The year 2009 ended on less of an upswing for the real estate market than many people across the country would have liked to see, considering the amount of money that the government has spent to support the housing market; but only time will tell how the end of the year numbers will affect the first quarter of 2010.

Check to see if planning permission has been granted to build an intensive pig farm down the road, or if a new highway has been scheduled to cut a swathe through the lovely view you were planning on enjoying from the deck of your new home.

During spring and summer plenty of bright, scented flowers should attract dazzling butterflies and hummingbirds. Evergreen shrubbery and small trees will create safe feeding and roosting areas for a host of wild birds all year round.

We've all enjoyed those priceless pearls of wisdom that business-people band around like so much confetti - 'Thinking outside the box', 'At the end of the day' and the mathematically impossible 'I'll give it 110%'. But as any real estate agent will tell you, when it comes to buying and selling property, it really is all about 'location, location. location'.

Last year we kept hearing how the recession was over or almost over and things were going to look up at any moment. Well, 2009 came and went and we soon discovered that the recession was, in fact, not over. The question now is not if millions of people are going to lose their homes—which millions already have—but what the final toll of homes in foreclosure is going to be when this economic is finally over.

More bad news reported in the national media today: Record number of "foreclosures" in 2009 and more expected this year. Real estate amrkets are intensely local and, depending where you live, there may be a silver lining in the market.