Real Estate Information

In last week’s market review of June I promised I would track what I felt were inflated price and sales numbers due to the closings still taking place from the tax credit. As the tax credit fades out and the economic recovery slows check out this quote from Pete Flint of Trulia and the graph to follow.

“Sellers are feeling the heat this summer as the economic recovery simmers down and home inventory levels climb,” says Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “We’re seeing more and more sellers reduce their home listing prices to attract potential buyers, who definitely have the upper hand in negotiations this season. The slow start to the summer season is a major concern that we are heading towards a double-dip in the second half of this year.”

Our inventory has increased so price, condition, and location will still carry the day. New update as of 7/27/2010: stats being trotted out this morning in the national news feeds are comparing last years lows to this years highs and blowing off the pullback the market is experiencing as I write this. This is the danger in stats and how they are used! The fact is as a realtor in the trenches as I comp homes for new listing and set showings for current buyers I am seeing the same thing Trulia is-Prices have gone soft as buyer demand has dropped.

Here is the first part of the chart, call me with any questions. 719-233-6453 Mike Erhardt

Welcome back to another installment of all thing Colorado Springs with your host Me. As many of you know I have been a member of Colorado Business Leads for over 5 years now. I had a chance, last week, to sit down and meet with one of our newer members Michele Hanley the owner of Escapes and Escapades Travel. One of Micheles specialties is group travel. Churches, family reunions, high school or sports groups you name it. Some of Micheles favorite destinations include Europe and the South Pacific. She also has a special certification for travel in Italy. If you book her for Italy let me know-I was stationed in Naples in the early 90's and I may have to see if she needs an assistant for that trip. For more information and a link to her web page just go to the links section of my web site and click on Business Partners.

Till next time,

MIke

Hello and welcome either back or you have discovered my blog for the first time. Here is the June 2010 market update. Lets start out with an overview of the graph year to date.

Pretty standard increase in total actives and sales as we transition from spring into the "lets get moved before the kids start school in the fall" selling season. One trend of interest. Look at the new listing pullback after April. A bit of seller trepidation after the tax credit. Although showing traffic did take a hit right after the credit expired overall sales are up 3.6% from June 2009. This is still a bubble from closings on homes under contract in April that met the deadline and closed in June. Tracking sales and price over the next couple of months will be a better indicator of the overall market health as the effects of the tax credit go away.

Here's what I can tell you about the overall health of the current resale inventory. Trying to find homes to show buyers was a total pain at times last year. Many sellers were on the sidelines and a large percentage of listings were short sales and foreclosures.

Even with the pullback new listings are up 4.6% from June 2009. If pricing holds steady this trend should continue.

This will be the number I track over the next few months as we try to gage the effect of the tax credit going away.

To sum things up. If pricing holds steady and interest rates stay at the historic lows they are at currently. It is time to buy! Another factor is the rate of new foreclosures is slowing this past couple of months. Fewer foreclosure means less negative impact on current prices. All that will happen going foreword is both prices and interest rates will continue to creep up. If these trends ring true folks will look back in 2011 and say oops we missed it!

So once again, if you have credit and job security its time to buy. Call Me!

Until next time, Take care,

Mike

Hey there,

Stop by my open house Sat 7/10/2010 from 1-4 PM I will have the June market update (look for blog beg. next week) and bottles of my homemade cajun spice mix to hand out.

 But most important-come check out this house. Close to gate 20 Ft. Carson in the Hertitage sub-division. New carpet was just installed and a killer refinish of the Kitchen hardwood. For more details and photos check out this listing here on my website.

See you there,

MIke

Hello out there in Real Estate land,

Been lots of confusion this past couple of weeks about the tax credit extension. This is how things sit as of now. The extension applies only to folks under contract by the deadline that have not closed yet. With one very large exception. If you have been overseas military during a certain time frame the deadline has been extended for you for a year. Call me for details. To many folks contracted for short sales and foreclosures and could not get them closed before the deadline. Rather than have those buyers just walk the government gave out the extension. On the one hand this was a good thing as we took more distressed properties out the market. This was a stroke of luck as even with the new programs out there home buyers and sellers are still finding short sales to be a tough road most of the time.

At this time I am not hearing of any new tax credits comming down the pipeline. Of course we have not had any advanced notice in the past so well see how things shake out.

June market numbers should be posted in the next 5-7 days and I will post those when we get them.

Till next time,

MIke

Hello there,

As many of you know I have been a member of Colorado Business Leads for about 5 years. Great group of business owners. Just recieved heads up from Tara Patty, our photographer, that she is running her Senior High School photo special till the end of July. Complete your photo session by July 31 and recieve a set of 56 wallet size as a bonus. Tara can be reached at:

Contact Us

As the title implies. This is one of my favorite shows as once upon a time I was a pro cook back in Columbus Ohio. What I am looking for is your input on your fav eating spot-with only one restriction-it cant be part of a chain out of the area. So for example La Casita would be OK due to multiple locations in the Springs but not Outback stake house.

So, let me kick things off. One of my favorite things is green chili. You can put it on just about anything and I will eat it. With that in mind two of my favorite spots are the Magic Chef diner on Costilla and the Western Omelet over on Walnut. One word of warning, at Western if you ask they will bring you out a sample of both their hot and mild green chili. I like to - eat the heat- but sometimes their hot is holy %$#.

So hit me with your favorite spots so I can go check them out and I will post as I find more.

Till next time.

MIke 

Market update for May 2010

Well, here we are in June with the tax credit behind us and the rest of this year ahead of us. Things got pretty crazy in the last couple of months leading up to the initial credit deadline.  It will be interesting to see by how much the numbers for May are inflated (if at all) compared to the rest of the summer.  So let’s have a look at some numbers from May.  As always my focus will be on resale single family vs. new, townhome/condo since that makes up the majority of our current market.

New Listings: 1506, down 18.6% from April but up from May 09 by 1.3% Total actives sit at 5118 up 12.3% from May 09. Overall inventory levels hit their low point last year as sellers sat on the sidelines waiting for market prices to stabilize. The current inventory is still very low compared to 06/07. The good news is there seems to be a better mix of regular resale, short sale, and foreclosure homes for buyers to pick from.  Short sales dominated last year’s market.  If you are a buyer in this market talk to your realtor or call me for a better idea of which type of home represents the best deal for your situation.

Prices: The median sales price from May09 to May 2010 was up 2.3% from $185,000 to $189,171 while the average price over the same time frame went up 7% from $213,326 to $228,292. So what does all this mean to sellers and buyers in this marketplace?

For sellers: It took sellers about a year to get real on pricing as the market tumbled back in 2008. It will take that same year for buyers making offers to realize the big “homes on the cheap” party is over.  As the economy and housing market continue to recover sellers will need to stay in the bottom 25% of their price range and do any fixes or upgrades needed to compete for sales. Sale numbers for May were at 844, 7.9% above last May, but still far below the numbers from 06/07.

For Buyers: Ya the tax credit is over (unless you were deployed military) get over it.  There are two areas of focus for buyers the rest of the year. First, inventory and prices have come back at modest levels. Inventory needed to come back from last year. There were times last year where it became hard to find listings in the MLS that I would even show my buyers. Prices have a long way to go to recover from the heyday 06/07 market so current market prices still represent a bargain for buyers. The second area is interest rates. Rates are still at record low levels. Any rate between 4.5% and 5.5% is a great deal. Nothing I repeat NOTHING kills a buyers buying power like an increase in rates during the home shopping process.

To summarize: For sellers the market is a bit better than last year but still tough. Staging and pricing are your friends. For buyers, prices that are still low, and a better inventory combined with very low interest rates scream great buying opportunity.  If you are thinking of buying call me yesterday before this year and this opportunity slip away.

Take care,

MIke

Hello Out there.

Been to long since I have updated this blog. Well I am back with a vengeance. Look for a final 2009 in review and Jan 2010 numbers to be posted over the next couple of weeks. It will be five to ten days before Jan numbers are posted.

One thing I can tell you. This looks to be our transition year. Inventories 250K and below are very low. Overall we finished the year under 4000 resale listings for the County. Lowest number in years. Probably 50% of the current listings are distressed properties. Many would be quality listings are folks sitting on the sidelines at this point waiting for the economy and housing market to recover.

If you are thinking of selling get on the market ASAP before the late spring rush. New late spring listing always outnumber the buyers comming into the market. With the state of the current compatition if you have location, price, and condition you will thump the market.

Seller or buyer give me a call. Lets sit down and work out a strategy for success in this years market.

Till next time,

MIke

Hello and welcome to another market update. The July numbers are in and we are still marching forward on the road to recovery for our local market.

New listings remain at around 1500 per month. This is a plateau we have been at most of this year. This has gone a long way in the face of increased sales with keeping our overall inventory levels down from last year.

Sales are up another 9.5% from last month and up 12% from this time last year. The increase in sales has helped to stabilize home prices which have increased about 3.5% from last month but are still down 6-8% from last year.

We still have 4662 active listings in the resale market so there is plenty of competition out there. For my seller that have heard me say “we are in a price war combined with a beauty contest” that still hold true.

I started warning my buyers in late spring that the market was changing and most of the screaming deals are in fact off the table, but it will still take us a couple more years to bring the market back. By back I mean to a healthy market not the rapid equity we saw a few years ago. There are still going to be to many foreclosures and short sales over the next 2-3 years that will make this market recovery a long steady climb.

Good news for sellers: prices have stabilized at 300K and below and inventories have dropped at 200K and below.

Good news for buyers: due to inventory levels at 300K and above, anyone wanting to move up to a larger home, nicer area, ect will be in great shape to do so over the next 6 months at least. As employment numbers change for the better the move up buyers 300-500K will again take over the market and this opportunity will go away.

Thanks for stopping by. I welcome your input and/or questions. Till next time take care.