Have we hit bottom in real estate? Real estate is usually everyone’s biggest investment. So what is happening within the market? According to Fortune magazine, it has been the lowest in seventeen years. So what does this mean?

Let’s break it down and look at it. The most important buyers in real estate are the first time buyers. They stimulate production of new homes because they usually buy existing homes. For every new home that is built, you need a new person in the market to take an existing home. The demand for housing is what pushes up prices. According to Fortune magazine, the newbies in real estate are coming back. If you want to read more about it, here is the link to it.

The downward spiral in real estate we experienced in this country really hit California the hardest. Analysts are seeing some hope, however. In May, they had an 18% jump compared to May of 2007. Yet, they are not saying it is over. Prices took a beating, plummeting 35% during the same period, according to a report from the California Association of Realtors.

What is happening in California and Florida will come back. Americans love bargains. When the price is right, people will buy again. Jonas Lee, a principal of New York based Redbrick Partners, which buys distressed properties all over the country, says he’s watching California closely, but isn’t ready to jump into the dray just yet. When they do, you know the market has hit bottom.

This is why I think they are waiting. California still has too much inventory. The Santa Barbara County area has been particularly hard hit. You can read more by going to the link here.

The point is real estate is still a good investment. It’s like the stock market. The only difference is real estate takes longer to move up and down. When you need to liquidate, it takes longer than stocks and mutual funds. You really need to remember this and keep your long-term money in real estate if this is your favorite investment.

In some areas the real estate market is slowly moving up. “In May, existing homes gained a 2% to an annual rate of nearly 5 million. The National Association of Realtors said that the number of existing homes sold during May rose 2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million units in May from a level of 4.89 million in April.

“Analysts were expecting the sales rate to increase to 4.95 million last month, according to a consensus of analysts’ estimates gathered by Briefing.com.”

To read more of the article, here is the link here!

So what happens if you really want or need to sell your home? In my other articles, I’ll talk about how to dress up your investment to get the most from your home. I am a licensed real estate broker and I would like to give you some tips. See you in my next post: Ten ways to sell your home quickly.

A couple of days ago, I was talking with a group of people. When we got on the subject of color, everyone seemed very interested in my knowledge of it and how it affects us.

I explained that I had found this research by going to the library in the early 1980s. I haven’t done a lot of research since then. If I knew where I could get more, I would love to read it.

Someone requested I put my findings on my blog. So I went through my papers and found the information that I dug out of the library. My information all comes from print books and magazines. If there’s someone out there who can add to it, please do by leaving a comment at the end. I want research and not something from a book that isn’t backed up by research that you can go read yourself.

Looking over my papers, I still like this article, The Power of Color. I found some of the sources on my own and I found the information to be accurate. Today, I found myself enjoying the article as much as I did in 1980. It was written by Leslie Kane in July 1982 for a magazine called Health. In my research, I found a book I think was well written. It was printed by Architecture Digest in the early 1980s. I only have pages copied out of it because it was a limited edition, so please let me know what you want. I’ll start with the article. Here are the first three paragraphs of The Power of Color – and you can decide for yourself.

“Why should hanging pretty red wallpaper in your bedroom inspire you and your spouse to make war and not love? Why does a teacher who holds sway in a yellow-and-brown classroom complain that your child’s fidgety and inattentive while a teacher who instructs in a blue room calls him a model student? And why should your job suddenly become more depressing instead of less when the boss finally shells out for a paint job and your dirty white walls get a coat of nice fresh green?
It’s a matter of science—the science of experiencing color.”

This next part I found to be true in a couple of other books that are out of print.

“Colors are electromagnetic wavebands of energy,” says Alexander Schauss, director of the American Institute of Biosocial Research in Tacoma, Washington. “Each color has its own wavelength. The wavebands stimulate chemicals in your eye, sending impulses or messages to the pituitary and pineal glands near the brain. These are master endocrine glands that regulate hormones and other physiological systems in the body.” Stimulated by response to colors, glandular activities can alter moods, speed up heart rates and increase brain activity.”

If you find this information interesting, I will continue entering Leslie’s article and other information from books that are out of print. Please let me know how you feel about this by leaving a comment below. The picture above is one of my favorite pictures from the Hubble telescope. The color is beaufitul and this is a part of our universe. Color is important to your well-being.