The media tries to report on the world economy or the national economy, or even the economy in Detroit or LA. This is easy to talk about, statistically driven and apparently important to everyone.

Alas, this has virtually nothing to do with your day, your job and your approach to the market. That's because geography isn't as important as it used to be, but more than that, it has to do with the fact that you don't sell to everyone, and the economy is unevenly distributed.

If the unemployment rate in your industry doesn't match the national numbers, the national numbers don't matter so much.

At the largest Lexus dealer in New Jersey, they're sold out of many models, with a waiting list. In some towns in Missouri, the unemployment rate is twice what it is in your town. In the tech industry, the rate you can charge for developing killer social apps on a tablet is high and going up.

Economics used to be stuck in town. Now, as markets and industries transcend location, useful economic stats describe the state of the people you're working with and selling to.

If your segment is stuck, it might make sense to stick it out. It also might be worth thinking about the cost of moving to a different economy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO3Ydno-Dhs

Edina, Minnesota

The community of Edina, MN is committed to creating positive futures for its youth.   Edina Public Schools has joined forces with the City of Edina, families, businesses, the medical community, the faith community and its residents to build support around youth needs. The joint venture, Connecting With Kids, was formed to connect individuals, families, organizations and other resources in Edina to help raise healthy children and develop a healthy community. It is their vision to be a community where all children have the support they need to grow up to be responsible, healthy and caring adults.

The Edina City Council appoints students to serve terms on all City Boards and Commissions. In most cases, they are invited to participate as full members, including voting rights. Taking a cue from the City Council, several other community organizations, such as Edina Day of Service and Connecting With Kids, invite students to join their Boards or steering committees. Another way the community of Edina collaborates to ensure positive outcomes for young people is through the work of the Edina Community Council (ECC). The ECC is a collaborative board made-up of school board and city council appointees, faith and business leaders, human service providers, hospital representatives and community members. The goals of the ECC include connecting youth to resources and information, helping families support the healthy development and school success of youth, creating working relationships among community organizations and holding schools accountable for ensuring the needs of all students are met.

While the Edina Public School system has a graduation rate of 98 percent, the district closely tracks students who do not graduate on time to ensure that they continue to receive services until they earn their high school diploma. The school district has developed a systemic intervention program to accelerate learning for all students. Edina High School boasts the largest Advanced Placement test program in a five-state area with more than 2,300 tests given this year. Meanwhile, a collaboration of  South View Middle School, Valley View Middle School and Edina High School has created coursework in the area of study skills and mathematics intended to accelerate the learning of all students, so that everyone has the opportunity to take full advantage of the Advanced Placement coursework and testing.

In addition to programs that encourage youth to be involved in helping others, the Edina school district employs a Service Learning Coordinator who incorporates service into the curriculum. As part of Edina school district's strategic plan, each school at every level now has a service learning champion to support high quality service learning experiences. Outcomes of the program have been measured in partnership with the Minnesota Learn and Serve Program. Meanwhile, at the high school level, the Youth Serving Youth program at Edina High School encourages youth leadership, service, and social awareness while allowing students to connect with like-minded peers and put their ideas into action.

Enough with the doom and gloom about homeownership. 

Sure, maybe there’s more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare “Owning a home may no longer make economic sense,” it’s time to say: Enough is enough. This is what “capitulation” looks like. Everyone has given up.

After all, at the peak of the bubble five years ago, Time had a different take. “Home Sweet Home,” declared its cover then, as it celebrated the boom and asked: “Will your house make you rich?”

But it’s not enough just to be contrarian. So here are 10 reasons why it’s good to buy a home.

1. You can get a good deal. Especially if you play hardball. This is a buyer’s market. Most of the other buyers have now vanished, as the tax credits on purchases have just expired. We’re four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern history. And prices have come down a long way– about 30% from their peak, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index, which tracks home prices in 20 big cities. Yes, it’s mixed. New York is only down 20%. Arizona has halved. Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You’ll never catch the bottom. It doesn’t really matter so much in the long haul.

Where is fair value? Fund manager Jeremy Grantham at GMO, who predicted the bust with remarkable accuracy, said two years ago that home prices needed to fall another 17% to reach fair value in relation to household incomes. Case-Shiller since then: Down 18%.

2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30-year loan for around 4.3%. What’s not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. As recently as two years ago they were about 6.3%. That drop slashes your monthly repayment by a fifth. If inflation picks up, you won’t see these mortgage rates again in your lifetime. And if we get deflation, and rates fall further, you can refi.

3. You’ll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes. And you’ll get a tax break on capital gains–if any–when you sell. Sure, you’ll need to do your math. You’ll only get the income tax break if you itemize your deductions, and many people may be better off taking the standard deduction instead. The breaks are more valuable the more you earn, and the bigger your mortgage. But many people will find that these tax breaks mean owning costs them less, often a lot less, thanrenting.

4. It’ll be yours. You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension–zoning permitted–or paint everything bright orange. Few landlords are so indulgent; for renters, these types of changes are often impossible. You’ll feel better about your own place if you own it than if you rent. Many years ago, when I was working for a political campaign in England, I toured a working-class northern town. Mrs. Thatcher had just begun selling off public housing to the tenants. “You can tell the ones that have been bought,” said my local guide. “They’ve painted the front door. It’s the first thing people do when they buy.” It was a small sign that said something big.

5. You’ll get a better home. In many parts of the country it can be really hard to find a good rental. All the best places are sold as condos. Money talks. Once again, this is a case by case issue: In Miami right now there are so many vacant luxury condos that owners will rent them out for a fraction of the cost of owning. But few places are so favored. Generally speaking, if you want the best home in the best neighborhood, you’re better off buying.

6. It offers some inflation protection. No, it’s not perfect. But studies by Professor Karl “Chip” Case (of Case-Shiller), and others, suggest that over the long-term housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year. That’s valuable inflation insurance, especially if you’re young and raising a family and thinking about the next 30 or 40 years. In the recent past, inflation-protected government bonds, or TIPS, offered an easier form of inflation insurance. But yields there have plummeted of late. That also makes homeownership look a little better by contrast.

7. It’s risk capital. No, your home isn’t the stock market and you shouldn’t view it as the way to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real estate prices will head up again, too. One lesson from the last few years is that stocks are incredibly hard for most normal people to own in large quantities–for practical as well as psychological reasons. Equity in a home is another way of linking part of your portfolio to the long-term growth of the economy–if it happens–and still managing to sleep at night.

8. It’s forced savings. If you can rent an apartment for $2,000 month instead of buying one for $2,400 a month, renting may make sense. But will you save that $400 for your future? A lot of people won’t. Most, I dare say. Once again, you have to do your math, but the part of your mortgage payment that goes to principal repayment isn’t a cost. You’re just paying yourself by building equity. As a forced monthly saving, it’s a good discipline.

9. There is a lot to choose from. There is a glut of homes in most of the country. The National Association of Realtors® puts the current inventory at around 4 million homes. That’s below last year’s peak, but well above typical levels, and enough for about a year’s worth of sales. More keep coming onto the market, too, as the banks slowly unload their inventory of unsold properties. That means great choice, as well as great prices.

10. Sooner or later, the market will clear. Demand and supply will meet. The population is forecast to grow by more than 100 million people over the next 40 years. That means maybe 40 million new households looking for homes. Meanwhile, this housing glut will work itself out. Many of the homes will be bought. But many more will simply be destroyed–either deliberately, or by inaction. This is already happening. Even two years ago, when I toured the housing slump in western Florida, I saw bankrupt condo developments that were fast becoming derelict. And, finally, a lot of the “glut” simply won’t matter: It’s concentrated in a few areas, like Florida and Nevada. Unless you live there, the glut won’t have any long-term impact on housing supply in your town.

Original Source: Wall Street Journal Online

1) Reliance on the tried and true can backfire. 

2) Sell the problem. No business buys a solution for a problem they don't have. 

3) Every activity worth doing has a learning curve. 

4) As the world gets faster, the glacial changes of years and decades are more important, not less.

5) Cultural shifts create long terms evolutionary changes.

6) Being 1st helps in the short run. Being a little more right pays off in the long run. Last is the worst.

7) Build in virality. 

8) Subscriptions beat one-off sales. 

9) Treat different customers differently. 

10) Generate joy. Don't just satisfy a need for a commodity. 

11) Plan on remarkable experiences, not remarkable ads. 

12) Don't build a fortress of secrets, bet on open. 

13) You can get even more done if you give away credit, relentlessly 

14) Create scarcity but act with abundance. 

15) Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no. 

16) There are lots of good reasons to abandon a project. Having a little competition is not one of them.

17) It's not who can benefit from what you sell. It's about choosing the customers you'd like to have.

18) The customers you fire and those you pay attention to all send signals to the rest of the group.

19) 100 people doing something at the same time has far more power than 300 people doing it over time. 

20) Are you chasing or being chased? Are you leading or following? Are you fleeing or climbing? 

21) Get it right for ten people before you rush around scaling up to a thousand. 

22) Highlighting what's working helps you make that happen more often. 

23) Perfect is overrated. Perfect doesn't scale, either. 

Which is your favorite?  Any that I missed that you have in your secret stash?

http://seekingalpha.com/data/real_estate

http://www.luxuryportfolio.com/blog/Luxury-Home-Design

http://frankdrake.edinarealty.com/pages/home-buying/market-update?ref

 Inman News, Tuesday, June 15, 2010.

For real estate professionals trying to put their best foot forward, the results of a recent survey offer clues on how to make for-sale listings stand out.

In May, online brokerage ZipRealty asked about 1,000 house hunters who registered on its site what their "must-haves" and "deal breakers" were for their future home purchase. While the survey found that house-hunting men and women tend to have different priorities when searching for a home, their preferences do overlap in some ways.

Men and women's top 10 preferences were largely the same with two exceptions: having a view made it onto the men's list (and not the women's list), with 44.5 percent of men saying it was a high priority; and wood floors made it onto the women's list (and not the men's), with 40.9 percent of women ranking them highly. 

More than a quarter, 27 percent, of all respondents ranked a "green," environmentally friendly home a high priority, the brokerage said.      

 See related article:

Understanding the Gen Y gender gap

The home's location on a quiet or busy street is also important, the brokerage said, so if the house is on a quiet cul-de-sac that would appeal to families, mention it. Real estate professionals should highlight all of these must-have features in both the listing description and photos, the brokerage said. 

And sellers should keep in mind not only what homebuyers want, but also what they don't want.

"The three biggest turnoffs when viewing a home in person are structural damage, bad odors, a busy street and an awkward floor plan. While searching online, lack of parking and few or no photos and low square footage are the biggest deal-breakers," the brokerage said.

Based on survey responses, the following are the top 10 most desired home features and the percentage of respondents who ranked the feature as high priority:

1. Garage or parking space: 86.8 percent. 

2. Master suite: 78.9 percent.

3. Ample storage space: 72 percent.

4. Large or walk-in closets: 66.5 percent.

5. Guest bedroom: 66.4 percent.

6. Outdoor entertainment area: 64.3 percent.

7. Gourmet or updated kitchen: 60.6 percent.

8. Breakfast room or eat-in kitchen: 55.8 percent.

9. Large yard: 43.2 percent.

10. Wood floors: 40.8 percent.