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Katie was featured in a positive real estate story on WZZM 13 news on Tuesday evening. Reporter Steve Patterson highlighted the rising home sales in the Grand Rapids Market for 5 straight months.

Julie Reitberg, Grand Rapids Board of Realtors Chief Executive officer shared the information that June saw 1,081 single homes sold, up from the 740 single homes sold in January. There is hope this is a trend and sales will continue to grow through the year.  Julie Reitberg attributes the positive sales numbers to the incentives and lower priced homes available.

The other side to this story is that the trend with the price of home continues to decline. Home prices this year average at 113,923 versus the average price in 2006 of 163,266.

Still not yet a trend, but the sales number up and foreclosures and inventory are starting to decline.  Good indicators that our housing market is headed in the right direction.

Please follow this link to read the complete story and watch the video clip:
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=111606&catid=48&provider=email

Patricia Schultz, author of “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”, has ranked the Frederick Meijer Gardens as a “must see museum”.  The recently written article ranks Meijer Gardens 13th among celebrated museums such as the Guggenheim, Bilbao, and Van Gogh Museum, and higher than even The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The museum continues to grow and improve.  A new permanent sculpture installation adds to the museum’s appeal.  Lena’s Garden, designed to convey Lena Meijer’s love of flowers, features a glass sculpture installation by world renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly that is located on the ceiling of the cafe. The sculpture is compromised of nine individual arrangements of multiple glass elements, each group ranging in diameter from five to seven feet. The glass that that makes up this amazing sculpture is blown glass of various vibrant reds, blues, greens and bright yellows. Fifteen additional locations at the gardens are planned for future Chihuly glass installations, including the English perennial garden, the wetlands, water pools, children’s garden, and sculpture park. 

Another draw for the park will be a large outdoor exhibit planned for September 2010. Dale Chihuly has only produced two prior outdoor installations, one in California and one in Florida, significantly boosting attendance at each botanical garden.

Grand Rapids continues grow and improve.  Proving to be a wonderful place to both live and visit!

To read the complete article, please follow this link: http://www.mlive.com/cadenceadvance/index.ssf/2009/05/lenas_garden_blooms_glass_arti.html