Sunny Skies and Freezing cold in Iowa today. Ten years in Iowa and I still have trouble figuring out how cold it is based on the temperature. -3° Fahrenheit gets a quizzical look from me. -19° Celsius on the other hand, man that's cold! Our first storm of the season left us with a very pretty snow scene. This is in front of my house in Coralville.   Couldn't resist posting a pic of my cat, Tigger too. Looking especially cute as they do when they're asleep.This is in our hotel room, in case you're wondering about the sparse decor. Just a couple more days and we can move back into our home again. (Just in case you're confused with the different locations of these photos, I drive home every day and check in with the guys working on my house and of course to pick up my mail).       12/10/2009

We're in the middle of our first winter storm of the season. This photo was taken about an hour ago in front of my house in Coralville. In the meantime it's started snowing again. It seems the chaos is not going to end just yet. Everything has come to a complete standstill - Even Coral Ridge Mall has closed. (A rare occurrence indeed!) The winds are very high and we have a blizzard warning until midnight. More details at kwwl.com       Not my son's favorite job, but he's a good lad...     12/09/2009

Coralville Home Sellers Market Update November 2009It's coming to the end of the month and almost time for my monthly real estate market report giving a general picture of how the market is trending in Coralville. As we are going through a time of transition I figured it would be a good time to put together a few numbers with home sellers in mind. If you have your home listed right now, or are thinking about listing it, then the idea is to look at the real estate market from your perspective.17 Homes sold in Coralville November 1 - November 23That's a 31% increase over last year. 13 homes sold in Coralville in November 20087 of the homes sold were priced below $200,000. Coralville bucks the trend of both Iowa City and North Liberty in that there is a higher percentage of higher priced h... 11/24/2009

Coralville Real Estate Market Report October 2009 Just posted my monthly update for the Iowa City real estate market. Now it's time to take a first look at the Coralville real estate market... And believe it or not a couple of hours later I also have a link for the real estate market report for North Liberty... Busy girl today as you can see!The number of homes sold in October in Coralville are at this point absolutely even - 17 homes sold in Coralville in both October 2009 and October 2008. Real estate is cyclical according to the season, so it's always better to compare to the previous year, rather than to the previous month. The median price of homes sold in October was $200,000, also up from last year and homes spent less time on the market than last year too with an average of 91 d... 11/02/2009

Coralville and Iowa City flow into a continguous area. You've all heard of Iowa City, but unless you live here chances are Coralville is not on your radar... We've had some nice sunny autumn days, (in amongst all the rain) and I thought it would be a great idea to take some photos of downtown Coralville to show you all what a pretty little town this is. Overshadowed by big brother Iowa City I thought this would be the perfect opportunity put the limelight on Coralville. If you're relocating to the area, because of the University of Iowa or UI Hospitals, OR you're thinking of moving here to retire, Coralville is worth a second look. The latter may not be intuitively obvious, but folks who are retiring are impressed by the many medical facilities we have in the area, plus the focus on "gr... 10/27/2009

Coralville Real Estate: Knowing the absorption rate helps figure out trends in the market.After posting my quarterly report at the beginning of the month I decided more information is better... Yesterday I posted the calculations I made to come up with the absorption rate for homes sold in Iowa City. Today it's Coralville's turn. If you've never heard the term absorption rate, let me just clarify that it is a mathematical calculation to help project how long it is likely to take for a home to sell in any given area. Why should you care about the absorption rate? It will probably help you when it comes to making a buying or selling decision down the road. Knowing the absorption rate will give you an idea whether Coralville is currently in a buyers market, a sellers market or a balanced/t... 10/21/2009

    North Ridge Pavilion is a pretty unique all season event venue located in North Ridge Park in Coralville. Perfect for family reunions, wedding receptions or anytime you have a larger gathering. Completed in April 2003 it won the 2003 Governor's Iowa Environmental Excellence Award for its sustainable design. It was designed by Neumann Monson Architects, obviously with a strong focus on sustainable features. My personal favorite is the green roof. (This photo was taken recently - check out the one on the City of Coralville website, where the plant life is looking a lot healthier).   10/14/2009

Coralville Real Estate Market Report September 2009 including home sales for the 3rd quarter.This month I thought I'd change the format of my monthly reports and do one for each of my areas. This one is for Coralville. And here are links to market reports for Iowa City and North Liberty.I'll start with a year to year comparison for the month of September. 12 homes sold in Coralville in September 2009 in comparison to 19 in September 2008. Real estate is cyclical according to the season, so it's always better to compare to the previous year, rather than to the previous month.The median price was $156,250 compared to $190,000 in September 2008.The average days on market were 98 in 2009 compared to 99 days on market in September 2008.Coralville is adjacent to Iowa City and offers a real ea... 10/03/2009

New movies out in Coralville and Iowa City Theaters this weekend Oct 2 - Oct 5 It's time to chime in the weekend and look at the new movies coming out this week. If you remember, last week I predicted Bruce Willis would take the weekend with Surrogates. I wasn't totally wrong, (although I wasn't right either). He beat the competition when it came to new movies. Didn't quite take the #1 spot though and landed at #2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs held it's top spot from the previous week. Of course if I had switched my brain on I would have come up with that. Parents taking their kids to the movies makes up a big portion of the movie-going public at the weekends and I don't think Bruce Willis was on their list! Okay, so now to this week. There are more new movies out on general releas... 10/02/2009

Coralville Real Estate - A Great Place to Live and Everything You Need Right there On Your Doorstep!Coralville and Iowa City are more than just neighbors - they flow seamlessly into one another. You can be driving south on First Avenue in Coralville one second, then you cross an intersection and the name changes to Mormon Trek Blvd and there you are in Iowa City. Or you can be driving east on 2nd Street, (The Coralville Strip) and when you've passed the Vine Restaurant you know you've hit Iowa City.By virtue of its location it's hard not to talk about Coralville and Iowa City in one breath. Be that as it may, this is where I live and today is the day I decided to give Coralville a little extra airtime and share some of its finer points. Of course, the first thing I am going to talk abou... 09/16/2009

Where were you on 9-11-2001?;  the most tragic, interesting, re-defining American day.I had flown from my home in Iowa, to Scottsdale, Arizona, for a meeting.  I was already hesitant to go on this trip, because I would be missing my son's 5th birthday.  His birthday, is 9-11.  I had promised to return home on the evening AFTER his birthday, on the 12th.  On Tuesday, September 11th, at 8am central time, I'd just gotten off the phone wishing my daughter a great day, and my son Happy Birthday!   Back home, my 10 year-old, and the little one, on his 5th birthday, were about to board the school bus.  I hung up the phone.  The terrorists struck, crashing 4 planes, into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and to a field in Pennsylvania!A morning charity walk had been scheduled for us in the ... 12/25/2006