Of all the Valentine's Days that I can remember the tradition was to receive a very nice card and a Very Large Box of Chocolates.

A great tradition. Always brought a smile and a tear to the person receiving them.

As a child I remember I couldn't wait to receive some of the little heart candies and it was great fun to read each and every one and drop a few here and there for friends.

And as I got older it was Roses, lots of them and dinner out.

NOW, the new tradition is Dinner in and receiving lots of delicious chocolate covered strawberries and chocloate covered grapes and a nice card too of course.

The NEW traditions are my favorite.

Funny how life's changes make your "favorites" change.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ! Hope everyone has a great day.

POCONO SOLD HOMES BY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR WEEK JAN. 29 TO FEB. 4, 2012

In looking at the Pocono Real Estate Market Trends for this week we see that 26 homes were sold. The graph below depicts the breakdown by School District.

Of these 26 the average list price was $130,841 with an average sold price of $145,001.

The average days on the market for these same homes was 154 days.

The average sold price per square foot was $78.85 with the average home size being 1,734 sf.

*Data obtained from flexmls and is deemed reliable.

Pocono Sold homes week Jan 22 to Jan 28

Pocono Sold homes week Jan 15 to Jan 21

POCONO REAL ESTATE MARKET TRENDS

In continuing our look at Pocono Real Estate Market Trends we look at the statistics for the number of homes sold by School District with the Average Sold price of those same homes.

When looking at the chart below we see that two of the four school districts had the same statistics for year 2012 as they did for year 2011. However, the average sale price of those same homes were very different from the year before - unfortunately.

It is only January, a usually slow time of year, so we will not get to disappointed by the numbers. Besides, in following numerous blogs of other Realtors around the Country we are seeing that many areas are improving. That means that it is only a matter of time before we will begin to see improvements in our area also. We may not see those improvements in Pocono Real Estate Market Trends this year but hopefully by next year as we are "normally" about 2 years behind other areas.*

Please contact me with any questions you may have on the information provided or if there are other statistics that you would like to learn about. Thank you!

*Item stated is personal opinion from my experience in the Real Estate field of the Poconos. Data is obtained from flexmls and is deemed reliable.

In case you have not heard the latest acquisition of OPEN SPACE IN MONROE COUNTY has recently been completed. This one encompasses 777acres in Paradise Township and Price Township.

Several organizations have come together to make all this possible. Click on their link for further details on each.

Conservationtools.org

Conserveland.org

Naturally, all of us benefit from their efforts. We have so many areas where we can go and hike and picnic and bird watch and get great pictures. Coming soon is a Biking Trail in Paradise Township on Mt. Airy Casino and Resort property. This will be another welcome addition.

On the map below the new 777 acres is just to the right of Henry's Crossing Road in Paradise Township, next to the railroad tracks.

More details to follow as soon as they become available.

Let's look at the

POCONO REAL ESTATE MARKET TRENDS

for January 2012. In the chart below you will see how this January compared to last January.

The number of Sold Homes in the Poconos for January 2012 was 95.

Of this 95, 25 were foreclosures, approximately 26%.

The average sold price of those sold was $132,304.00, 4% below the levels on January 31, 2011.

As of 2/3/12 the total active listings for Monroe County was 2,135 with 274 pending listings.