Will Ferrell and the Eye Socket

As many of you know, I am a vegetarian. So, tonight I was watching MAN VS WILD and came across an interesting (at least to me) question... Why is Will Ferrell eating a reindeer eye socket any weirder than me eating tofu? I have been a vegetarian for about 5 years and have received no end of questioning and criticism. Like somehow eating vegetables and brown rice is a bad thing.

Tonight I was watching MAN VS. WILD with guest star Will Ferrell and they had to cook dinner. Dinner, of course, is northern Sweden road kill, a reindeer. They toasted the head over a fire and eat the eyes. BLEH!!!!!! Tofu is grosser than this? I think not!! How can this, IN ANY WAY, be nicer than eating an apple, pinto beans, peas, and who knows what else.

Will Ferrell, by the way, is a Trojan. I hope he sees the light soon... Or, there is always East LA road kill...

Can I Help You?

This is my final week of Census address canvassing. My feet are tired. My stamina is increased. I am still frustrated with the plethora of unfenced dogs roaming Gig Harbor.

One of the things I have pondered during my Census experience is the use of the phrase, "Can I help you?" Other than being polite when a store clerk asks me that question, I have never given it much thought. I have heard it MANY times while address canvassing. Today, I was standing in front of a house in a fairly upscale neighborhood, verifying the address, and a woman in a van pulled up next to me and said, "Can I help you?" I wasn't in distress. I didn't look like I needed help in any way. What she was really saying is, "Why are you in my neighborhood and what are you doing?" It had absolutely nothing to do with offering me help. If I had been on private property I would have completely understood that, but I was standing on a county road in a populous area. I don't exactly look like I am casing the neighborhood and I carry a large book bag that says CENSUS.

Earlier in the day, I had a discrepancy with a street name and some addresses (was it 79th Ave or 79th Ave Ct?). No big deal. I knocked on the door of the only home on the street that looked like anyone was home. Dogs barked (of course) and I could see a lady approach the door. The door jiggled and the latch turned. She locked it! Didn't even answer. This is a nice neighborhood and, honestly, I do not look threatening. It was the non-verbal equivalent of "Can I help you?" Have we become more paranoid or am I just more aware of it now. The lady obviously felt safe enough to leave her door unlocked, but became frightened? unfriendly? when I dared to ring her doorbell?

And, I may never know if it was 79th Ave or 79th Ave Ct...

Explaining the new credit card legislation

Here is a post from an MSNBC.COM blog regarding the new credit card regulation passed by Congress yesterday. I was pretty confused, and apparently mislead, about how the legislation will affect credit card holders. This blog post helped clear things up.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/05/dispelling-confusion-over-credit-card-legislation-.html

WSJ House of the Week

Every week the Wall Street Journal website picks a "house of the week." As you can imagine, they don't pick houses in lower price points (like under a couple of million). The houses are always interesting, but the house this week got me to thinking. The sellers are the parents of 4 competitive snowboarders. They are selling to better accommodate their kid's training schedules. The asking price? $8.495 million. Check it out. It's not exactly decorated like a teenager's hangout. Who the heck lived there?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124205330348006895.html

Sci Fi vs Art

As many of you know, I am a bit of a Star Trek fan. Not a die-hard Trekkie, but I love my Trek. Now, in case you haven't guessed, this is not a real estate related post. Sometimes I have to think of other things. : ) Therefore, I was watching Star Trek: Next Generation tonight on Tivo and I started to think about the impact of Star Trek.

First of all, I LOVED the new Star Trek movie. Really fun. Star Trek is always fun! But there is a bigger reason (more than fun) for Star Trek to have been a constant in my life since I was a small child. I think it's creativity. I am the product of a "creative" education. I went to film school. Not just anywhere. I went to USC, the best film school in the country. (Maybe the world, but students in Prague would argue that.) Schools today put so much effort into teaching science and math, and I think that's great, but they also need to develop the creative side of the brain. "Creative" progams in schools are being slashed or eliminated and I think that's a tragedy. Ask any die-hard Star Trek science geek what inspires him or her and he/she will say the "creative science side." The transporter beam, Vulcans, warp drive, the food replicator... All products of a creative mind. Our own President, as the story goes, looked at his wife's jewel encrusted belt and called the jewels dilithium crystals.

I am not stating anything profound here. Just remembering that it often takes someone thinking REALLY, REALLY far outside of the box to find something truly interesting and challenging that encourages us to meet those challenges. If we don't encourage creative thinking then how can we expect the science to catch up? Creative thinkers set goals for science. These thinkers don't care about boundaries, sometimes to their detriment and we need them. The creative, pie-in-the-sky ideas makes us aim higher.

Now I need to apply my creative thinking to real estate...

The Reality of Foreclosures

It seems like every real estate company you drive by these days has a sign out in front saying "Foreclosure List Available." One office in Gig Harbor put one of those signs out last month and had over 100 walk-ins asking for the list. There are foreclosure tours (be wary), articles about grabbing a great foreclosure deal and just all kinds of talk about foreclosure opportunities these days. Recently my office put together a list of pre-forclosure homes because it's such a hot market. This information is all public record because the home's auction date must be registered with the county and made public. I was scanning through the list yesterday (all 70 pages) and, while many agents see opportunity, I have to say I just felt a bit depressed. Looking at all of the names and homes made it much more real and personal. I recognized a few names of people I didn't even know were in such trouble. The truly sad part is that the majority of people on the list are only about $15,000 behind in payments and fees. I don't know everyone's situation and why they are losing their home, but that seems like a small amount to lose a home over. Hopefully some of these folks will be able to sell their homes or work out a new payment schedule with the banks before the auction dates.

So, where are all of these soon to be foreclosed properties? Primarily in East Tacoma, Spanaway and Puyallup. Not so much in North Tacoma, UP or Fircrest and practically none in Gig Harbor.

Why a 14.5% drop in home prices isn't so bad

The headline in today's News Tribune is PIERCE COUNTY HOME PRICES TUMBLE 14.5%. Very true. They have fallen significantly over the last year. Now my question is... how quickly and how high did they first climb? In January 2004 the median home price in Pierce County was $188,000. Prices peaked in July 2007 at $294,000. That is an increase of 36.1% in 3 1/2 years. Whoa! That's insane! In 2004 prices increased 13% from January to December. In 2005 it was another 14% increase, followed by a 6.5% increase in 2006. Our market spun way out of control (for many, many reasons) and what we are experiencing now is a necessary market correction. Is that a bad thing?

Unfortunately, if you bought in 2005-2007 your home is probably not worth what you paid for it. If that's the case, I feel your pain. I bought in Sept 06. I could cry in my beer (or, in my case, white wine), but the thing is, unless you absolutely have to sell right now, just wait it out and the value will go up again. It won't go up as quickly because that perfect storm of market conditions/lending/appraising, etc doesn't exist anymore. I am looking forward to the day, which is coming, when our real estate market is stable and boring again.

FYI- The stats and numbers were sourced through the NWMLS and Trendgraphix.