The American Platform Tennis Association and The Greater Cincinnati Platform Tennis Association are very excited and, pleased to announce that Cincinnati will, for the first time, host the 75^th Annual Men’s and Women’s National Platform Tennis Championships and the Presidents Cup March 5 – 8, 2009.

This event will draw about 176 teams from many areas of the country, with many local teams competing.  Cincinnati has a long standing Platform History, with 14 local venues and over 800 paddle tennis players currently participating in weekly leagues.  The paddle season is between October and February.

Fall is the ideal time for weatherization projects. Use this checklist to create and maintain an energy-efficient home without a lot of impact on your wallet. If you need assistance finding reputable and licensed contractors to help you with your projects, let us know and we will give you recommendations!

Check all insulation levels: Check the amount and condition of all visible insulation. This includes the attic, underfloor, kneewalls, skylight shafts and ductwork. A call to your local utility company will tell you what levels are considered optimum for your area, and if repairs are needed and you don’t want to undertake them yourself, they can also recommend qualified insulation and weatherization contractors.

Check and seal heating ducts: Crawling around in the attic or crawlspace isn’t anyone’s idea of a fun afternoon, but
it’s the only way to examine and repair your heating ducts. Check for gaps between ducts and fittings, and seal them with a quality metallic tape–not regular duct tape, which doesn’t last. Also, check to be sure that all of the ducts are up off the ground and adequately supported.

Check weatherstripping: Closely examine each exterior door and window to see that the weatherstripping is doing its job. There should be no visible gaps, the weatherstripping should be clean and undamaged, and windows and doors should operate smoothly and close completely. If any repairs are necessary, you can find everything you need at your local hardware store or home center, or contact a qualified weatherization contractor or handyman.

Seal exterior penetrations: Weatherstripping is not the only culprit when it comes to air leaks. Spend a day working
your way around the outside of the house with a caulking gun and a couple of tubes of high-quality, flexible caulking, and seal any gaps around window and door trim, plumbing and electrical penetrations, flashings and other openings.

Add outlet gaskets: Shut the power, remove switch and outlet plates, and add precut foam outlet gaskets, which are
available from home centers, hardware stores and other retailers.

Upgrade your thermostat: An older thermostat that’s a couple of degrees off can result in a lot of wasted energy,
and so can forgetting to set the thermostat down at night. You can take care of both of those problems with an upgrade to a programmable thermostat.

Clean and service fireplaces and wood stoves: Make sure that your gas, wood, and pellet-burning fireplaces and stoves are clean and operating correctly. If you’re not sure what to look for or how to do any cleaning or repairs, check with a qualified, licensed fireplace shop or chimney sweep.

Install a carbon monoxide detector: If you have any gas appliances in your home, there is always the possibility of
carbon monoxide poisoning should any of them ever malfunction. This is a very real danger, especially as we close our homes up for the winter. These lifesavers are inexpensive and easy to install.

Check smoke detectors: Check to see that your smoke detectors are operating correctly, install fresh batteries, and
make sure that you have at least one detector on each floor of the house.

–Paul Bianchina, Inman News

For years we have been told to keep an eye on our credit score, commonly called a FICO number. FICO is a score provided by the Fair Isaac Company to the tree credit reporting companies. Fair Isaac charges a premium for this information, and until now has not had a competition.  VantageScore is aiming to become the second provided of credit information, and they have a different rating system. 

The VantageScore ratings look more  like a report card, with scores ranging from 990 - 501. ‘A’ grade scores are 990-901, ‘B’ grade scores are 900-801. The scores continue through ‘F’ grade borrower ratings. The real question is how is this going to impact Cincinnati home buyers.

The reality is that it will depend on the underwriting banks. Switching ratings systems will be expensive for the underwriting banks, and lending officers. If banks begin to switch to VantageScore it may en up costing consumers as they shoulder the price of the change. The only real way to know is when our local Cincinnati mortgage brokers give our buyers their numbers after the changes take place.

Effective December 13, 2008 Fannie Mae will have a new set of mortgage lending guidelines, all in response to the sub prime challenges currently facing the marketplace.  The bottom line is that Cincinnati home owners will need to have more equity in their home, or to put it another way they will need to maintain more of thier own money in thier home vs. the bank’s money. Each of the following changes is a 5% increase over the previous set of guidelines.

• Primary residence, “cash out” refinances are limited to 85% loan-to-value
• Second home, cash out refinances are limited to 75% loan-to-value
• Investment properties cannot be refinanced without a 25% equity position

The changes are designed to lower the exposure to lenders, and to make sure home owners have more of stake in their own homes. We are advising our clients who will be looking for homes to make thier move before the changes take effect. 

The Detroit Free Press wrote an article challenging the norm in residential real estate that in order to sell a home it should be listed in the spring or summer, and if it does not sell it should be pulled off of the market during the fall and winter seasons.

As an agent working in the Cincinnati market, spring and summer bring the highest levels of inventory especially for single family homes with children, but real estate transactions occur all year round.  Fall is still a great time to list a home for sale.

“Buyers don’t have a month when they say they’re going to buy. They buy when they need to buy, and that need happens 12 months out of the year,” said Glen Silvenis of RE/MAX Crossroads in Belleville, Mich.Agents say fall often brings out the more serious lookers who need to find a home right away. Additionally, there may be less competition because many sellers aren’t willing to stick it out through fall and winter. And with slipping home values, sellers run the risk of fetching a lower price for their home if they take it off the market and relist in the spring.

An article in Forbes lists Cincinnati Ohio as the 10th most affordable places to live in the USA with an average mortgage of $1353.00 a month. Although that may be initial good news the underlying reasons should give us all pause. The low cost of homeownership is due, in part, to low construction costs, space for development, and an abundant supply of homes.

At this moment there is an opportunity for home buyers to purchase a home at a very competitive price, and with new industry moving into the Cincinnati area the addition of new jobs from companies such as Meadpace, brining new jobs to the region it is probable that the house inventory will begin to balance and home prices will stabilize moving into 2009.

The cost of buying and maintaining a home is pretty reasonable if you live in certain Midwestern
or Southern cities, according to Forbes magazine's new report. To determine America's least
expensive places to own a home, Forbes used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American
Community Survey, released Tuesday. 

The survey reported the 2007 median monthly housing costs in the country’s metro areas with a
population over 65,000. Housing costs include monthly mortgage payments, real estate taxes,
various insurances, utilities, fuels, mobile home costs and condominium fees.

Here are the top-10 least expensive cities to own a home.

Cleveland: $978 a month
Columbus, Ohio: $1,060 a month
Pittsburgh: $1,187 a month
San Antonio, Texas: $1,216 a month
Indianapolis: $1,232 a month
Nashville: $1,256 a month
New Orleans: $1,296 a month
St. Louis: $1,299 a month
Charlotte, N.C.: $1,336 a month
Cincinnati: $1,353 a month

The article explains that Cincinnati’s monthly home costs are lessened by low demand, low
construction costs and an overall soft market–there are currently 7,460 foreclosures listed
on RealtyTrac.

The National Association of Realtors is supporting this unprecedented government investment in financial institutions and the housing market. The truth is that consumers everywhere already are feeling the impact of the credit crisis. Many buyers can no longer find financing they need to buy a home, contracts are being pulled off the table, and sellers are taking their listings down. Without swift and substantial intervention, all REALTORS and the consumers we serve will soon face a market where:

• Getting a mortgage, small business, or short-term loan becomes extremely difficult, even for good credit consumers and businesses.
• Consumer and business bankruptcies rise significantly, as refinancing options are shut down.
  Lines of credit are reduced and interest rates on personal and business credit cards rise, adding to the burden on families.
• Consumer and business spending declines, further depressing the economy.
  Unemployment increases significantly.
• Budget deficits increases noticeably due to declining revenue collection at all levels of government.

REALTORS know better than anyone else how important housing is to our local and national economies. Like it or not, the housing market can’t rebound until we resolve the problems in the financial markets. Now is the time to act before they move beyond repair.

Despite what you may have heard from the news media, the laws and policies that Congress is considering will directly benefit Main Street, by making financing more available and helping to stabilize home sales and prices. Additionally, the cost of such a plan is likely to be below the figures that have been widely reported. In fact, as our own Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, has explained, there is a very good chance that taxpayers will reap a positive return on this investment over the long term.

For a more detailed explanation of the Economic bailout plan in lay terms please click here.