Real Estate Information Archive

Cleaning the kitchen doesn’t have to be a daunting, time-consuming task. The secret to getting it done in 20 minutes is good preparation and a good system. Have all of your supplies handy and then ready, set, clean!

For this speed clean, you’ll need:

• 1 cup baking soda
• soft cloth
• sponge
• 5 lemon slices
• microwave-safe bowl
• old sock
• rubber band
• broom
• 1 cup white vinegar

Minutes 1 – 5: Clean Your Kitchen Sink

Wet the entire surface of your sink with warm water. Sprinkle baking soda onto the surface and rub it in with a soft cloth or sponge until it forms a paste. Then, rinse! Note: If you have a copper or stone sink, follow these special instructions.

Minutes 5 – 7: De-Clutter the Kitchen

If you’re kitchen is uber-cluttered, you won’t get everything in two minutes. But, you’ll be able to make a big dent by clearing out any surface-level trash like old coupons, takeout bags and anything else that’s lying around your countertops.

Minutes 8 – 10: Clean Your Microwave with Lemon

Put 1 cup of water and 5 lemon slices into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat it on high for 3 minutes, and then let the bowl sit for a full 2 minutes (you can go on to the next step while it sits). When you’re done, the microwave will be clean! Carefully remove the bowl of water and wipe down the inside of the microwave with a warm, damp sponge. Curious how this trick works? Check out our full step-by-step.

Minutes 10 – 12: Clean Under the Fridge

Grab a broom, put an old sock around the handle (fasten it in place with a rubber band) and swab the area out. We call this method the “crack attack.”

Minutes 12 – 15: Clean Your Sponges in the Microwave

Now that your microwave is clean, it’s time to kill the bacteria on your sponge. Microwave a wet sponge on the highest setting for two minutes. Carefully remove the sponge and let it cool before use.

Minutes 15 – 16: Disinfect and De-Stink Your Dishwasher

Pour one cup of distilled white vinegar in the bottom of the empty dishwasher and start a complete cycle on the hottest temperature setting. 

Minutes 17 – 20: Wipe Down Counters & Stovetop

And finally, wipe down the stovetop and counters. Wipe away any residual food, dust or suspicious spots with your cleaning product of choice and a paper towel or soft cloth.

And in less time than it takes to watch a Big Bang Theory episode, you have a clean kitchen. Can you get it done in 20 minutes? Time yourself and tell us in the comments!

Information provided by BrightNest.com.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

It's still up, up, and away for home prices in many markets. CoreLogic reports prices nationwide were up 6.8% year over year for October. This means prices in many markets are still appreciating more than the historical norm of 2% to 4%. (Inflation is a key factor in home-price appreciation.)

After the housing bubble burst in 2008, many of us couldn't wait for home prices to rise after such a precipitous and unexpected fall. (This was the first time many of us had actually experienced home-price deflation.) Fortunately, prices since then have recovered, and advanced to set new highs in many markets. 

But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Rising prices can be a windfall for sellers (though not necessarily if a seller is also a buyer), but they can be an impediment to buyers, particularly first-time buyers with no equity to cash in.  That's the problem today: a dearth of first-time no-equity buyers.

We'd like to see a further reduction in nationwide home-price appreciation going forward. More signs suggest that's the case in more markets. (Case-Shiller, in particular, has seen a slowdown.) Slow and steady has always won the real estate race in the past. It will continue to win the race in the future.

Information provided by Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Time to Brace Ourselves (Or Maybe Not)

Thanks to Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, there really isn't much to report on the housing and mortgage front. The focus for most of the past week has been on eating and shopping. Therefore, we might as well take another look at the Federal Reserve and its upcoming Dec. 16 meeting. After all, it's only two weeks away.

We again turn to CME Group and its data on trader expectations. As it stands now, traders in federal funds rate futures contracts are pricing a 75% chance the Fed will raise the fed funds rate come Dec. 16. That's the highest odds given for 2015. 

Trader expectations were further buttressed this past week on the words of one Fed official. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said he favors raising the fed funds rate this month. (The fed funds rate is a base rate for all other rates and hasn't been raised since 2006.) “Absent information that drastically changes the economic picture and outlook, I feel the case for liftoff is compelling,” Lockhart said.

Yes, the language is mealy and equivocating, but Fed officials speak only in equivocating terms (the difference is always a matter of degree). November's employment numbers (released on Friday) will likely be the final arbiter: If November saw 200,000 or more new jobs created, we'd expect to see the odds of a rate increase rise above 80%. We expect to see 200,000 or more new jobs for November.

At this point, though, pretty much everyone has priced in a rate increase. That's the way it's been for the past few weeks. Mortgage rates have held steady, and have even drifted lower.  We've mentioned in the past that it's not the actual event that moves markets; it's the anticipation of the event. Pretty much everyone is done anticipating.

That said, we expect mortgage rates to hold steady over the next week to 10 days. When we get closer to Dec. 16, volatility could pick up. Post-Dec. 16, we wouldn't be surprised to see rates drift higher.  The impetus is for lending institutions to find a way to generate more interest income. A higher fed funds rate helps the cause. 

That means that the rates we have today might be the best rates we see for awhile. If anyone is in the market to refinance or to buy, now is as good a time as any to lock and load. The odds of gaining 10 basis points isn't worth the risk of losing 25 basis points. Better to be pound wise and penny foolish then the reverse.

Information provided by Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

“White Christmas” is playing on the loudspeakers at the mall, and the grocery stores are all stocked with red and green M&M’s. The holidays are officially here! Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of our favorite holiday traditions – you can get a deal on pretty much anything you need for your home – but the savings don’t have to stop there!

Save money all season long with these savvy holiday tips:

Serve Appetizers Instead of Full Meals

If you're planning on hosting a get-together or party, serve bite-size finger foods instead of springing for a multi-course meal. Guests mostly just want to show off their holiday sweaters anyway, so whip up some homemade appetizers and let the people mingle! For some great recipes, read: From Bacon to Brie.

Make Your Own Decorations

Getting festive is always fun, but you don’t want to break the bank on decorations. Instead, go in the backyard (or craft store), scoop up a few pinecones and then go to work making these easy, seasonal pinecone decorations. People love them, and they cost you almost nothing!

Turn Old, Full-Size Cards into New Postcards

Do you have a stack of old Christmas cards from seasons past? Excellent. Cut them in half and use the cover as a repurposed post card. Nobody will know the difference, we promise.

Stay at Home

The holidays are jam-packed with new movies, expensive dinners and other out-of-the-house activities, but you don’t have to do them all! Save some cash by staying home with your family and playing some old board games (charades works, too). Who knows, it might turn into a longstanding, cost-effective tradition!

If after all of this you still hate the word cheap, just say frugal, instead. Frugal isn’t so bad.

Information provided by BrightNest.com.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

The odds continue to rise. Last week, we reported that traders in federal funds rate futures contracts were pricing in a 74% chance the Federal Reserve will raise the fed funds rate come Dec. 16. The odds over the past week have been lifted to 78%. This means that in three weeks something will occur that hasn't occurred in nine years: the Fed will officially raise an important benchmark interest rate.

Of course, that doesn't mean current mortgage rates are a thing of the past. We've frequently mentioned that anticipation moves markets, not the actual event itself.  This is the reason we've seen mortgage rates actually hold steady, or even drift lower, over the past three weeks.  The future is priced into the present.

We're not expecting too much volatility in rates over the next couple weeks. AsDec. 16 approaches, that could change. (Another blow-out employment report, due on Dec. 4, will further raise the odds of a fed funds rate increase, but it shouldn’t do much to move interest rates more than they've already moved.)

That said, after the fed funds rate increase occurs, we wouldn't be surprised to see interest rates begin to drift higher. Not much higher, but enough to appreciate the rates available today.

 Information provided by Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Sales Falter; Should We Worry?

Sales growth has ground to a halt as we enter the waning days of 2015. Sales of existing homes dropped to 5.36 million on an annualized rate for October. That's a 3.4% decline from September sales. Year-over-year sales growth has dropped to 3.9%, the lowest reading since January.

Supply is still an issue. This has been case for at least the past two years. Though sales were down in October, that did not materially lift supply relative to sales. Supply currently stands at 4.8 months at October's sales rate. A year ago, supply stood at 5.2 months.

Some pundits have blamed weakening prices for the inventory decline. The median price for an existing home stood at $219,600 in October, a 0.9% decrease compared to September. Year over year, the median price is up 5.8%, while the average price is up 3.4%. Price appreciation is down, but it is reverting to more historical norms. We don't necessarily view this as bad, though it does mean home owners still saddled with negative equity are unlikely to find relief in the near future.

As for new home sales, they posted at 495,000 on an annualized rate in October. This was below consensus estimates, but was a 10.7% improvement over September sales. Supply is less of an issue in the new home market. At the current sales pace, supply has risen to 5.5 months, putting it near the historical norm of six months supply.

It appears home builders are either targeting more lower-end markets or seriously discounting their inventory. The median price of a new home dropped a severe 8.5% to $281,500 for October. Year over year, the median price is down 6%.

To be sure, sales data are backward looking, while sentiment is forward looking. But given recent trends in sales and pricing, we would not be surprised to see another decline in home builder sentiment in December.

Despite the recent spat of negative news, we remain positive. When economic growth is considered, it's possible the past two months of sales and price data are an anomaly. The economy continues to grow. Indeed, third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) was revised up to 2.1% annualized growth. The initial report last month showed growth at 1.5%. Readings on consumer activity remain positive, which supports the contention that U.S. consumers continue to drive demand for U.S. production. A spending consumer is a confident consumer.

Should we worry?

We don't think so. The economy continues to grow. Strong job growth in October also provides a reason to remain bullish. If November job numbers come in as expected (with 200,000 or more new jobs), we would expect to see a positive trend form in home sales and pricing to start 2016.

 Information provided by Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.