Elliott & Company Appraisers


February 2006	A Publication of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers



ELLIOTT® TO HOST "THE CHANGING WORLD OF APPRAISING"

For the 11th consecutive year, ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers will continue to host a continuing education seminar. The next seminar, which we have entitled, "The Changing World of Appraising," will run March 2-3 (Thursday and Friday) at the conference facility of Greensboro Regional Realtors Association at 23 Oak Branch Drive in Greensboro, NC. Joe Durrer, MAI, SRA, of Roanoke, VA, will conduct the seminar, which is good for 14 hours of continuing education credit in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Mr. Durrer has served as chairman of the Virginia Real Estate Board and president of the Virginia Association of Real Estate Appraisers during his illustrious five-decade career and is widely respected as an author and instructor in his profession. His entertaining, as well as professional, style of teaching has made him popular with appraisers in our past seminars. The first day will be devoted to the national USPAP Update. On the second day, Mr. Durrer's courses will be "Your State Appraisal Board Speaks to You" and "Trending of Data Due to Demographics and/or Market Changes." The seminar will be good for 14 hours of continuing education credit in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

U.S. HOMEOWNERSHIP RATE APPROACHING 70%

Soon, if not already, 70% of the households in the United States will own the homes they live in. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the homeownership rate was 69.1% in 2004, the latest year with statistics available. In 1950, the homeownership rate was 55%.

In the Midwest and the South, more than 70% of the households already own their homes. In the Midwest, 73.8% of the people live in homes they or their family breadwinners own, while in the South, that figure is 71%.

Both the West and Northeast have a homeownership rate of just above 64%, according to the Census Bureau. Rapidly rising home prices, which are increasing faster than income levels in theses regions are to blame for the lower homeownership rates in these regions. This is particularly a problem in California, where the homeownership rate is 54.3% and New York where barely more than half of the households own their homes.

1 MILLION U.S. HOMES WORTH AT LEAST $1 MILLION

According to the latest issue of Ultimate Homes Magazine, there are at least 1 million homes in the United States that are valued at $1 million or more.

According to the magazine, the most expensive home currently on the market is a mansion in Palm Beach, FL, owned by Donald Trump. The high-profile billionaire is asking a cool $125 million for the Florida pad.

QUOTES OF WIT & WISDOM

"Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman." -- David Ogilvy

"An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven’t been done before." -- Mark Twain

"If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one’s thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them." -- Isabel Colgate

"The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist, but gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not." -- Eric Hoffer

"I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?" -- Jean Kerr

"Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by a dog." -- Doug Larsen


For previous newsletters or columns written by Charlie Elliott, MAI, SRA, president of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers, for mortgage publications visit our Web site at www.appraisalsanywhere.com.



CONTACT US
Newsletter Editor: kevin@elliottco.com	Web Site: www.appraisalsanywhere.com
3316-A Battleground Avenue • Greensboro, NC 27410