Bumblebees and Home Sales

A couple quick county related blurbs worth mentioning in the News-Gazette this weekend. First, if you see a bumblebee nest, say something! From yesterday:

Be on the lookout for bumblebees

Bird watchers, hikers, farmers and anyone else exploring East Central Illinois’ wild places — or even backyards in urban areas — are asked to be on the lookout for any wild bumblebee colonies this summer. If you come across one, researchers at the University of Illinois would love for you to contact them and let them know.

Ling-Hsiu Liao, who works in Professor May Berenbaum’s lab in the entymology department at the UI, said researchers at the university are starting a new project studying the phytochemical composition of honey of the bumblebee colonies. But, she said they have had a hard time finding wild colonies this summer. She said they decided to enlist the help of the local community in finding some nests...

Anyone who runs across a nest of these fluffy pollinators can contact Ruben Martin Blazquez by email at rumabl@illinois.edu or Ling-Hsiu Liao at liao19@illinois.edu.

Full article with tips and tricks to identify a bumblebee nest here. There was a recent science article on the urban refuge cities may be providing bumblebees from agricultural environments where they're struggling in the LA Times here. And the monthly home sales numbers for June:

Slightly more homes were sold in Champaign County this June compared with a year ago.

Champaign County home sales up slightly in June over 2017
According to the latest report from the Champaign County Association of Realtors, 391 homes were sold, up 1.82 percent from the 384 that were sold in June 2017...

The average home-sale price in June was $195,470, up 4.9 percent from $186,277 a year ago.

Halfway through the year, the area has seen a significant uptick in new home sales, with 88 sold, compared with 43 a year ago...

Despite that, the total number of homes for sale in the Champaign County area dropped 10 percent from a year ago, from 974 to 874.

The average mortgage rate was 4.57 percent in June, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, up from 3.89 percent a year ago.

That's projected to increased to 5.1 percent by June 2019.

Full blurb on that here.