One of my heroes died yesterday....

She was just over 5' tall and yet a giant in the history of the United States. Fifty years ago, she refused to give up her seat on a bus. She said her feet hurt, but it was her heart that helped her make that stand.

She was a seamstress, like Jesus was a carpenter. Mrs. Parks, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus December 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.

She refused, despite laws requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.

Rosa Parks' courage led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott a year later, which introduced the world to a young Baptist Minister named Martin Luther King, Jr.

The rest is history. I'm certain God has given Rosa a special seat in Heaven.

Cumberland County Housing Demand

Are you interested in knowing how many new homes we need in Cumberland County in the next five years? Consider this....According to the United States Census Bureau estimates, the population in Cumberland County is estimated to grow by 1.7% per year or approximately 3,600 people annually. As of the 2000 Census, there were 83,015 households in Cumberland County. The number of people per household is 2.41. The number of owner-occupied households is 60,645, or 73.1%. The number of renter-occupied households is 22,370, or 26.7%.

If the population grows by 3,600 people per year, the number of total households needed to meet the demand is approximately 1,494 per year, or 7,470 over the next five years. Using the ratio of owner occupied to rentals of 73.1% to 26.7%, the demand for new owner-occupied homes in Cumberland County annually is approximately 1,092 or 5,460 over the next five years.

And now from the Optimists at CNN...

Let's look at each of CNN's examples and see what factors created the bust:

Austin....Tax Reform Act of 1986 and Tax Hike of 1989.

Denver.... Tax Reform Act of 1986

Detriot.... American Automobile Industry slide of the early 1980's.

Honolulu...I don't know about this, but I which I had bought real estate in Hawaii in 1994. The average price today is probably twice this much.

Los Angeles...Earthquakes, riot, urban issues.

New Orleans... Tax Reform Act of 1986, urban issues.

New York... 1990 Recession

Peoria... ??????

Phoenix.... I wish I had bought every house available in Phoenix in 1987, I would be able to pay someone else to blog for me.

San Francisco... by 1990 the prices in San Francisco had gone up so high, that they had to come down. However, had I bought at 1990 prices, I'd have made a mint in the last four years.

Peoria is the only market without explanation. I just don't know enough about it. But it seems as if the media optimists want to scare the country into a real estate bust.

Legendary Real Estate Trainer Tom Hopkins in Harrisburg

Tom Hopkins is the best-selling author of How to Master the Art of Selling Real Estate, and one of the most famous real estate agents of all time. He was the first real estate agent to make $1,000,000 in commission sales (his average sale price was only $17,500) in the early 1970's.

I began listening to his tapes in 1989, during my first summer of real estate. I didn't own a cassette player at my apartment, so I would sit in my car and listen to them there.

I had the honor of introducing Tom today in Harrisburg as he spoke to 500 sales people. His teachings and training are timeless.

Thanks Tom Hopkins.