Door County Real Estate Information

This is an interesting article on paint colors. 

http://marketreadyrealestate.com/psychology-color-mean/

As you explore Door County you will undoubtedly travel paths into the world of secluded beaches and little-traveled country roads.  The County's natural beauty will compel you to hike, stroll, pedal, ski and paddle to experience Door County at its natural best, and for most this begins a dream of owning a home or land in Door County--a place to relax, have fun and create memories and traditions. 

The Door Peninsula is a fragile place--a delicate balance of land, lake, and of course rock, that commands our special attention and protection. 

Door County leads all other American counties in shoreline frontage with almost 250 miles of coast surrounded by the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan.  If you love the water, Door County is the place for you!

For more installments of Explore Door County--important and interesting facts and tidbits you need to know, please "Like" us on Facebook at:
 

http://www.facebook.com/DoorCountyBucketList 

I am finding more buyers that request Radon testing when they purchase homes in Door County.  Radon gas comes from the natural (radioactive) breakdown of uranium in the soil, rock and water. Radon gas seeps into buildings, especially into basements and ground-level rooms, and cannot be detected by sight or by smell. Radon is in the air we breathe and in our homes, our offices and our schools. Once it is indoors, radon can accumulate. People are at higher risk to exposure during winter, when they tend to stay indoors.

Radon finds its way into homes through basement floor cracks, sump pits, and one mediation specialist told me even bathroom fans and clothes dryers.  The age of the house does not automatically determine safety.  Older homes that are not as air-tight as newer ones might have a  level of radon gas is lower. On the other hand, contractors are able to build new homes with radon-resistant features. The EPA estimates one in every six new homes is built radon-resistant now.

Radon is a form of radiation and a proven carcinogen. Based on scientific studies, it is second only to smoking as a cause of lung cancer in the U.S.  The Wisconsin Department of Health website shows that 42% of residences in Door County have a radon levels of 4pCi/L or above.  pCI/L = pico Curies per liter.

The EPA reports the average American home has a radon rating of 1.3. It advises homeowners with a rating of 4 or more to fix (“mitigate”) their homes. 

The only way to know the radon concentration of a building is to test it.  What if you find a high radon level?  Reducing the radon in a home is called mitigation. A contractor creates a vent for the gas by installing a pipe from the foundation to the roof. For safety’s sake, it is important to hire a contractor who is state-certified in mitigation.  If a property shows a radon level above teh "safe" zone and needs to be mitigated, the average cost ranges from $750 to $1200.

For legal matters such as property sales, it is best to hire a radon-testing professional who is certified by the state.  For personal use you can get a kit at the hardware store for about $12, or order one online at Radon.com.  For answers to frequently asked questions visit RadonFAQ.

For certified testers or mediators serving Door County, email me or give me a call at 920-868-3425.  I do not want you to be unduly alarmed by this information; please accept it as information I thought important to pass along to you as you consider a purchase or sale of property, or your personal health and safety.  Just as we use water purification systems to avoid unhealthy levels of Lead or Nitrates in our water, just as we use precautionary measures to avoid mold growing in basements or crawl spaces, so we can control radon levels in our home easily and most often at not great expense. 

I remember mortgage interest rates of 13% in the early 1980’s, and I remember rates at 4.75% in about 1986.  Since that time, I’ve seen fluctuations in home prices, lending practices, mortgage rates and so much more!  I don’t remember ever seeing the stars lined up so perfectly for qualified Door County buyers.  If you are interested in financing a home in Door County, now is the time. 

30 year fixed rate mortgages, as of yesterday, are at 3.85%, and 15 year fixed rate mortgages are at 3.1%.

These rates allow more buying power for clients interested in a Door County home. 

In this winter market, offering prices are down a bit more in Door County than they are in the spring because it is perceived there is less activity, less competition among buyers, at this time of year.

My point is, this is opportunity time.  Smart buyers are actively looking for homes, making offers and closing.  I would not mislead you into thinking you can buy ANY house at ANY price because that’s just not the case; deals go together because the seller feels they won and the buyer feels they won--if a seller is realistic about price and motivated to sell the house that YOU happen to like, then you will get that house at a better price now than you  may in the spring when there are more buyers competing for the best houses.

A house is not just a financial investment.  It’s your home, a lifestyle investment for your family—neighborhoods, schools, and a place you make memories.  So, if you find that now is the right time for you, let’s sit down and talk about your needs and wishes and start looking for your new home.

No matter where you are tomorrow morning you can watch the first meteor shower of 2012 between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.  I know, that seems a bit early to get up to look at the sky, but this first shower is likely to produce over a 100 falling stars.  My best intention is to get up and watch.  I'll let you know how that goes!

I have a new Door County Facebook page, Door County Bucket List.  At Door County Bucket List I will be posting things to do around the county, some video clips I will shoot about favorite places to shop and things to do, and from time to time a real estate update.  Will you please visit http://www.facebook.com/DoorCountyBucketList and click the "Like" button? Thank you, I appreciate it so very much. Lisa

Thank you for the wonderful memories, support and confidence you have shown me in 2011.  May 2012 open doors for you of new and exciting opportunities, fill your heart with joy and bring you beautiful experiences.  Here's wishing you happiness, health and lots of prosperity in the New Year.

My grandmother used to say, “Best to let sleeping dogs lie”.  That may be true in some cases, but maybe not when it comes to home ownership.  The market has never been so generous for buyers in terms of mortgage interest rates, selection of homes, and seller motivation.  But in this economy, does it make sense? 

A paper titled, “Lessons from over 30 years of Buy vs. Rent decisions”, by Eli Beracha of East Caroline University and Ken Johnson of Florida International University set out to find which makes better financial sense:  to rent or own.  There are definite social benefits to owning a home.  It is the American Dream, home ownership is credited with enhancing wealth, increasing civic pride, improving self esteem, preventing crime, better child development, and better educational outcomes. 

Some believe that, “after setting the holding period to the average American’s stay in a residence, renting (not purchasing), on average those individuals were better off in economic terms to have rented for most of the years of the study”.  For those renters to be better off would depend on them being fiscally disciplined and consistently month-in and month-out always reinvested any residual savings from renting.  The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that people do not actually reinvest savings successfully. 

After much research, both of the professors came to the same conclusion:  NOW is the best time to buy.  That finding may seem to contradict given the crash in the housing market the last couple of years; however rent-to-price ratios seem to be in place along with other fundamental driving that would favor homeownership over renting. 

NAR Real Estate predictions for 2012 

NAR Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, reported that the housing market is slowly recovering with a predicted 4% increase in sales for 2012. Celia Chen of Moody’s Analytics projects that  sales should increase over 20% in 2012. Will there be an additional loss of consumer confidence?  The next six months will be key in knowing if that prediction holds water.  A study by the University of Michigan studies consumer confidence indicates that consumer confidence has seen some modest improvement in the last few months after taking a dip over the previous months. Another dip in consumer confidence could have an impact on the expected real estate rebound. 

If prices, as predicted, continue to decrease through the first two quarters in 2012 we could see  more homeowners forced into a position of negative equity. In a domino effect, being underwater is one of the reasons  people strategically default on their mortgage payments and if that continues, there will be an increase in the number of foreclosures, thereby causing another setback in consumer confidence.  .

It may seem redundant to  trot out the topic of  fire safety tips before the holiday season, but if there is one statistic that bears repeating, it is this: Even with adequate smoke alarms, a house fire today can become uncontrollable in less than three minutes.  In 1975 that time frame, for a fire to become uncontrollable was 17 minutes. 

According to a report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology  the drop is not just type of house you live in, but what you put inside.  It is no longer  how old the home is, it’s the furnishings,” Jack Watts, Director of the Fire Safety Institute, told AOL Real Estate.

The worst culprit in home fires is upholstered furniture, because it often contains highly flammable polyurethane foam, says a spokesperson for the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM).  The spokesperson further commented that these all-too-common materials provide the fuel for what fire experts call the flashover — the point at which everything in the room simultaneously bursts into flames. With many of today’s homes built with open floor plans and modern building materials like wallboard that can lead to faster fires.

These statistics were first made available in 1977 and  there were 750,000 residential fires, according to the National Fire Protection Association. In 2010, there were roughly half that many, thanks in large part to widespread use of smoke detectors. But, less encouraging was the incredible speed with which home fires can spread, so in today’s homes that represents a major step backward in fire safety.

The next step in home fire safety, a spokesperson for the NASFM said, is to require fire sprinklers in new residential properties. Home builders claim a high cost of installation. The Wichita Eagle reports the national average cost to install sprinklers is $1.60 per square foot of living space.  In a 2,000-square-foot home, that comes out to about $3,200.

Another barrier is public opinion. As Yahoo! reported last year, when given the choice between granite countertops and fire sprinklers, respondents overwhelmingly chose the countertops, that’s according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Worse still, there are only voluntary flammability regulations for upholstered furniture. The NASFM spokesperson said that implementing a nationwide standard would go a long way in protecting consumers from purchasing dangerously flammable furnishings.

Regardless of what state legislators decide, though, it all comes down to vigilance on the part of the homeowner.  So if you are using a live Christmas tree this season, make sure to water it regularily (don’t forget as I always do!), keep an eye on any decorative lighting,  and keep candles away from the tree and any other natural greens in the house.  Make sure your house is equipped with working smoke and carbon monoxide detectos, which may just be on my Christmas gift giving list after watching this Christmas tree “flashover”.

Sometimes we Door County "locals" refer good-naturedly to our visitors from the south (from Illinois) as "turkeys".  I don't know how the reference came about or when, but I hear it every summer from someone.  Click on the link below to see some turkeys...Door County Style!

Turkeys on Display  This Len Villano Photography site is a fabulous spot to go when you long for a bit of Door County but can't get here!