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Our invocation was offered by John MacFarlane and Keith Olson was our song leader. Anthony Nordan brought as his guest Jacklin Steege, the new Executive Director of United Way of Otter Tail & Wadena Counties. Zach Stach reported that he, John MacFarlane, Dave Johnson and Wally Cole volunteered at the United Way the prior morning and Rotarians were again needed the following morning to deliver the food that had been packed. We heard reports on the book delivery referenced in the preceding article from Randy Kempfer and Bonnie Denzel; Kathy Austvold had already distributed the Andy & Elmer books at Morning Sun while Pete Wasberg and Randy Kempfer had done so at OLV. I don't believe we have ever previously delivered two different books to two different grades at two different schools (Adams for the second graders and Cleveland for the third graders) on the same day before, so a big hooray to everyone involved in the effort! Anthony reminded us that he is still looking for Rotarians to come forward and indicate an interest in serving on the Club's Board, saying if he doesn't hear from anyone soon you may be called. Tim Hunt was happy to report that a grandson attending the University of Edinburgh in Scotland received an invitation to join the national Scottish lacrosse team. Keith Olson told of a Kiwanian trying to sell him the grocery sweep raffle tickets -- 10 for $100 although the tickets said three for $20.00; Keith was still generous and paid $100 for 10, not 15, tickets. Hal Leland contributed for missing a couple meetings, including one where he was to have covered the front desk; Hal and Donna took a trip out west to visit their son and daughter-in-law as well as a grandson, visiting Colorado and Salt Lake City. Mary Pettit enjoyed the coincidence of her, Bonnie Denzel's and one other person's daughter, all of whom were good friends growing up, being pregnant at the same time. John MacFarlane contributed Mark Bring's scooter buck and also put in for reporting Otter Tail Power Company stock had hit $64 per share that day. Katie Johnson also put in a scooter buck, while Wally Cole reported on a delayed response to an e-mail communication he sent. Brian Tjaden was our speaker and he talked about the current real estate market. In our market area, about 40% of the transactions involve properties in Fergus Falls, 10% in Perham and 10% in Battle Lake. Inventory is down about 20% and we are definitely in a sellers' market, with the number of buyers having gone up considerably. Part of this can be explained by the dramatic drop in new housing construction since the 2008 housing market crash. Low interest rates are also fueling the demand and the pandemic has resulted in people wanting out of the rental market. Today it is not unusual for 10 to 20 buyers to look at one property. Nationwide, it is estimated there are 500,000 homes on the market for one million buyers. In our area, the average sales price was $118,346, which went up to $236,909 in 2020, and is up to $253,430 currently. Housing affordability has gone down. In 2019, houses were on the market an average of 80 days while now the average is down to 53 days. The current interest rate is 3.27%, expected to go up to 4% by the end of 2022. Brian also said Hatch Realty is sponsoring a Pie Day the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, November 23rd, from 3:30 to 6:3 p.m., with free pumpkin pies to be picked up at Farmers Insurance located at 1105 W. Lincoln Ave. and all donations designated to the Fergus Falls Rotary Foundation to benefit the Splash Pad. Other sponsors of the event are Minnesota Title & Closing Company, Pro Tech Home Inspection Services and Farmers Insurance. Just google Hatch Realty's website and click on the link to Events and you can register for your free pumpkin pie. |
