Whitefish Winter Carnival gets bigger and better every year!

When the February flakes fly in the village of Whitefish, Montana, the town gathers to celebrate a unique tradition of fun, frivolity and friendship known as Winter Carnival. From out of the fog come the beloved Penguins, and Viking Divas keep watch over the townspeople, protecting them from mischievous Yetis.

Find more information and the complete schedule here:

http://whitefishwintercarnival.com/

Kiplinger’s Housing Forecast: Positive Signs Offset the Negative

The median home price in the U.S. has plunged nearly 40% in a little over five years, but the worst is definitely over, according to a recent report by Kiplinger: The market has finally wrung out the last excess valuations born of the housing bubble. Before you break out the party hats, note that this doesn’t mean prices across the nation are poised to rebound anytime soon. Alex Villacorta, director of research and analytics at Clear Capital, a provider of real estate data and analytics, said the housing market is in a “suspended state,” with positive and negative factors offsetting one another. But he doesn’t expect another free fall in prices, assuming “things are left to work themselves out and there are no further shocks to the economy.”

Although the percentage of sales of distressed homes will rise, the federal government’s latest loan-modification program might allow as many as 1.5 million to two million homeowners to refinance, estimated Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. Zandi said that further home-price declines nationwide will be limited to 3 percent to 5 percent and that 2012 will be the year that prices finally stabilize—setting the stage for gains in 2013.

Short-lived spikes in prices will affect some cities sooner. When housing markets touch bottom and begin to stabilize, price appreciation tends to be spread unevenly, creating a lot of confusion about where the recovery is occurring and when, said David Stiff, chief economist at Fiserv Case-Shiller. Even within a single city, more desirable neighborhoods will stabilize first, while prices in other neighborhoods may fall at a rapid pace.

Touching bottom

In the year ending September 30, home prices across the U.S. fell by 2.6 percent, and the median home price stood at $171,250, according to Clear Capital. That comes on the heels of a 2.5 percent decrease from September 2009 to September 2010. In the five-plus years since the peak of the market, home prices nationally fell by 38.1 percent. Detroit (down 74.7 percent) is the biggest loser, crushed by subprime lending, foreclosures and the gutted auto industry. A few cities enjoyed small price appreciation, largely because they missed the bubble to begin with: the Clarksville, Tenn., metro area; cities in upstate New York, including Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester; and Pittsburgh.

Houses haven’t been this affordable since appliances came in harvest gold or avocado green. The benchmark of affordability—the ratio of median home price to median family income—has fallen to 2.6, below the historical ratio of 2.9, says Stiff. Another measure, the percentage of monthly family income consumed by a mortgage payment (principal and interest, using a mortgage rate of 4.1 percent), is 12 percent nationally, the lowest since 1971.

Homes in many cities are now substantially undervalued as measured by affordability, says Stiff, and that can lead to double-digit bounces in prices—say, a jump of 10 percent to 15 percent in the year following the trough, as the natural optimists, especially investors with cash, jump in to catch the bottom. It might look like a bubble all over again, but it won’t last long. A good example is Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., where investors pushed up prices by 12 percent during the year ended September 30. Such a bounce will be followed by a sideways drift, during which the “glass half-empty” folks will slowly return to the market.

Theoretically, low rates should help push buyers to act. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed mortgages fell to 3.94 percent in the first week of October 2011, according to Freddie Mac. The past couple of years’ predictions that rates would rise were based on the premise that the economy would improve, said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry publication. “As long as the economy remains stagnant, unemployment remains high, and the housing market is in the toilet, rates will remain near historic lows,” he said. At least for the first part of 2012, he adds, rates should hover between 4 percent and 5 percent.

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Five tips for selling your home in winter

Just your luck — you have to sell your home in winter, the slowest and dreariest sales season of all. But cheer up. You can use staging, the reduced competition and some seasonal opportunities to your advantage.

Here are some tips to lessen the chances your home will languish on the market:

1. Remember the basics.

Taking care of needed maintenance and repairs is obligatory in any season. A thorough cleaning and getting rid of clutter are equally essential. And tidying up the yard and touching up the exterior appearance to improve the curb appeal also can make the difference between deal or no deal.

In a slow market, nothing counts more than pricing aggressively. Check recent sale prices in your neighborhood on sites such as Zillow.com and Trulia.com and price your home competitively.

2. Think warm and cozy.

Home staging — techniques used to make your house look bigger, brighter, warmer and more appealing — takes on a new focus in winter. Rearranging the furniture and applying a fresh coat of paint to any room in need are just as important. But to convey a cozy impression in winter, it may behoove you to turn up the thermostat and have a fire in the fireplace for open houses. It will give you an edge over the many vacant homes on the market.

Staging may in fact be even more important in winter. Leave the heat on and, in a vacant home, if you can leave at least a few pieces of furniture behind, it has more of an impact.

Displaying photos of how your property looks in summer is a good idea. Some staging experts also recommend decorating with warm colors such as deep orange or crimson.

3. Neatly shoveled paths make a difference.

It might seem obvious to keep sidewalks and driveways free and clear of ice and snow. But many homeowners who have already vacated their houses either aren't diligent about that winter duty or don't do a thorough job.

It's important for reasons of safety, aesthetics and, once again, competition.

4. Good lighting is essential.

Your home may appear darker due to less daylight. Fight the gloom. Turn on all the lights possible for visitors — this is no time to worry about the electric bill. Open blinds, drapes and shutters to let natural light pour in. Make sure to clean any grime off the windows first.

Encourage showings during high-daylight hours. Showing after work in the dark isn't a great idea. Make sure you have enough outside illumination for drive-by visitors in the evening, however. And keep the place well-lit even when you're not there.

5. Tasteful holiday decorations can help.

The holidays give you an extra chance to make your home stand out. Keep decorations conservative and don't overdo it on outdoor lighting. You don't want to put 25,000 lights on the roof like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. As sure as he blacked out the neighborhood, you would scare off buyers. But a big red bow on the For Sale sign and some holiday greenery, twinkling lights and elegant decorations inside can help give buyers a dose of seasonal cheer.

When Christmas and Hanukkah are over, you can keep the spirit alive. A colorful winter wreath on the front door and colorful poinsettias and holly bushes in the yard will help retain a festive look for January and February, when more house-shoppers start to turn up.

Moonlight Dine and Ski on Whitefish Mountain

Dine adventurously almost 7,000 feet high in the moonlit sky while overlooking the snowcapped peaks of Glacier National Park and the sparkling lights of Flathead Valley. Start your voyage with a breathtaking ride up to the summit of Big Mountain on the chair lift, enjoy an unforgettable dining experience, then ride the lift down, or follow our experienced instructors for the run of your life... by moonlight!

Find more information here:

http://skiwhitefish.com/moonlight_dine_and_ski.php

The foreclosure problem

The dark cloud of foreclosures still hangs over the housing market. The pace of foreclosures has slowed as lenders, loan servicers and regulators have sorted out paperwork and procedures in the wake of the robo-signing controversy that emerged a year ago.

Nevada, California and Arizona—among the epicenters of the boom and bust—still suffer the highest rates of foreclosure. Georgia, Florida, Utah, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado round out the top ten. Among metro areas, Las Vegas still tops the list.

Currently, about 1.84 million home loans are 90 days or more delinquent (a strong predictor of foreclosure) but not yet foreclosed on, and 2.17 million have finished the foreclosure process but haven’t yet been offered for sale, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS). What happens to home prices if and when they come to market? Villacorta, of Clear Capital, says that despite the downward pressure on prices by foreclosures, prices won’t tank as long as lenders continue to bring additional foreclosures to market at a steady pace.

Bank-owned foreclosures sell for an average discount of one-third off the per-square-foot price of conventional homes for sale. Buyers who want to snag a bargain on a distressed property will face competition from investors, and the biggest bargains may require a lot of work. Short sales, or homes sold with lenders’ permission for less than their owners owe on their mortgages, have also grown in number. Lenders take an average of 16 weeks to sign off on a short sale, so patience is imperative.

Of course, the longer lenders take to work through the foreclosure glut, the longer it will take for home-price appreciation to return to its normal pace of 2 percent to 4 percent a year. To hasten the process, the federal government may introduce more policy initiatives—although whether they’ll have any meaningful impact or come soon enough is debatable. In October, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, expanded the Home Affordable Refinance Program to allow more underwater borrowers to refinance out of their mortgages into more manageable loans. The FHFA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Treasury have called for ideas to handle the foreclosures they own, such as converting them to rental properties for purchase by investors.