If you’re waiting for signs of a housing bottom, join the club. Nobody blows a whistle and say, “It’s time to buy!”

That’s why market timing is an art, not a science, but you can improve your odds of buying wisely.

First, stop paying attention to the national media. Fear has sidelined buyers even in good markets, and that’s exactly when you need to take advantage — before other buyers wise up.

Second, be ready to pounce when you see the home you want.

The time is right to buy when you see these signs in your marketplace:

• Inventories start to decline. That means that the best buys are leaving the market, and best doesn’t necessarily mean cheap. It means the homes with the highest likelihood of profitable resale. Desirable homes will leave the market first.
• Days on market reduce. Days on market refers to the period when a Realtor enters a home in the MLS for marketing to other brokers, until the home sells. When DOMs are shorter, that signals a coming seller’s market. A seller’s market has more buyers than homes, so prices go up and selection goes down.
• Mortgage applications increase. Interest rates recently turned back the clock, causing many homeowners to jump in and refinance. Purchase applications were also up. Either way, that means homes are about to leave the market, so less inventory means firmer prices. Sellers will stop dropping their prices.
• Sold homes go for closer to listing price. In 2007, home prices dipped for the first time in four decades. With a 1.9 percent decline, homes still sold within 97 percent of listing price. When they get to 98 percent, you’d better be ready.
• Prices remain firm or rise. Prices are a product of demand. To attract buyers, sellers reduce their prices and offer more incentives. If homes are selling reasonably well, prices won’t move downward — they’ll go up.
• Incentives disappear. When a market begins to favor sellers, they don’t have to do as much to sell homes. Watch new homes and see if builders are still giving away swimming pools and granite kitchens. If they aren’t, times have changed.

Any change in condition will change others, so again — be ready. Now’s the time to buy a better house while prices are low, interest rates are low and inventory is still high.

In this buyer’s market, anything you can do to make your home standout will put you ahead of your competitors.  In this regard, the number one recommendation is to make sure your home is clean and free of clutter.  As the old proverb states, “cleanliness is next to godliness!”  This means that you should completely clean your house and yard from the curb to the back fence.  A finicky buyer will be less likely to purchase your home if there is trash and debris in the yard, grease on the kitchen range, mold and mildew in the bathroom and in the grout, filthy carpeting, clothing and other things sitting on chairs, sofas and beds.  You get the picture!  Here is a link to an article that makes other suggestions on what one can do to make your home standout: http://realestate.msn.com/Selling/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=5602256>1=10534. 

LCHS Ranked Among Nation’s Top Schools
by U.S. News & World Report

Reprinted from The Outlook

La Cañada High School has been ranked 95th out of more than 18,000 public high schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s inaugural nationwide poll. The high school rankings were based on school students’ performance on state tests, disadvantaged students’ performance, and the school’s success in providing the college-level coursework. La Cañada was among the top 100 schools to receive a gold medal.

U.S. News & World Report stated: “What if you could take a snapshot of each (school) and capture, at a particular moment, what kinds of students were enrolled there and the caliber of the education provided them? If you were to collect these individual snapshots into one huge national yearbook, which high school would be chosen as ‘Most Likely to Succeed,’ meaning that it set the best example of how to prepare students to achieve their postgraduation goals?

In the magazine’s first-ever ranking of America’s Best High Schools, its staff used a formula produced in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 data research and analysis business run by Standard & Poor’s. “We put high schools in 40 states through a three-step analysis,” U.S. News & World Report said. “First, we measured how each school’s students performed on state tests, adjusting for student circumstances. We next evaluated how well each school’s disadvantaged students did. Finally, we looked at whether the school was successful in providing college-level coursework.”

The 100 schools that did the best in this analysis earned gold medals, with the next 405 schools being awarded silver medals.

La Cañada High School scored 58.7 under the “college readiness” category and 3.5 on “exams per test taker.” By comparison, San Marino High School, which has previously been ranked No. 1 in the state on API exams, was 82nd nationally with scores of 60.4 (college readiness) and 3.3 (exams per test taker).

“I was really pleased,” said LCHS Principal Dr. Damon Dragos. “This report looks at a lot of the things we look at, including passage rate of A.P. exams and graduation rate. It gives an accurate picture. It’s nice to see that they are seeing the same things as we are.

“I would like to credit our kids. Without them, this would be impossible. They are energetic and enthusiastic. Also, their parents are incredibly supportive and I have a great staff.

“It’s not too shabby being ranked 95th out of 18,000,” said Dragos, who is in his third year as LCHS principal.

Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, was ranked No. 1 in the poll, with scores of 100 (college readiness) and 6.52 (exams per test taker). The top-ranked school in California, Pacific Collegiate Charter in Santa Cruz, scored 100 and 4.9, respectively.