Chandra Mast\’s Blog

Happy New Year to all the Lancaster County Buyers and Sellers out there. As 2011 came to a close there was no slowing down the number of phone calls and farm tours. We are only 19 days into the New Year and it has been busy, busy, BUSY so far! Here in Lancaster County we are once again seeing situations of multiple bids, Buyer’s dropping home inspections to strengthen offers, and best of all LAND values are on the rise. For Buyers who are looking for their perfect home, it is a very aggressive time to shop. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get pre-qualified, in writing, and start with your strongest offer. If it is a Short Sale or Foreclosure be prepared to wait anywhere from 3 months to a year to hear a response from the bank. It seems like one in four homes on the market right now is upside-down, but the good news is that many Banks have some new lending programs, and all banks have historically low interest rates right now.

For Sellers, the housing market is just as competitive. There is a massive amount of inventory in all categories – Single Family Homes, Farms, and Land. Buyers have lots to pick from, which develops very picky Buyers! They are looking to have their cake, and being able to eat it in a very clean kitchen. With all the foreclosures on the market there are quite a few low-ball offers that have been flying across tables, and I always recommend to my Sellers to get a pre-listing appraisal
to bat back those low offers and allow them to hold their price point.

Happy Trails,
Qc

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a document yesterday that got no attention on the nightly news, or almost anywhere, really. Its title, I’m sure you’ll agree, is a snooze: National Nutrient Management Standard.

Yet this document represents the agency’s best attempt to solve one of the country’s — and the world’s — really huge environmental problems: The nitrogen and phosphorus that pollute waterways.

There’s a simple reason why this problem is so big, and so hard to solve. Farmers have to feed their fields, before those fields can feed us. Without fertilizer, harvests would dwindle. But lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters lie downstream from highly fertilized farmland, and now they are choking to death on too much nutrition.

Those nutrients typically come from commercial fertilizer, but they don’t have to. Organic growers need to feed their fields, too. Farmers can also use animal manure (which is really recycled fertilizer from the fields that fed those animals) and legumes — crops like alfalfa or chickpeas, which add nitrogen it to the soil.

The problem is, those nutrients don’t stay where they’re needed. They migrate into groundwater, streams, or the air, and everywhere, they cause problems. They feed the growth of microbes and algae, turning clear water cloudy and depriving fish and other creatures of essential oxygen. (There are other important sources of nutrient pollution as well, including urban sewage and the burning of fossil fuels, but fertilizer is the biggest.)

In the United States, the best-known casualties of nutrient pollution include the Chesapeake Bay and a portion of the Gulf of Mexico called the “dead zone.” But similar problems exist in many other places as well, including lakes and coastal areas of China and Europe.

So around the world, environmentalists and scientists are mobilizing to fight the plague of over-nutrition. That’s where the new USDA document comes in. It lays out a host of steps that farmers can take — and will have to take, if they get funding from certain USDA programs — to minimize the spread of nutrients outside farm fields.

Essentially, it involves putting farmland on a sensible diet. Only feed the land as much as it really needs. And don’t apply fertilizer, including manure, when the crops don’t need it. Also, try to capture and store any excess nutrients. For instance, grow wintertime “cover crops” that can trap free nitrogen before it leaches into groundwater.

Dave White, the head of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, told reporters that the new guidelines “could have a tremendous, continental impact.” The guidelines do not have the force of actual regulations, but state governments can make them mandatory. Maryland, which is fighting a desperate battle to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, already requires its farmers to come up with detailed “nutrient management plans” that are supposed to minimize, and hopefully prevent, nutrient runoff.

At yesterday’s briefing, White suggested that farmers will follow these guidelines voluntarily, simply out of economic self-interest. Fertilizer is expensive, and wasting it costs money. “If you’re looking for someone who wants to regulate agriculture, you’re talking to the wrong guy,” he said.

Yet a long-running experiment at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Research Station suggests that economic self-interest alone can actually work against a solution. The experiment, which has been studying the environmental impact of different farming practices for the past 20 years, shows that it is possible to dramatically reduce nutrient releases from farmland — but it seems to require farmers to scale back their expectations modestly, rather than pursuing the highest yields of the most profitable crop, which is corn.

Ken Staver, a research scientist for the University of Maryland, says getting the flood of nutrients truly under control will take many years. “It’s incrementalism,” he says. “We went in a wrong direction incrementally, and we’re working our way back incrementally. It’s not going to give us the water quality that we would wish for. But it’s all moving in the right direction.”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/12/13/143659204/putting-farmland-on-a-fertilizer-diet

By AD CRABLE
Staff Writer

The value of farmland in Lancaster County is not increasing at the astronomical rates found in the Midwest.

In fact, in four of five geographic regions in Lancaster County, farms are selling for less per acre than they did three years ago, when the economy tanked, according to new figures on farm sales compiled for the Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board.

But local ag experts expect local farms to gain back that lost equity as exports to markets overseas increase.

And the value of farmland here is still $5,000 to $8,000 per acre higher than in the Midwest, even with farmland selling for record prices there.

The county preserve board paid for its first assessment of farm values since 2006. The analysis for 2007-2010, performed by Rudy De Laurentis, an appraiser for Concord House Real Estate, examined the prices paid for preserved and nonpreserved farmland sold at auctions, by Realtors and privately to come up with a per-acre price.

Farm values were set for five regions of the county.

The year 2008 was a prime year for local farm sale prices, with average prices up 20 percent from 2007, even though the economy was starting to slow real estate prices around the county.

But farm prices decreased more than 10 percent in 2009 and rebounded only slightly in 2010.

The most valuable farmland in Lancaster County currently is in the northern part.

Farms recently sold in Brecknock, Clay, East Cocalico, West Cocalico, Elizabeth, Ephrata, Manheim, Penn and Warwick townships were bringing an average $19,568 per acre.

Three years ago it was southern-end farms that brought top dollar, and five years ago farms in the eastern end of the county led the way.

The preserve board takes a look at prices paid for preserved and nonpreserved farms because it purchases easements on farms based on the difference between those two values.

Preserved farms generally do not bring as high a price as nonpreserved farms because of restrictions.

The preserve board, funded by the county and taxpayers, pays an average of $3,500 an acre for preservation easements.

The most recent figures show that what the preserve board pays is in the range of the difference between the two values, according to Matt Knepper, director of the board.

“It legitimizes what we do,” Knepper said. “We do the studies to see if we’re still in line with what’s happening in the rest of the market.”

The county preserved 35 farms in 2010. It has preserved 789 farms and 68,210 acres since the program was initiated by county commissioners in 1982.

De Laurentis said his review of the records over the last three years showed fewer sales of farms. Developers seemed to be buying fewer farms for future development, and fewer people were looking to buy a chunk of farmland for their dream home.

Much has been written lately about the escalating value of farmland in Midwestern states.

There, farmland has attracted corporate investors and wealthy individuals banking on the Corn Belt and Bread Basket states playing an increasing role in feeding fast-growing nations. Soybeans to China have been a hot commodity.

In addition, crops such as corn are being used in biofuels, driving up the value of farmland.

But in Lancaster County, farmland has long been at a premium and has not fluctuated greatly, local experts say.

Farmland is the prime source for siting new homes, businesses and industries.

The need for Plain-sect families to find new farmland for children also keeps demand high.

“Prices around here seemed tied more to the availability of land than to the commodity prices,” observed Knepper.

“We have a livestock-based industry here. We need the land for feed for animals and also for disposition of manure and growth,” said Roger Rohrer of Fulton’s Bank’s agriculture services branch.

Rohrer thinks that even with local farmers’ milk bringing historically low prices and feed prices rising, growing export markets bode well for the future.

“So even with higher prices, we can get back in the black and recoup the equity we lost in 2009,” said Rohrer, who also sits on the county ag board.

“We have a great local worth in our farms.”

He commended local farmers for “toughing it out” through another down cycle.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/388021_Farm-prices-here-still-low.html

After a recent course in American Architecture, I decided to put together a digital scrapbook of all the great architectural examples here in Lancaster County. This Fanpage on Facebook has also been a great platform to showcase all the properties   I represent for sale.   Check it out!

Lancaster County Architecture

 Every homebuyer has a vision of their perfect house and the rooms that are most important to them. Because of their relatively small size in comparison to the rest of a home, bathrooms are often overlooked in the staging process, but for many, it could be the most important room in a buying decision. A bathroom is more than just a place for grooming; it™s a sanctuary. It™s a place one can relax in a hot bath and escape the stresses of daily life for a few moments at a time.   Updating a tired-looking bathroom is one of the best things you can do to increase a home™s resale value and the fixes are not too costly or labor intensive. Easy fixes include adding new, luxurious-looking towels, replacing the shower curtain and adding candles around a bathtub. However, with a little more money and effort, your bathroom can become a talking point of the house.

When buyers walk into a renovated bathroom that exudes quality and offers an intimate, contemporary feel, it™s one of the top things that people will remember about a home.

Getting ready to sell your horse farm?

What’s the first move you should make?

Get the right Realtor for the job. Call Chandra Mast Equestrian Property
Specialist.

Selling your horse farm is a lot like heading into battle with an uncertain
outcome. There are a lot of different moves you’ll need to make to achieve
your marketing goals. The strategies you choose with your Realtor can make all
the difference. Call 717-314-4635.

Checkmate. You win. Good move.

From our barn to your ~ Have a Merry Christmas!

The days are getting shorter here in Lancaster County, which means winter is right around the corner. We are all busy waterproofing blankets and making sure there is enough hay to last through the cold.   Show season is winding down, but there are still a few shows on the agenda, before Foxhunting starts up.

LancasterHorse.com community forums underwent a huge change in November. After 8 years of using the phpBB content management system, the community has switched to the SMF platform.

The biggest change in this switch is the Patron program for our members. Many members, who appreciate the resources of LH.com, may choose to donate to its operation. The Patron program ($25/year) recognizes contributions with additional forum benefits.

Unfortunately, this means that all members will need to re-register. We apologize for the inconvenience, but hope you will understand once you see the improved community features. There are still a few more phases to this project, but the new forums are now live and open again.

Information from the old databases is still being slowly copied over. There is a calendar in place for events, a pretty slick classifieds section, and in a few short weeks, we will begin the arcades testing.

Happy Trails,

Qc

Autumn in Lancaster County is a beautifully orchestrated   symphony of color. Farmer’s markets are overflowing with squash, corn, peppers, caulifower, and pumpkin pies. Crisp foggy mornings and breezy afternoons.