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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. More Pix: Better Value Delivered for Premiums
2. Apps, Prices, Points Down, Some Rates, ARMs Up
3. County Profile: Caledonia County, VT
4. Land-Use Category: Alternative Energy
5. House Plans: Find Them Online Now
6. Ag: Wheat Prices Up, Stocks Down, Rule Nixed
7. Forests Wrap: Restoration Pact, Tongass Conflict
8. We're Famous (Again): Mother Earth Cites CEO
9. Recent Properties
More Pix: Better Value Delivered for Premiums
We've done it again! We've given our advertisers who feature property on our home-page through premium listings even more reason to list there: we've raised the limit from 16 pictures to 50 - an additional 34 pictures are now available to premium advertisers. We'll be updating the pricing page online in the next few weeks; the upped number of pix is available now.
We're constantly impressed by the quality and range of all our listings, and that's especially true for our premium listings - sellers from Cape Breton Island to Corpus Christi, and every place in between, have learned that the few extra bucks required for a premium ad pays back dividends in exposure. Whether the area of interest is a farm, an estate, a ranch, a forest or even an old factory in a rural hamlet, buyers and sellers know our homepage is a must-look every week. As winter warms up (slowly) into spring, consider a premium listing for that special property. And, if you've already got a premium listing, by all means, get online and post pictures, maps, plats, schematics - any relevant image that will help convey the value of your property. You've got more space than ever before to do this. Now, go find those images...
Apps, Prices, Points Down, Some Rates, ARMs Up
Overall mortgage applications have dropped in recent weeks, the Mortgage Bankers Association says. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 61.7 percent of total applications from 67.4 percent the week previous to Feb. 20. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 12.8 from 9.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.09 percent from 5.72 percent, with points decreasing to 1.10 from 1.15 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 5.55 percent from 5.18 percent, with points unchanged at 1.08 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans, the MBA says.
Existing-home sales including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, slipped 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units in January from an uptick in December, and are 23.4 percent below the 6.44 million-unit pace in January 2007, the National Association of Realtors says.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said many potential buyers remain on the sidelines. "As the increased limits for FHA and conventional loans are implemented, more buyers will have access to safer FHA loans and lower interest rate loans in high-cost areas, which could lead to steadily higher home sales later in the year," he said. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $201,100 in January, down 4.6 percent from a year ago when the median was $210,900. Because the slowdown in sales is greater in high-cost markets, there is a downward pull to the national median from a year ago when there were relatively more sales in higher priced areas, NAR says.
County Profile: Caledonia County, VT
Along the green, spare, sparsely populated upper reaches of the Connecticut River, Caledonia County, VT husbands its 30,000 souls with wooded hillsides and glens, trying winters, glorious but short summers, and a quiet that is uncommon in the busier, more densely populated portions of New England. The historical home of Fairbanks Scales, the restored factory is still a centerpiece of county seat St. Johnsbury, along with one of the earliest libraries and galleries in the nation, The Atheneaum, a National Historic Landmark. With a plethora of small hamlets and farmland, Caledonia, named for its Scots settlers offers peace, quiet and a rural lifestyle that is the hallmark of much of the Green Mountain state - and most especially of this starkly beautiful region of Vermont known as " The Northeast Kingdom."
The county is 658 square miles. Property for sale there, includes a mountain estate in Stannard; asking 1.4M. A family compound with a full lodge on 100-plus acres in Danville is selling for just shy of 600K. A 15-acre Kirby tract ready for a second home and close to Burke Mountain skiiing is $195K. Search by state or county from our advanced search page.
Land-Use Category: Alternative Energy
We began our "alternative energy" category a few moons back to respond to the growing interest in listing the energy resources - or potential - of a variety of property. Many sellers were noting the presence of minerals, or natural gas on their property. Increasingly, properties are being considered for wind-farming, solar arrays, even geo-thermal drilling. Quite a few properties dotting the Midwest come with free natural gas - not strictly alternative but worth noting - , although that may not be the biggest selling point. Of course, the rare property that comes with hydro-power is appropriate for this category as well:
A few of the properties in this category: a large property in West Texas may have wind-farm prospects; you at least get U.S. CRP payments. A upstate New York house is mostly-solar, and fully-insulated. Ditto this getaway in the same region. Another solar abode offers opportunities to grow your own plants and vegetables for sustainance as well as income. Find this category and others by clicking on the mini-link, "Land Use" just under the homepage tool-bar, at the top of the page, or in the side-menu, about half-way down the home-page, on the left-hand side.
House Plans: Find Them Online Now
We love house plans; they allow us to dream and doodle...and, well, plan. There are loads of resources on the Internet now: the best let you configure your search from the home-page, and offer many styles and types of plan, along with lots of flourishes, like settings for extras: fireplaces, patios, lofts, etc. While its still chilly out - or at least not super-hot - why not take a gander at some of these repositories.
eplans.com seems to have acres of plans, pardon the pun. The National Association of Home Builders offers its own site, appropriately named houseplans.com, and we like the expertise that site offers. Architectural Designs, a CT-based firm, has five-figures worth of drawings. Hanley Wood offers dreamhomesource.com, a veritable smorgasbord of potential abodes and airy redoubts. No ideas? Try the houseplanguys.com, run by a Marin County, CA-based firm; good testimonials for their service. This is just a small sampling of what's out there.
Finally, we'd love your suggestions on sources for house plans, as well as your experience using these and any other planning and architectural drawings websites. Write editor@landandfarm.com.
Ag: Wheat Prices Up, Stocks Down, Rule Nixed
Wheat futures soared above $12 a bushel for the first time as investors bet diminished supplies won't end soon. Meanwhile, prices have surged 34 percent since the start of year, pushed higher by growing world demand, tight supplies and bad weather that has pummeled crops in Canada, Argentina and India. The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects U.S. wheat inventories will total 272 million bushels by the end of May - the lowest level in more than five decades. the Associated Press reported.
And, the federal EPA is dropping requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat, the Washington Post says. Ag lobbyists have scored a victory, but environmentalists vow to fight the rule change, saying the health of rural communities is at stake.
Energy-wise, DP-Energias de Portugal SA, the biggest power company in Portugal, plans to buy wind farms and small hydroelectric dams through its Brazilian unit as part of a four-year program to expand renewable energy generation. The Portuguese utility is creating a division called Enernova that will group acquisitions in Brazil including small hydroelectric plants, biomass units and wind parks, Bloomberg says. Not everyone thinks wind is winning: convervationists in the UK are worried 'redundant' wind farms will scar the land within two decades, a separate report said.
Forests Wrap: Restoration Pact, Tongass Conflict
A recently proposed U.S. Senate bill seems to have the support of conventional opponents. The Forest Landscape Restoration Act would allocate $40 million annually for thinning, fuel reduction and environmental restoration projects on swathes of federal land at least 50,000 acres in size. ome environmental groups like it, saying it would improve forest vitality and reduce fire risk, various sources said. Loggers and environmentalists are in agreement: it's needed.
A competing bill is being drafted by Oregon Rep. Pete Fazio. The Pacific Northwest Forest Legacy Act, which would overhaul the Northwest Forest Plan and prohibit thinning on "late-successional forests" unless the project is backed up by peer-reviewed scientific literature, the Capital Press reported. Now, thinning and fuel reduction occurs on about 3 million acres of federal forest a year, which is only about two percent of the land in need of these practices, according to the Nature Conservancy.
Meanwhile, the Bush Administration, in efforts to construct new roads in national forests, is proposing changes to the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest management. Under a new management plan for the Tongass, the U.S. Forest Service is proposing to open about 3.4 million acres to logging, mining and road building. Roughly 2.4 million of those acres are now roadless.The plan also sets aside 90,000 acres to old-growth reserves and protects 47,000 acres considered most vulnerable to development. It also calls for a phased approach to logging as a way to encourage a more stable, long-term supply of timber.
We're Famous (Again): Mother Earth Cites CEO
Woo-hoo! Our own CEO is receiving a mention in respected Mother Earth News. LandAndFarm.com founder and leader, Steve Saltman, is quoted in an article for Topeka-based national magazine on - what else? - finding your dream piece of land. The article in the April/May, 2008, entitled "Find Your Dream Homestead, " by journalist Dave Wortman, quotes Steve talking about the affordable price of homes in rural Nebraska. Wortman's extensive and detailed look at finding the right property is a must-read for all you armchair country-living folks: lots of practical advice is contained within; so read, and then get out of that chair.
Needless to say, with savvy agents from all the major realty brands and many independents listing property on LandAndFarm.com, Mother Earth knows where to find expertise - and lots of dream homesteads, too: right here. We can't say we're surprised that they tracked Steve down, but we're still excited they asked Steve his opinion. Thanks Mother Earth News!
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| Curb Appeal? Try Coastline Appeal by LandAndFarm.com Staff
When your 'curb' is about a mile of spectacular, rocky, northern California coast, it's pretty easy to run out of superlatives and descriptives to properly label the appeal. Add in some weather-beaten - not artificially distressed, mind you - historic buildings, a U.S. post office, a lake, a river, and well...how do you capture rural paradise in a sentence?
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