In a recent release the Seven Hills Sinfonietta will be playing their summer concert at Walnut Hills High School Sunday June 1st at 2:00 pm. The concert will feature Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture and Beethoven’s complete Symphony No. 4. In addition, the concert will feature special guest Jennifer Higgins Wheatley performing the Elgar Cello Concerto.

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As always, concert admission is free to the general public. The Seven Hills Sinfonietta was founded in 1974 as the Strings Plus Chamber Music Society. Currently comprised of nearly 50 dedicated, skilled musicians living in the greater Cincinnati area, the Seven Hills Sinfonietta is the area’s only community chamber orchestra.

The city of Mason is seeing what seems to be a recovery in their housing market. In Real Estate everything is local and we are hopeful that this suburb is an indicator of things to come for the spring and summer housing market. Within the school district more single family and condo listings are coming on the market. Even more encouraging is that pending sales have increased as well. A second factor to be positive about is the sale price of the homes is on the rise.

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Data from Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service

By far the best explanation I’ve heard of the Housing Mortage/Credit Crisis is — improbably — a podcast from the motherlode of story-telling on NPR, This American Life. This podcast is a bit different from their usual slice-o-life stories in that they try to explain something extremely complex and abstract — through personal stories.

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The episode is called The Giant Pool of Money and it’s worth at least an hour of your time on your next commute. Hearing the agents all along the “chain” of events describe what they thinking in their own words is about 100 times better than reading about it.

According to Cincinnati.com, on the week of May 19, 2008, Southwest Ohio can expect about 5 billion cicadas to emerge from the ground. A majority of the cicadas will be found south of I-275 and west of I-71.

Treenotes reports that the cicadas have been underground, sucking sap from tree roots for the last 17 years, and they will be emerging to mate, not feed. However, female cicadas will cut slits in small branches and lay eggs in the wounds. This will often cause the end of the branch to die. On a large, healthy tree, the damage won’t be life threatening, but it could injure a small tree seriously. So be sure to cover young tree branches and leaves with cheese cloth which can be found at any hardware store, nursery, or home improvement store to protect them from damage.

Cicadas aren’t poisonous. However, keep an eye on any person or animal (small children, cats, dogs, etc.) that might be tempted to gorge themselves on the bugs so that they don’t choke or eat so many they become sick. Cicadas may fly into or land on you, but they do not sting or bite. If you hold one for a long time and it decides you are a tree, it may try to feed on you.

The adult cicadas should all die off by mid-June. Then in about a month, the eggs they’ve laid (about 400 for each female) in tree branches will hatch, and their offspring will fall to the ground, where they’ll dig in for the next 17 year cycle in 2021.

CNN Money posted a report on the projected home value changes over the next 18 months. The news for all of Ohio is about the same; CNN Money thinks we will lose about 5% of our home value across the state in 2008 and that the market will stabilize with less than 1% value loss in 2009.

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What this mean to the average house hunter is that if you are looking to move up market, this is the time to do it! The numbers support this idea and here is an example:

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You are moving from your $150,000 house to a $250,000 house. That is a $100,000 jump. If you sell for 5% less ($142,500) and buy for 5% less ($237,500) you have a $95,000 jump. With the same houses, you will have a $5,000 savings by moving up in a down market. Further savings come into play when property taxes are assessed at the 5% lower price.

Recently at the National Relocation Conference in San Francisco Cincinnati was named the 10th best city for relocation. The study compiled a number of factors important to relocating families for large, medium and small markets. Some of the factors included housing costs, commuting ease and access to educational and medical facilities.

Of significant note was that 30% of the top 10 cities were Midwestern. Indianapolis, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Real estate costs, and access to good public education may have been a significant contributors, considering the relative stability of the housing markets in all three cities.  A bit further down the list Cleveland was ranked #12 adding to the overall assertion that the Midwest is a desirable place to relocate to. To learn more about Relocation and the ERC  just follow the link.

CNN Money published a study today on the future value of homes all over the nation. After looking through the home value tool, the outlook for Cincinnati is fairly similar to that of Ohio.  The state will see about a 5% drop in home values over the course of 2008 with the depreciation slowing to a less than 1% fall in 2009.

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What this means to the average home buyer is that if you are looking to move up market, it is time to take a look and make a move. Moving upmarket in a housing slowdown is a financially rewarding thing if you are in a position to take advantage of the value changes.

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If you are moving from a $150,000 home to a $250,000 that is a $100,000 jump. If both homes sell for 5% less due to the market you are moving from a $142,500 home to a $237,500 home in a $95,000 jump. Same homes in question. $5,000 savings. Moreover the new house property tax will be assessed at the 5%  lower sale price.

Forbes Magazine published a study that shows Cincinnati has the 9th best commute in the nation. The survey looked a number of factors including traffic delays, average commute time, and public transit / carpool use.

The Queen City’s public transportation system services a very small percentage of the population. Those who use it are traveling mostly by bus, within the city, and not to and from the suburbs. Traffic isn’t quite fluid, but at 27 hours in annual delays per traveler, it’s still better than average for cities of its size. As gas gets more expensive and economic woes in Ohio continue, expect to see more carpooling long before an expansive train system is needed. Right now, only 9% of commuters carpool, one of the lowest rates in the country.

There are ways that we can make our commutes more efficient, and one trend that seems to be emerging is moving back into the city. The cost of the commute from the exurbs is beginning to add up and there are some attractive living options in closer-in neighborhoods. There are a few other factors pointing to this trend and we will look at one more later this week.

Experienced home inspector Wayne Jones provides the following information so that you can properly care for your foundation in the upcoming summer months.

It’s not too early to create a support plan for your house foundation. Remember how dry it was last summer? Foundations and footers cracked and failed because of dry clay soil conditions. Watering your basement foundation (keeping the soil damp) is a good way to help reduce foundation/footer movement during dry conditions. Foundations with shallow footers, such as garages and crawl spaces can settle and crack first. Placing a soaker hose about a foot or so away from the foundation and letting the water trickle for several hours helps keep the soil damp. Remember, if you wait too long, it may take almost a day of watering for the moisture to reach down deep to the basement wall footer. Be aware that normal foundation wall cracks can seep or leak if the water is applied too fast or too close to the walls.