It’s a great time to SELL a modern home!

 

 

People keep asking me, what is going on in the market?  Where are the Spring listings?  In our office, we are noticing pretty good activity in the market.  Lots of showings, offers going back and forth, the usual.  But something is missing.  The new listings!  I had more activity in January with new listings than I am seeing now.  I have buyers who would pounce on the right house if it came on the market.  But I think would-be sellers are listening to all of the negative press the real estate market in general is getting and deciding to wait to put their houses up for sale. 

 

The MODERN market has always kind of been its own thing.  These are very specific homes for very specific buyers.  People who buy modern homes are not going to settle for just anything.  We just need more choices out there!  If a house is priced right, it will sell quickly.  No, we’re not getting the crazy escalating prices that we were seeing a couple of years ago.  But Cincinnati has always had a relatively good housing market.  As a matter of fact,

 

  Money Magazine Names Cincinnati One of the Six

“Best Places to Buy Home These Days”

 

Money Magazine released a list of the 6 “best places to buy a home these days.”  The website reports that the list is of “The 6 cities where home prices are likely to rise the most – or fall the least – in the next 12 months.”

 

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/real_estate/0804/gallery.best_buy_home.moneymag/index.html

 

Money reports that: “The city’s manufacturing-heavy economy should benefit from the falling dollar. Commercial building is up, and high-end developments are moving in.”

“It is great news considering the national trends.  The ranking confirms the strength of our housing market.  The Cincinnati Area remains a great place to buy a home, which is one of the reasons why we are so attractive for  business investment,” Mayor Mark Mallory said.

 

If you own a modern home and are looking to sell, call me!  People are looking for cool houses. Now is not only a great time to buy, it’s a great time to sell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pimp my house?

There are a lot of perks to living in a modern house.  You get to be on a first name basis with your roofer (Hi, Larry!), your kids’ friends think you live like movie stars, and occasionally you get a knock on the door from a location scout.  Our first knock came about 4 years ago, around the time MCM houses started showing up in everything from allergy pill commercials to Windex ads. 

 

Turns out, there are a lot of ad agencies and publications in Cincy that jumped on the modern bandwagon and use local homes as their backdrops.  It’s 50’s style cool for state of the art products of today.  Go figure!

 

And today, I did it again.  I pimped my house.  I am sitting downstairs as a photographer, stylist, hair & make-up person and some models are upstairs shooting away.  The fee they pay to use the house (complete with ‘period’ props) goes into my ‘house fund’ for upcoming improvements.  I think a cork floor in the master bedroom is next.

 

The way I see it, it is a win-win.  Modern houses get exposure and my house gets improved.  I don’t know how long the public’s fixation with MCM will last, but for me it’s just another adventure in the life of a modern homeowner.

Day Trippin’

 

Since a Spring Break beach trip was not in the cards for us this year, we wanted to do a little something for a change of scenery.  So a couple of weeks ago we took a day trip to Columbus, Indiana (72 miles from Cincy).  For those of you who don’t know, tiny Columbus, population 39,000, is a hotbed of modern architecture.  The late Irwin Miller, owner of Irwin Union Bank and Cummins Engine was a huge fan of modern architecture.  To enhance his local built environment, Miller started a foundation back in the 1950’s where local Columbus businesses, churches and government agencies could apply for a grant which would pay the architectural fees of a world renowned designer. 

So, in little Columbus, IN, they have a church by Eliel Saarinen, a church by Eero Saarinen, a library by I.M. Pei, schools by Harry Weese and enough cool modern buildings and public works of art to fill a two hour bus tour!  The tour was a lot of fun and at $10 per person, a bargain.  We had great commentary from a local tour guide bursting with pride for her community – and perhaps the best feature, inside tours of the two Saarinen churches.  My husband and I were both awestruck by the Eero church.  It was stunning!

 

After the tour, we walked through the charming downtown to the Irwin Union Bank building – an absolute time capsule from 1954.  This working bank branch has original desks, Saarinen side chairs, lighting, flooring, everything….  Not only was Irwin Miller a visionary in terms of developing his hometown, he had the incredible restraint to resist ‘updating’ his bank building in the 1970’s and 1980’s. 

 

After our whirlwind tour of the town, we did a little driving around on our own.  Off of the main road just outside of downtown, were these really cool streets with houses built around small man-made lakes.  Lots of modern houses mixed in, but as my 16 year old daughter pointed out, “these people don’t know that they have modern houses.”  Yes, even in a town that treasures its public modern  architecture, people still make horrible missteps with their modern homes – vinyl replacement windows, Lowe’s cut glass doors, and even the occasional yard goose……

 

The real goal of the trip, to catch a glimpse of the Miller house designed by Eero Saarinen in 1953, went unfulfilled – the location a closely guarded local secret.  But hopefully one day it will be open to the public – and we’ll be back!!

 

Check it out at www.columbus.in.us/