Today's Cheat Sheet is brought to you by Web Success Agency:
http://websuccessagency.com/

 

August and September proving to be red hot months for local real-estate:

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/sep/20/single-family-home-sales-up-on-the-treasure/

Bottom Line:  So the most recent nationally published numbers for the second quarter (that ended in July) showed South Florida real-estate rising between 3-5 yoy showing the early signs of a rebound and confirming that real-estate in our area had actually bottomed.  I hypothesized that the trend would likely only improve as we got closer to season in Florida.  My theory was that many who have rented for the past several years may become buyers because of affordability and a clear trend the local real-estate was no longer in decline.  Well that appears to be occurring.

I work with two local real-estate professional groups.  The Treu Group in Palm Beach County and Kelly Fischer on the Treasure Coast.  They help contribute to the following information.  In August, Palm Beach County real-estate showed an average sales increase of greater than 12% while the Treasure Coast showed average double digit gains as well with the best forming area on the Treasure Coast was St. Lucie where the average price was 20% higher year over year!  In September Palm Beach County showed an average increase of 14.5% year over year…!  Additionally we are seeing pending sales increases of greater than 30% on the T.C. currently and over 60% in PBC. 


There are many take-aways based on this information, among them – your home may be worth more than you think and more than the Zestimate (for example).  Many of the sites like Zillow don’t reflect comparable sales data for three to four months, meaning that your home value is likely near the higher end of the range that you will see on Zillow or other semi-credible sites.

 

The best polling data available to gauge the mood of the country may not involve a candidate:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/generic_congressional_vote-2170.html

Bottom Line:  Through-out this election cycle I’ve been paying passive attention to the generic ballot polling information.  I say passive because we haven’t had enough consistent polling of the generic ballot question to gauge a credible number (to my level of satisfaction).  If you’re a regular to the Cheat Sheet you know I don’t believe in citing just one or two polls on a race as concrete information regarding political races.  In the past two cycles Real Clear Politics has made it super simple to keep track of the latest polling data in all aspects of politics and when I was pursuing the latest data yesterday I realized we finally had enough data in the generic ballot questioning to report the information.  And here’s the thing – it’s likely the best barometer of where we are politically right now for the following reasons:

  1. The generic ballot question is only a sample of likely voters
  2. Because of the likely voter screen voter enthusiasm in accounted for
  3. Because of voter enthusiasm’s consideration we’re seeing a near equal sampling

To explain those three…  When you take a look at polls comparing Obama vs. Romney nationally or in given states you have a mix of adults, registered voters and likely voters being sampled.  It goes without saying that most non-registered voters a month away from Election Day aren’t going to vote.  Registered voters are a slightly better sample at this point because they are at least capable of voting however they still aren’t the proper group to sample a month away from the election because it doesn’t account for voter enthusiasm, or to put it another way, where the mood of the country is.  So with all of that background here is the actual number we’re currently seeing on the generic ballot question…

Likely voters are ever so more slightly to vote for a Republican than a Democrat this November.  The average shows Republicans with a 1% lead over Democrats on average with 9% not leaning in either direction.  That sounds a lot more realistic than the national head to head Obama vs. Romney polls that have oversampled Democrats by an average of 9%.  In 2008 Democrats had a generic ballot advantage of 8%.  In 2010 Republicans had the advantage by 6 points – so it’s completely reasonable that Republicans have a 1% advantage as we approach the election. 

 

iPad mini is coming to be announced this month:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/10/01/rumor-ipad-mini-invitations-set-to-be-mailed-out-oct-10/

Bottom Line:  So indeed we’re going to have an announcement for the iPad Mini.  A couple of months ago I mentioned there would likely be a mid October event for the new smaller – cheaper iPad and Fortune is in essence confirming that will occur.  October 17th Apple will release a tablet designed to compete with the Fire’s, Nexus Nook and other lower priced tablets.  We’ll have to wait for pricing and all of the specs but if you’re inclined towards this type of product, it may be worth waiting to hear what this product will be and how it will compare to the others in the like class.

 

Are self-driving cars coming to Florida?:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/robotic-cars-hit-road-2-070109142.html

Bottom Line:  So I was surprised twice yesterday as I looked for any new information on the self-driving car front.  First was that I was mistaken in thinking California was the first state to legalize self-driving vehicles.  Nevada had already legalized the cars.  The next surprise was that three additional states were considering the idea, including ours.  Hawaii, Oklahoma, and yes, Florida are all looking into the self-driving cars currently.  If you have an opinion on this topic you might consider contacting your state Representatives.

 

In advance of the holiday shopping season - Google catalogs can save a lot of paper:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/01/google-catalogs-comes-to-the-web-now-integrated-with-google-shopping/

Bottom Line:  Ahh yes, the end of the paper catalogs may be here (at least if I can convince Ashley to move to the Google catalog). 


If you receive endless catalogs in the mail, especially this time of year – this might bring to relief to everyone except the USPS.  Google has teamed with more than 300 companies to provide their catalogs in one service electronically.  Last year it was only available through an app.  This year you can view it online anywhere (more info above).  Good luck!