Living Littleton

   Littleton home sales pretty much followed the rest of the metro area trend in November, and that was downward.  According to Metrolist stats, November was one of the worst Novembers on record for home sales.  Most experts attribute the drop off to the continued slide on Wall Street, which has severely shaken consumer confidence.  There were some that also thought the rumors of lower interest rates may have forced some buyers to hold back in expectation of getting lower payments or being able to qualify for more house.  Either way, the numbers were down.  Even though sales were down a little over 10%, the average days on the market also declined.  This was probably because there were less homes on the market to chose from.  When you consider the number of new listings in November 08 as compared to November 07, they went from 245 to 196, a decline of 20%.  The number of active listings also declined, when comparing the two periods.  They declined to 517 from 618 a year earlier.  Looking at these numbers, one could also surmise that sales declined because there were less homes on the market to choose from.  That may seem hard to believe to some, but one of the results of the real estate slow down over the last several years is that buyers have become very picky.  If picky buyers didn’t see that perfect home in November, they’ll continue to look in December and January.

I was reading in a recent article in the Rocky Mountain News about the big change in recycling.  This summer I heard about how prices for recyclables was sky rocketing and how recycling companies were taking more and more products that they wouldn’t have considered, because of the demand.  Well, like the price of gas and other commodities, these prices have dropped, as well.  Just since mid October the price for a ton of plastic milk jugs dropped from $800 to $200.  The price for soda bottles has dropped from $400 a ton to $40.  This shake out is also hurting because now these recycling companies have to pay someone to haul away the less desirable types of plastic (number 3-7), and do this all with less income.  If you are someone who recycles, I would suggest you contact your recycler and ask for an up-dated list of what’s acceptable and then stick with it.  If we can keep the undesirable products out of the system, we can help the recycling companies survive this down turn so they’ll be there to serve us in the future.  You can also help by products that have minimal packaging.