Local Market Monitor, a respected real estate forecasting service, has lowered prices for its individual real estate market reports from $99 to $65 each.  Readers of this blog site receive an additional 25% off just by including the code word “golf” when they purchase a single report at the firm’s web site, LocalMarketMonitor.com.  The net cost, therefore, is just $48.75 for a single report for one of the 300 markets Local Market Monitor covers each month.  If you like the service, a full-year (12 monthly reports), regularly priced at $297, is also available to Golf Community Reviews readers at a 25% discount, bringing the subscription cost to $222.75.  If you are considering a move, a Local Monitor report can be a useful tool in assessing the investment potential for real estate in your intended location, as well as understanding where prices in your current market might go.

        Local Market Monitor uses a proprietary formula called “Equilibrium Home Price” to determine which markets are currently over or undervalued.  Its real estate price forecasts extend out 12, 24 and 36 months.  Additional information and a sample of one of their reports are available at LocalMarketMonitor.com.  If you have any questions, please contact Chief Operations Officer Carolyn Beggs whose contact information is available at the web site.

        Note:  Golf Community Reviews occasionally uses information from Local Market Monitor as background for articles and we find the information helpful.  We have arranged for the aforementioned discount as a service to our readers.  We receive no commission or other compensation from Local Market Monitor.

        Before we left our condo in Pawleys Island last week to return to Connecticut, my wife asked me: “Should we bring in the patio furniture?” “Nah,” I responded as quickly as I always do when long odds and physical exertion intersect.  She, of course, was thinking of the ever-present threat of hurricanes on the southeast coast this time of year; I did my usual snap calculation and estimated the chances of a significant storm affecting our condo were about 1 in 20+ years (the last one being Hugo in 1989).

        We will be calling our neighbors later this morning to ask them to take the furniture in for us.  As of 6 a.m. today, our community of Pawleys Plantation is dead center in the projected path of Hurricane Irene, whose winds have now topped 100 mph as it barrels past the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic).  Conceivably, the Atlantic gulfstream could deal us a double blow, bringing the storm up the coast to Connecticut and dropping significant rainfall on the entire state, with the inevitable flooding of rivers and streams.  Even though we are 90 miles from Long Island Sound, high winds are possible as well; back in 1989, Hurricane Hugo’s winds reached almost 100 mph in Charlotte, a three-hour drive from Charleston, where the hurricane made landfall.

        Fortunately, we have flood insurance for our home in Pawleys Island, as well as the easier-to-secure and cheaper wind and hail damage protection.  One of our neighbors called us the other day to ask about our flood insurance policy because they don’t have one and started thinking what if.  With a 60-day waiting period, their new policy won’t cover them for Irene.  For their sake and ours, I’m hoping the odds are with them and others along the eastern seaboard, and that Irene wobbles her way out to sea.  But it does not look good.