Vegetable gardening is rewarding on many fronts, reducing your food bill is just one benefit. You’ll get to spend time outside in the fresh air, get some exercise, have better tasting food, and make the world a little greener.

One of the downsides of vegetable gardening is that you may spend a lot of time loving and caring for your garden, only to find that the wild neighborhood animals are enjoying the fruits of your labor. I read this book two summers ago and related very well to the author. After working all summer on a bountiful crop of tomatoes, Kyle and I came out one morning to find all of them missing. Well, except for the ones with one small bite taken out and dropped to the ground. Grrrr….I had some choice words for little furry animals that day.

Since then, Kyle and I have taken a minimalist approach and grow basil on our porch…

Have fun and eat fresh!

The Courant recently had an interesting article regarding homeowners looking for alternate sources of heat.

Pellet stoves have been getting a lot of press lately. My in-laws have one that they love and my parents have one arriving in October (or so they’ve been told after putting down a deposit), so I thought I would share their experiences, as it might be a viable alternative for some people.

First, it must be said that my relatives are using a pellet stove as an additional heat source. They will still be using some oil heat, but plan on using pellet stoves as their primary means of heating their homes this winter.

This is a pellet stove. From the outside, it looks just like a regular wood stove.

The pellets come in 40 pound bags and are delivered by the ton. The going rate for a ton is around $225 right now. This is what 1.25 tons looks like…

One of the major drawbacks about a pellet stove is the actual schlepping and storage of pellets. Both my in-laws and parents had 6 tons of these things delivered to their homes. They take up a lot of space, in addition to the physical manpower it takes to move the bags to where you want them. You’ll also have to load a 40 pound bag into the pellet hopper every time you need more fuel.

For some people a pellet stove won’t be a reasonable option. But if you’re willing/able to do some physical labor, you might want to make your way to the nearest stove store to learn more. Get your name on the waiting list and you may be able to have your pellet stove ready for this winter.

As expected, there has been a flurry of commentary on the results for different towns.  The West Hartford results are being debated on West Hartford Forums, Talk of West Hartford, and The West Hartford Blog.  I’m sure that there are other places also.

Rather that rehashing what has already been said, let’s keep the focus on real estate and take a look at the relationship between test scores and home prices.  Will buying a home in a town with higher median home prices provide access to better performing schools (based on CMT results)?

The above graph shows test scores for each town (average performance of eighth graders) as a function of the town’s median home prices (second quarter of 2008).  It is interesting to note that test scores and median home price seems to be correlated.  I’m sure there are other factors that influence the relationship. Anyone up for running a regression analysis…

While those statistics are troubling for sellers, they are also troubling for those who earn their living in the real estate industry; your local real estate agent, closing attorney, mortgage broker, home inspector, appraiser, and insurance broker.

I was curious to understand how bad things really are on a transaction-per-agent basis, and I have access to the data, so I did a little digging. The results are startling.

Let me explain this little chart to you.

The CTMLS is a big database that agents pay to join and it tracks most of the closed real estate transactions in most of the state. Commercial agents tend to use other methods of tracking their deals and Fairfield County has their own MLS to track their transactions, so they won’t be included in this analysis.

Anyway, there are 20,000+ agents that pay to have access to the CTMLS. Some of those people are brokers that manage offices and appraisers, so I estimated those groups to be 5% of the members and took them out of the analysis, as they aren’t actively trying to sell real estate. That leaves us with approximately 19,250 agents actively trying to sell real estate in a significant portion of Connecticut.

Then I looked at the number of closings this year for single family homes, condos, multi families, land, and commercial. Each deal has a buyer and seller represented, so the number of “sides” that agents share is actually double the number of closings. Remember, this doesn’t include Fairfield County and most commercial deals.

And now the results, getting to how much the average agent has earned this year PRE-TAX.

For each sale, the total commission is split between the buyer and seller brokers. The agent then takes their check back to the broker and it’s split again, this time between the broker and the agent. I estimated the split between the brokers to be 2.75%, as we typically see 2.5% or 3% offered in the MLS. I also estimated the split between the agent and their broker to be 70%. This split between the agent and the broker is a little bit more of a guess, as each broker has different split plans which are closely guarded. So the 70% is a rough estimate and may actually be a tad high.

On average, for my analysis with my assumptions, a real estate agent in the CTMLS has taken home a little less than $7,800 for the entire year. And that is PRE-TAX. Oh, and that doesn’t take into account the expenses for getting to a closing (advertising, membership dues, gas, etc.).

There are many agents that have done well more than the 1.4 closings this year that averaged in my chart. Which means there are many agents that have done no closings this year.

Last year, the National Association of Realtors saw a decline in membership for the first time in 8 years. I wonder what will happen locally to many of my real estate colleagues? It truly seems to be survival of the fittest right now.

Some houses are cursed with in-cure-able conditions. Here are some common examples…

- The house is 3 feet from the neighbor’s house. Like my house. Hello neighbor…

As a seller, there is nothing you can realistically do to fix these issues. If you continually get the same complaint and you want to sell quickly, typically the only way to respond is to lower the price to a level where the incurable becomes a non-issue. It’s painful, but it’s the only way to get past the recurring “My buyer didn’t like the …” feedback comments.

If you’re in this situation, don’t get panicky and upset. Just remember that the condition was most likely present when you purchased the home, which, at the time, should have allowed you to get that house at a discount compared to similar homes without the incurable condition. Be aware of these issues when you’re buying and remember them and be realistic when you’re selling.

When looking online, every once in a while I am thrown off when i see two similar houses that have two totally different “estimated tax” amounts. A good example i found this morning is:

Any idea why that is?

Here’s most of the reason why the estimated tax amounts are so different in this case:

The local Multiple Listing Service automatically calculates taxes for the agent when they enter the listing into the MLS database. The system does not appear to do the calculations correctly if the town is doing some type of phase-in, or if the mill rate recently changed. In this case, West Hartford is doing a phase-in and the mill rate recently changed.

What agents should do to properly calculate the taxes is manually calculate them on their own or call the town tax department and ask for the current year’s property taxes for the parcel excluding any special adjustments for veteran status, senior citizen discount, etc. Agents really need to be more diligent about tax amounts because it’s something that buyers look at closely. The local MLS also needs to fix the program for automatically calculating taxes, but those requests seem to fall on deaf ears.

These are the most common reasons why you will see estimated tax amounts vary widely on seemingly similar properties, user and system error.

So, the correct taxes for Property A (based on the new mill rate of 37.09) is $5,698 and the correct taxes for Property B is $4,448, a difference of $1,250 this year.

And why the actual $1,250 difference in this case? There are a few reasons to explain that as well.

The assessment which drives the taxes is based off of some of the things the reader mentioned like square footage, lot size, # beds, # baths, etc. It’s also driven by what the Assessor sees as external and internal condition and the improvements the owners have made. The one major difference that I see between Property A and Property B is that on the Assessor’s website, Property A is called out as having an updated kitchen. That means when the owners of Property A improved their kitchen, they pulled town permits. That then alerts the town to place more value on the assessment for that property. Often we’ll see homeowners make improvements without notifying the town because they may get “penalized” with higher taxes. This type of system deters people from pulling town permits when they have improvements done on their home and creates a whole separate host of issues.

Additionally, when the town did its revaluation in October 2006, residents had the opportunity to challenge their assessment. Some homeowners choose to challenge, while others do not. So the homeowner on Property B may have challenged and received a modified lower assessment, while the owner on Property A did not.

Finally, the location may make somewhat of a difference. Property A is in a neighborhood that would have slightly higher home prices, so the Assessor probably has some way to factor that into their analysis.

In order to be perfectly clear on the tax amount for a property, call the town hall’s tax collection office and ask for the property taxes with no exemptions. Just don’t call on a Friday because they’re closed.

From what I’ve read, cupolas historically served a few different purposes. 

- In homes by the shore, they generally have windows and were built so that the home’s owners had an unobstructed view of the water.  In those cases they are enclosed examples of the ”Widow’s Walk” since so many men unfortunately never came home from sea.

- In barns, and in some cases in homes, the cupola serves as a vent.  Hot air rises, so by putting a vent at the very top of the structure, the architect can encourage natural air conditioning.  This is a passive version of attic fans, where the hot air is actively blown out from the top.

- Cupolas also serve a design element, giving the outside of a structure a specific look.  If they rise above an open ceiling, they can illuminate a large space with without too much direct sunlight.  The main social area at Darden, the business school Amy and I attended, makes excellent use of the cupola for lighting.

- Finally, Wikipedia notes that they were used as lookouts for Indians.  However, the same entry also notes that they are often seen in Victorian architecture, which was well after the time when Indians were a major concern in the upper Atlantic states.  So we’ll take this one with a grain of salt.

Whatever their use, they are a unique part of a home and a distinctive design element.  Since it’s unlikely that we’ll ever own a home with one, I think my only opportunity to check one out in person will be the next time we rent a house at the beach with our friends.  Guess that means I shouldn’t protest so much the next time Amy talks about heading to the shore.

The author of the site, Steve, is on a quest to visit every museum in Connecticut and shares his insight, and opinions, of each adventure with readers. This guy is very dedicated to his goal, as you’ll see from his lengthy list of completed trips. Every review chronicles the pluses and minuses of each place and provides pictures (unless photography is prohibited at the site). You’ll also find the admission cost and hours of operation. Quite handy.

And if museums aren’t your thing, Steve has other activities covered too. Like the crazy Frog Bridge in Willimantic. Or hikes galore.

So if you’re ever looking for something to do and can’t quite figure it out, head over to Connecticut Museum Quest to get some ideas.

For some additional Friday happiness, here’s a random flower picture from my garden…

You’ll enjoy the remodeled kitchen with stainless steel appliances, central air, refinished hardwood floors, large master bedroom with full bath, living room with fireplace, dining room with 2 built-ins, family room with slider to a large, private backyard, and a 2-car garage. All this in the Nayaug school district for only $334,900!

Call me at 860-655-2125 to see the house, book a showing through your agent, or stop by the Open House this Sunday, July 13th from 1:00-3:00.

All data came from the Multiple Listing Service for the time period of April through June (2007 and 2008) and is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

With agents complaining about the market being slow, we can see why. The number of closed sales is down in almost all towns researched, with several towns seeing declines in closed sales of 20% or more. The market was lethargic in many areas this spring.

We are also finally starting to see median sales price declines as well. There is a wide range in median sales price declines. A few towns saw small increases.

Days on market (DOM) is also increasing, but modestly. Most towns did not see more than a week or two added to selling time, if there was an increase.

Most surprising to me is the Months of Inventory. Many towns have moved back into Neutral Market territory (favoring neither Sellers nor Buyers), which is historically defined as 3-6 months of inventory. With declines in the number of closed sales, this could mean one of two things; fewer people decided to sell this year or people did try to sell and took their homes off the market if they were not successful after a specific time period.

Historically, sales in July and August are slow, as people are busy with summer vacations and other activities. It will be interesting to see how the market does over the next few months.

If you are looking for data for another town which I did not include, just ask and I’ll be happy to provide it.