Mad about Madison

Where is the gay neighborhood in Madison? It’s a question that Keller Williams real estate agent Devery Cash is used to hearing — and one that he’s grown used to answering.

“It just doesn’t exist,” Cash says. “There is one neighborhood outside of town, the Jennifer Street area, that tends to be a little more lesbian, but frankly, we don’t have any area in Madison that’s considered a gay neighborhood. We’re all interspersed here.”

At a time when gay men and lesbians in large cities across the country are choosing to live outside traditional gay neighborhoods, leaving many gay enclaves struggling to remain relevant, Madison seems like a model city for the future.

“This is a very open and accepting community. We just don’t have to have separate bars or separate neighborhoods. I guess we’ve always been a little ahead of the curve here,” Cash says.

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Pint-sized glamour

Who says you can’t have a fabulous place even if your budget — and space — is pint-sized? After all, some of the biggest stars come in small packages. We polled two of the area’s top designers and found out that a lack of money and space don’t have to be limitations.

Here are six key strategies to follow:

Color your world. “People have this tendency to think that they have to have to have a light color on the wall in a small room,” says Milwaukee-based interior designer Beth Applegate Liebl. “That’s not the case. If you paint the walls a dark color, it makes the walls go away and does make the room seem larger. Also, walls in darker shades are really very comforting. We have so many cloudy days here in Wisconsin, color can really set a mood.”

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Mortgage 101
New game, new rules for buying a new home

It’s the classic catch-22. Real estate prices are at historic lows, making it the perfect time to buy. But most people can’t buy without getting a mortgage, and today, that’s no easy feat.

The lending landscape has changed so profoundly that it seems like the only people qualified to get a loan these days are the ones who don’t need one.

While the process of obtaining a mortgage has become arduous, the good news is it’s not impossible. There are a number of strategies buyers can employ in order to obtain a low-interest loan.

Here are some of the things to consider:

Credit Score. There’s just no getting around it: your credit score will affect your interest rate. In fact, it will affect your ability to obtain a mortgage in the first place. According to Wisconsin Mortgage Corporation vice president John Inzeo, the absolute rock bottom score needed in order to qualify for a mortgage is 620.

“The minimum used to be 580, but now, even on an FHA loan, you’ll need to have a score that’s 620 or higher,” Inzeo says. “But even that doesn’t guarantee that your loan is going to be approved.”

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Point of Change
Walker's Point is 'ready to boom'

It’s home to gay bars, arts organizations, antique stores and ethnic restaurants. It draws struggling artists, ballet dancers, budding entrepreneurs, gay men and lesbians.

In a neighborhood dominated by drab and often gritty industrial buildings, the four-faced Allen Bradley Clock Tower (listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the largest four-faced clock in the world) is not only a standout, it’s an apt symbol for a community on the brink of change.

Just a few blocks south of the hot Third Ward and north of the popular Bayview community, Walker’s Point is well-positioned for development.

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