AmericanDreamTown.com

Archive for December, 2009

Medford real estate

December 30, 2009 // No Comments »

Image via Wikipedia

Real estate in Medford can look forward to better days, claimed Greg Stiles of the Mail Tribune on October 27, 2009. His newspaper article claims that “buyers have snapped up foreclosures and short sales like hors d’oeuvres and appetizers and local industry leaders hope they will find the main course will be just as desirable.” On the facts and figures side of things, “the latest figures compiled by Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service show 233 pending sales — 44.7 percent more than a year ago. New listings, meanwhile, have declined, helping to reduce the bloated inventory that accumulated after the housing bubble burst four years ago.”

According to the statistics, Medford real estate is not fairing too well. Compared to the previous month, Yahoo! Real Estate reported on November 16, 2009, that the median price of homes for sale dropped two percent to $244,000 while foreclosures also dropped by a similar amount to about $183,000. However, while these figures may seem appealing to some, realtors caution that the median sales price can sometimes be misleading, as it represents only the median price of the specific homes that sold during the time period and not necessarily the entire market. On the whole, however, Medford homes for sale are doing much better than similar properties elsewhere in Oregon or even on the west cost of the U.S.

Stiles wrote a follow-up article on November 7, 2009, to provide more information regarding the local housing market. According to the report, the extension of the federal tax credit will help to continue the market stimulation that has helped out the Medford real estate market previously. “With the first-time homebuyers tax credit and expanding coverage to include current owners, local real estate agents hope to see the trend continue. Congress extended the tax credit, slated to end Nov. 30, through April 30, 2010. Many current homeowners also are eligible to receive a credit of $6,500 if they buy during the prescribed period.” Most notably, East Medford was the biggest segment of the market with 138 sales in the past three months, up from 114 in 2008.

Posted in Oregon

Ashland real estate

December 16, 2009 // No Comments »

Image via Wikipedia

Despite a harmful global recession and construction freezes on properties around the world, Ashland real estate is still the target for some build-happy property owners. While the current credit crisis and failing mortgage market make building a new home a bad idea at this time, the Oregon city is still seeing a steady amount of building permits. The city is capitalizing on this trend by adding on an extra fee to those people seeking building certification and permissions. Andrea Calcagno of the local television station KDRV reported on November 9, 2009, that real estate in Ashland continues to be developed at a surprising rate although “people who want to build a home or business in Ashland may soon be paying an extra dollar per square foot to the Ashland School District.”

The article claims that “If passed, the tax would be $1 for every square foot for residential building and .50 cents for commercial building projects.” The Ashland School District says the money collected by the tax is predicted to be between $100,000 and $300,000 a year. Similar rules and laws have already been implemented in forty-nine other districts in Oregon. Accordingly, applications for housing permits are expected to decline one the law is put into place. An indirect effect of this is an increased demand for Ashland homes for sale after construction of new homes begins to taper as the results of the additional fees come into full effect.

The Yahoo! Real Estate Market Snapshot updated on November 16, 2009, showed a slight decrease in the median price of homes for sale, down 1.9 percent to just over $429,000. The price for foreclosed properties rose 2.2 percent from the previous month to just under $290,000. These numbers are quite mild in relation to several other cities and areas in the United States that suffered much more over the same period. Currently, experts estimate the worst of the recession to bottom-out some time in 2010, much to the relief of property owners and potential buyers alike.

Posted in Oregon

Atlanta Real Estate Market Update

// No Comments »

Image via Wikipedia

The Atlanta real estate market continues to suffer as a result of the recession of 2008. Consumer confidence in Atlanta is low, home values are low, and there is a large inventory of new and foreclosed properties on the market. However, the credit crunch in Atlanta seems to be the largest problem for bringing about the recovery of the Atlanta real estate market. Housing is generally affordable now, but people who are interested in buying a new home now are having trouble getting the loans they need because lenders have greatly tightened their approval requirements. Most people now will have trouble seeking the financing they need unless if they can make a relatively large cash down payment or have perfect credit.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has reported that the Atlanta real estate market continues to suffer, especially due to the credit freeze in Atlanta. To make things worse, many banks in Atlanta are not willing to reduce prices for foreclosed or distressed properties that they own, opting to wait for a more favorable market. Real estate experts believe that regulators will be needed in order to force banks to act accordingly to allow the Atlanta real estate market to begin to make a recovery. However, for private home sellers, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has noted that those homes are selling relatively quickly, primarily due to the willingness of the homeowners to be flexible with the home price. Although there haven’t been many promising signs of recovery in the near future, many real estate experts are optimistic that the Atlanta real estate will be poised for recovery sometime in 2010 or most likely 2011.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle has reported that according to a survey taken in the fourth quarter of 2009 by LoopNet, most people don’t expect a recovery in the Atlanta real estate market until 2011. Consumer confidence is reported to be down, and the number of people expecting a recovery in 2010 as opposed to 2011 is also down. Many people also expect that the Atlanta real estate market will continue to decline by about 11 percent in the coming months before bottoming out sometime around the second quarter of 2010. People also felt confident that the lack of access to debt financing was the number one obstacle to the recovery of the Atlanta real estate.

Posted in Georgia

Boulder Colorado Real Estate

December 15, 2009 // No Comments »

Image via Wikipedia

The Boulder real estate market is in slightly better shape than the rest of Colorado, although there are still serious problems with the region, and the city seems to be facing a rather tepid recovery. According to a November 25, 2009 article in the Boulder County Business Report, “It’s a cliché phrase in the real estate world, but experts at the Boulder Valley Real Estate Conference & Forecast told audience members that ‘now is the time to buy.’ Giving their views for 2010, local and national real estate experts said they expect the economy to slowly recover, and along with it interest rates likely will rise. About 500 people attended the conference presented by the Boulder County Business Report on Nov. 19 at the Millennium Harvest House Boulder. Lead sponsors were Re/Max of Boulder and The Colorado Group. Brad Blackwell, retail national sales manager of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, said the U.S. Federal Reserve plans to slowly withdraw its emergency support from the mortgage markets, which likely will raise rates starting in January.”

Boulder home sales are at least partially dictated by price levels in the city, at least according to a November 24, 2009 article also in the Boulder County Business Report. The piece noted that “Home prices in Boulder County depreciated annually for the first time in 21 years, according to the latest figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency, which tracks conforming loans and refinances across the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas, said home prices decreased 0.56 percent year-over-year in Boulder County during the third quarter.”

One potential problem area for real estate in Boulder was the level of foreclosures, which, although lower than the rest of the state, are still considerably higher than before the recession. According to a November 19, 2009 article in the Denver Post, “New foreclosure filings in Colorado reached a record high of 12,468 during the third quarter, according to a report released Thursday by the Colorado Division of Housing…The rates in Boulder and Broomfield counties, by contrast, were 329 and 230 households per completed foreclosure, respectively. Industry observers say completed foreclosures are down because borrowers are seeking help with loan modifications from Colorado’s foreclosure hotline.”

Posted in Colorado