President YOSEMITE GATEWAY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
I attended the California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.) business meeting this past week in San Jose. Prior to the business meeting, C.A.R. held a conference and expo where they released the housing market forecast for 2010. “California’s housing market continued its strong sales rebound this year, resulting from the continued pace of distressed properties coming to market,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak. “This follows two years of double-digit sales declines in 2006 and 2007. Looking ahead, we expect sales to moderate to a more sustainable pace.” Liptak added that after experiencing its sharpest decline in history, C.A.R. expects the median price to rise modestly next year with 2010 marking the beginning of the ‘new normal’ for California’s housing market. This ‘new normal’ likely will feature a steady stream of sales driven by distressed properties in the low end of the market, coupled with moderate home-price appreciation. The median home price in California will rise 3.3 percent to $280,000 in 2010 compared with a projected median of $271,000 this year, according to the forecast. Sales for 2010 are projected to decrease 2.3 percent to 527,500 units, compared with 540,000 units (projected) in 2009. “Housing in California has become a tale of two markets,” Liptak said. “The low end continues to attract first-time buyers and investors, with a resulting shortage in the number of homes for sale. Sellers at the high end, however, continue to be challenged by the ability of home buyers to secure financing as well as their concerns about where prices are headed. While demand from first-time buyers for low-end properties will continue throughout next year, sales could be impacted if discretionary sellers do not return to the market by the second half of 2010.” This year marked a unique opportunity for first-time home buyers. Liptak said homes were more affordable than they have been in years, interest rates hovered near historic lows, and the federal tax credit helped more than 1 million people become homeowners nationwide. He added, “Now is the time for Congress to extend the federal tax credit and to expand it to all buyers, not just first-timers.” “With distressed properties accounting for nearly one-third of the sales in 2010, inventory will be relatively lean, under 6 months during the off-season months, and a roughly 4-month supply during the peak season,” said C.A.R. Vice President Leslie Appleton-Young. “We expect the median price to decrease slightly through the remainder of 2009 and into next year, then rise before leveling off next summer. For the year as a whole, home prices are forecast to reach $280,000.” “Although it appears at this time that lenders are closely monitoring the flow of distressed properties onto the market, there could be an exertion of downward pressure on home prices should a heavier than expected wave of foreclosures come to market next year,” she said.
Four Bedrooms, two full baths and two half baths, 2650 sq. ft. Home at 57233 Thunder Way (off rd. 274), North Fork, Saturday, May 2, from 11 until 2. EdBaileyRealtor.com 559-676-2424
Did you know that if you are over 62 can now use a reverse mortgage to purchase a home, and make no payments as long as you live in that home? See article by Dee Ann Smith in the Newsletter, "Yosemite Gateway Properties and Lifestyles at www.EdBaileyRealtor.com/news.html
I am amazed when sellers, including traditional sellers and REO (Real Estate Owned) lenders, list their property with someone who is not a member of the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) where the property is located. Why am I amazed?
First, let me explain the term MLS. Essentially, an MLS is a database of properties for sale. This database is powerful; it is the most frequently used tool by REALTORS® to screen and select the properties for their clients to view; hopefully, leading to a purchase. Locally, our MLS is provided through the Yosemite Gateway Association of REALTORS®. Not only does our MLS database show current inventory (properties for sale) and listings in escrow, it also has information from the last three years on properties that have sold or have been cancelled, withdrawn, or expired.
By a wide margin, the best advertising method that leads to the sale of a property is exposure in the local MLS. In fact, a study by the National Association of REALTORS® found that MLS exposure is three times more effective than the next closest advertising method (which happens to be Internet advertising) and that homes listed in an MLS sell for significantly higher prices than those not listed in an MLS. Thus, sellers who have listed their property with a broker or agent who is not a member of the local MLS are missing this local exposure.
Consider this, if property is for sale and not in the local MLS database, then when a REALTOR® searches for property for his or her buyer, that property will most likely not be viewed by that buyer. For example, a listing REALTOR® that is a member of the Yosemite Gateway Association of REALTORS® will place his or her listings in our MLS and may also put them in other MLS systems as part of a marketing plan (provided the other MLS does not make it too onerous to do so). However, if a broker or agent from out of our area takes a listing here and only puts that listing in his or her out-of-area MLS and not the local MLS, it makes it extremely difficult for local REALTORS® or buyers to find that property for sale and get the necessary information to view the property.
In addition, if a buyer comes across information online on a non-local website, tracking it down by a REALTOR® can prove to be very difficult. I have a client that provided me a list of MLS numbers this weekend for homes in our area from three different MLS locations! I'm still trying to get information on one of the properties. In all likelihood, this one property will get few (if any) showings because it is too difficult to obtain information on the property.
Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2009. I hope you will read my online newsletter "Yosemite Gateway Properties and Lifestyles" at www.OakhurstRealEstate.ca/news.html
In my 75 years of life I have seen many changes. As I contemplate recent events I reflect back to my childhood in a southern backwoods community where being racist and sexist was considered to be "God's Will." I have now lived to see an African American elected to the highest office in the land, and the most important political position in the world. I have seen a woman almost win the Presidential nomination of one of our major parties. I have seen both major parties nominate a woman for Vice President. I have seen two women confirmed as Secretary of State - one Jewish American and one African American. I have seen two women serve on the United States Supreme Court. I have seen an African American soldier rise to the rank of full general and go on to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State.
We have now doubled our leadership talent pool by demonstrating tha someone other than white men are able and willing to serve in the highest councils of government.
We Americans have had a right to be proud ever since those brave gentlemen met in Philadelphia and signed the Declaration of Independence. Today, we have even more reason to be proud of our country. We can all stand a little taller and say to the world, "Just take a look at us!"
In my 75 years of life I have seen many changes. As I contemplate recent events I reflect back to my childhood in a southern backwoods community where being racist and sexist was considered to be "God's Will." I have now lived to see an African American elected to the highest office in the land, and the most important political position in the world. I have seen a woman almost win the Presidential nomination of one of our major parties. I have seen both major parties nominate a woman for Vice President. I have seen two women confirmed as Secretary of State - one Jewish American and one African American. I have seen two women serve on the United States Supreme Court. I have seen an African American soldier rise to the rank of full general and go on to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State.
We have now doubled our leadership talent pool by demonstrating tha someone other than white men are able and willing to serve in the highest councils of government.
We Americans have had a right to be proud ever since those brave gentlemen met in Philadelphia and signed the Declaration of Independence. Today, we have even more reason to be proud of our country. We can all stand a little taller and say to the world, "Just take a look at us!"
Sierra Art Trails is almost upon us! The planning committee has held their final meeting before the show, and everything looks very good.
Here is some info that should be of interest. Please take the time to look this over. There is some great stuff here!
PRESS COVERAGE
Press coverage has been excellent, with articles in the Madera Tribune, Mariposa Gazette, Sierra Star, Merced Sun Star, and an excellent feature in this Sunday's Fresno Bee which is already drawing visitors to the Preview Exhibit. You can see much of the press on the WEB by searching "Sierra Art Trails" in quotes using GOOGLE or your favorite search engine to get a feeling for our impact on the world around us.
CATALOG CORRECTIONS
I have attached the addendum for the catalog to this email. It is a one sheet document that includes corrections and changes to the catalog information. Please print a few and have them available at your site for visitors. We are distributing the information with every catalog we sell at Williams and Stellar Galleries, and have posted it on the web site. http://www.sierraarttrails.org/catalog_corrections.htm
EVENT SIGNAGE
Wayne Boring is doing an EXCELLENT job of updating the large signs we place at important intersections is Coarsegold, Oakhurst, Mariposa, North Fork, and YLP. Wayne is taking precious time away from preparation of his own site to insure the signage is correct. Give him a resounding HOORAH! when you get the chance. Please make your own site signs as Bold and Informative as possible to draw in visitors. Signage guidelines are also posted on the web site if you want to review the them.
Thanks to "Outside the Box" brainstorming by artist Charlotte Hoffman, Art Trails is now offering Art Trails items for sale on-line through http://www.zazzle.com/sierraart On Zazzle, you can purchase t-shirts, coffee mugs, magnets, and MORE! ( I bought a coffee cup ). There is also a T-Shirt available with this year's catalog cover art. ( I'm buying one of those too! ) Royalties on sales benefit Sierra Art Trails. Please help us to keep Art Trails going by passing on this link to others! If you refer others through the ZAZZLE web site, discounts are offered to you and your contacts. Please pass it along!
CATALOG SALES
If you have catalogs at your site, please do your best to sell them during the event weekend. We would love to sell out like we did in 2004! If you feel you need to reduce the price. We would prefer to receive 18.00 per catalog, but it is OK to offer visitors 15.00 on Saturday, or 10.00 on Sunday. Remaining catalogs will be sold at Stellar Gallery for 5.00 after the event. Previous years' catalogs ( except 2004...cover by Penny Otwell...which is rare and sold out ) are also available at Stellar Gallery. We will collect funds and remaining catalogs after the show, they can also be dropped off at Stellar Gallery.
ART TRAILS AWARDS
Art Trails presented three awards at the Preview Exhibit Reception. The 2008 "Keeper of the Flame" Award for Excellence in Supporting the Arts was presented to Yosemite Western Artists, and was received by YWA President De Sheldon and her husband Daru. A cash award d for 500.00 was presented to the Mariposa High School Art Department, and a Public Art Fund was established with a 500.00 initial deposit establishing the fund. YOUR participation in Sierra Art Trails makes all this possible! Thank you!
GINNY BURDICK JOINS ART TRAILS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ginny Burdick has supported Sierra Art Trails since the moment the idea for the show was born in 2003. She is an accomplished watercolorist and pastel artist, and an outstanding citizen working as an executive for the Fresno hospital system. We are proud to have her as the newest member of our Board of Directors.
In sending this to my friends, I realize I am sending this to the choir but you may know someone who needs this message. JM ----- Original Message -----
Women's Right to Vote
THIS IS MOVING! HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET... IF WE EVER KNEW.
This is the true story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers. This happened only 91 years ago.
Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.
These were the women that picketed the White House in 1917 because President Woodrow Wilson was staunchly opposed to allowing women to vote.They were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.
And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and with their warden's blessing, went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'
(Lucy Burns) They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.
(Dora Lewis) They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.
(Alice Paul) When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
For more pictures see:http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Recently, there was a sparsely attended screening of HBO's movie 'Iron Jawed Angels. 'It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied Women's History, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'
HBO has released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.' from the article by Connie Schultz writer for the newspaper' The Cleveland Plain Dealer'
If you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. And those of us with daughters and grand-daughters have an obligation to let them know that their right to vote was fought for so hard by these very courageous women!
Whether you vote Democratic, Republican or Independent - remember to vote.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
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