Newsletter

"Earth laughs in flowers."
                                                                 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Featured In This Issue

Special Days and Events
Housing Market to Stay on High Plateau
Celebrity Designer Offers Tips for Creating Curb Appeal on a Budget
Cooking Corner

Special Days and Events

May 1 – May Day
May 3 – World Press Freedom Day
May 5 – Cinco de Mayo
May 6 – Astronomy Day
May 8 – World Red Cross Day
May 9 – National Teacher Day
May 10 – National Receptionist Day
May 12 – International Nurses & Midwives Day
May 14 – Mother's Day
May 16 – National Bike to Work Day
May 18 – International Museum Day
May 19 – Malcolm X Day
May 20 – Armed Forces Day
May 25 – National Missing Children's Day
May 29 – Memorial Day

The birth flower for May is the Lily of the Valley. The birth stone for May is the Emerald.

Housing Market to Stay on High Plateau

Home sales should generally level-out and remain at historically high levels, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said mortgage interest rates are trending up but will remain favorable. “Economic growth and job creation are providing a favorable backdrop for the housing market, but rising interest rates have an offsetting effect,” Lereah said. “Home sales will move up and down somewhat over the remainder of the year but stay at a high plateau, meaning this will be the third strongest year on record.” He expects the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to rise to 6.9 percent by the end of the year.

Growth in the U.S. gross domestic product is forecast at 3.7 percent in 2006, while the unemployment rate should average 4.8 percent.

Existing-home sales are projected to drop 6.0 percent to 6.65 million this year from a record 7.08 million in 2005. New-home sales are likely fall 10.9 percent to 1.14 million from the record 1.28 million last year – both sectors would see the third best year following 2005 and 2004. Housing starts are forecast at 2.00 million in 2006, which is 3.2 percent below the 2.07 million in total starts last year.

NAR President Thomas M. Stevens from Vienna, Va., said home prices are expected to cool, but not as much as in earlier projections. “Although housing inventories have been improving, the balance is still a bit more favorable for sellers and annual appreciation remains in double-digit territory,” said Stevens, senior vice president of NRT Inc. “Even so, the market is in a process of normalization – appreciation will return to normal single-digit patterns, providing solid investment returns into the future.”

The national median existing-home price for all housing types is likely to increase 6.4 percent this year to $221,700, while the median new-home price is expected to rise 2.3 percent to $242,700.

Inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index is seen at 3.4 percent in 2006. Inflation-adjusted disposable personal income should grow 3.8 percent this year.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Reprinted from REALTOR® Magazine [April, 2006] with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.

Celebrity Designer Offers Tips for Creating Curb Appeal on a Budget

If improving your home’s curb appeal tops your list of projects to do around the house, take note: creating curb appeal doesn’t have to be extensive or expensive.

For instance, replacing old, worn-out garage doors with something dressier like a carriage-house style door can change the look of a home, almost more than any other improvement to the exterior -- especially one with a front-facing garage. And the project takes less than a day to complete.

Celebrity designer Chayse Dacoda from the hit TLC home improvement series, “While You Were Out” has built her reputation on helping homeowners refresh worn-out spaces. Here are her suggestions for minor cosmetic changes that yield big impact on a home’s exterior appearance on a not-so-extreme budget.

Top Ten Things You Can Do to Add “Curb Appeal”

1. Paint your house! This may be an obvious one, so I have to get it out of the way first. Even so, not enough people do it. Most houses need it anyway. Go crazy, do what you have always wanted. Many tones of the same hue can really add dimension to the house. And remember, decorative moldings on older houses give license to use more than one color. Good prep work, like sanding off worn and chipping areas and priming, can make an exterior paint job last a lot longer and look better.

2. Change out-dated light fixtures -- or add lights if you don't have some already. Light up your doorways and walkways. Better to have more lights at lower wattages than one, very bright one.

3. Add landscaping. Consult your local nursery for plants and shrubs that work best in your area. If you're an urban dweller, don't let cement stop you -- add potted planters. The right landscaping around a property will make all the difference in the world.

4. Replace a worn-out garage door with a new, decorative model. This will have a big impact especially if you have a front-facing garage. Manufacturers offer many designs and decorative accessories so it’s easy to find a door that will complement the architecture of your home.

5. Illuminate your landscape. This will completely change the look of your property at night. Angle low lights to point up at trees and bushes and point down along a pathway for safety. Keep it simple. Use solar lights that charge during the day and you won’t have to run wires.

6. Resurface your driveway. Instead of a tarred or cement driveway, consider installing one with a woven stone and grass pattern. This can do wonders for curb appeal.

7. Add details such as shutters, decorative moldings and fun elements like weathervanes to the outside of your house. Make bland windows come alive and define the architecture of your house with mullions, moldings, decorative eaves, fixed shutters or iron scrollwork.

8. Add a stone walkway or path going to the house instead of grass or a wide berth of cement.

9. Replace a chain-link fence with a wood one. Be unpredictable. Instead of a picket fence - put in one that has slanted multiple-height wood slats - like the kind found commonly in Carmel, Calif.

10. Plant a tree. Nothing will appreciate more in value than what this tree will look like 10 years from now.

Courtesy of ARA Content

Cooking Corner

Strawberry Banana Bread Pudding
Courtesy FoodNetwork.com

Nonstick vegetable cooking spray
15 ounces frozen sweetened sliced strawberries (about 2 cups), thawed and drained, syrup reserved
1 (13.9-ounce) package banana quick bread mix
2 eggs
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/4 cups milk
1 (8-ounce) container mixed berry yogurt
1 cup plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray bottom of an 8 by 4 by 3-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. Stir 1 1/4 cups strawberries, banana bread mix, eggs, oil and milk in a large bowl to blend. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in pan. Remove bread from pan. Meanwhile, stir remaining 3/4 cup strawberries (with syrup), berry yogurt, and plain yogurt in medium bowl to blend. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut bread crosswise into slices and then into cubes. Transfer cubes to plates. Top with dollop of yogurt mixture and serve.