Puppy Rescue 🐶 Island Style
Biello & Black on the Ground..... Caryn and Brooke volunteered and transported a rescue dog from Anguilla to Newark last week where a volunteer then picked her up and took her into New York City to be fostered until she is adopted.
This was the cutest dog ever, and helping out in small ways like this always is so rewarding to us. We know this lucky dog will have a great and spoiled life in the Big Apple!!
To learn more about this organization and what we did, visit www.flytofreedomdogrescue.org or @flytofreedomdogrescue on IG. It's amazing to see all they're doing for these sweet animals.
Poetry 🦋 Women's Caucus Reading
The Biello & Black Group was proud to be a sponsor of this offsite literary reading for the Women's Caucus of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). The AWP Conference & Bookfair is the annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers of contemporary creative writing. It includes thousands of attendees, hundreds of events and book fair exhibitors, and four days of essential literary conversation and celebration. We were thrilled they came to Philadelphia!
The Women's Caucus offers an inclusive space for the diverse perspectives of women writers and seeks to recognize the contributions of women writers nationally and internationally, enhance understanding of the relationship between gender and creative writing, expand literary and cultural dialogue to encompass all genres of creative writing specific to women writers, encourage an open forum for dialogues about feminist literary perspectives, support education about the contributions of women writers, and support women writers on local, national, and global levels.
The Host and Author, Melissa Studdard, is one of Stephanie's oldest and dearest friends from her hometown in Houston, and this special event is in celebration of the final day of the AWP Conference & Bookfair.
If you have ever been on a job interview you should read this collection of poems in Dear Selection Committee by Melissa. It's a must read! Like A Bird With A Thousand Wings is a collaborative project Melissa worked on with Chris who is not only her partner on this project but also her partner in life. We enjoyed catching up after the reading at the Ritz Carlton! This was the best way to close out Women's History Month.
To learn more about Melissa Studdard and her poetry visit her website below.
The questions everyone is asking us......
"Is now the time to sell?" I have asked myself the same question!!
My answer to this question is this...if you are thinking of selling in the next couple of years ...yes!
Prices of homes are at the highest they have been, in most areas, and if interest rates start to climb then purchasing power starts to decrease so either prices come down or houses stay on the market longer with a smaller pool of qualified buyers. The housing market will cool down and home sales will drop. Buy low sell high. The first quarter of 2022 started off a little slow with lower pending sales compared to last year, however sales prices starting to increase as you can see below. Because demand is still high; we still find it a challenge to find homes for our buyers in certain parts of Philadelphia and the surrounding neighborhoods. So much so that we are contacting past clients and calling homeowners where our buyers want to purchase to ask them if they want to sell! We continue to see this trend, and these off market transactions will become increasingly "normal" in coming months.
"What is driving this?" For the past couple of years during the pandemic we saw many city residents shift from renting to purchasing homes, focusing on single family homes without shared common areas.If they couldn't find it in the city they went to the suburbs. Some were also priced out of the city and parts of the surrounding neighborhoods so they looked further beyond the suburbs for affordable homes. As rates start to increase buyers are eager to close sooner rather than later which is resulting in bidding wars and driving prices higher. It will be interesting in the next few months to see how higher interest rates, inflation and higher gas prices will affect this trend.
"What next?" With external events going on in the world it can be difficult to see where the market is heading however real estate is and always has been a solid investment.
Center City Philadelphia has several submarkets where neighboring zip codes could have two completely different markets and price points so it's important to know how your neighborhood is doing compared to what you hear nationally about the housing market. It could be hot in one area and not so hot in another. Below is a snapshot of a few Philadelphia markets and if you would like a more detailed report for your neighborhood we would be happy to provide one for you.
If you have any questions about the market or real estate please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
