Robert Rauf

Seaside Heights

Seaside Heights boroughs Office of Public Relations has introduced a Beach Stimulus Package. This package offers families a rebate when they visit the local beach this summer. The package will be available at certain events, including Free Music Mondays and Free Movies on the beach. Seaside reports the packages will be available on a first come first serve basis.

Through promotions the borough will issue coupons for a free one day adult wrist band for the beach... you can call (732) 793-9100 x 227 for details

Seaside park offers Monday night concerts

Free concerts will be held from 7-9 pm every Monday through August on the Borough hall lawn at 6th and Central Aves. Big Daddy and the Wild Cats will perform Monday

The Town suggest that guest bring their own chair or blanket. Beverages, snacks and 50-50 raffle tickets will be available for sale... No pets, and no Adult beverages allowed..

There is always something fun to do in Ocean County!

Have a great weekend

Rob

Robert Rauf

www.RobertRaufHomeloans.com

Saturday July 19th is the thirty first annual wooden boat festival. This is the largest wooden boat show in NJ and admission is FREE!

Sponsored by the Toms River Seaport Societythe show will be held at Huddy park on July 19, 2008.

For directions you can click on the link above.

There will be a lot to do at the festival, beyond looking at beautifully varnished works of art

There will be a few "new" old boats at the show, one of them just arrived from Florida after an extensive restoration, Atlas, a 57 foot Trumpy Motor Yacht, that was originally built for Ralph Atlas, the president of Atlas Tire corp.

here are a few shots from last years festival:

Sorry Tamara, they got your name wrong:

Being the Sailor, I need to post a few Sail boats here too!

This shot is Mostly of A-cats but if you look at the one on the left, it is one of only 2 Sand baggers I know of... That is "BEAR" Its Sister ship is "BULL" They no longer use Sand bags for ballast, now they use Bags of Water. Believe it or not the boats below are known to flip and sink on occasion, as they are sailed pretty hard in competitive racing on the Barnegat Bay.

And I need to add just one more shot of an A-Cat. Below is Raven..(You can see Raven above with the MC R on the sail too) I am sure there will be at least one A cat at the show, Can you pick me out in the photo?

Food, Floating pieces of Furniture, Activities for the kids and FREE admission... How could you go wrong?

I hope you can come! Remember to support the Toms River Seaport Society , you can click on the link to find directions and more information and more photos of last years festival.

Rob

Robert Rauf

WWW.RobertRaufhomeloans.com

If you are reading this you are probably aware that I spent last week With my sons Boy Scout Troop (I am one of the assistant Scout masters)

The highlight of the trip had to be Rock Climbing. I talked my son into Rock Climbing the first day and we were both glad I did, he walked away with a Merritt badge and I had a lot of fun.

Our first climb (sorry no photos) was only about 40-50 feet, I did the easy route first, made it to the top with out much difficulty, then did the hard one, Which was actually easier for me than the first... maybe it is because I am taller and have a larger wing span than the average person??? either way it was easy...

We start each day climbing picking up our gear and hiking to the wall, crossing a wide stream hopping from rock to rock. Friday's hike took us across the stream in a different spot, up a steep slope to an ominous granite wall. Our climb last Friday was WOW... GREAT, HIGH and a bit overwhelming at first. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of me doing it, but here is my son starting off on the highest climb, (that I did before he did) No photographic evidence, just my word that I did it too!

At this point he is probably (above shot) is about 40 feet up on a 115 foot climb

There he is most of the way up, that clip above his head is at 115 feet. He beat me, I got up to about 1 body length away and said... Close enough! You cant see it but you cant climb straight to it, you are actually upside down to get to it...

That's him at the top, a little blurry, but considering I was WAY below him and only had my cell phone not that bad!

Here he is on his trip back down:

I Was proud of him, no hesitation and right up... a little prodding at the top to get him to beat me, but he has a little of my "a" type personality and kicked the butts of some older kids that froze 5 feet off the ground. I am not sure if these pictures really show the height. At the base of this cliff up is well over 100', and it drops off below where we were about 50' to the river below.

It was a great way to round out the week. I cant wait to do it again!

Rob

Robert Rauf

www.RobertRaufHomeLoans.com

Island Beach State Park

WOW! Great news, after I posted a blog on NJ beaches last week I stumble across an article in today's paper about my favorite beach, Island Beach State Park. Men's Fitness magazine named IBSP as on of the 10 hot spots to visit in the Summer. National Recognition... There goes the neighborhood!

Did you ever think that a Beach in NJ would be named in a top 10 list?

Island beach is located just south of seaside, it is the southern most tip of the barrier Island that starts with Point Pleasant beach. What makes it so special is that it is a preserved barrier island, approximately 10 miles of shore line on both the ocean and bay side. (so over 20 Miles of water) Here is a Birdseye view:

There is almost no development in the park other than 3 bath houses on the first 3 beaches, the old governors mansion, a nature center. Other than a few outhouses, you wont see many structures on the island. The Road in the park is a straight run right up the middle, and is over 7 miles long. There are parking areas hidden through out the 7 mile stretch. On the ocean side this is one of the only places you can drive on the beach (4x4 necessary with a permit) and one of the only places in NJ that I know that allows you to have a fire on the beach. (South of the bathing beaches at least). The park has rolling sand dunes, maritime forests, tidal marshes and of course wild life, Fox, Osprey an more.

The Bay side is where you will find tidal marshes and many small islands on the southern end, great for Kayaking and nature watching. About half way down the Island on the bay side is "Tices Shoal" a narrow point in the island it is a popular anchorage in the summer with and easy walk across the island to the ocean beach.

There are not many places you can go and enjoy a place so Untouched by man. You can be on a beach without being crowded and enjoy a true get away, Definately worthy of a visit!

I hope you enjoyed the quick Tour!

Have a great weekend

Rob

Robert Rauf

www.RobertRaufHomeloans.com

Is anyone else tired of the negative media?

In yesterday's Business Section under the headline: "Foreclosure Filings, Bank Repossessions surge"

(In the Asbury Park Press, from the Bloomberg News service)

The Article starts off with; "US Foreclosure Filings Jumped 57% and Bank Repossessions more than doubled in March from a year earlier as adjustable rate mortgages increased and more owners lost their homes to lenders."

Doom and Gloom from the beginning, but luckily for the second paragraph they throw in some numbers for the educated reader to digest... And lucky for me I am pretty good with math.... After all, if I cant figure out percentages, who can?

Here are the facts from the article: "234,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure" (not foreclosed on) "or one in 538 US households".

Lets dissect the numbers a little bit. First off, 234,000 sounds like a huge number, but remember this is a national number... There are a lot of households in the nation. Second, 1/538th... thats the fraction.. Crazy low when you think about it. lets put that into decimal form: 0.001859, or as a percentage 0.185874%. The glass is not half empty.. it is 99.8% full!!! In a so called "Bad" market 99.8% of home loans were NOT in foreclosure proceedings in March of 2008... That sounds a heck of a lot better, Doesn't it?

If we take things a step further, the article said "in some stage of foreclosure" so that doesn't mean the sheriff was knocking on the door to kick them out, that means they were sent a letter saying "hey, you've been bad, pay up... or else....." I don't know what the statistic is here, but I would imagine that a pretty big percentage of people who get that type of letter will do something... Beg Mom and Dad for help, sell the house, etc... So not every one of that 0.186% are actually foreclosures.

Next fact: Typical "a" paper ARMs that are adjusting now will actually lower a borrowers interest rate, not increase it. As an example, the fully indexed rate for a 5/1 Libor arm, (one of the most popular ARMS in the past 5 years) is 5.125% and the index is falling still, so each month that number will drop for people adjusting.

To be fair, the true sub prime world loans... typically a 2/28 or 3/27 loan used to help repair credit have much higher margins and will bump up, to potentially painful levels. But these loans were done for people that would not have been able to buy a home any other way, and if they were "good" for the past two years they should be able to refinance to market rates now, (which are low)... If they were not "good" and continued to abuse their credit, who's fault is it?

Have I ranted on long enough? Read beyond the headline and form your own opinion... Every article I have read has more positive in it than negative, but it is the negative spin that is broadcast as gospel.... A wise man once said, "97.6% of all statistics are made up"

Keep a positive spin on EVERYTHING, and you will find that the world will treat you much better.

Have a great week

Rob

Robert Rauf

Countrywide Home Loans, Countrywide Bank FSB

http://www.robertraufhomeloans.com/

Robert_Rauf@countrywide.com