A Day in the Life: Who is Minnesota? Look online at some blogs to find out.

It is an honor to be included in the article. I know a few of the other blogs and bloggers, and look forward to reading the rest.  There are many local bogs of local interest on a wide range of subjects.  Read the article and check out the local blogs.  They are listed in the order that blog posts were published around the local bloggoshere on October 28, 2009

by Erik Hare

One of the fun things about living in a well forested city like Saint Paul is the urban wildlife that lives around us.  No, I don’t mean the creatures that frequent the bars and Wild games, although they can be fun, too.  What’s fun are the creatures that live among us, often right outside our windows.

Irvine Park is right next to Downtown, but we have our share of small animals that we share it with.  Every once in a while a fox or a deer wanders through, and falcons and merlins patrol the air.  The raccoons tend to stay in the storm sewers until late at night, their masked faces peering out when we least expect them to.  But in a neighborhood marked by many hundred year old oak trees, we have acorns all over – and a lot of squirrels to scamper around gathering them for the winter.

This is the season to watch the tree rats do their thing, and since they aren’t all that afraid of people the kids get a pretty close view of their squirrelly lives.  They’ve had their ups and downs over the years ilke all of us, but moreso. 

A few years ago, the neighborhood supported a squirrel population so large that there were little gray rodents in just about every attic and tree.  But something happened to them in 2006 shot through the population like a fierce storm.  It seems that it was a sickness, or perhaps it was a really bad winter for squirrels, but whatever it was left the squirrel population of Irvine Park almost completely destroyed.   There was a spring without any signs of movement out in the trees and through the lawns of the park, without the warmth without the energy of the little guys that came out to tell us that it was safe to head out and enjoy life again.

It didn’t last long.  A new batch of squirrels moved in, possibly from Rice Park via the Science Museum.  They were smaller and a bit friendlier, but what mattered most was that they were very healthy.  What we all noticed is that they had a tendency to turn out a few pure black squirrels that stood out in a way that we could follow one little bundle of bounding energy, as if it was our own pet.  One of them, a particularly little guy with sleek black fur, has spent his entire squirrelly life in our yard growing up and getting on with  his seriously silliness.  He’s easy to spot, as shown in the picture here.

We named him “Pinky” because when he first came out of the nest he didn’t seem to be all that bright, coming right up to us as if humans were no threat at all. Apparently, this happens a lot when squirrels first go out on their own, but our little guy eventually figured things out.  We’ve watched him grow up and now become rather round on acorns in preparation for Winter.  He also loves the crabapples but only eats a little pumpkin from Halloween, and seems to have made a nest in the Catalpa tree in back. 

Pinky may not think of himself as our pet, but we keep an eye on him.  In the mornings we often see him bounding through the backyard, always looking happy to be up and greeting another squirrelly day.  It’s an inspiration to see the little thing that once thought we were his friends look so energetic and happy.  A bit of wildlife makes the urban forest come alive and helps us to feel awake every day, and nothing does this as reliably as our little black squirrel.  We’ll have to see how he makes it through the Winter.

Of course, we have no idea if he’s really a “he” or not.  We may find that out next spring.

People like to look at them.  Unless you have a job like mine chances are you don't see the interiors of a wide variety of homes on a regular basis.   This is where I could go on a tirade about the really crummy photographs in our MLS but I won't bother if you are looking for a home you have seen plenty of them.  Now I am noticing that some of the photos are taken with cell phone camera's. That helps my business and my sellers so from my point of view it is a good thing.

After about a week I will check on that post and see how many times it was viewed and how often someone clicked on the photos. I am kind of a geek and I track all sorts of numbers.  I am not afraid to experiment either so that I can learn from people who read this blog.  For today I have an exterior shot. They have the Alexander Ramsey house all decked out for the holidays and it made for a photo op.  There are some holiday events at the Ramsey house too. 

You won't find holiday light in these decorations, they keep it traditional.  The tree inside is traditional too but I don't think they light the candles on it often.

I have already received some emails from clients and other wanting to know if the tax credit will have a positive effect on the housing market. I think it will at least for a short time. Sadly many of the folks who come to me who want to sell their home have not lived in it or even owned it for five years so they will not be able to take advantage of the tax credit.  The people who may be interested in buying the homes that I have on the market right now may be eligible for one of these tax credits and that should help. 

It won't rain this weekend so it might be a good time to go to some open houses.  Some have suggested that it might be a good weekend for yard work.  I like the yard part of that idea but not the work part so much.

If you know me at all in other online gathering places like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare—and I trust that you don't, so I'll continue—you'd have seen me bouncity bouncing around the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, this week doing things for fun and things for work and fun things with people I know through work.

I was obnoxious about keeping people posted about my whereabouts, but one point of the exercise was to stay connected with my sphere in Minneapolis and Saint Paul in small, hopefully unobtrusive, bursts. It was awesome for keeping in touch with the wife. I would check in at a restaurant or announce a meeting or just post a pic and she was able to stay near at heart.

The other point of the exercise was to serve as an ambassador for my homeland. I was in Indiana for things involving a largely Indiana-based crowd, with some coming in from Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and one wayward soul from New Jersey. It was cool to be "that guy from Minnesota" for a few days, especially in this new era of instant communication. I met lots of good people in Indy, and I made some friends that I'm pretty sure will stick.

Those good people of Indiana might decide to follow my Twitter feed or check out the things I'm up to on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn or even find this blog post (especially when I repost it on Twitter).

And then they'll see me—at this very moment—encourage them to explore this blog and to learn from how we talk to our local audience and to look at Teresa's collection of photos. And then maybe they'll think to themselves that they'd love to see the places where these photos were taken and they will come here and benefit our businesses. And then they'll fall in love with here, and they will become "enthusiastic newcomers" who buy our homes and shop in our stores and eat in our restaurants and drink our beers.

Okay, no, I don't want them drinking the beers. Those beers are not "our" beers. Those beers are mine.

Speaking of beers, my first night in Indianapolis led me out to an Indianapolis Colts-themed bar with other real estate folks. The bartender was nice enough to switch places with me, and this is the photo he took:

Thanks, Indianapolis. You made this Saint Paul boy feel special. Come on up here sometime, and I'll give you one of my beers to drink. Maybe.

The tax incentive may also be modified to include current home owners who will receive a $6500  tax credit of they have lived in their current home at least 5 out of the last 8 years. There are income limits and well when if it gets passed we will have to read the fine print.

The tax credit did give home sales a boost for a couple of months but I don't think we can create first time home buyers with a tax credit. I think the people who took advantage of it were people who were ready to buy homes this year or maybe next year, or possibly the year after. We just helped them buy sooner rather than later.

Extending and adding to the  tax incentive would give home sales a boost.  lower home prices and great interest rates are also an incentive but apparently not enough of one.

The high unemployment rate is eliminating some of the move up buyers from the already small pool of move up buyers. Many of them moved up already during the recent housing boom. They bought starter homes and then three to five years later sold them for a profit and bought bigger houses.  People with out jobs don't buy homes, they sometimes go into foreclosure. Having a job is a huge incentive to spend money because people with jobs have money to spend.  Jobs also give people an incentive to get out of bed each morning.

It will be interesting to see if people will be able to take advantage of an extended and expanded tax incentive, if there is one.  I will predict that it won't have much of an impact on the local housing market and when it runs out things will pretty much be the same as they are now. Sluggish home sales with little or no appreciation in home values for the next several years. 

The people that did buy houses this year helped the economy. I know that I have work because of it and so do the title companies, inspectors, photographers and all of the support services we use in the real estate industry. I guess that is a good thing.

Most St. Paulites can not identify this chapel. It is on the grounds of Oakland Cemetery.  The cemetery was started in 1853. This chapel is a replacement of the original and was built in 1924.  It isn't the oldest or biggest church in St. Paul by a long shot but it is beautiful especially in the fall.  For the photographers out there I have to say Oakland is a great place for photography. There are huge oak trees everywhere and some wonderful tombstones and vaults.