If you like being where the action is, watching the tides and the boats as the come and go, this home may be for you. This is an exceptionally crafted 4 bedroom custom home at the prestigious Ford Plantation, Coastal Georgia, just outside of Savannah.

Please visit my website for full details of this rare one-of-a-kind home. www.OgeecheeGroup.com.

11582 196B ST                        MLS# V807927

2,451 sq ft                                         

Spectacular family home in the heart of Pitt Meadows. Recent renovations include newer roof, laminate in the LR, DR & bedroom. Fresh paint, base moldings, updated bath & light fixtures. LR boasts vaulted ceiling, red stone fireplace, & floor to ceiling windows. Like to entertain? Step out your kitchen door & kick back w/family & friends on your 11x24 covered deck complete w/directional lighting, ceiling fan, gas BBQ, hook-up & outdoor speakers. Bring the inlaws! Downstairs has sep/entrance, 3 pc bath, fridge & wiring for a stove. In addition there is a bdrm, office & large LR. Minutes from Golden Ears Bridge, schools & shopping. Make this home a must see!

FOR ALL PICTURES AND AREA INFO PLUS FULL MOTION VIDEO TOUR GO TO

http://www.thepropertyfinders.ca/view_listing/South_Meadows/mls/V807927

OR CALL DOUG & SEAN NOW!

778-552-9355

Close to Mount Vernon Nazarene University! For a showing call Sibley Poland at 740.397.3145 of the Sam Miller Team at RE/MAX Stars Realty. for a virtual tour visit www.BuyInKnoxCountyOhio.com

When you think of TRUFFLES (the mushroom, not the chocolate) chances are Asheville North Carolina isn't what you think of next.

That's probably because you didn't know that Asheville will again be the setting for the 2nd Annual Truffle Fest, February 25th-27th, 2010 at Asheville's newest hotel in the Biltmore Village area, the Grand Bohemian Hotel.

Truth is, Western North Carolina is one of only a few regions here in the South to grow truffles, specifically the elusive Perigord truffle.  Franklin Garland, President of Garland Truffles, and will be on hand at this year's event to share his expertise and to promote the crop he'd like to see replace tobacco as a viable alternative to tobacco here in North Carolina.  He produced his first harvest in 1992 and had one of the first truffle nurseries on the East Coast, one of the only nurseries in North America.

Lee Tuttle of Brevard in Western North Carolina has also been growing truffles, along with her business partner Charlie Rhodes, at Queen's Produce and Berry Farm in Pisgah Forest.  She planted her frist crop in 2004 and is waiting for their first crop.  (Not bad for a city girl from Cincinnati, who moved to the mountains for the weather 12 years ago!)

While a very profitable crop to cultivate, the problem has been the amount of time it takes to produce their first prizes - (generally five years) their return can be great - as much as $50.00 a pound.

So if you're looking for a life change - and think you'd like to be a Gentleman Farmer, or a Napa Valley Wine Geek or Cork Dork, maybe coming to Asheville NC and learning about truffle farming is the way to go.  And now, while the economy is down, might not be a bad time to start.  Things can only go up from here!

For more information about the 2nd Annual Truffle Fest, click here:

                               http://www.northamericantrufflefest.com/index.html

To know more about Asheville North Carolina, click here:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/1469780/why-seniors-aka-boomers-relocate-top-towns-and-cities

Beverly-Hanks & Associates, Broker/Realtor Associate, 300 Executive Park, Asheville nc 28801

ezebro@beverly-hanks.com, 828-450-5189 "evelyn knows asheville"

Homes for Sale in Novato

This report looks at Homes for Sale in Novato California.  In past months I have divided this report up between properties over and under $750,000.00 to exam the top and bottom of the market.  This month I thought I would look at the FHA purchase limits to come up with a break.  With a minimum 3.5% down payment the purchase cap in Marin County would be $756,217.00 so it is really a moot issue as this is about where we had the break anyway.

Right now there are 143 Homes for Sale in Novato priced from $109,900 to $6,250,000.00.  The average price is $756,386.00 and a median price of $669,000.00.  The average size is 2,272 SF and the median size is 1,925.00.

There are 86 Novato Homes for Sale under $756,217.00 with an average price of $467,592.00 and a median price of $475,000.00.  The average size is 1,627 SF and the median size is 1,523 SF. 

There are 57 Homes for Sale in Novato over $756,217.00 with an average price of $1,214,714.00 and a median price of $949,000.00.  The average size is 3,270 SF and the median size is 3,163 SF.

In January the sold Homes for Sale in Novato was down.  This is probably due to the holidays.  The homes sold in January for the the most part would have gone into escrow in November and December.  In January 39 Homes for Sale in Novato sold with an average price of $552,726.00 and a median price of $425,000.00.  The average size was 1,584 SF and the median size was 1,491 SF.

Looking at Homes for Sale in Novato that sold in January for under $756,217.00 there were 37 with average price of $422,792.00 and a median price of $425,000.00.  The average size was 1,584 SF and the median size was 1,491 SF.  Compared to Novato Homes for Sale over $756,217.00 only 2 sold for $900,000.00 and $1,150,000.00, for an average/median price of $1,025,000.00.  The size of these 2 homes was 3,089 and 4,461 Sf for an average/median of 3,375 SF.

In December Homes for Sale in Novato had moved faster with 58 sales and an average price of $543,566.00 and a median price of $538,000.00.  The average size was 1,974 SF and the median size was 1,859 SF. 

Forty-eight Novato Homes for Sale under $756,217.00 sold in December with an average price of $459,975.00 and a median price of $480,000.00.  The homes had an average size of 1,667 SF with a median size of 1,653 SF. Ten homes over $756,217.00 sold for an average price of $944,800.00 and a median price of $927,500.00.  Of those ten homes the average size was 3,447 SF and a median size of 3,483 SF.

On the surface it appears prices are trending down, but so are the size of the homes sold.  Sales should pick up with spring and when the weather gets better.  Larger homes will be the best buys on the market in the coming year.

Contact me directly for information on Novato Homes for Sale or click here to see the best buy on Homes for Sale in Novato.

Just a reminder, cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketers this month. Ya know, the sales people that call when you have finally kicked off your shoes in the evening and are looking forward to a relaxed evening after a long day- I being a broker am in sales and I understand the need to communicate with potential clients, but i also know sometimes these sales calls are a royal pain in the you know what.  It is bad enough they come through on the home phone, but I really don't want to have to pay for these calls on my cell phone.  Or worse yet, have to try to politely end a conversation with a pushy sales person as I am in the car navigating traffic or writing an offer.

So just thought as I was making sure to get my name off the headhunters list, that I would remind you to remember to call

888-382-1222 to have your number protected.  It only takes a few seconds and can save alot of pain down the road.....

During the blizzard on Saturday, 2 James Madison University students allegedly pelted a city plow and police car with snowballs.

Both Students were arrested by the Harrisonburg, VA police after the plow operator called and reported the assault. When the police arrived, the 2 JMU students then threw snow balls at their unmarked police car.

Both students were arrested and charged with throwing missiles at occupied vehicles - a felony with penalties ranging from between 1 to 5 years and max $2500 fine.

Come May 1, 2011 the real estate landscape in Illinois will experience a big change. The title Salesperson will no longer exist.

I think this isa good thing, but maybe you have another opinion.

      Good:     More education required increasing the professionalism of the industry

                  The agent you work with is more prepared to do the job

                  Increased Continuing Education requirements

                  Agents on both side of the transaction can carry the ball. Now ball gets dropped occasionally.

        Bad:    Every licensee has the ability of running their own independent office. A State of Illinois IDFPR   

                  Dept. nightmare. 

Contact me if you need to enroll in some classes in the northwest suburbs.

David A. Spencer

Licensed Instructor

da-spencer@att.net

The commercial real estate dilemma

Here is an article I came across and thought was interesting, something I have been saying for a while, commercial was the next to feel the recession. I have been seeing commercial deal after commercial deal prices get lower and lower and seen vacancies last longer and longer. I was just teaching a short sale seminar last month in West Palm and saw more vacancies than I could count in downtown West Palm. Where I'm located in Maryland prices have just started to trickle down in values and on lease rates. I think unfortunately we haven't seen the worst of it yet

 By David Ellis, staff writerFebruary 4, 2010: 4:32 AM ETNNN0   (CNNMoney.com) -- Luckily for banks, the commercial real estate time bomb just keeps on ticking.

Industry observers have issued dire warnings for more than a year, suggesting that lenders are on a collision course with potentially billions of dollars worth of commercial real estate losses.

But for all the gloomy talk, the fallout has remained relatively well contained.

Banks have already recognized about $50 billion in losses, or about 60% of the estimated cumulative losses, according to real estate research firm Foresight Analytics.

And despite a steep drop in the price of apartments, office buildings and industrial properties nationwide over the past year, there have been recent indicators to suggest that the market may have finally hit bottom.

After 13 months of consecutive declines, overall commercial property values climbed 1%, according to the most recent monthly reading by Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Index.

Even well-respected bankers have offered a glass half-full outlook on the state of the commercial real estate market.

"Commercial real estate is a train wreck, but it's already happened," JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said during a company-sponsored conference last month.

But some commercial real estate industry experts have been quick to caution that the problems aren't over yet.

High-profile purchases that were made at the height of the real estate bubble have started to implode left and right. Last month, owners of New York City's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper apartment complexes went into default.

Farther south, lenders that helped finance the Four Seasons Resort and Club just outside of Dallas are moving ever closer to foreclosing on the swanky 400-acre property.

And with the nation's unemployment rate still hovering at 10% and consumer spending still at sickly levels, it stands to reason that borrowers that deal in retail stores and office buildings will feel even more squeezed before long.

"Businesses just aren't taking office space and consumers aren't buying things at retail stores," said Mark Riedy, the executive director for the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at the University of San Diego.

That's a deadly prospect for the thousands of community and regional banks nationwide that hold roughly $860 billion in commercial mortgages and construction and development loans.

Georgia's Synovus Financial (SNV), Zions Bancorp (ZION) of Utah and Buffalo, N.Y.-based M&T Bank (MTB) are just a few banks whose loan portfolios are highly concentrated in commercial real estate, according to credit rating agency Standard & Poor's.

But trying to gauge the scope of those problems has proven difficult as banks have been slow to recognize losses on many of those loans.

That's because many lenders have not seen the need to foreclose on a borrower that is still current on their payments even if they are upside down on their loan, or owing more than their property is worth, experts said.

Why more banks will fail in 2010

At the encouragement of industry regulators, banks have extended the terms of many of their commercial real estate loans, hoping that property values or occupancy levels will improve before long.

"There is an element of 'extend and pretend' going on," said Tanya Azarchs, credit analyst and managing director for Standard & Poor's. "It is in their [banks'] interest to do that."

Unfortunately, the consensus is that neither prices nor occupancy rates will improve anytime soon.

Estimates published last November by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers suggest that commercial real estate vacancies will continue to increase in 2010, while prices could tumble further during the year. Prices could fall as low as half their peak levels from 2007.

If that happens, that would only darken borrowers' hopes that banks will refinance their outstanding loans. And some $1.4 trillion is commercial real estate debt is expected to come due over the next three years.

Matt Anderson, partner at Foresight Analytics, said that can mean only one thing for banks: more losses.

"When you combine that with [property] value declines, you have a big problem," he said.