Green Real Estate in Idaho

Early Sunday morning, November 2nd while we’re all sleeping snug in our beds, the clocks will roll back an hour in observance of daylight savings.  I realize that most people that do forget to make that preemptive adjustment to their clocks on Saturday night realize their error before Monday morning.  But just in case I here is your posted friendly reminder.  Don’t be the one person that shows up to the office an hour after everyone else.  You know you’ll be hearing about it for the rest of the week!

Closing in 1999 for renovations which several years, the Shore Lodge became the private “Whitetail Club” much to the dismay of the community and regulars of former landmark.  The private club atmosphere and exorbitant room rates, starting at $385, seemed to have a hard time finding its place in the laid back resort town.

Former owner Doug Manchester sold the resort to a local group who appear dedicated to opening the facility back to the public.  A number of changes are in store but the familiar old green and white Shore Lodge sign is back and rate packages start at $99 which go a long way towards making the renovated luxury resort palatable to the masses who make the trek to McCall to enjoy water sports on the Payette Lake and hit the slopes all winter on Brundage Mtn.

With colder weather there are seasonal items that need to be addressed to prevent serious damage to your property. Some of these can be easy to overlook, especially when cold weather sneaks up on us earlier then expected. Somewhere around $100 of prevention could save you thousands of dollars down the road. Frozen pipes, flooding, under performing heating systems and general damages from ice are never something you want to deal with, especially when it’s freezing cold outside. Below are just a few easy to implement suggestions to help get your home ready for the season with a link to even more info.

1) Don’t forget to disconnect your hoses from the spouts around your home. Trapped water can cause serious issues; make sure that any hoses outside are disconnected as soon as possible.

2) Schedule to have your sprinklers blown out. Even when off, your sprinkler lines contain water which can freeze and split sprinkler lines. Any landscaping company will likely blow out the lines with a compressor for less than $30.

3) Clean those gutters! Leaves and dirt collect and clog gutters. Make sure that the gutters and downspouts are clear to control water run off. I just saw a hose attachment at Lowes for $25 to blast the gutters from the ground! Definitely beats climbing up on the roof.

4) Have your HVAC system inspected and cleaned. Be sure that you are replacing your furnace filters at least every 3 months to ensure operating efficiency and promote good indoor air quality. A new filter is white like fresh snowfall, after three months your filter is probably a dark gray (I know mine are). With energy costs on the rise having your furnace running at peak efficiency will save you $$.

You can get more information on good practices for winterizing your home at http://tinyurl.com/2o63ge

As an aside, it snowed here in Boise this afternoon. Apparently winter is just around the corner

Two business days after the bailout became law on Friday and the market continues to be in turmoil.  As I write this, the DOW is down 508 points for the day and is sitting at 9447.  Obviously the markets have not responded as quickly or as positively as everyone had hoped with the news that the federal government was going to step up and purchase many of the bad (or toxic as they now seem to be referred to) mortgages that have overwhelmed the system.  Like the constant national bad press about housing before it, the constant “the sky is falling” blow by blow coverage continues to elicit at best an unease and at worst near panic from the public.  The 24 hour news cycle along with the Internet allow us to scare ourselves day in and day out.

I read recently that the U.S. consumer spending is responsible for approximately 2/3 of our gross domestic product.  This is you, me, our friends, family and everyone else going out to the mall, dinner, vacations, buying houses and cars etc. spending spending spending to make the world go round.  With the flood of information about unemployment on the rise, bank failures/buyouts, Wall Street bailouts, a presidential election looming in less then 30 days & consumer spending has ground to a halt.  I also saw that oil closed yesterday at less then $90 a barrel, $87 as I recall.  Can you imagine the meeting that OPEC must be having to lure us back to the pumps?

What does this mean for us?  Well, firstly everyone needs to pause for a moment, take a deep breath and realize that we will get through this.  The sun will rise tomorrow, our money will still be in the bank, grocery stores will still have food on the shelves.  That we are in an unpleasant economic time is undeniable, but we will come out on the other side and I am a firm believer that this will occur sooner rather then later if we can keep our heads about us.  Not only that, but we need to help others keep as calm as possible.  Boise is still getting good marks in the press, recently making the top 25 most appreciating markets on housingpredictor.com.  We enjoy a fantastic quality of life, affordable cost of living, and while we would all wish for a better performing real estate market we really have been spared from the worst of it.  Having missed out on the hyper-inflation of many neighboring, larger markets we now have a smaller percentage of short sale and REO’s to deal with and property values have not fallen nearly as far or as fast as they have in California, Nevada, Florida and others.

While the turn around might not happen today, it will happen.  The market will recover, property values will rise and the economy will stabalize.  It won’t happen as quickly as anyone would like (ie months ago) but if we can hold on, keep calm, and ride it out… we’ll be ready to enjoy the better times that follow.