Downtown Living – A Feathered Family

Earlier this week my aunt told me about a new type of family living in downtown Hartford – a family of peregrine falcons nesting on the Travelers Tower. (Thanks, Billie!) Check out the Peregrine Watch at Travelers Tower website for more information about our feathered neighbors. The current pair has been nesting on the tower since 1997, becoming established residents. There are two “FalCams” pointed at the nest and a lot of interesting history and

$8,000 First Time Buyer Tax Credit Change

In keeping up with the latest news, there was been a significant change in one of the current Administration’s tax credit programs. Yesterday, the Secretary of HUD announced that FHA is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment when obtaining a government insured mortgage. This is a change in the way that the program had been setup when it arrived as part of

Colorful First Impressions

Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. You’ve seen a listing on the internet that looks interesting and have contacted your agent to set up a showing. After arriving at the property, you wait in your car for a moment or two before getting out. You then walk up to the front door and meet your agent, who has arrived early to open the home and turn on the lights for the showing. So

Missing the Bus

I could hear the bus braking from down the street, with its distinctive whoosh. It was approaching the stop sign, just across the intersection from the bus stop, and I was still over half a block away. Adrenaline surged in preparation for a mad dash to the corner – or at least close enough to the corner to be able to catch the driver’s eye. It was an instinctive reaction, but no longer necessary. I

Greater Hartford April 2009 Real Estate Market Statistics

More numbers today. We’re through April, so it’s time to look back and see how the market fared last month compared to the same timeframe in 2008. All data comes from the CT Multiple Listing Service, is for single family homes only, and is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed. My observations… 1. Just like January and February, there were so few transactions in some of the towns that this data is not very statistically relevant,