(Radio Iowa) – Brenna Bird will take over Monday as Iowa’s attorney general, the first Republican to hold the office in 40 years. Bird’s central campaign promise was to — in her words — see Joe Biden in court. “Yes, I will be standing up for Iowa and joining any lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s overreach,” Bird says. Bird is still developing a proposed budget for the office, but one of her first moves will be to ask the Republican-led legislature to approve funding for more prosecutors.

“I will be beefing up the prosecution portion of the office to make sure that we can take the cases that Iowans need us to take to court,” she says. Bird, who has been Guthrie County Attorney, says she’ll miss prosecuting cases at the local level. She plans to review the state’s Crime Victim Assistance program. “We’re going to do an audit of all of those services and grants that are offered to crime victims and those organizations and make sure we are serving victims and that victims are coming first in the justice system,” Bird says, “and we’re also working to have a ‘cold case unit’ to make sure that no one gets away with murder.”

Brenna Bird

In 2021, the Iowa Senate unanimously voted to create a unit in the Iowa Department of Public Safety that would focus on unsolved murders and missing persons cases, but the bill then stalled and didn’t become law. This past year as Bird campaigned, she talked about creating a cold case unit in the attorney general’s office, because most other states have one. “We would work with all law enforcement agencies, including DPS, local police, sheriffs, ” Bird says. “We would work across the whole state.” Bird also wants to establish what she calls a “special victim’s unit” in the office.

“That would focus on those cases, like child molesters and other cases where it’s so important that people be brought to justice,” Bird says. Bird criticized her predecessor, Democrat Tom Miller, for failing to travel the state and meet with local law enforcement. Bird says she intends to visit every one of Iowa’s 99 counties each year. Bird has announced her top deputy will be Sam Langholz, who had served as chief legal counsel for Governor Reynolds until Miller hired him in 2021.

Bird ran against Miller 12 years ago and lost by 11 points. She won this year’s campaign against Miller by one-point-eight percent.

(Radio Iowa) – University of Northern Iowa officials are raising money to renovate what U-N-I president Mark Nook calls “iconic spaces” on the Cedar Falls campus. “In 2026, when we turn 150 years old, the Campanile be 100 years old, the UNI-Dome will be 50 years old and the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center will be 26 years old,” Nook says.

The most recognizable of those three is the UNI-Dome, which Nook says isn’t just a regional center, but a facility that serves the entire state, with the state football playoffs, there are various ag and home shows that happen in there and concerts, so it really is a resource for the state, so it’s one we’ve got to pay attention to and make sure we keep up to date,” Nook says, “and after 50 years, it needs a little work.”

Part of the plan is to replace the bleachers with stadium seating. “Right now if you attend an event there, you’re sitting on 18 inches of aluminum with a pretty solid back behind you,” Nook says. “What we want to do is pull all of those out is replace them with stadium seats and cupholders, so you can be a little more comfortable when you’re in the venue.”

UNI photo showing top of the UNI-Dome.

UNI’s predominant school color is purple and Nook says the plan calls for the new seats to be purple. The surface of the indoor track is to be upgraded as well, “and make it also very UNI specific in purple and gray with our big logo on it,” Nook says. “One of the big improvements will be in the restrooms. Our current restrooms need some work.”

The plan is to add space to the UNI-Dome for new restrooms, which Nook says will free up space in the facility so crowds can move more easily. Nook made his comments during a recent “Iowa Press” episode on Iowa PBS.

(West Des Moines, Iowa) –  November 2022 unit sales of single-family homes were down 29.5 percent compared to November 2021, but not unexpected with the yearlong rise in home mortgage interest rates. Overall, year-to-date unit sales is only down 9 percent according to the Housing Trends by the Iowa Association of REALTORS® (IAR).

2,638 single-family homes and 332 Townhouse-Condo homes sold in November 2022. The national mid-term elections also typically play a part in home sale activity as well as overall economic factors such as inflation and unemployment. Despite all this, 2022 appears to be returning to a more normal state of activity compared to the last two years.

Another market indicator is the median sale price of homes. During the month of November, the median sale price of single-family homes was flat at $191,000 compared to $192,000 in November of last year. Townhome-Condo median sale prices proved to be the leader by seeing a 10 percent increase over November of 2021 and a 2022 year-to-date increase of just over 12 percent. The median sale price of a townhome-condo in the month of November was $219,950.

The number of homes for sale in 2022 appear to have finally started trending upward since the low count of 5,200 homes for sale in April/May. November for-sale inventory levels were close to 6,900 homes for sale bucking a trend of decreasing inventory ever since pre-covid years. We still have a way to go to bring our number of homes for sale back to more desirable level, but any increase in inventory is welcomed.

The average days on market continue to be around 32 days for single family and 44 days for townhome-condos but with holidays in the mix, this is a good sign that buyer activity is remaining strong. The winter months are the best opportunity to homebuyers to be able to negotiate compared to the spring/summer months when homes have been selling at or above list price. The average single-family home price during November sold at 97.5 percent of asking price.

The outlook for homebuyers and sellers across the state for 2023 is very promising. Expectations of mortgage interest rates settling to around 5 to 5 ½ percent for next year will give homebuyers confidence that they are not going to be priced out of affordability due to continued rising interest rates.

Homeowners that have been sitting on the sidelines also watching interest rates will be ready to finally jump into the for-sale market in 2023 adding much needed inventory for homebuyers.

2022 IAR President Byron Menke says for those asking “Is winter a good time to buy or sell a home?,” the months of November through January are good times before the spring market wakes up. Buyers can look for homes at a little slower pace and historically home prices are at their lowest during these months. Homeowners also recognize that they are also able to take advantage of lower purchase prices when they sell and become homebuyers.”