Welcome to the 578^th Weekly Update as the month of October simply flies by. Reminder, if you have any house projects then you need to plug into our rolodex* full of folks that can help you at the house. (*if you’re <40yo, rolodex means contact list) If you have some mildew or mold from this past EXTRA humid summer, we have a great restoration and remediation company. If you’ve got a few new projects you need to complete, we have a handyman contact, and if you need a mortgage… well gang, you’ve come to the right place as well, cuz we have the connections to help (especially with that mortgage part). Please just give us a call… you don’t have to find one diamond in the rough on your own because we already have found some of the best folks for you to work with.



Now, back to the update. This week, rates bounced around and were slightly improved and we're hoping for CONTINUED improvement in the coming weeks. The rates are shown just above the trivia question. If you have questions about how these rates apply to your situation, let's talk. But gang as usual, there is LOTS GOING ON, SO LET'S GET STARTED!

CRAZY STORIES

Italy is famous for pasta, pizza, and wine, and thieves just proved they have great taste. About 30,000 bottles of prized wine, worth an estimated 5 million euros ($5.8 million), were stolen from a Marchesi Antinori winery in Tuscany, the largest wine theft on record in Italy. At least seven thieves struck Saturday night, switched off the alarms and cameras, and used the winery’s own forklifts to load two large trucks. About 10,000 were Solaia, a flagship wine, and all of the bottles are from the 2023 vintage, selling for 150 to 500 euros each.



The theft was found on Monday, but the winery waited until Friday to go public so it would not interfere with the investigation. The CEO calls it a “very well-prepared gang” that may have hit other wineries, and he is confident the wine can be traced. Buyers worldwide are being told to be wary of offers outside official channels. Here’s hoping the thieves at least keep it in a cool place and when they open one, they let it breathe.

Next up, we have a criminal conspiracy to steal something with REAL value. These treasure thieves are chasing … leftover french fry grease! Federal prosecutors announced charges in mid-September against 19 people in a scheme that spanned 10 states, and yes, Alabama is on the list. Prosecutors say crews drove trucks to restaurants, siphoned used cooking oil out of collection tanks, and hauled it to depots for resale. They also describe clandestine warehouses and money laundering, which sounds like a crime movie, only with more turkey fryers.

So why steal old oil? Because refiners can turn it into biodiesel, a fuel for trucks and buses. An environmental historian writing in The Conversation says whether something counts as waste depends on people, not the material itself. Even cottonseed was once dumped in rivers, until makers learned to crush it for oil and Crisco hit shelves in 1911. Today, government fuel incentives can make used oil worth even more than new oil.

Two defendants have already pleaded guilty, and the rest face trial in April 2027. Next time you pass a grease tank, RESIST the urge to steal it!

Speaking of crime, here’s one we covered a while back where squatters took over a house in the exclusive Sea Cliff neighborhood, where folks like Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) and Sharon Stone ALSO live. When it was announced that this was going to auction, our editors’ Basic Instinct was to feature it again. This week, city leaders approved paying off more than $300,000 in unpaid property taxes on the four-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot Tudor, which clears the way for a sale later this year. No date has been set yet.

How did it get here? The owners bought the home in 2013 for $2.41 million, then moved abroad around 2019, and the house fell into disrepair. In 2025, two people moved in and filed a deed claiming ownership. City Attorney David Chiu says that deed was forged, and the city’s lawsuit alleges the title was passed back and forth between the pair eight times, with at least five forged deeds. A judge has temporarily blocked the pair from selling.

Neighbors say it has been a stressful year, with dozens of calls to police. They are hoping the auction finally brings relief. Talk about a plot twist!

Remember drawing amazing worlds with Commander Mark many MANY moons ago (update, he’s still drawing!) Well, our editors haven’t been able to confirm whether the pilot in our next story took their inspiration from Commander Mark, or an Etch-A-Sketch from their younger days.

Meet Benjamin McDaniel, who goes by Pilot Picasso on social media. He flies a 1978 Cessna Skylane, and his flight paths show up as drawings on Flightradar24. You cannot see them from the ground. They only appear on a screen as the plane moves. This is called sky art, and his flights have been followed more than a million times.

For the past few months, fans have watched him fly for hours each week, tracing everything from The Lord of the Rings to the Mona Lisa, a self-portrait, and The Scream. That last one is his longest yet. The swirling path took 6 hours and 9 minutes in the air.

With Halloween coming, he turned to the movies. On October 6, he drew two Ghostbusters with proton packs, their streams framing a “Happy Halloween” message with a ghost above. It took about five hours, and McDaniel hand flies every piece. Next time a plane flies overhead, it might be someone’s masterpiece!

REAL ESTATE TO BEHOLD



Ready to trade the city for nearly 390 acres of Washington wilderness? This gated ranch near Republic, Washington, is listed at $3.1 million, and it is about as peaceful as it gets. The lodge-style home has three bedrooms, three baths, and about 5,273 square feet, with hand-hewn woodwork, a grand stone fireplace, and a signature tower staircase. Big windows let in plenty of light and frame views of Curlew Lake and the Kettle Crest Mountains.

Outside is where it really shines. The property includes multiple ponds, a custom barn, a cozy guest cabin, and a 60 by 120 foot indoor arena and shop. Horse lovers, take note! It is also an income-producing ranch, yielding over 100 tons of premium grass hay each year, so the land can earn its keep while you enjoy the scenery.

The property it borders public land, so your closest neighbors may be deer. Click below to see more! 

Meet the house that flooring built. It makes sense that Tom Sullivan, founder of Lumber Liquidators, filled his Tennessee ranch with wood. Think olive flooring and handrails, a cherry-blossom chandelier, and walls covered in scraps of reclaimed lumber. There is a 16-foot custom brass bar, and the study has a leather floor. Fitting for a flooring founder!

Now he is downsizing, and the Leiper’s Fork estate is listed for $34.8 million. It sits on about 122 acres roughly 25 miles from Nashville, and the main house is about 13,680 square feet with six bedrooms. The Sullivans paid $3.1 million for the land in 2019, then spent years building the house and barns. Sullivan says it started as “a little stone house” and kept growing, and the road and bridge alone cost more than $6 million. (that's a lot of liquidated lumber!)

Sullivan says he plans to build a smaller home on adjacent land. If it sells near the asking price, the listing agent says it would be a record for the village.

If you have an “EXTRA” 200k to spend we have a really NICE house to close out with. Here’s Jim Carrey’s Hawaiian Tropical Paradise available for a smooth 35 Million… ALLLLLRIGHTY then! It sits on nearly an acre of Keawakapu Beach in Kihei, where South Kihei Road ends and Wailea begins, with about 170 feet along the water. The homes sit far back behind a wide green lawn and a grove of tall coconut palms. Look west and you will see the islands of Kahoolawe and Lanai, with sunsets over the ocean in every season. The main house sits under a giant thatched roof, framed in Douglas fir and lined with woven bamboo. The primary suite upstairs has glass panels that fold back to a deck over the sand. A second building holds a two-bedroom guest ohana, each bedroom with its own bath. Between the homes, a freeform pool curves through natural rock, hiding a grotto and a slide, plus an elevated spa. It was designed by Ike Kligerman Barkley and comes fully furnished, so just bring some toiletries and a toothbrush.



This is a good listing, but in case I don’t see you before you tour it, “good afternoon, good evening, and good night.” Fans of The Truman Show can click below to see more. 

THE ECONOMY AND REAL ESTATE

President Trump signed an Executive Order yesterday which has a goal of lowering overall borrowing costs, which was titled, “Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People.” Soooo… what’s in the order? Signed Thursday, October 22, it has four main parts.

First, a pilot program would have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac check home values with automated tools and cancel mortgage insurance for borrowers who have built enough equity. Servicers would notify borrowers when that may apply. Second, a title insurance pilot for refinances would grow nationwide, letting some borrowers skip a traditional title policy, with savings passed along. The order also asks the agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie to consider waiving appraisals and repeat income checks on certain refinances that lower a monthly payment. Third, a task force has 180 days to recommend ways to make factory-built homes easier to build and finance. Fourth, USDA and the VA are told to lower rates on loans they make directly.

That SOUNDS pretty good, but keep in mind the order does not say how big the savings will be or when they start. The mortgage insurance pilot also covers only loans made after it is launched, and regulators still have to decide on several pieces. Keep reading below.

While we’re talking about what Washington is doing, let’s head around the corner from the White House to the Department of Labor to see how it COULD influence the Fed in the future. GREAT news this week was that the jobless claims hit near the lows in 50 plus years… read that again.

Here’s the scoop. Weekly jobless claims fell to 194,000 for the week ending October 17. That is just above the 189,000 reported in July, the lowest level since 1969. In plain English, companies are holding on to the workers they have. Over the past year, claims have averaged 212,000, so this week is well below that.

The picture is more mixed on hiring. Employers added only 29,000 jobs in September, and job gains have averaged about 69,000 a month this year. The unemployment rate sits at 4.2%. Even so, Jefferies chief U.S. economist Thomas Simons says the claims numbers suggest the job market is stable, despite gloomy headlines and AI worries.


Why does it matter for rates? The Fed meets next week, and officials have focused more on inflation, which is still well above their 2% goal. Markets expect the Fed to hold steady in October, with another quarter point hike expected in December. The next jobs report arrives in a few weeks, on November 6, and our editors will be watching!

Whether the Fed raises rates and whether the executive order helps remains to be seen, but that doesn’t keep loud clickbait headlines out of the news. Keep reading the summary below from the article title, “Confused by Home Price Headlines? Here’s Why.”

Whether you own a house already or you’re looking to buy one, you probably care about home prices. But one headline says they’re falling and the next says they’re still climbing. So, which one’s right? It comes down to where you live.

What’s Really Going on with Asking Prices

Part of the confusion comes from asking prices. Headlines say they’re falling, but don’t mention that seasonality is at play.

Right now, there are more homes on the market than at any other time since November 2019. And with mortgage rates rising since the spring, those homes are taking a little longer to sell.

According to HousingWire Data, the median asking price is down from $449k in early August to $435k just 2 months later (see graph below):

That’s a dip of about 3%, and a lot of it is normal for this time of year. Asking prices cool off every fall, and with fewer buyers around, sellers price a bit more competitively. Just keep in mind, that’s a national list price, not what homes near you are actually selling for.



Where You Live Changes Everything

Local trends can differ sharply from national ones. The latest numbers from S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index show how much. Over the past year, sales prices in Chicago rose almost 7%. In Seattle, they dipped about 1.6%. That’s a gap of nearly 9 percentage points between two major cities (see graph below):

That gap changes your game plan. Selling in New York, where prices are up almost 6%? You may not need to cut your price. Buying in Denver or Las Vegas? You may have more room to negotiate.



Why You Don’t Need To Worry About a Crash

Even in the major metros where prices are down, the declines are 2% or less. That’s a long way from a crash like 2008. And there are more cities in the green than in the red.

Over time, home values have a strong track record. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) says national prices have grown year-over-year every quarter since 2012. And a $100k home bought in 1991 would be worth about $436k today, even with the 2008 crash factored in (see graph below):

So, this short-term dip probably won’t stick around, and the market is headed back to normal.

Bottom Line

National headlines can’t tell you what your home is worth or how much room you have to negotiate. Local data can. If you’re thinking about buying or selling, let’s look at how prices are moving in your area, so you can set your price or make your offer with confidence.

Let's connect and talk about it. 

RATES:

Pricing and rates remain erratic and volatile. Confirm rates & pricing directly with your loan officer.

Check out the trivia below and remember, there is a drawing to enter to win a gift card. This is your chance to enter for a chance to win the gift card awarded every other month. This trivia question is for the September & October drawing/card.

TRIVIA QUESTION

TRIVIA QUESTION:                            

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure came out in 1985 and sent Pee-Wee across the country to find his stolen bike, guided by a fortune teller to the basement of the Alamo. It was a big first for two future Hollywood names: the director’s first feature film, and co-written by the late, great Phil Hartman. But the question is, who directed it?

A) Rob Reiner

B) Tim Burton

C) Ron Howard

D) Robert Zemeckis

E) John Hughes

F) Wes Craven


Click here to EMAIL ME YOUR ANSWER.

**Email your answer to me to have your name entered in a drawing for a gift card at the beginning of even months and YES you can go back and answer previous weeks’ questions if you have not answered them already AND if we have not unveiled the answer yet***