Get the power to see more! Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival (MPMF) announced today that music fans can now reserve a 3-day wristband pass offering the opportunity to see all performances for this year’s festival, September 25–27, 2008.

The $29 wristband pass, available for pre-order at mpmf.com, provides festival attendees access to 17 stages and concerts by all MidPoint bands. To order a wristband pass, click on the “SEE IT ALL” button on the MidPoint homepage. Venue admission is subject to legal capacity.

New Producers. New Features.
Cincinnati alternative newsweekly CityBeat is producing MidPoint Music Festival for the first time in the event’s seven-year history. New this year will be an expansion of venues into Downtown, along with many of the historic-Over-the-Rhine neighborhood locations used in the past. Two groups of stages are equally divided north and south of Central Parkway, making it easy to walk between venues, and festival transportation will also be available.

“MidPoint is dedicated to fostering growth within Over-the-Rhine and Downtown,” said Dan McCabe, executive producer. “All the recent discussion about Cincinnati possibly getting streetcars in the central part of the city led us to think it would be cool to show folks the proposed streetcar route, which conveniently works with these venues. It’ll give them a real taste of the streetcar movement.”

To demonstrate the potential of Cincinnati streetcars, MidPoint sponsor Scion is making 20 xB crossover vehicles available to help festival attendees cruise between the uptown and downtown clubs along the proposed streetcar route. Less walking means more listening.

How well do you know your neighbors? Home buyers often ask about the people that live in the neighborhood. Since that information is subjective, here is a tool that might help you to learn factual information about the criminal history of homeowners in the neighborhood. Click here for a direct link to the site. Every place you see a red balloon or thumb tact is the home of a convicted felon.

Type in your address and your neighborhood map will pop up. Just hover your mouse over an icon and not only will the name come up, but also the crime they were convicted of.

In a tighter market one of the indicators that real estate agents look at is days on market (DOM). The number of days it takes a home to sell once it is put on the market. We pulled 40 zip codes and looked over the average days on market and saw some interesting trends. Not to surprising was that the Oakely / Hyde Park area (45209) led the list with just 92 DOM. The area surrounding Sharonville (45241) had a 101 DOM, and Norwood, 45212 saw an impressively low 104 DOM. Indian Hill had one of the longest aver DOM with 137, tied with Franklin 45005.

Knowing the average DOM for your market is crtical if you are looking to sell your home. You must be patient but more important you need to use this information to properly price you home if you want it to sell faster than average. A good Cincinnati Real Estate agent will be able to give you the details of your area. If you re looking to sell your home, or buy one e-mail me or call 513-518-1140.

A recent report on Realtor.com speaks to the increasing number of ‘pending’ home sales nationwide. A sale is ‘Pending’ when it is under contract and waiting to close. The report shows that the pending sales index In the Midwest rose 1.3 percent in June to 79.6 but is 13.3 percent below a year ago. The index is measured against the volume of ‘Pending Sales’ in 2001.

Nationwide the numbers are on the upswing. In the Midwest, particularly in Cincinnati, a number of factors are contributing to the market improvements. The $7,500 first time home buyer tax credit, the market correction, and proper home pricing are all contributing factors. In addition there are fewer units on the market helping those that are on the market sell faster.

If you were planning to apply for the seller funded downpayment assistance program through  Ameridream, please be advised that this program will soon be coming to an end on October 1, 2008.  There is speculation that this program is being eliminated by Congress because the foreclosure rate by those who participated in this program was higher than other groups.

Per the Ameridream website here is some background information on its Down Payment Assistance Program. Charitable down payment assistance funded in part with seller participation has allowed homeownership to grow without using taxpayer dollars. To date, more than one million families and individuals have utilized this down payment assistance, generating nearly $10 billion in home equity for those families. These working families qualify for FHA insured loans in every respect, but are unable to save the needed down payment. Please visit http://www.supporthomeownership.com to let your voice be heard to Congress to save this program.

The city of Cincinnati’s downpayment assistance programs are not affected by this change.

The email below came to me from a friend who is a regional marketing director for
Dairy Queen.  As you note, in Cincinnati, the proceeds from this event will go to
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

This coming Thursday, August 7th, is Miracle Treat Day at DQ.  All proceeds from
Blizzard sales that day will go to the local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.
We raised over $4MM in 2007 in North America last year, we hope to raise even more
in 2008!  (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will receive the proceeds of any Blizzards purchased in the Queen City).

Visit http://www.MiracleTreatDay.com to find a participating DQ in your community.
You can also pledge to buy a friend or loved one a Blizzard and view videos of
Miracle Children.  

So, grab your spouse, kids, neighbors, friends, parents and co-workers and head to a
participating DQ tomorrow.  Let’s make some miracles happen!

Although it is looking like the Reds will not be contenders in the World Series, you can now take advantage of the fact that the stadium is no longer selling out. You can buy seats for $5 and hot dogs are on sale for only $1 for the next two games against the Milwaukee Brewers. The games are at 7:10 pm on Tuesday and at 12:35 pm on Wednesday. Tickets are available on the Red’s website, by calling (513) 381-REDS, or buy them at the ball park.