Forbes: Hartford a Top City for Working Mothers

ForbesWoman recently released a study identifying the “Best Cities for Working Mothers” in 2010. Hartford finished 7th out of the top 50 metropolitan regions in the country. The magazine ranked each city based on six factors: Women’s Income, Living Cost, Pediatricians, Unemployment, Violent Crimes, and Spending per Pupil. Their idea was to try to capture a variety of issues that all play into mysterious phrases like “quality of life” and “work-life balance.” Some may debate

Where is the Real Estate Market Going?

The question we get more than anything else is, “Where is the real estate market going?” We try to answer with a quick recap of the current situation, and maybe some thoughts on the near future, but that’s often not enough for the questioner. They want to know the long-term direction of the real estate market. They understand that we can’t predict the future, but they ask anyway. The real answer is that nobody knows,

How Many Homes To See

Last week in a post I made a passing comment about how we sometimes show people 50+ homes before they find the right one. My comment elicited this reader comment: Josh: Oh my god. People look at 15-50 houses? Juan and I have only looked at 2 or 3 when we were shopping. I would think it would be challenging even finding 50 homes on the market meeting very limited criteria (school district, bedrooms, bathrooms,

Following Building Code

The New Haven Register recently reported that a West Haven home owner was arrested for allegedly violated building codes, illegally altering a multi-family home from a 2-family to a 3-family without city approval. This arrest comes in the wake of the recent deaths of two firefighters who were responding to a fire at a multi-family home in Bridgeport. That home was altered from a 2-family to a 3-family but public records show that Bridgeport officials

Car Shopping vs House Hunting- Negotiating

Our purchase did not go as expected. Despite our experience in negotiating home prices, our ideas and strategies didn’t really translate to the auto world all that well. As Amy has pointed out in past posts, cars are different than houses. Different dealers can carry the exact same car (or at least nearly the same – close enough). So once a buyer decides which car they want, they can get it anywhere. We picked out