Skip to main content

AUGUST - REAL ESTATE NEWS: More Homes, Better Prices: A Buyer’s Summer

If you’ve thought about buying a home in the past few years, you may have run into two frustrations: asking prices that kept climbing and too few homes to choose from. In many places, both sticking points are letting up this summer, with lower asking prices and more homes for sale. Let’s look at the trends, and what they mean for your search. Sellers Are Pricing To Attract Buyers According to Realtor.com , the national median asking price was $430,000 in June, nearly $11,000 under what it was the year before (see graph below) : That’s the eighth month in a row that the typical asking price has dipped below where they were the previous year, according to the same Realtor.com report. And while falling prices can sound worrying, this isn’t a sign of an impending crash. We’re talking about asking prices, not sold prices. This is a sign that today’s sellers are meeting the market where it is and pricing to draw buyers. And that’s actually something normal we’d expect from the market. As...

February: Lawn and Gardening Tips

Grow Now: Roses
Add roses to your garden this month. consider disease-resistant shrub types such as the edtior's favorite, 'Carefree Beauty' (3 to 5 feet, pink); 'Knock Out' (4-6 feet, red); 'Cramoisi Superieur' (4 to 6 feet, red); amd 'The Fairy' (2 to 3 feet. pink). Plant them en masse for best results. Climbing roses such as 'New Dawn (pale pink), 'CI. Cecile Brunner' (pink), and 'Reve d'Or' (beige-yellow) need the support of a large trellis or arbor to best show off their blooms. A sunny location ensures the best blooms.

Fruit Plants
Purchase now for best selection. Try Southern favorites such as blackberries. ‘Kiowa’ is a large-fruiting selection with thorny stems. Thornless types such as ‘Arapaho’ and ‘Apache’ offer large fruit on upright plants. Other fruits include blueberries, figs, pears, muscadines, Oriental persimmons, and apples. All prefer full sun and well-drained soil.

Soil Prep
The mild days of winter are an ideal time for improving your soil. Work the ground when it is dry, using a garden fork to loosen the soil. Add organic matter, such as chopped leaves’ composted manure, or mushroom compost to improve fertility and drainage.

Forcing Branches 
Quince, forsythia, cherries, winter honeysuckle, and deciduous magnolias will bloom indoors with a little help. Choose stems with flowerbuds that have begun to swell. Cut stems at an angle, and place in a bucket of water. Indoors, recut stems, and place in a container of warm water with a floral preser- vative. Place in a cool spot in indirect light. When you begin to see color in the flowerbuds, move them to a brighter room.

Original Article via Southern Living

Comments