Weekly Market Activity Report For Week Ending April 14, 2018

One begins to wonder just how long the housing market can work in the favor of sellers. Low inventory continues to create a competitive situation for buyers that has sales prices meeting asking prices and often going over for well-priced homes that show well. As long as buyers continue to form new households and feel financially confident within an inviting economy, this could be the state of residential real estate for quite some time.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending April 14:
 • New Listings decreased at 1,653
 • Pending Sales decreased 14.0% to 1,258
 • Inventory decreased 24.2% to 8,752

For the month of March:
 • Median Sales Price increased 9.8% to $258,000
 • Days on Market decreased 21.9% to 57
 • Percent of Original List Price Received increased 1.1% to 99.1%
 • Months Supply of Homes For Sale decreased 22.7% to 1.7

Publish Date: April 23, 2018 • All comparisons are to 2017
Original data supplied by Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

Looking for a Simple Update? Here are 9 Unexpected Ways Paint Can Reboot Your Curb Appeal

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9 Unexpected Ways Paint Can Reboot Your Curb Appeal

Scott Sowers

When it’s time to amp up your curb appeal, it’s easy to reach for your landscaper’s business card while overlooking the most affordable design remedy on the planet: the humble bucket of paint.

A simple splash of color can transform your home’s exterior and reboot your front yard, so rev up your imagination and try out one (or 9!) of these creative ideas.

#1 Turn Your Front Door Into a Work of Art

Here’s a front door painted by L.A. artist Allison Cosmos, giving the focal point of this entryway a delightful touch of whimsy. While not everyone has the careful hand (and creative mind) of an artist, you can buy stencils from various online outlets, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, for a similar effect.

And Frank isn’t the only design genius to appreciate the stencil look. “I could see Martha Stewart doing something like this,” says Julie O’Brien, director of trade services for Urban Country Designs in Bethesda, Md. “The door will definitely stand out from the street.”

#2 Give Your Porch Swing a Pop of Color

So you’re looking for a way to make your front facade pop. Could the key could be your humble porch swing? It’s an unexpected spot to find a bold color, and can freshen up the look of your whole house with minimal effort.

“This yellow swing is a charmer,” says Annie Elliott, the boss of Bossy Color in Washington, D.C. The key, she says, is preparation. Take the time to sand the piece well and apply the appropriate primer. Elliott recommends Farrow & Ball’s outdoor paints and primer saying, “They last forever when applied correctly.”

#3 Create the Illusion of a Carpet on Your Steps

Is that a carpet running up a flight of exterior steps? Why no, it’s just painted to look that way using the clever application of concrete paint. “I think this is adorable,” says O’Brien. “It makes the whole first impression more interesting by drawing your eye upwards towards the house.”

Again, preparation is key to pulling off this look. Power-wash the steps and sand off any flaking paint before applying the concrete paint to ensure your work is long lasting. When using painter’s tape to create stripes, it’s best to remove it while the paint is still wet for the cleanest lines. And don’t let the tape sit too long in the sun or you’ll have gummy stripes left behind. Ick.

#4 Paint Your Porch Light

The before image shows a porch light in distress. The after depicts a work of crafty art rendered in copper. Or copper paint, at least. Using metallic paint to restore luster to an old porch light is a terrific idea for enhancing curb appeal. “I love how this homeowner used a coppery color, which looks terrific against the teal clapboard,” says Elliott.

The vibrant, metallic fixture brightens up the entire entry, even when the light is off. For a project like this, Elliott recommends Modern Masters, a high-end brand that specializes in quality metallic paint.

#5 Jazz Up Your House Number

Don’t limit your house numbers to merely displaying your home’s address; let them tell passersby a bit about who lives there. This creative homeowner used fun accent colors and creatively arranged wood to show some personality through an otherwise perfunctory part of a home’s exterior.

The ways to inject color into your house numbers may be as numerable as the addresses in your city, but key to making the project work is proper placement. “With such a deep porch, this homeowner came up with a creative way to bring the house number front and center,” says Elliott. Be sure to pick a spot for your colorful house numbers that serves their greater purpose: getting the pizza guy to your front door with minimal confusion.

If you have your house numbers on your mailbox — or even if you don’t — consider painting the place where you get your “Bed, Bath & Beyond” coupons. Painting utilitarian objects that are seen and touched every day can change the way you feel about your home. Besides the mailbox, think about your doorknobs, handles, and hand railings.

#6 Stencil Your Concrete Porch Floor

Wow, check out that chic new tile painted on the porch floor. Your neighbors will never believe it’s just paint until they step on it themselves. The homeowner who created this floor blogs as “Becky.” Becky first painted the porch floor gray and then used stencils to paint the white pattern. She used painter’s tape and a tape measure to keep the stencils straight and properly aligned.

“This clean, geometric pattern looks like tile, and limiting the palette to two colors ensures that the floor doesn’t appear too busy,” says Elliott.

#7 Decorate Your Shutters

Shutters can be functional or decorative. And if they’re going to be decorative, why not make them seriously charming? These shutters feature Norwegian rosemaling, a decorative folk art. Fancy!

While uber-original shutters may not impress the Joneses in every middle-American subdivision, they can be the envy of the right neighborhood. If you live in a whimsical, colorful community, they could really turn the heads.

If your taste in shutter art runs more conservative, consider this bit of wisdom from Elliott: “A fresh coat of paint on faded shutters can be just the thing to brighten up the entire exterior of a house. I love deep blues and greens for shutters; they’re timeless and go with almost any material including wood, brick, and stone.”

#8 Go Bold With Accent Colors

If you have a “full light” exterior door, your door is mostly glass (now you know!). The fun thing about these doors is that the thin frame around the glass creates an opportunity to add a bold accent color without overpowering the whole front of the house. Cool, right?

“It adds a little punch to the space,” O’Brien says. Do the same thing with your window frames by adding thin lines of color in strategic locations of space, and you’ll have a porch that says, “Didn’t see that coming, did you?”

#9 Paint Your Garage Door

For many homeowners, it’s not the actual front door that welcomes them home every day — it’s the roaring, often drab-looking garage door. Why not put as much thought into where you park your ride as you do into where you welcome guests?

If your pad is mostly monochromatic like this one, include your garage doors among the elements that work together to make a bright accent color really pop — even if you’re not going all the way to the fire engine-red end of the color spectrum. “I suggest painting garage doors the trim color of the house or even staining them,” says Elliott. With a little colorful coordination, you can create a look that warmly welcomes you, regardless of whether you’re stepping or driving through the threshold.

Weekly Market Activity Report For Week Ending March 31, 2018

Climbing out of winter has taken more time than usual for much of the U.S., but house hunting should finally be taking center stage for many buyers. Quickly assessing what's available for sale will be key for buyers in what is sure to be another competitive selling season. Buyers and sellers must watch for further mortgage rate increases and volatile economic indicators like a jumpy stock market and chilly relations with international trade partners, which can cause shifts in local housing markets.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending March 31:
 • New Listings decreased 35.2% to 1,234
 • Pending Sales decreased 19.2% to 1,124
 • Inventory decreased 23.0% to 8,397

For the month of February:
 • Median Sales Price increased 12.7% to $250,000
 • Days on Market decreased 15.9% to 69
 • Percent of Original List Price Received increased 1.6% to 98.0%
 • Months Supply of Homes For Sale decreased 15.8% to 1.6

Publish Date: April 9, 2018 • All comparisons are to 2017
Information from Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

The Rise of Luxury Shipping Container Homes

The humble shipping container. It gets crammed in side by side with hundreds of others and stacked a half-dozen high on a slow boat to the other side of the world. It’s perhaps the farthest thing from luxury in this, its natural state. Somewhere along the line, the idea of turning one of these plain steel structures into something that passes for habitability—the earliest patent was filed in 1965, and you can read about subsequent patents here—sparked. But could Christopher Betjemann, who first envisioned shipping containers as exhibition booths, have ever imagined them as luxury residences?

Perhaps not, but, thankfully, many other innovators have. While much of the growth of shipping container homes in recent years has been centered on tiny homes and ultra-affordability, the market for luxury container homes is also growing exponentially, all over the world.

Thomas A. Kligerman, partner at New York and San Francisco-based architectural firm Ike Kligerman Barkley, notes that sustainability is one of the main draws of today’s luxury container homes—which makes sense considering there are 20 million containers traveling on the oceans at any given time and “300 million unused shipping containers just sitting in landfills,” said CBS. Many are simply discarded after completing a trip because of the expense of sending them back to the originating country.

“Why not repurpose something rather than use resources to create new,” he interjected. Kligerman’s’s firm just completed a project using shipping containers that, while not exhibiting high design in and of itself, illustrates the luxury potential this type of building can provide. “We recently built a private hockey rink on a client’s 70-acre Maryland property,” he said. “While not necessarily luxurious—It is rarely warmer than 30 degrees inside—it is certainly a luxury to have your own hockey rink.”

For high-end buyers seeking to build a luxury home, price may not be the top concern, but the fact that shipping containers can dramatically slash building costs is certainly an advantage. “It’s definitely less expensive to buy abandoned or retired containers compared to traditional materials,” said Jeffrey Dungan of Jeffrey Dungan Architects. “They are also structurally sound and durable since they are made to withstand harsh weather at sea, homes can be built up to six stories tall without significant reinforcement, and they are quicker to build compared to conventional homes—Walls, floors, and ceilings are already built, so you just need to insulate. The first container home in Ireland was built in three days!”

Let’s take a trip around the world to see some of the most spectacular luxury container homes around.



The Beach Box, Amagansett, New York The Beach Box, as it’s known, is one of the United States’ more famous container homes, as desirable and innovative as it was when it was first built in 2011. Constructed from six shipping containers, the Hamptons home measures about 2,000 square feet with four bedrooms, two-and-one-half baths, and 1,300 square feet of decking with a pool and roof deck, which opens up views of Napeague Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to repurposing shipping containers, the home features certified sustainable materials including a white rubber roof, which is known to reduce energy costs, cypress siding, cedar decking, and bamboo fiber in the custom chef’s kitchen.

Joshua Tree Residence, Joshua Tree, CA Homes under construction don’t typically get the type of attention this shipping container home as received, but Joshua Tree Residence, located in the California desert, is not your average home. The 2,100-square-foot, three-bedroom residence is designed in a distinctive starburst shape with containers jutting out in every direction. Now completing the design phase with construction set to begin later this year, the home is from London architect James Whitaker, with inspiration provided from one of his previous designs, Hechingen Studio, a starburst-ish container office building intended to be built in Germany (but never realized). Painted bright white, the containers provide a distinct contrast to the rocky desert terrain, while the entire residence has been situated to take advantage of the landscape and provide privacy to residents.

Grillagh Water, Ireland The first modern shipping container home to be designed and built in Ireland, this architectural marvel weaves together four 45-foot shipping containers in the primary structure, creating two large cantilevers that extend out. Smart siting allows the Northern Ireland home, which is located on the banks of the Grillagh River, to enjoy picturesque views of its stunning rural landscape. Built by Patrick Bradley Architects, the residence offers a uniquely sculptural feel within the modern framework of a shipping container home.

Graceville, Brisbane, Australia The largest shipping container house of its kind in Australia, Graceville from Zeigler Build required 31 containers to achieve its 6,000 square feet. The three-story structure took six months to build, using ample glass and industrial touches to create a sprawling residence that makes a statement in a more traditional family neighborhood.

Incubo House, Costa Rica Built in 2013 by Maria Jose Trejos, Incubo House is a feat of both architecture and sustainability. The residence comprises eight large containers and was constructed so as to permit views of the site’s original cedar tree from every room of the house. Mobile bamboo exterior panels provide additional eco-friendliness (and attractiveness), while renewable, reusable and recyclable materials throughout the home helped to lower both the cost and building timeline—by as much as 20 percent, according to the architects. This striking structure is not a residential building, but rather the visitor’s center of Devil’s Corner, Brown Brothers’ Apslawn, Tasmania winery. Cumulus Studio used timber-clad shipping containers that were carefully placed to maximize views and give visitors something entirely new to look at. This project won numerous architectural awards, including the Tasmanian Architecture Awards: Colin Philp Award for Commercial Architecture, and the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture, and was recognized at the 2016 National Architecture Awards with a National Commendation for Commercial Architecture.

Article was originally published on March 12, 2018 by Coldwell Banker Global Luxury

Weekly Market Activity Report For Week Ending March 24, 2018

In general, housing markets are performing rather well across the country and locally. While some measures may show year-over-year declines at times, the truth of the matter is that showings are plentiful, buyers are eagerly searching for homes to purchase and good properties are exchanging hands whether or not the overall inventory situation is less than favorable or mortgage rates go up a quarter percent.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending March 24:
 • New Listings decreased 1.9% to 1,586
 • Pending Sales decreased 12.4% to 1,197
 • Inventory decreased 23.2% to 8,290

For the month of February:
 • Median Sales Price increased 12.7% to $250,000
 • Days on Market decreased 15.9% to 69
 • Percent of Original List Price Received increased 1.6% to 98.0%
 • Months Supply of Homes For Sale decreased 15.8% to 1.6

Publish Date: April 2, 2018 • All comparisons are to 2017
Information originally published by Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors