Farmer’s Almanac Predictions
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Farmer’s Almanac 2019 or specifically, The Old Farmers Almanac founded by Robert B. Thomas and published annually since 1792.  The Almanac is released the first Tuesday in September preceding the year on its cover.  Considered a reference guide for weather forecasts, gardening and planting charts and basic trends for living.

“As sure as the Sun rises and sets, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is back! A comforting constant in a changing world, The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been going strong for 227 years by focusing on what’s useful, timeless, tried, and true. The 2019 edition continues this tradition with all-new information on gardening, food, home, and weather, along with life advice that’s practical but doesn’t take itself (too) seriously. “[source]

Heavily used by farmers (hence its name) in the initial 150 years of its existence, to plan the planting and harvesting times for their crops and gardens, in more recent years it has become a quirky fun publication to find recipes, interesting daily trivia and trends.  Still offering predictions of frost dates and moon dates, planting guides, recipes with an online presence  at www.almanac.com , the Old Farmer’s Almanac also offers solutions to common problems around your home and yard.

The current Almanac weather prediction for Idaho in May 2019, included in the “Intermountain” area of the U.S. map:

• May 1-10 Showers, cold north; sunny, warm south
• May 11-17 Isolated showers; cool north, warm south
• May 18-31 Isolated T-storms; cool north, sunny warm south
• temperature, 57.5°
• precipitation .5”

Although the weather predictions are only about 50% accurate, the Almanac is a fun publication to read with useful information for your home and family.

Farmer’s Almanac 2019

Who is Buying in 2019
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Considering data gathered from closings and public filings, Realtor.com® has revealed some interesting facts that may be helpful if you are planning on buying or selling a property in the near future.

• One out of every 14 home purchases are now made by unmarried couples. Among first-time buyers, the proportion is nearly double that — 13 percent of all purchasers.

Who is Buying in 2019: Millennials

As would be expected the age group that is now most active in homebuying is the population born between 1981- 1996 and are currently aged 22-37 years old.  The older of the millennials has started families, established jobs and are finally buying homes.  The millennials strapped with huge educational debt have been slow to become active in the housing market.

Who is Buying in 2019: Single Women

Single women comprise the largest demographic of home buyers other than married couples.  They are responsible for 17% of U.S. homebuying.  Single men accounted for only 7%.

• Single women now account for nearly one-sixth (15 percent) of all home purchasers and one out of every seven repeat homebuyers. Combined with unmarried male buyers (9 percent), singles account for more than one out of every four (26 percent) purchasers.

Compared with married and unmarried couples, single women tend to have slightly lower household incomes on average and that tends to constrain what they can buy and where. As a result, according to researchers at NAR, they tend to favor condominiums and townhomes — newly built and resale. Aaron Drucker, an agent with realty firm Redfin in Miami who works extensively with single buyers, says their biggest hurdle “by far” is financing — qualifying for the loan on income and then coming up with the down payment and closing costs. Many of them, Drucker said, must look to parents and other relatives for gift funds to help out.

Because of controversial restrictions imposed by the Federal Housing Administration, many individual condo units today no longer can be financed using low down payment FHA loans. Instead, singles often must turn to the conventional marketplace — banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Many of these lenders, Drucker says, now expect not only down payments of 20 percent to 25 percent on condos, but above-average credit scores — FICOs well into the 700s. NAR found that 95 percent of all single female buyers needed a mortgage to buy their homes and that it took them an average of 1.5 to 5 years to put together the needed funds. Yet, despite these hurdles, they are succeeding at twice the rate of single males and becoming a powerful presence in the home-purchase field.

Who is Buying in 2019: Hispanics

During 2017 Hispanic homebuyers accounted for 15% of homes sold in the U.S.  Mostly in the states of Texas, Florida and California their influence in the housing market has recently been noted also in the states of Iowa, Kansas and Utah.

• Thirteen percent of buyers are shopping for houses that fit “multigenerational” needs, where grandparents, parents and grandchildren all either inhabit the same property or want to help finance the purchase. Among all home-owning households with a mortgage, 14 percent are multigenerational, including 17 percent of Asians, 20 percent of African Americans and 25 percent of Hispanics.

Know who is buying in 2019 and prepare and stage your home to appeal to today’s buyer.  It’s key to a successful and quick sale.

For the latest, check out NAR.

Days on the Market
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With the abundance of property information available at the fingertips of buyers on the internet, one of the most-used pieces of information when looking at listings is days on the market.

Just as the heading declares, it gives buyers a quick and easy glance as to how many days a property has been listed with no sale. Markets vary, but a general rule of thumb by real estate agents is a listing goes stale at around 30 days.

Buyers use the days on the market information to immediately determine the possibilities of pricing.  If they are interested in the property it signals an opportunity to present a lower than listing price offer.  In most markets a stale listing will usually require a reduction or correction in price to revive and generate new interest and visibility.  Sometimes multiple corrections if the initial listing price was too far off the market value.

Correcting the price after a listing goes stale signposts a downward trend and often results in disappointing results.  The importance of succinct pricing at market value is clear.  Trying a higher than market listing price for even a short amount of time will quickly add days on the market and funnel the listing to a stale with price correction listing.

Buying a FSBO
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Unlike in most other professional fields, real estate sales are sometimes deemed a DIY project by sellers.  In active sellers’ markets especially, sometimes a DIY home owner takes on the job of selling their own home.

If you are a buyer and see a property you may be interested in is For Sale by Owner, it does not mean you need to be a DIY-buyer.  A professional licensed agent can still represent and assist you as a buyer in finding, negotiating and closing a sale.  It is up to the agent to collaborate with the seller to fund a commission for their work in a completed sale.

A buyers’ agent will:

• Know a factious asking price when they see it
• Know it is essential to have a third-party professional inspection
• Know how to negotiate many things including price, closing dates and property inclusions or exclusions
• Know the legal requirements in the state and county the FSBO is located, to successfully complete a sale

If you are interested in Buying a FSBO, it does not mean you need to be a DIY- buyer.  Get it right and contact a licensed Realtor® to represent and protect you as a buyer.