Rapid City, SD

Well, it's been a struggle to get to homes much less look at any with a blizzard a week for 3 weeks that shut down the city along with no travel advisories. So we were stuck at home one day and then spent hours shoveling the next. Everyone I have talked to is ready for Spring!!

As you can see from the graphs below, the trend is down some. I could blame lots of things and events, but it is as you see it.

Single Family Homes

New Construction

(As of 4/1/09. This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by the Black Hills Association of REALTORS® or its Multiple Listing Service for the periods as shown. Neither the Association nor its MLS guarantee or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by the Association or its MLS may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.)

However - we did have a home show the end of March and had some very good and surprising results. Usually, you have to be pretty pro-active to even catch people's eyes to talk with them. This year, I had a number of people come up to me and talk about buying or selling - even to the point of getting names and phone numbers. Other agents that worked at the booth had similar experiences. We've also had some great activity lately, so it will be interesting to see what happens in April as the snow melts (hopefully..) and the sun shines.

Take care!

- Tristan

Tristan Emond
Prudential Kahler REALTORS
www.rapidhomesonline.com

For several years I have been doing this analysis on a weekly basis to determine market conditions. My full report has more details on it. It is really helpful to determine what price ranges buyers are looking at. I also compare activity for this year with the past several years. If you would like to see a copy of the complete report, or would like for me to help explain how to read this info, just send me a note. I'd be happy to help!

Yesterday was the day of all days. 72 degrees. I took the kids to the park and we played baseball. I washed the van. We sat out on the deck and put our feet on the table. (which resulted in making the legs go to sleep, but still...) We even tried to roast marshmallows. It was hard to really think about doing much of anything but simply enjoying the day.

Fast forward to today. We sent the kids out the the curb this morning for school. We knew there was a blizzard warning. It was supposed to start really snowing at noon. So, we're thinking, half day of school, right? It was raining and spitting, but certainly not a big deal. I mean, in Minnesota, when I was going to school, they didn't close down unless you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Anyway, they come running back in yelling at us to check online to see if things have closed since no one else was at the bus stop. (At least some parents are smart.) They closed school down due to the imminent blizzard. Sure we're talking up to 10 inches today with more accumulations tonight, but come on now...

But now, as I am at home looking out the window (spending the night at the office did not sound fun to me) it is finally starting to look blizzardy (new word for the day). The winds are going to be gusting up to 50 miles per hour, so we got a live one! Here it is:

You never would have thought, even last night at 9:00, that there was gonna be a blizzard the next day.

Amazing South Dakota weather...

- Tristan

For several years I have been doing this analysis on a weekly basis to determine market conditions. My full report has more details on it. It is really helpful to determine what price ranges buyers are looking at. I also compare activity for this year with the past several years. If you would like to see a copy of the complete report, or would like for me to help explain how to read this info, just send me a note. I'd be happy to help!

Gotta love technology.

So my kids have discovered a game online that even my 6 and 7 year old have gotten into. But just playing the game is not good enough. They play the game while talking over the internet to each other.

We've got a great program called Skype which is not only free, but allows you to talk to someone else for free. My oldest, Michael, started it all when he stared calling his friend from school over Skpe and they talk while playing their computer games. So then Isaiah and Emily got this great idea of talking to each other while playing their Wizard 101 game. One will get on my computer upstairs and the other will be on the computer in the kid's room downstairs and they will talk to each other while they are in this virtual world. "Hey, Emily, I just did this!" "Isaiah, where are you?" "Ha, ha! I got this thing." (sorry, haven't listened enough to get the correct jargon for you)

I admit I somewhat helped the process along. (hey - I think it's cool. I remember playing games on Dad's Apple IIplus with my neighbor - on one of those great green colored screens - that consisted running around a single screen to get all the boxes and escape before the stick men could get you) I created accounts on each computer and brought home a headset from the office I wasn't using. But now at least I can sleep in a little longer on Saturday mornings (you know - past 7:00) instead of hearing:

bump, bump, bump, BUMP. (down the stairs) "EMILY! WHERE ARE YOU? OK!" bump, bump, bump, bump. (back up the stairs) And then repeat at least 2 or 3 times before either Sarah or I manage to get up and tell them to quit playing so we can sleep...

And now I'm trying to figure out how to really relate this to real estate in South Dakota (hey - had to get my SEO tags in the blog somewhere!), but I can't really other than to say: Home ownership is great. Interest rates are great. Give me a call to see how I can help.

Until next time,

Tristan Emond
Prudential Kahler REALTORS
Rapid City, SD