Volunteers Make It Work

A friend of mine stayed with us last weekend as he was in town for the 24 Hours of Telemark which prompted the thought, “How committed someone must be to compete in temps hovering around zero for 24 hours straight.” Now granted, not all of the competitors actually ski the entire time but many do. What is just as remarkable are the dozens of volunteers required to put on an event like this. Their commitment is no less noteworthy in that they are sacrificing their time, and possibly fingers and toes, so someone else can enjoy themselves.

Cable and Hayward play host to events year-round that are dependent upon countless hours of volunteer support. The American Birkebeiner relies upon over 2,000 volunteers to showcase our area to 7,000 skiers and the thousands of spectators. The Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival is grateful for the 750 volunteers that make their event such a success year after year. Each of our snowmobile clubs are reliant upon dozens of people who commit their time and energy to create such a fine network of trails that riders come from all over the country to enjoy our forests.

Volunteer support goes beyond the recreational activities though. Most of the local fire departments are volunteer organizations. These men and women are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to protect our homes and lives. The Lions Clubs, Ducks Unlimited, the groups are endless. Why do they all do it? I’m sure everyone has their own reasons but I believe it is a commitment to this community and passion for their respective sport.

What does this all have to do with a real estate blog? Probably nothing but I’m grateful that we have these folks in our community.

Scott McKinney
Trusted Advisor for Real Estate Dreams
715-798-3445
scott@mckinneyrealty.net

Why Wait?

The November sales data came out a couple weeks ago and was disappointing. The December stats will soon be out and they surely won’t be good either. This probably comes as little surprise to anyone watching the news, reading a paper or drawing breath for that matter. We are bombarded with negative economic information and as much as we’d like to tune it out, we can’t. But amid the grim news, there are a few things that potential homebuyers should not tune out:

Mortgage Rates are down. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage in the U.S. fell to a national average of 5.10%, the lowest since Freddie Mac began its weekly rate survey in 1971.

Homes are affordable – According to National Association of Realtors, the Housing Affordability Index is up 6.5% from the previous month and the highest in years.

This really is a good time to buy real estate, sincerely. Not just for the heck of it but if you do have the desire and ability to purchase a property, why wait? As I have mentioned before, interest rates are lower than they ever have been, fewer buyers are in the marketplace so this means less competition and sellers are considering offers that they might not have in the past.

While many buyers might be waiting for the market to hit bottom, we will never know really know when that time is until the market is on the upswing. Unfortunately by then other buyers will recognize this creating more competition and prices will be on the upswing too.

So if you’re looking for a place to buy that piece of property I can’t think of a better place to do it than Northwest Wisconsin. New snow over the weekend freshened up our trails and it truly is a winter wonderland out there.