If prices continue to fall, why would I want to buy a house now? Answer: Price is not the only thing, as a buyer, you need to be looking at.  You need to take into account the total cost of your purchase.  While house prices are at historical lows, so are interest rates.  If you wait for the bottom of the market or what you perceive to be the bottom of the market, you may miss it and buy as interest rates are rising.  Maybe you saved an extra 2% on that house, but your interest rate is 1-2% higher than you could have gotten now.  That interest rate difference may significantly outpace the extra savings in price in just a couple short years.

When will I begin to see house price appreciation? Answer: In Saint Paul real estate, there are some areas that have been hit harder than others.  Answering that question depends slightly on the makeup of your neighborhood and if the prices were over-inflated over the last couple years.  Most experts do agree, though that we should start seeing a very tiny increase (0.5%) starting in 2011 and increasing each year.  They expect we will see up to a 10% appreciation between now and 2015.

Renting is so each and relatively cheap compared to owning a home, why should I buy now? Answer: Stop the car!  If you are asking yourself that, why are you even in the housing market!  Frankly, buying a home really should have little to do with financial reasons.  Don’t allow money to be your only consideration.  You want a place to raise your children, a place for your family to feels safe and call home, a place that has enough space for your family and leisure, and somewhere you control.  These are the reasons you buy a house instead of renting.

While I am just another voice among the group, the answers to the above questions should help you make your decision to find that home and buy it now.

The main focus of the one hour presentation will be on the actuall truth in housing Disclosure report.  This is used by both home buyer and inspectors to evaluate the work needed to be performed on the home.  She will discuss how the inspector set the ratings that are used on the page 1 of the St. Paul Disclosure report.

She will also discuss how you can access the same information used by the Truth in Housing evaluators in the completion of page 1.  With this information, it should make it easier to own and rehab homes in Saint Paul.

It appears this seminar is for real estate agents only, but if you want to attend, let me know and I can get you a seat.

1. Clean It Up
Before you do anything, clean your house from top to bottom so it looks its best. Wash the carpets, wax the floors, put fresh paint on the walls, and do any other touchups you can to make your home look in top shape. This will make people who are home buying more excited about what your home has to offer. Make sure to think about the front as well because curb appeal can make or break a sale.  Many home buyers have been known to simply drive by a house and never go in if the outside is in less than desirable condition.  This can be difficult in the winter or early spring in Minnesota as we are still cleaning up the outside yard.

2. Price It
You need to pick an appropriate starting price for your home. Look at comparable properties that have recently sold in your area and see what they were going for. Do not pick a price that is too low because you will need to assume that buyers will offer you a lower price than what you ask. You want to have a little room to negotiate, especially if you are competing with the many foreclosures that St. Paul has right now.

3. List It
Get your home in the public eye. Find a real estate agent to work with, or do all you can to get people to look at it. You could schedule an open house for a certain day that you advertise online and in the paper, or you could just use those resources to list features of your Saint Paul home. If you can, put pictures on the ad to let people see what it looks like. This will draw in buyers who may actually be interested in the purchase.

4. Negotiate
You need to stick to your guns during the negotiation. Expect the price to drop a little bit, but do not do a drastic reduction unless you need to sell immediately. If that is the case, you may want to drop the prices on your ads if no one wants to buy the home after a month or so. You do have to be patient about this, but in the end, you should not have to wait too long. Try to be fair in your negotiations, but do not lose a ton of money in the long run. Once you do make the final sale, you can reinvest the money in your next home.

The city will use about $286k in federal stimulus money to purchase about 10 vehicles in 2011 and install charging stations.  Excel Energy and the City of Saint Paul will also each chip in $60k toward the project.  Xcel is helping several other cities, government agencies and businesses purchase the new vehicles as a marketing effort and a way to reduce up to 3.5 tones of carbon emissions per vehicle per year.

In January the city unveiled the project and the first vehicle at an event attended by Mayor Coleman, Mayor RT Rybak and several other public officials.  The kickoff event was hosted by Drive Electric Minnesota, which is a coalition of government, private and non-profit businesses working to facilitate the introduction and acceptance of electric vehicles in Minnesota.

To reduce the fear of running out of electricity while driving the vehicle, Drive Electric Minnesota is working to install up to 30 charging stations around the Twin Cities at strategic locations including parking ramps and on-street locations.  Up to 6 of these stations will be 100% solar powered.  An electric vehicle has a range of about 100 miles on one charge, so unless you forget to plug it in at night, I doubt you would ever need a charging station.  But, there are still those people that run out of gas on the highway cause they think they can make it 1 more mile!

In the first half of this plan, those who are interested in perusing likely proceeding with such loans may get an opportunity to get financing service. However this may be owned either be Fannie or even by Freddie Mac. It means that the price of mortgage property is not likely to be exceeded around one fourth of residual balance. However in the olden times, the refinancing proposals and plans run by government were only limited up to 5 percent. But this new plans has got one important modification which is beneficial as well as it does not permit the owners of the house to own justice and equity on mortgage property. But as far as the risk factor is concerned, it has gone enhanced considerably from government point of view. It has been clearly mentioned in this plan that due balance of the mortgage property must not be greater than 125 % of the current value of that same property in the market.

From second aspect, those peoples can also be benefited from this plans and proposals that are not still independent of these proceedings. This may turn to be beneficial for those peoples who are just looking forward for such proceeding in the near future. This may be advantageous for those types of loans that goes on rising over time and ultimately will reach at that point in the near future that none of the owner will able to repay such loans. However this is also unfavorable from lender point of view as in the coming days, peoples will stop receiving loans due to such high rates. So the only thing that is left for lender is to diminish the rates of interest up to much extent. According to the actual plans, lowering of these interest rates must be done at that point where repaid amount should either be equal or even short to exactly 38 percent an annual income any individual. However this was the earlier plans and suggestions from Fannie Mae which were later on modified by Barack Obama’s government money.

It is anticipated that near about 7-9 millions owners of homes are under this modification plans. This reveals that not all the home owners in US are fed by this modification plans. There are still numbers of peoples who are going through legal proceedings. However this modifications plan has got some limitation regarding its eligibility. Those peoples whose mortgage property’s price is too short and also for those who don’t have sufficient amount of money to make down payment are not suitable for such types of plans.

Much of Saint Paul’s success was led by Mayor Coleman who hired the City’s first sustainability coordinator, energy coordinator, and water quality coordinator.  All key appointments to lead the charge on energy conservation.  Mayor Coleman also directed over $1 million to retrofit City buildings for energy and cost savings.  He was also instrumental in working with Xcel energy to replace a coal-burning energy plan with natural gas, secured a $1 million Department of Energy grant to create solar power at the Rock-Tenn plant, and added several LEED buildings to the area.

Saint Paul has also recieved about $4 million in grants from the Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  About $3 million of that money should create new job opportunities in upgrading the energy use of public and commercial buildings and Saint Paul Homes.

The written exam was held  on Monday, March 8 at the Saint Paul River Center.  It began at 8:30am and ran until 3pm.  About 1800 would-be St. Paul firefighter candidates were in attendance to take the test.  They were all spread out on tables for the 8 hour test session.  The test was an aptitude test that covered a broad range of abilities and personality traits  that have historically been found to be important to the job of being a firefighter.  Some of these abilities or traits include:  problem solving, reasoning, verbal expression, and leadership ability.  The test also looks for  work style preference, attitudes, behaviors, and life experiences that would help the candidate in the role of Saint Paul firefighter.  A candidate must pass the written exam with a score of 75% or more to continue onto the physical performance exam.

Candidates that pass the written exam will be called back and the physical performance exams will be held in May or June of 2010.  This test will consist of climbing stairs under load, dragging a charged hose line, victim rescue, equipment carry, and forcible entry simulation.  The candidate must complete this exam while wearing:  a fire turnout coat, a 20 pound weighted vest, fire gloves, an empty air tank, and a fire helmet. In order to pass the exam, candidates must complete the 5 exercises in a maximum of 7:00 minutes.

Applicants who live in Saint Paul on the application deadline, AND have lived in the City for one year prior to the application deadline, will receive 5 additional points on their final passing score.  Supporting documentation must be provided at the time of the physical performance exam.

• Downtown Saint Paul will experience road closures, street demo and construction starting this spring and continue through 2012.  Streets and sidewalks will be installed, new drainage systems will replace some that have been in the ground since 1900 and new trees will be planted.
• Areas near the Capital and I-94 will have detours and road closures also throughout the project starting in 2011 and continuing until late 2012.  The most prolonged work in any single area announced Wednesday will be along Cedar Street. The work from I-94 to Fifth Street is scheduled from April 2011 to November 2012.
• Parts of the East Bank of the U of M will have upgraded roads and repairs this spring and summer (if agreements can be reached with the U of M over the route and easements).

The Saint Paul part of the project is estimated to cost $231 million.  This 11 mile expansion of the Twin Cities light rail system will cost an estimated $957 million and will take until 2014 to complete.  There will be 14 stations in the Saint Paul section from near Emerald Street on the edge of Saint Paul to the recently renovated Union Depot downtown.

Despite lawsuits from businesses, minority groups and Saint Paul Homes owners, the bids for this section were published last week.  They are due this spring with the award of the contracts expected this summer.  Businesses along University Avenue are upset because many blocks in front of businesses could be closed for days or months, hurting merchants that are already affected by the economy.  The Met Council assured business owners that University will not be torn apart all at once.  Bus operations will continue and no detours are planned through the adjoining neighborhoods.  Additionally, no single stretch of University will be closed for more than 5 months with no section of sidewalk closed for more than 15 days.