"Home is where the heart is."  "There's no place like home."  Home is the place where we seek comfort and shelter. Our behavior, emotions and overall mental state can all be influenced by our home. Home can mean housing or place of residence. What does home mean to you? April is the anniversary month of the US Fair Housing Act of 1968. For some of us, the thought of being discriminated against when looking for a home doesn't enter our minds. However, during the history of our country many people have been restricted from buying or renting properties simply because they are different.    The Fair Housing Law passed in 1968 prohibits discrimination in the sale, lease or rental of housing or making housing unavailable because race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or nati... 04/16/2010

Friday night is new movie night and this week you have 2 new movies to pick from in Iowa City. Kick-Ass and Death At A Funeral are your choices. Kick-Ass looks to be the Hot Pick for this week. Any movie that includes Superheroes, even if they're not real ones, is going to be a winner. I may not have gotten it right with Clash of the Titans, but I'd bet my shirt on this one! You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City... The other new movie is Death At A Funeral. Unlike Kick-Ass, which turns the Superhero idea upside down, this movie follows a tried and tested recipe... It's all about what happens when a family gets together at a funeral to mourn a loved. Yes, you guessed it, emotions run high and al... 04/16/2010

  648 Active Listings186 Homes Under Contract13 Homes Sold April 5 - April 108.8 Months Absorption Rate (Number of months it takes the market to "absorb" homes).The number of homes under contract continues to rise as buyers scramble to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before the deadline of April 30 for an accepted offer. We're having a real busy time right now, although with more than 8 months of inventory on the market we're still looking at a buyers market. We have a lot of catching up to do before we see any change in that trend. Last week's real estate market update for Iowa CityHow the absorption rate is calculatedReal Estate Market Report for Iowa City March 2010 04/12/2010

Two new movies in Iowa City & Coralville theaters today - April 9. It seems I didn't miss my vocation as a movie critic with my assessment of last weeks movies. Clash of the Titans made box office, although I have it on good authority, (my son) that it was "underwhelming" at best. Considering the competition this week I'd say the chances of it making a second week are pretty low, but perhaps I should just hold my tongue and wait and see... You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City... So what do we have to pit up against Clash of the Titans this week? The top new release this week is Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Feys, who of course need no introduction. No prizes for guessing that this ... 04/09/2010

Weekly real estate market update for Iowa City. Includes homes sold, homes under contract and active listings April 5, 2010.   631 Active Listings169 Homes Under Contract25 Homes Sold March 29 - April 38.5 Months Absorption Rate (Number of months it takes the market to "absorb" homes).The homes under contract continue to rise and there was also a jump in the number of homes sold last week. The market is hopping and that's likely to continue through April as buyers rush to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before the deadline of April 30 for an accepted offer. Last week's real estate market update for Iowa CityHow the absorption rate is calculatedReal Estate Market Report for Iowa City March 2010 04/05/2010

Time for a look at new movies in theaters this week for Easter weekend. We have a blockbuster, a family movie and an adult comedy, so there's something for everyone. Of course they're up against How to Train Your Dragon on a holiday weekend, so I'm not really sure how that will go... Actually I am. My money's on Dreamworks, how about you? You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City... So now to those new movies... The first one is a remake of the classic Clash of the Titans starring Sam Worthington. A big fan of Greek mythology I love the theme, but I'm not sure that even with stars like Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes it's going to have much of a chance against How to Train Your Dragon... Watch this s... 04/02/2010

Iowa City Real Estate Market Report March 2010 The number of homes sold in Iowa City in March climbed by 44% compared to last year. If you've been following my weekly reports you will know that we have lots of activity in the Iowa City real estate market and by the looks of things it's starting to reflect in the number of homes sold. 39 homes sold in March 2010 in comparison to 27 in March 2009. The median price of homes sold in March is down at $150,500 compared to $183,000 last year with an average of 96 days on market.   The drop in median price is a pretty good sign that first time home buyers continue to drive the market as they rush to take advantage of the expanded homebuyer tax credit. It's April 1st. If you're thinking of buying a home you probably need to get out there. Time i... 04/01/2010

2 new movies in theaters today, March 26 and they both get really good reviews. Definitely worth mentioning, since it's kind of unusual that everyone's in agreement this week. I guess they both fall into the category of light entertainment - easy to like! Here's the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City. The first new movie is quite clearly going to be a runaway success. How to Train Your Dragon comes from the Dreamworks studio. Need I say more? And what's not to like about a reluctant hero named Hiccup? That's enough for me right there... And I haven't even gotten to the part where you find out it's about vikings and dragons yet. Our reluctant hero is not quite in sync with the rest of his tribe and finds his b... 03/26/2010

Weekly Real Estate Market Update Coralville: Homes Sold, Under Contract & Active Listings         256 Active Listings43 Under Contract3 Homes Sold March 15 - March 2010 Months Absorption Rate (Number of months it takes for the market to "absorb" homes)Right now the absorption rate in Coralville is not looking good with a high 10 months of inventory on the market. There's still a chance the market will pick up in the coming months as buyers race to meet the deadline of the homebuyer tax credit. From Coralville you have a straight shot to Iowa City with less than a 10 minute commute to downtown Iowa City and the UI Hospitals. The convenience of living in Coralville seems to be being overlooked at the moment with a price driven market heading for North Liberty and the east side of Iowa Cit... 03/22/2010

The weekend is here - again! Time for my weekly update on new movies in Iowa City and Coralville. I'll start with the new releases for March 19 and include some ideas on where you can go for live entertainment on this Spring Break weekend in Iowa City.You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City...3 new movies in our theaters this week. I'll start with Repo Men, simply because I'm a huge Jude Law fan. Interesting concept too, repossessing vital organs from bad payers. Might be just a touch too gruesome for me though - I'm a bit on the squeamish side. Since it seems I'm doing this in order of favorite actor this week, the next new movie out today is Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston. She's the bounty... 03/19/2010

606 Active Listings117 Homes Under Contract6 Homes Sold March 8 - March 138.4 Absorption Rate (Number of months it takes the market to "absorb" homes).The absorption rate is calculated using the number of homes sold. I think it's safe to say that number is skewed at the moment with so many homes under contract. Once they start closing in bigger numbers we're likely to see a difference in the absorption rate. What the homes under contract tells us is that there's a lot of buyer activity in Iowa City with buyers wanting to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before the deadline of April 30 for an accepted offer. Watch this space. It looks like the coming months are going to be really interesting!Real Estate Market Report for Iowa City February 2011 03/15/2010

Weekly real estate market report Iowa City March 8, 2010     584 Active Listings101 Homes Under Contract12 Homes Sold March 1 - March 68.0 Months of inventory on the market An absorption rate of 8 months means Iowa City remains a buyers market for now. The absorption rate takes into account homes sold and not those under contract. And with 101 homes under contract we can see there's a lot of buyer activity in Iowa City with buyers wanting to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before the deadline of April 30, so we will probably see some changes in this trend soon. If you're not familiar with the absorption rate, more than 6 months inventory of homes on the market is a buyers market. 6 months of inventory of homes is considered neutral and less than 6 months a sellers market. For... 03/08/2010

Real Estate Market Update: Homes Sold in Iowa City February 2010 It's the beginning of the month and time to look at home sales in Iowa City in February.  The number of homes sold in Iowa City in February was down compared to last year. 28 homes sold in February 2010 in comparison to 39 in February 2009. If you look at my weekly update, you'll see that we have a lot of homes under contract, so even if we didn't have a bunch of closings in February, they are in the pipeline... The median price of homes sold in February was $160,500, compared to $162,900 last year with an average of 89 days on market. Right now there are a lot of buyers out and about wanting to take advantage of the expanded homebuyer tax credit for repeat buyers, so it's not really so much the number of homes sold we sho... 03/02/2010

    537 Active Listings 97 Under Contract 10 Homes Sold Feb 22 - Feb 27 7.5 Months of inventory on the market An absorption rate of more than 7 months means Iowa City remains a buyers market for now. There's a lot of buyer activity in Iowa City with buyers wanting to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before the deadline of April 30, so we will probably see some changes in this trend soon. If you're not familiar with the absorption rate, more than 6 months inventory of homes on the market is a buyers market. 6 months of inventory of homes is considered neutral and less than 6 months a sellers market. For more info here's a link to the first post I wrote including the absorption rate with an explanation on how it's calculated. Last week's real estate market update for Iowa City 03/01/2010

Seems the weeks just fly by... Here I am again already with my weekly look at new movies in Iowa City and Coralville. I'll include new movie releases for February 26 plus a couple of hot picks on what's going on in Iowa City this weekend.You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City... And now onto what's new... Two new releases this week. The first is a Kevin Smith movie, Cop Out starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Sounds like a pretty average storyline with two NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen mint condition baseball card. It doesn't get particularly good reviews, but I'm going to bet that doesn't mean a thing. This is Bruce Willis - who cares about reviews?The Crazies is the other new movi... 02/26/2010

Map and contact info for public elementary schools in Iowa City I know how tough it is to find info on schools when you're relocating, so I thought I'd break the comprehensive information around into handy little posts with more localized content. This post covers public elementary schools in Iowa City. Below is a map showing you the location of the schools. And here's a a link to a full screen version with legend. The Iowa City School District is in the process of changing it's boundaries and you will need to call the individual schools to find out more information on how they are likely to be impacted. Last year I helped a client relocate to the area who now works for family services. I spoke to her recently and her advice would be to contact the Principal of schools you're interested... 02/25/2010

Weekly real estate market update for Iowa City February 22, 2010: Homes Sold, Under Contract & Active Listings           511 Active Listings 96 Under Contract 5 Homes Sold Feb 15 - Feb 20 7.0 Months of inventory on the market An absorption rate of 7 months means Iowa City remains a buyers market for now. Despite the extremely cold and long winter we're having there are a lot of buyers out and about wanting to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit and with 96 homes under contract things are looking good for spring.  If you're not familiar with the absorption rate 6 months of inventory of homes on the market is considered neutral and less than 6 months a sellers market. For more info here's a link to the first post I wrote where I included the absorption rate and an explanation on ho... 02/22/2010

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What's new at the movies this weekend in Iowa City and Coralville? Seems I'm getting quite a following to this weekly post asking that question. Here's what's coming out today, February 19 along with a few other ideas of things to do in Iowa City this weekend.You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City... And now onto what's new... Only one new release, but it's a real humdinger!  It's Shutter Island, a Martin Scorsese movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo. Two US Marshals are called in to investigate the disappearance of a murderess from a high-security hospital for the criminally insane. Sounds very intense to me. Leonardo DiCaprio gets better and better as an actor and it's a Scorsese ... 02/19/2010

Weekly Market Update for Iowa City February 15, 2010: Homes Sold, Under Contract & Active listings.     505 Active Listings80 Under Contract 2 Homes Sold Feb 8 - Feb 12 7 Months of inventory on the market The absorption rate in Iowa City is 7 months, so we still have a buyers market. 6 months of inventory of homes on the market is considered neutral and less than 6 months trending to a sellers market. There's a lot of activity right now with buyers out to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before it expires. Considering the activity and the number of homes already under contract the Iowa city market is looking poised for a good spring. Here's a link to a post I wrote a while back with detailed info about the absorption rate. 02/15/2010