Construction Boom

Employers created a surprisingly large number of jobs in February, but it wasn't strong enough to prevent many Americans from leaving the workforce.

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 236,000, the Labor Department said Friday, well above forecasts of 171,000. The unemployment rate dropped to a 4-year low 7.7%, beating expectations for a smaller dip to 7.8%.

But some of that improvement was due to fewer people looking for work. The household survey that determines the jobless rate found that 170,000 more people were working, while 130,000 dropped out.

No-Participation Badge

The labor participation rate fell to 63.5% from 63.6%, returning to the low reached last summer and matching the lowest level since 1981. If it had stayed at the pre-recession rate of 66%, unemployment would be 10.7%.

The aging population may have accounted for most of the latest labor force drop, said John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial. The trend is here to stay.

"It's more longer term than cyclical at this point," he said. "It's sort of the new reality for the job market.

The S&P 500 stock market gauge rose modestly on the jobs report as well as China trade data suggesting improving global demand.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose 6 basis points to 2.05%, its highest close in 11 months. That may reflect concerns that an improving economy could eventually spur the Federal Reserve to curb its heavy bond-buying efforts.

Some Fed members are increasingly worried about quantitative easing. But Chairman Ben Bernanke and his deputy Janet Yellen have made it clear they strongly support the current easy-money stance.

January's payroll increase was revised down by 38,000, and December's was readjusted up by 23,000. That left average monthly job growth over November-February at about 205,000.

But automatic federal spending cuts that began March 1 will result in 750,000 lost jobs this year, the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated. The sequester's impact is on top of the burden of higher payroll taxes and tax rates on high earners.

The sequester makes February's hiring less impressive, Canally said. The job market is improving, but not as quickly as the data might suggest.

"The markets are saying this is not a game-changer," he said.

But the housing recovery is giving a bigger boost to jobs. Construction payrolls shot up 48,000, the best in nearly six years. Manufacturers added 14,000, the most in seven months, but far short of year-ago gains.

Health care added 39,100, continuing a trend as a top job creator. Professional services grew by 26,800 and leisure by 24,000.

Retailers hired 23,700 more, after adding 29,000 in January and 147,800 leading up to the holidays. The retail workweek also increased somewhat, from January's dive to a downwardly revised 30 hours, a three-year low.

Retailers and other low-wage employers may be shifting to part-time labor to avoid ObamaCare coverage mandates. Workweeks overall were up from January but generally little changed from a year ago, including those for leisure and hospitality.

Annual growth in nominal wages for production workers reached 2% again after a year and a half of crawling below that pace. Pay gains will be especially important this year as consumers face higher payroll taxes.

Head winds from tighter fiscal policy should send monthly job creation below 200,000 for the next three or four months, said Mike Dueker, chief economist at Russell Investments.

But February's gain still brightened his view for the first half of 2013, which he had seen as significantly weaker than the latter half.

If you are in the market for a Real Estate Investment opportunity, please give us a call. Until next time! Ebbie :)

St Patrick's Day event Schedule for the Lake

Looking to celebrate St. Paddy's Day at the Lake? There are lots of events to choose from. By boat, or by land, here is our list of green-filled events.

Lake Ozark Parade
The 29th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade will be on the Bagnell Dam Strip in Lake Ozark March 16 starting at 1 p.m. Join in the fun of an old fashioned parade with floats, marching bands, candy and goodies for the young and young at heart. For more information, call 573-280-5477.

Parade on the Water
The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on the Water will be held at Ozark Bar-Be-Que on March 16. Decorate your boat and take off after a blessing of the fleet. Tickets for the Tropic Island Cruise are available for $30. This includes the cruise and breakfast buffet. The breakfast buffet will be at Ozark BBQ at 9 a.m., captains meeting is at 10 a.m., the Blessing of the Fleet is at 10:15 a.m., and the parade beings at 10:30 a.m. Stops are at Richard Knoggin's, Coconuts and Jolly Rogers. You can also pre-order your long sleeved T-shirt for $15 each. Call 573-374-5500.

Short Bus Shuffle
The 3rd annual St. Patrick's Short Bus Shuffle begins on the west side of the Lake at 4 p.m. March 16.
Wristbands to ride the bus are necessary and are available at any location for $5. Short Bus Shuffle stops are at: Bear Bottom Resort, Big Dick's, The Branding Iron, Buffalo Benny's, Cannon Smoked, Captain Ron's, Chances R, Hurricane Dolly's, Osage River, Paradise, Scallywags, and G.G.'s Mini Mart. Deep Water Inn, The Lake House Inn and the Rock Harbor Resort are the participating lodging locations. Must make reservations early to secure your room.

5K Walk/Run
The annual St. Patrick's Day 5K Run/Walk in Eldon will begin March 16 at 8 a.m. at in front of The Department of Public Safety. Registration on the day of the race will be from 7:15-7:45 a.m. Entry fee is $15 until March 13, or $20 after. For an entry form go to www.eldonmo.org.

Celebration Dance
A St. Paddy's Celebration Dance will be held March 17 from 2-5 p.m. by the Lake Jazz Band at the Camden County Museum. Cost is $6 per person. For more information, call 573-346-7191.

While you are at the lake please stop by and see us at the Spouses Selling Houses offices. Until next time! Ebbie :)

Home Prices Up Nationally in 2012

A dwindling supply of homes for sale is helping prices. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index for December shows home prices posted the biggest year-over-year increase last year in six years.

Boosted by decreasing inventory and increasing demand, the 20-city index shows prices rose 6.8% in 2012 compared to the year before with price hikes in 19 of 20 major cities tracked, according to the report released Tuesday. Only New York fell, down 0.5%.

On a monthly basis, the 20-city index gained 0.2% in December. Nine cities posted positive monthly gains in December.

The Case-Shiller national composite index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, posted a 7.3% gain in the fourth quarter over a year earlier. Home prices ended 2012 with "solid gains," said David Blitzer, chairman of the home price index committee. Housing and residential construction led the economy in the 2012 fourth quarter, he added.

The strong movements, combined with other housing data, suggest that while housing is on the upswing, some of the strongest numbers may have already been seen, Blitzer says.

In a separate report Tuesday, the government said new home sales rose almost 16% in January.

Phoenix continues to lead the recovery with prices up 23% year-over-year. It's followed by San Francisco, up 14.4%, and Detroit, up 13.6%, S&P says.

Atlanta posted its biggest year-over-year increase since 1991 — 9.9%.

The housing market helped pulled the economy into recession in 2007 but it has finally emerged as a bright spot in the economy.

The strong final few months of the year helped to "cement the housing recovery," says Stan Humphries, Zillow's chief economist.

He expects some moderation in home value appreciation this year but says the housing recovery is on a stable footing, fueled by strong fundamentals of high affordability and increasing household formation.

A dwindling supply of homes for sale is also helping prices.

In January, the supply of homes for sale fell to 4.2 months, nearly an 8-year low, the National Association of Realtors says. That means if no more homes came on the market, they would all be sold within 4.2 months.

The tight inventories are spurring bidding wars and multiple offers in some markets, particularly out West where supplies are most tight. Much of the country is now a seller's market, NAR says.

The winter months are typically slower in the housing market. But high demand and tight inventories in many markets helped "keep things at a boil" into January, Humphries says.

Zillow's home value data shows values continued to rise in January, leaving them up 6.2% year-over-year.

Investors continue to purchase many homes. In January, they accounted for 19% of home sales, down from 23% a year ago, NAR says.

Low interest rates are also fueling demand from first-time buyers and those who lost homes to foreclosure or short sales several years ago, says John Burns, CEO of John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Rates edged up slightly to an average of 3.56% for the week ended Feb. 21 for the 30-year-fixed rate loan.

If you are in the market for a home at the lake, please contact the Spouses Selling Houses team at 573-302-2313. Until next time!! Ebbie :)

As we reflect on our experience in 2012 we can’t help but observe real estate internet marketing statistics from the latest National Association of Realtors profile of Homebuyers and Sellers Survey. According to the report, “use of the internet in the home search rose slightly to 90% and for buyers under the age of 44 this share increased to 96%”. When we reflect back on the results of this survey we believe more real estate professionals will begin to attribute much of their lead generation being more heavily influenced and supported by search engine marketing regardless of how the leads say they heard about us.

Over the years survey companies have been monitoring additional microtrends within real estate online marketing. We decided to summarize a list below of how these real estate internet traffic statistics will change in 2013:

1.    More than 90% of home buyers will continue to search for homes on the internet; And under the age of 44 the share will increase above 97%. This is based upon broad increased annual growth in Google search volume overall.

2.    More than 41% of home buyers will go to the internet to search for homes prior as the first step in the buyer process. This number continues to increase every year when reviewing the Homebuyer survey.

3.    Real estate internet searches will become more savvy with their search queries. The amount of keywords people use to perform a single search will increase. We are seeing this already happening across the broad search market.

4.    Worldwide the Google search engine will continue to increase over 83% of total market share.

RE/MAX has spent considerable time and energy to develop the absolute best search engine when looking for homes in our beautiful lake area. Take a look at what we have available right now by visiting http://www.georgeandebbie.com

Until next time!!! Ebbie :)

Hows the Market January

Hows the market with Ebbie Bogema. Every month Ebbie takes a look at the Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate market and it reports it to you. To view her video report, simply click on the screen here. As always if you are in the market for Real Estate here at the lake, please contact the Spouses Selling Houses team at 573-302-2313. Thank you.

Mortgage rates hit all-time low!

Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell to fresh record lows this week, a trend that has helped the housing market start to recover this year.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says that the average rate on the 30-year loan dipped to 3.34 percent, the lowest on records dating back to 1971. That's down from 3.40 percent last week and the previous record low of 3.36 percent reached last month.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage also dropped to 2.65 percent. That's down from 2.69 percent last week and also a new record.

The average rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent all year. It has fallen further since the Federal Reserve started buying mortgage bonds in September to encourage more borrowing and spending.

Low mortgage rates have helped boost sales of newly built and previously occupied homes this year. Home prices are also increasing, and builders are more confident and starting work on more new homes.

If you are in the market for a home at the lake please contact the Spouses Selling Houses team. Until next time! Ebbie :)

Wood Burning Tips

There is nothing like a warm wood fire crackling in the fireplace during these chilly months. Below we have listed just a few wood burning tips to enhance your enjoyment.

1. Never burn:

• Plastics
• Glossy magazines or newsprint
• Painted or treated wood
• Foil or metallic-coated gift wrap
• Particle board
• Household garbage (diapers, plastic bags, etc.)
• Plywood
• Rags or fabrics made of synthetic materials

These items release toxic chemicals into the air that can be harmful to your health and damage your stove or fireplace.

2. Split your firewood

Wood dries from the surface inward, so un-split wood dries very slowly. The more surface wood is exposed by splitting, the faster the wood will dry. Stack the wood loosely to promote air circulation.

3. Burn seasoned firewood only

The time it takes freshly split wood to become fully seasoned will vary with the type of wood, its thickness, and the weather. As a general rule, however, one should allow a year for wood to dry for efficient, clean indoor burning. Cracks in the ends of the wood are an indication that it is fully seasoned and ready for burning. You can also test whether the wood is fully seasoned by striking two pieces together. Dry wood gives a sharp ‘crack’ while unseasoned wood sounds more like a dull ‘thud’.

Unseasoned firewood provides less heat energy when burned, yet releases more smoke and contributes to hazardous creosote buildup in chimneys.

4. Store wood outside, covered on top with sides open to air

Cut, split and stack firewood in a place sheltered from the weather, but not covered on the sides, so as to optimize air circulation. Block up the bottom row of wood several inches off the ground. During snowfalls, throw a tarp over the woodpile to keep blowing snow out of the stacked wood.

5. Store only a small amount of wood inside your home.

Bringing large amounts of firewood into the home to ‘pre-dry’ is counter-productive, and may release excess humidity into the room. When lifting from the woodshed into the carrying box, or wood sling, a quick tap against a hard surface will release any spiders that otherwise will be brought into your home.

6. Split wood into pieces 4-6 inches in diameter.

Firewood will burn cleaner when more surface area is exposed to the flame. Use the smaller split pieces to get the fire started, and only use larger pieces of wood once the fire is well established.

7. Make sure your fire is getting enough air.

This will ensure it burns hot and clean. Check the air intake of your heater to ensure there are no blockages from dust balls and spider webs. If you have a through-floor intake, check to see that the screen is brushed clean and not obstructed by insect debris or spider webs.

A properly burning fireplace is hotter, produces less smoke and is more efficient. This means more warmth for less money and less impact to your health.

8. Don’t stuff too much wood inside the firebox.

Overloading the firebox can reduce the amount of air needed for ideal combustion. Refuel more often with smaller loads with the air inlet open wide to keep the fire burning briskly. If you need to shut the fire down, wait until it is well-established before turning down the damper. If you throw a fresh log in just before closing the damper, it may smolder for some time before reaching a cleaner combustion stage.

9. Let your fire go out at night.

To reduce the level of wood smoke pollution in towns and cities it is recommended that you do not burn your wood heater overnight on reduced air flow. This will save you some wood and help your stove and chimney remain cleaner for a longer period of time. It will cost less to let your wood heater go out over night and run an electric heater in the morning for 2 hours, than to keep your wood heater burning through the night.

Stay warm! if you are int he market for a home at the lake, please contact the Spouses Selling Houses team. Until next time! Ebbie :)