100 or more generally indicates a high level of homes sales activity.

“The present level of home sales is relatively high in historic terms, and we can
expect generally minor movements around this level. We don’t expect to see any changes of note until early next year when we’re likely to see a modest lift to home sales,” said NAR Chief Economist David Lereah. “The market currently is a little lower than expected as buyers try to time their entry. In the meantime, there’s some buildup in demand that will move when consumers realize that conditions are optimal for them.”

The PHSI declined across the nation in September compared with the readings a year ago. On a regional basis, the PHSI was highest in the South, where it declined 9 percent to 125. In the West, the index fell 15.2 percent to 112.5.