Teddy's Topics!

Real Estate & Some Fun Facts

Football season is officially here! As a CU-Boulder alumni, nothing made me more excited than the hype around our team last year with Coach Prime. For the first time in my life, a team I was rooting for was "America's team". That was until week four when the country realized it was literally just hype and we weren't actually that good. But the Prime effect has maintained and the country's eyes are still on our football program. And, sadly, similar to last year, we are not much better than we were. In the words of my brother, "I feel bad for you Teddy, you wen't from a horrible team that nobody knew about, to a team that everyone knows about and still sucks." We are only three games into the season so there is time to turn it around, but as a lifelong Bears fan, I have learned to have very low expectations and just focus on my fantasy team...which isn't that much better.

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Song of the Week

Lawn - Aldous Harding

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Today in History: Women's Suffrage in New Zealand

On this date in 1893 New Zealand became the first country to grant all women the right to vote. It was a fight that took a little over two decades to come to fruition. The movement started in 1869 and really started to gain traction in the 1870's. The first bill was introduced in 1878 which was narrowly defeated, then again in 1879, and again in 1887. All of these were close, but ultimately failed because of the way opponents framed the bill. A major movement against womens suffrage was the liquor industry who feared that allowing women the right to vote would result in prohibition (they were frequently tied together). In 1891 petitions were signed by 9,000 women, in 1892, 20,000 women signed and in 1893 32,000 women (of european descent) signed the petition to gain the right to vote about 1/4 of the womens population at the time. After this mass movement, the bill easily passed and was signed into law. For the most part the rest of the world didn't follow suit until after WWI.

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A Look at the Market: First Rate Cut in 4 Years

It has been a long time coming! For the first time in over four years The Fed has cut interest rates. Most people were expecting them to cut the rates at 25 basis points (0.25%), but Jerome Powell surprised us all by cutting them by 50 basis points (0.50%). The Fed Governor, Michelle Bowman, disagreed with the move and argued for a 0.25% cut. Her biggest worry was lingering price pressures. Like all things related to the economy and how to move forward, their are mixed emotions across the board with economists. Some worry this is too much and inflation is still too high, while others believe this rate cut is simply playing catch up with the market, job market, and cooling inflation. Who knows what's actually right? I have no idea, but as a realtor I am happy to see them go down.

Important note: The Fed rate is not equivalent to mortgage rates!! Mortgage rates typically move ahead of Fed Rates. For example, at its peak, mortgage rates were just over 8% and have been steadily declining the past few months to the low 6's in anticipation of the Fed cutting rates. So for those of you expecting mortgage rates to all of a sudden drop a half a point, that will not happen. They may move down a little from where they are now, but it is not a direct correlation. With that said, I would not expect mortgage rates to go up anytime soon!

Coming to the Market Soon: 1460 W. Balmoral ave. #3

This week we are going to Andersonville to look at 1460 W. Balmoral ave. unit #3. I am a huge fan of the vintage Chicago look in condos, but I am also picky when it comes to kitchens and modern appliances and this condo checks every box. You'll often see when people try to renovate their vintage homes, they try to erase the "old" feel by painting over elegant masterpieces and wood millwork and in my opinion it makes it look way worse. These people did a fantastic job maintaining the units antiquity while completely modernizing it. This is a top floor condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a den. What I also love about these older buildings is they were made to live in, not just to sell, so there are lots of different rooms that are very spacious instead of a fully open concept.