It’s a veritable downpour. Start building an ark.

This photo, taken moments ago, shows the rain on the hood of my Jeep. Look closely…

I guess I shouldn’t complain. I just got off the phone with Teresa Boardman (such a lovely gal by the way) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Where it’s like 9 now — or something equally ridiculous.

But rain here is a big weather deal. It even makes the lead story in the news (see Large Amount of Rain Moving Into Valley). According to this story, we may get 1 to 2 inches of rain in the next 48 hours. Keep in mind the average amount of rainfall for the entire months of November and December combined is 1.4 inches.

Jonathan is anxiously awaiting the deluge.

Here’s a shot of the sidewalk that may show the rain better than the Jeep photo…

And this is just for Teresa. I know an agent that can find you a great winter home… Stay warm T!!

Technorati Tags: Phoenix weather, storm of the century

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Peruse the news wires or blogs and you’ll find countless posts on mortgage lenders shutting their doors, laying off lenders, and more. There is even an entire site devoted to “the mortgage lender implosion”.

But as Misty Williams reports in the East Valley Tribune, some lenders are actually hiring.

Scottsdale-based State Mortgage has added 12 to 15 new people, mostly loan officers, in the past six to eight weeks.

. . .

AmeriFirst Financial in Mesa has added 70 to 80 people in the past six months, bringing its total number of loan officers to more than 200.

Perhaps this is a good sign. Only time will tell.

On the real estate sales side, we have noticed a definite up tick in buyer inquiries. Serious buyer inquiries. Other Phoenix area agents have noted recent buyer activity as well.

I wouldn’t be so bold as to say the market is turning. There are still a ton of listings on the market and aggressive pricing is still very necessary to move a home in any reasonable amount of time.

But the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is historically the slowest time of the year for home sales.  It’s encouraging to hear about lenders hiring and agents seeing increased buyer activity.

Technorati Tags: Phoenix real estate market conditions, mortgage lender implosion

Normally I have between between 300 - 500 unique visits a day on this blog - with the bulk coming between 9:00 - 5:00 (suffice it to say — GASP! — people surf the net at work).

So I was surprised when I looked this morning and saw there were 173 visits between midnight and 8:00am (normally the “slow time” for visitors).

What would cause a traffic spike like that?

A couple of weeks ago, somehow an eight month old post, “Be Careful What You Say on the Internet!” got “stumbled upon” sending a flurry of traffic. I figured something similar must have happened last night.

Nope. A quick check of Sitemeter showed a ton of visits from people searching Google/Yahoo for the story of the bozo doing 219 MPH in his Lamborghini down a Phoenix freeway. They were finding last nights post/video — Idiot Drives Lamborghini 219 MPH on Phoenix Freeway.

Every page looks similar to this in my Sitemeter stats:

Obviously it would be highly unlikely if any of these visitors are also in need of a Phoenix real estate agent. Right?

You never know. Looking deeper at the stats, many of these visits were from Phoenix area residents. Who knows, maybe a few will read something else, and decide they like it here. All it takes is for one to bookmark the blog, add it to their feed reader, or “phone a friend”.

Clearly the Lamborghini post had nothing to do with real estate. But it was local news, and let’s face it — people go to the internet for news. Nothing wrong with them finding your blog when they do.

Technorati Tags: Lamborghini, blogging, blog traffic

Someone completely out of their mind has driven a Lamborghini Murcielago at 219 MPH on the Loop 202 Santan freeway in East Mesa.

And of course there is a video of this stunt on YouTube. The video is rather boring, but does show this clown passing cars and having to slow down on one of his speed attempts due to someone in front of him.

All this took place about 3 miles from my house.

I have to admit, the car sounds *great* in the video, and wow would it be fun to drive a $280,000 car like this. But really, what a stupid thing to do on a public roadway that isn’t designed for that kind of speed. He could have easily killed himself or others.

Officials are investigating. Ya think?

Today’s Dilbert. Ironic timing…

Inside joke. Some will get it, most probably not. But it’s sorta funny either way.

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