By Kat Hobza

Those of us in the real estate arena are tiring of the Chicken Little, the-sky-is-falling headlines that have dominated real estate news for the last couple of years.

Obviously no one wants to minimize the suffering of real estate markets, people and families that have been hard hit around the country.  It has been a challenging time.  For some, it’s been more than challenging…it has been devastating.

Other parts of the country have felt a pinch, but are holding their own.  Like Billings.  Every one is a bit behind where they were last year, but we’re still selling and building houses.

Frustration for folks like me dwells in the certainty that large purchases are so rooted in consumer confidence.  And consumer confidence is so rooted in what people are reading on the Internet, Facebook and listening to on 24-hour a day news stations (where there is A LOT of space to fill and not much to fill it with some days).   If you think I’m exaggerating, watch the news for 24 hours and track how the stock market reacts.

And as much as we hate to admit it, bad news sells, right?

Well today, for this 3 minutes, I’m going to suggest there is actually some GOOD news in real estate.  (Insert shocked gasp here.)

Interest rates have been hovering somewhere around 4% for a while now.  What are you waiting for???  You know when you’re sitting at a stop light and the person in front of you doesn’t move when the light turns green, and you mutter, “That light ain’t gonna get any greener.”  That’s what I’m saying to you about interest rates.  Anytime you can get something with a 4 in front of percentage sign on a THIRTY year mortgage…it’s go time!  “That interest rate ain’t gonna get any lower.”

Similarly, housing values have already bottomed out.  There’s nowhere to go but up.  Materials to build houses aren’t going to take a sudden and inexplicable nosedive.

I like what Builder Magazine had to say on this topic.  Chip Brown, director of sales for Charter Homes in Lancaster Pennsylvania is quoted in Builder as saying, “…three or four years from now, the folks who bought homes today are going to be considered geniuses.”

Did you catch that?  Not “bright” or “smart”…GENIUSES.  Building a reasonably priced home financed at a super low interest rate is kind of, um, genius.

Consumer confidence is also rooted in, well, consumers.  You decide.  You can try and duck out from under the piece of sky that CNN keeps squawking about, or you can look up and see bright sunny skies.

By Kat Hobza

A couple weeks ago, I embarked on my quarterly voyage to Old Navy.  I don’t know what it is.  Is it the lure of cheap clothing?  The hip music?  The volume of choices?  I’m not sure.  All I know is that I find myself wandering O.N. aisles about every 3 months and feeling like my life is somehow less complete until I plunk down about $60.

So there I was a few weeks ago, on my quarterly pilgrimage.  I strut up to the cashier with my purchases, chirping happily to my cousin/shopping companion.  I was asked the typical questions.  Did I want to save a certain percentage by using my Old Navy card?  Did I see all the impulse items in front of the cash registers?  Did I want to purchase said impulse items?  But the next question is what sent me reeling.

The gal behind the counter informed me, with a straight face, “We are going more green.  Would you like to give me your e-mail address so I can send you your receipt?”

I don’t know if I was in a daze from my shopping frenzy, or distracted by the delightful company of my cousin, but I found myself saying, “Sure.”

After I gave the cashier my e-mail address (grrrrrrrr), she shoved my clothes that still hung on PLASTIC hangers into a PLASTIC bag, and I exited the fluorescent-lit land hog.

I was so mad!  Mostly at myself for falling for such a ploy, but at Old Navy for having the stones to gather my e-mail address through bogus claims of being “green.”  I felt so duped!

I got home and did a little Internet research and learned that Old Navy (owned by The Gap) scored only 50% on Rank-a-Brand’s environmental/labor conditions/Fair Trade scale!  AND Old Navy only got 2 check marks by the EIGHT environmental questions!  “Going green” my achin’…back side!

What is the point of this rant you may ask?  Simply this.  Some companies say they are “going green” as a false (and not terribly clever) way to glean your e-mail address.  Some do it to look cool, or to make a fashion statement.

At McCall Homes, we aren’t “going green,” we ARE green.  We do this in a ton of ways (read more on this web-site to get the low-down), none of which have to do with “e-mailing you a receipt.”  Sheesh.  We prefer to recycle construction materials, reduce waste, build Energy Star homes and adhere to Smart Growth community principles.  But hey, as long as everyone does their part, that’s all that matters, right?  I know I’ll sleep better knowing my biodegradable receipt was e-mailed rather than printed off.  WOW.

By Kat Hobza

All of us are looking for ways to reduce our monthly expenses, and our energy bills are one of the first places we look.  You tell the kids, “Turn off the lights when you leave the room,” (which, let’s be honest…MIGHT save you $1 every month) and we lower the thermostat.  Good place to start.

If you want to get serious about slaying the energy consumption dragon, here’s what you need to do.  Build an Energy Star home in Josephine Crossing.  And here’s why:  Energy Star homes save  you money.  I don’t want to get all scientific on you and whatever, but here is how the math works out:

Build a house that doesn’t leak air that you have paid to heat or cool, use a hot water heater that has been tricked out to be more efficient (or better yet use a tankless hot water heater), put in some kick-butt windows, cram the walls with insulation, and bada-boom, bada-bing, lookey there…you’re saving money on energy!!!!!  It is as easy as that.  In this way, you are counting on building science, not KIDS (who in a week will revert right back to NOT turning lights off when they leave a room) to save you money!

Click here for a few more tips….

AND if you want to get more info on REAL ways to save money on energy in your home….give me a jing/jang at (406) 219-0624.

By Kat Hobza

If you spend 30 seconds on the Internet, you’ll see it.  Gloom and doom about the national housing market.  All of this “the sky is falling” messaging tends to spook folks, regardless of where they live.  Yes, the global economy is struggling.  Yes, those of us with holdings in the stock market are taking a deep breath. But Billings is hanging tough.

Why?  You don’t have to be an economist to figure out that the Billings market is, generally speaking, insulated to a degree from the dramatic highs and lows of the rest of the nation, or even other parts of Montana.  Those of us who have had our eye on real estate for a few years observed the cost of homes in places like Bozeman and Western Montana sky-rocket.  Locals knew that was not sustainable, and figured the bubble would burst.  And it has.

Meanwhile, Billings has been plodding along.  We’re feeling the recession and fall-out of a weak national economy, but we are not imploding like many other parts of the country.

New construction can be vulnerable during troubling economic times, but as our very own Greg McCall explains in this KTVQ video, the building industry in Billings is holding its own:

Builders find business in affordable homes