Cedar City, UT

It is a fantastic weekend to come and visit Cedar City! The weather is absolutely gorgeous! It definately feels like Spring! Some of the things that pertain to Cedar City, and what is going on is now is the time to sign up for the Utah Summer Games. The games themselves run from June 5th to June 22nd. There is also a photo contest for those shutterbugs out there, the topic is Cedar City and Iron County. June is also the beginning of the Shakespearean Festival. That festival runs into October.

Also of note Outdoor Life ranked Cedar City #15 in it's top 200 towns for outdoorsmen. These are just a few of the many things going on. For more info check out the City's web site cedarcity.org. If you do come up, give us a call! Come for the weekend, you may end up staying a lifetime!

I don't normally like to blog on Religious themes. I believe strongly in my faith, and respect everyone's right to do the same. I just wanted to take some time to express my thoughts on this sacred time of year. This is perhaps the most sacred time of year. It is the the time of the year that Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ redeemed us from our sins. Whether you consider yourself a believer or not, I would hope that we would all take a moment away from our daily activities this weekend to say thanks.

There are many ways to say thanks, simple service to one another is a great way. For He said: 'When ye have do it unto the least of these my bethren, ye have done it unto me.." Saying a humble, sincere prayer thanking him for the incredible things that we have in our lives, is another way to say thank you. Attending a worship service in your local church. You get the idea. I am sure that that each of you know well what it is that you can do to say thank you for your sacrifice that saved me a sinner!

I don't necessarily mind that we have Easter Bunnies and Easter Baskets. It is fun, and it helps us remember what time of year that it is. I hope that we don't forget Him whom we celebrate! May God Bless each of you! Have a Fantastic Easter Weekend!

Darcy and I are helping another Agent in the office with her clients while she is on vacation. It is a lot of fun, it almost feels like it did a couple of years ago when everyone was so busy that they just did real estate. We ended up writing offers on two houses today, finding out at the time that one of the properties may have a multiple offer situation. Talking to the rest of the agents in the office, they too have noticed that things seem to be picking up and going in the right direction.

I hope that people are beginning to understand that real estate is still a good investment for the long haul, especially right now in most markets. With prices being down from a couple of years ago.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend! and last but certainly not least Happy Easter!

It is late and I shouldn't even look at stories about the housing market on MSN, but it is kind of like passing the scene of a car wreck, you know you shouldn't but you slow down and look anyway. I guess that it's human nature to possess tha morbid curiosity. In skimming through the story on MSN (my version of slowing down to look, not stopping and staring), they said in the article that at least the housing market isn't as bad as it was in the Great Depression.

I would hope not! I hope that we never see things come to a halt like they did during the depression. There are people losing their homes now, but not in the percentages like the Great Depression and values haven't dropped th 88% that the MSN story quoted them dropping in 1933. As one of the links it does have an article pointing out a slide show of the most affordable housing markets. (I didn't look at it, no gore factor there.) The article pointed out that this housing slump, correction, recession whatever you call it is not accompanied by a large surge in unemployment, we are seeing some rise in unemployment, but only after the slump was well entrenched.

What this means to the future? I don't know, I don't know if anyone does. The only thing that is certain, is that if you are looking to buy, and planning on staying at least 5 years, it is a great time to buy! Have a great weekend!

Is anyone else getting sick of the daily price changes at the gas pumps? I wish that the stock market went up that fast! The daily price change is really getting old. I know that are prices here in Cedar City are actually a little below the national average, but that is counter balanced by the fact that our wages are about 80% of the national average.

It wouldn't be such a big deal to me if the big oil companies weren't posting record profits each and every quarter. I could almost accept the cost per barrel is up were it not for that fact. If the economy is going bad, I think that we can directly point a finger at big oil. Gas prices never drop as quickly as the cost of crude oil, but is sure rises as the cost per barrel go up. And they say that the Real Estate and Mortgage industries need more oversight! Sorry, just had to rant for a little bit, before I take out that 2nd mortgage to refill the Camry's gas tank!