December 20, 2011 Lions Tale

Next Meeting - In the New Year! Jan. 3, 2012 - We kick off the New Year while many Badger fans are still en route back to cold weather after celebrating the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena. Pres. JIM will be here, though, and he will bring a special “Question/Story” for the day. Can't figure that out? Come to the meeting and find out. Not that curious? Come anyway!

We hear that there is a new event coming up - “Cycle For Sight”. It's an indoor cycling event, organized by the UW Eye Research Institute (our GAIL STIRR and a few incidental docs) to raise funds for research, and it will take place on the UW Campus on Saturday, February 11th. Teams of cyclists (we'll have at least one) will compete to raise donations through sponsors and supporters. There will be more info on this at the next, and subsequent, meetings, but it will be a chance to boost your physical fitness and help out with research on eye problems at the same time. And in mid-February, inside is where you want to do your bike riding.

At the last meeting, VP LINDA BERGREN presided, completely equipped, for a change, with both gavel and bell. Turned out she didn't need them to quell the Lions present. PHIL INGWELL gave the invocation, and LINDA led the song. She had promised a higher pitch, but tenors and basses outnumbered the sopranos about 13 to 5, so the pitch kind of drifted downward as we went along, with music appropriate to the season. Guests included Gwen Mueller, with DALE, and Paddhe Heinen.

There are still a few goodies left from our Holiday Treat sale - contact LINDA for details. And it looks as though SCOTT GROVER has more T-shirts than LINDA has malted milk balls. This is the longest-running golf outing in history. SCOTT did award one of the shirts to JIM KEMMETER for his work as Dispatcher for the Eye Bank couriers. JIM does a great job, at all hours of the day and night, keeping this vital service going.

We still need volunteers for the concession stand at the Kohl Center, including at last count one more for New Year's Eve. The more MCLC Lions we have on the job, the more money we get for our Service Fund.

We've identified one more pair of Lion bell-ringers for the Salvation Army kettle - LINDA BERGREN and DAN STOUDT did the first shift. It's a lot more fun than it sounds like, besides benefitting those in need in our community.

Our speaker was Kevin King, former MCLC member, and Exec. of the Realtors Assn. of South Central Wisconsin. He started off with some sales history in our area - 6000 sales in 1981, a high of almost 8000 in 2006 and the highest median price in 2007. The problem began in 2008 when sales dropped to 5300, and got worse in 2010 when the figure was under 5000. The timing was not the traditional annual bell curve of lows in Jan. and Dec. and highs in July-Aug. because of federal tax credits. Tax policies that were attempting to reach 70% home ownership led to people making some bad choices on what they could afford, which in turn led to the wave of foreclosures and falling prices. The first 6 months of 2011 were behind the comparable sales from 2010 because of the tax credits, but the traditional pattern started to reappear in 2011 with increased sales in summer and a decline in Fall.

Based on the area population, sales should be in the 5500-6000 range. There is currently a 10 ½ month inventory of homes on the market, high, but decreasing. About 20% of recent sales have been “distressed” properties, vs. a normal of about 5%±. For various reasons, lenders now require higher credit scores for new mortgages, which turns away some qualified buyers. Obviously, this plus the larger inventory has depressed the market prices.

There are a few signs for cautious optimism that prices are at or near their bottom, and that sales will increase. Showings were up in November, and contrary to the usual trend, Nov. sales were higher than October. In addition, the vacancy rate for apartments is only about 3%, vs. a normal of 5-7%, meaning that there are more than the usual number of families who will be looking to buy when they can. The hope is that a point will be reached where the county median income will allow the purchase of the county median-priced home.