Most of our posts here at LouisvilleHomesBlog are directed to buyers of Louisville homes or sellers looking for real estate news and advice. This post is not. It is directed towards Realtors® who want their voice to be heard in our nation’s capital.
One of the big fund-raising events of 2010 will be on September 9th at Locust Creek Clubhouse. Buying a ticket will contribute the our Political Action Committee (PAC) called GLARPAC. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? It just stands for the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors Political Action Committee.
Maybe this piece of news might entice you to attend. All at the event have a chance to win $6000! That would certainly be welcome, right?
Tickets are $100 and can be purchased from Tre Pryor (291-7406) or Lisa Stephenson (894-9860). The entire $100 goes straight to GLARPAC that works towards the causes that benefit Realtors® and the real estate market.
A recent stock rally report caught my eye due to the real estate component. Keep in mind, this is a national report, not keyed specifically to the Louisville real estate market.
A report on the housing market, while still showing a slowdown, was reassuring because it wasn’t as bad as investors expected. The National Association of Realtors said sales of previously occupied homes fell to an annual rate of 5.37 million in June from 5.66 million a month earlier. Economists forecast the sales rate to fall to 5.18 million.
Hat tip to Branden Klayko over at Broken Sidewalk (great site) for bringing this amazing video to my mind again. I’m not sure if I’ve posted it before but even if I have, it’s worth a second look.
Here’s hoping they are able to secure funding for the Museum Plaza project.
I recently visited Louisville’s new home showcase on a hot and humid Saturday afternoon. Other than the sweltering heat, it was great fun. (At least for an avid new home junkie, like myself.)
Rather than try and describe each home’s great features, I thought I’d write about the current trends that I see in these new upscale homes and then cover a few of the innovations that I found interesting.
New Construction Trends in Louisville
Trend 1: Green Home Building
It’s becoming more and more apparent that building green is here to stay. Almost all of the homes in this year’s Homearama touted their green characteristics.
Not only are all (10) homes Energy Star rated, upon entering #5 The Clark by Mike Oney, the greeter was quick to inform visitors that this home was recently awarded the greenest home in Louisville. Thicker exterior walls, higher-quality spray insulation and a geothermal system all contribute towards ultra-low energy bills.
Trend 2: Room Sizes Shrink, Closets Hold Steady
It’s quite apparent that room sizes are on the way down and builders seek to impress potential buyers will high quality building components rather than expansive spaces.
The only space where this doesn’t seem to be the case is in closets. Master closets continue to be a place where bigger is definitely better. Plus, current storage solutions are super! (Teaser: I’ll have an article next week with a designer from Closets by Design. Make sure to check back!)
There was a good crowd out for a Saturday afternoon looking a quality, new construction in Louisville, Kentucky.
Trend 3: Greater Use of Stone, In Addition to Brick
Granite has always been the high-end player in kitchen counter tops. Today it’s obvious that quality stonework is something that builders are highlighting, and not just in the kitchen.
From a creek stone wall on the facade, to exposed brick in the kitchen, to limestone pillars in the basement, builders and their designers are looking for ways to impress potential clients. New quartz solutions from companies like Cambria are touting that their stone’s non-porous nature that wards off bacteria, which makes it a natural choice for all manner of counter tops.
Additional Trends
Despite the growing number of roofing options available on the market, I did find it interesting that all the Homearama builders still continue to use asphalt shingles.
Hardwood flooring, particular dark toned colors, were extremely popular.
Smaller decks but most were either partially or completely covered.
The is The Chandelier by Joe Kroll. Notice the marvelous mortar-rubbed brick exterior.
Innovative Home Building Products
There were a large number of great products at this year’s Homearama. From the new cork floors in Dan Smith’s Summercrest home to ever more efficient appliances and lighting solutions, I don’t have time to describe them all but I did want to highlight a few.
Home #6 by Richard Miles had a novel retractable screen on the deck that could lowered or raised with a remote control. These screens were installed Phantom Screens and can change the usefulness of your outdoor spaces at the touch of a button. Very cool!
In the same home, I learned about an under decking solution that really enhances the appearance and longevity of your deck/patio. Undercover Systems installed this one and it was beautiful. Certainly something to look into if you spend any amount of time in the outdoor spaces of your Louisville home.
Most of the homes in Louisville are either brick or some variety of siding. Stucco houses are quite rare here. Some homeowners paint their brick to give it a cleaner, simpler style. I thought the mortar-rubbed brick treatment on Joe Kroll’s #4 home was magnificent. From a distance, it appears to be painted brick but on closer inspection it gave the home a very interesting, old-world feel. I thought it was superb.
Houses like this great ranch home in Douglass Hills are quite affordable when compared with the nation as a whole.
The Forbes.com Web site confuses me. I know they’re trying to have more pages, so each page can have more ads, thus more ad revenue, but as far as navigating it, I always find it frustrating.
But what’s not frustrating is that Forbes’ analysts are high on Louisville real estate. So much so that again this year they rank our fair city quite high—4th in the country, in fact. Just last November, Francesca Levy had Louisville at #17 in her Best Bang-For-The-Buck Cities, which I posted here. So now, just over half a year later, she’s moved us up 13 spots.
In the Midwest, neighboring Indiana and Kentucky both boast metros high on the list: Indianapolis, Ind., came in second place, and Louisville, Ky., placed fourth. Homeowners in both cities spend around 20% of their income on the monthly costs of ownership. That’s an added perk to the already low cost of housing–in Indianapolis, 95% of residents can afford a median-priced home, more than anywhere else in the country.
The last time home loan rates were lower was the 1950s, when most mortgages lasted just 20 or 25 years.
That’s amazing. But here’s the part I find difficult to believe.
Rates could go lower and still not budge the housing market, analysts say. That’s because a person without a job can’t afford a home and a person worried about losing their job is unlikely to do so either.
Sure, they could go lower but I’ve not read many analysts who believe they will. Even still, anything is possible.
The main thing is to take the time and compare your current mortgage rates with what the rates that are now available (remember to include closing costs) and see if it makes financial sense for you to either buy another home or refinance.
Just a quick note to let you know there are only 10 days left for this year’s Homearama. Remember to bring water and maybe a hat, it’s hot out there folks!
Jul 11, 2010 by Tre Pryor, Editor-in-Chief. News1 Comment
As in life, there’s good news and there’s bad news. Looking at our Louisville real estate home values and number of sales, we see that 2010 is a big improvement over 2009. That’s good news! But 2009 wasn’t a very good year to begin with. That’s bad news.
Many economists today have serious concern over where our economy is heading with government spending on the rise and our deficit growing. That’s bad news. So where’s the counter-balancing good news? Mortgage rates!
Rather than plaster row upon row of 30-year fixed mortgage rate data on this site, wouldn’t you much rather look at some charts? First comes the recent past—here are the rates from the past 3 months.
Charts of Mortgage Rates: United States
Nothing earth-shattering in this 3-month chart but since May 6th the national average for 30-year fixed mortgages dropped below 5%. That’s pretty significant.
On this chart we see a smooth steady decline for the three month period.
When we look back one year, we can see that most of the overall decline has occurred in just the past two months.
Overall, the past year has remained relatively flat but since the high in early April, rates have moved consistently downward.
Here we see that just as recently as 2000, interest rates were up around 8%. We’re now at almost 4% just a decade later.
Rates hit a significant low back in the first part of 2004 then rose back up. Since 2009, they’ve been even lower.
This final chart really should give home buyers great enthusiasm. Rates aren’t likely to move much lower. Buying now could save a great deal of money over the term of the loan.
It’s quite remarkable to see where rates are today. It appears that there isn’t much room for them to go lower.
Lower Rates Mean Lower Payments
Here in the United States, home buyers used to contribute 20% down towards the purchase of their new home. This was primarily done in order to avoid the required private mortgage insurance (PMI). That number has dropped to around 10% in 2003 according to Freddie Mac as more relaxed credit rules enticed more renters into home ownership with lower down-payment requirements.
For our example, let’s say home buyer Tom decides that he can wait until next year to purchase his new home. Since I can’t predict the future, let’s say rates only increase 1.5% from now until next Summer.
Tom grabs his Realtor and finds a great bachelor’s pad and buys it for $200,000. Tom’s interest rate at this time is 6% on a 30-year fixed mortgage. Using our trusty mortgage calculator, we see that by putting down a whopping $40,000 to avoid PMI, the principal and interest portion of his mortgage is just $959.28. Sounds great, right?
Tom’s close friend, Jerry, decided that now was the time buy. His Realtor found an amazing condo close to great restaurants that he buys for the same price—$200,000. The big difference is that Jerry’s current interest rate is just 4.5%. (A client of one of my mortgage broker friends just locked in on a rate of 4.125%.)
With this scenario, Jerry’s P&I portion of his mortgage just $810.70—a difference of $148.58 a month! Over 30 years that’s $53,488.80. I guess that’s why Jerry always beats Tom in those cartoons.
[Please note that the data reflected in these charts are national averages so numbers for our Louisville real estate market would be different.]
See how home improvement dollars are being spent on different parts of the home. (Click to enlarge.)
The fine folks at Fixr have updated their Home Improvement graphic with new numbers. I believe it’s interesting to see how the highs of 2007 have been dropping even as home sales have dropped at the same time. This says that most consumers aren’t very optimistic about the direction of our economy.
If you’re a Louisville home owner, feel free to click on our Home Improvement category for all the posts related to improving your Louisville home.
Below you’ll find our eight monthly reports for the following Louisville housing markets. These charts display Louisville home sales and Louisville median home values with a trend line.
2010 trending over past two years but short of 2006-07 levels.
We began this feature on Louisville Homes Blog back in April and will be updating this chart periodically. Putting this data into chart form makes it easier to discern trends against past performance. Enjoy!
Just look at that! We’re still in June here and Louisville is routinely experiencing high’s in the 90′s. That’s extreme! Especially when you consider that the historical average for June in Louisville is just 83 degrees.
While the lack of rain has encouraged house hunting, the high temperatures have sent many running for the air conditioned climates of indoors. Here’s hoping July cools down… just a tad.
Happy Birthday card that the Jefferson Co. PVA sends out to homeowners on their 65th birthday. (click to enlarge)
Did you know that property owners in the state of Kentucky who are at least 65 years of age are eligible to receive the Homestead Exemption? Neither did I! That is until I got this cool post card from the good folks at Jefferson County Property Valuation Administrator.
Does where you live affect the safety of your kids?
I referenced Steve Harney’s great blog in my article What Is Your Louisville Home Worth? earlier this month and now I’m back at it again. He’s just making too much sense.
This time, Mr. Harney has a bone to pick with a Wall St. Journal article by Richard Florida (great real estate name, huh?) that promoted the idea that people who rent their homes are happier than people who own their homes. The article seems to the single attribute of home ownership and tries to correlate that to happiness for certain U.S. cities.
Let me try to understand. The people in Detroit, St. Louis and Pittsburgh are less happy than the people in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boulder. And, the reason is because of home ownership rates?
He sounds incredulous! Then moves on to the generally held best practice for learning someone’s opinion… you ask them.
Let’s try a different way of determining whether renters are happier than homeowners. Why don’t we ask them? Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey 2010 reported:
58% of current renters believe now is a good time to buy a house
75% of current renters believe owning a home makes more sense and
67% plan to buy a home at some point in the future
When they asked current renters for the major reason to buy a house, these were their answers (they could pick multiple answers):
78% said it was a good place to raise children
75% said because they would feel safe
70% said because you have control of your own space
66% said owning a home would be a good way to build wealth
54% said paying rent is not a good investment
There are times when renting makes more sense than buying a new home, such as estimated length of stay but the WSJ article seems to jaunt off in a bizarre direction.
This article is Dumb Reason #2 with more to follow next week. I recommend bookmarking Mr. Harney’s blog if you enjoy common sense commentary on the world of real estate.
Jun 19, 2010 by Tre Pryor, Editor-in-Chief. News2 Comments
The sketch above is entitled Maison de Famille. This is a design by Provident Homes and Jeremy McGraw.
I just love Homearama! When I some of my clients who aren’t from Louisville ask what Homearama is and I tell them, I’m usually greeted with blank stares. It’s probably just one of those things you have to see for yourself.
This year’s Homearama should be great as usual. It will be held from July 10th through the 25th at Shakes Run, a Canfield Development. Visit the official Homearama site for ticket prices and more information.
We’ll see if Provident Homes can repeat their winning ways and take home the Favorite Home Award like they did in 2009. Mark your calendars!
The National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday its housing market index fell to 17 in June, sinking five points after two straight months of increases. It was the lowest level since March.
Some of this is due to the fact that the National Tax Credit wasn’t thought to be extended. Just this week we find out that it will. Even still, with so much existing Louisville homes for sale inventory, it’s a safe bet that new construction will continue to see their start numbers slide.
Just thought I’d share what a friend sent to me today. Not sure if this holds to public perception or not but even with “the worst housing market in decades” the numbers tell a different story.
Jun 17, 2010 by Tre Pryor, Editor-in-Chief. News1 Comment
From the AP comes:
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday approved a plan to give homebuyers an extra three months to finish qualifying for federal tax incentives that boosted home sales this spring. [link]
Great news for those who are either working a deal or very close to it!
Usually, I’m all about charts, maps, graphs… you get the picture. When I read the excerpt from a Web site I visit regularly, I was excited to try it out for my hometown of Louisville, KY.
Trouble is, this might be one of those few times where the picture doesn’t communicate the information very well. Maybe another kind of chart would work better?
All I can tell is that it appears that more people are moving out of Louisville than are moving in. This agrees with census data that says we’ve lost 13,000 people since 1990.
Latest Entry
