Stevesellsdfw's Blog

Updates from May, 2016 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Steve Young 4:09 PM on May 31, 2016 Permalink | Reply  

  Texas Home Sales, Prices up in April 

  Get asked by lot’s of folks how the market is doing and I forget that if they are not active in looking for a home or thinking of selling/leasing that they might not realize what is going on in this wild and crazy real estate market we have been and continue to be in. Below is a good synopsis from The Real Estate Center . Check out the “available Inventory” for the DFW area! When I started the business in 1989 inventory was approx 9-12 months! 

  COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Latest Texas home sales data show sales last month were up 5.7 percent from a year ago while the median price was up 6.1 percent.

  According to April 2016 data (as of 11 a.m. today), 27,969 homes were sold last month, about 1,500 more than a year ago and roughly 640 more than in March.

  The median price was $205,300 compared with $193,500 a year ago and $201,500 in March.

  Months’ inventory was at 3.6 months. Real Estate Center economists consider 6.5 months a balanced market.

  Here’s how the state’s major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) fared in April.
  

  April data for most Texas metros are available on the Center’s website.

   
   

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  Steve Young 10:52 AM on May 31, 2016 Permalink | Reply  

  Non-Profit Organizations 

  Very good article regarding Non-Profit Organizations from Kirby Anderson with Point of View.

  Most successful non-profit organizations try to run with business world efficiency, but they are limited in many ways because of the funding models they must rely upon. Most of the men and women who serve on a board of trustees come from a business background, and they often cannot understand why the organization cannot be run just like a business.

  Thomas Tierney recently tried to explain why non-profits often run differently from profit-making businesses. He used this thought experiment when he discovered that many CEOs of non-profits spend nearly half their time managing funding streams.

  “Imagine if a typical CEO spent 2+ days a week with bankers, Wall Street analysts and venture capitalists. Now imagine that it took over 100 different sources to capitalize his business, and that none of them would ever commit to more than a single year’s funding. It would be like trying to drive from San Francisco to Boston on a gallon of gas at a time. You’d never be able to plan the fastest or most direct route and would always be looking for the next gas station.”

  Thomas Tierney says that as he has “looked under the hood” of various non-profits. He has concluded that much of the balky performance is due to the donors. Often we give for personal reasons. If a family member dies of cancer, you are likely to give to the American Cancer Society. If your child made a commitment to Christ at a Christian camp, you are likely to support that camp or Christian ministry.

  He also notes we often give to lots of organizations. “We need to avoid what I call ‘peanut butter philanthropy,’ spreading our resources too thin. We can’t save the world by giving one dollar to every worthwhile cause. We also need to invest in nonprofit infrastructure.”

  All of this should not be an excuse for nonprofit organizations. They need to be effective and efficient. But they are different from businesses because of the funding models they rely upon.