Louisville Home Show March 5-7
Feb 25, 2010 News
The Louisville Home, Garden and Remodeling Show is just around the corner on March 5-7 at the Kentucky Expo Center. Always want to keep my readers up the latest news. If you have real estate related news that you’d like to promote, please contact me.
Is Louisville Real Estate Up or Down?
Feb 25, 2010 Trends/Statistics
Housing news still dominates a large portion of our nation’s economic mindset. On Wednesday, Reuters writes New home sales hit record low, prices tumble.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales of newly built single-family homes dropped 11.2 percent to an annual rate of 309,000 units, the lowest level since records started in 1963, from 348,000 units in December.
Let’s be clear, this statistic is talking about new construction, not sales of existing homes. News isn’t that bleak here in Louisville. Not according to the Courier-Journal who published Louisville Realtors continue sales gains in January this week.
Members of the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors sold 702 houses and condos in January, a 33 percent increase from a year earlier.
It marks the group’s seventh-straight month of double-digit percentage gains from a year earlier.
Color me confused because the very next paragraph states:
With only 529 sales, January 2009 was the slowest month in at least five years, said Lisa Stephenson, executive vice president of the Realtors group.
That seems to contradict the opening paragraphs. When in doubt, I look at the data itself.
Louisville KY Home Sales: January 2009
Number of Houses Sold This Month – 529
Average Selling Price This Month – $160,018Louisville KY Home Sales: January 2010
Number of Houses Sold This Month – 702
Average Selling Price This Month – $155,995These statistics should represent residential sales of houses, condos and townhomes in the Greater Louisville MLS.
Just what we’d guess, more sales but at lower prices. Not sure where some of these folks get their data.
Louisville Housing Market Gets National Praise
The Louisville real estate market gets a compliment in the San Francisco newspaper with this snippet.
Other cities which Bay Area residents, weary of the local housing market bubble, might consider relocating to include: Columbus, Ohio, whose suburbs are job-rich and where 87% of middle-income families can afford a home; Louisville, Ky. where foreclosure rates are very low and there is a stable housing market; Houston, Texas where the energy sector has kept jobs going; and Indianapolis, Minneapolis and St. Louis which made the ranking in spite of middling home-price forecasts because housing in these locations is affordable.
Even better is Louisville ranking #2 in Forbes’ Top Ten Best Housing Markets Across America.
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Louisville, KY
- Houston, TX
- Minneapolis, MN
- Indianapolis, IA
- Memphis, TN
- Columbus, OH
- St. Louis, MO
- Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
- Austin, TX
I’d say we have a lot to be appreciative here in Louisville. What do you think?
Update: The CJ now makes mention of Louisville and our #2 ranking in Forbes with Forbes.com: Louisville housing market second best in nation.
Tags: Courier-Journal, Forbes, Louisville real estate statistics, Reuters, San Francisco Gate
Louisville Real Estate Responds to Market Conditions
Feb 23, 2010 Residential
Louisville follows the same real estate trends as other cities in our nation, only to a much lesser degree. But like I posted earlier this month, Louisville hasn’t seen a drop in home values since before 1978. That changed in 2008 and 2009.
How does the market respond? For the most part, the same as the rest of the country. For starters, new homes are designed smaller. Here’s a snippet from Home Sizes Fall as Builders, Buyers Embrace Economic Reality.
Data recently released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) found the average size of a new home that was completed in 2009 fell to 2,480 square feet from 2,520 square feet in 2008. The last time the average completed-home size fell by a statistically significant amount was 1982.
I can attest to this personally, as my clients that are looking to build are more interested in a smaller house footprint but want the home built with more energy-efficient, green technology.
The other response to a housing downturn is that more homeowners put off moving to a new home and instead focus on remodeling their existing home.
The most popular projects in the past–remodeling the kitchen and bathrooms–have decreased in popularity, as adding a bathroom has taken the honors of the most popular project. This makes sense since, for many homeowners, updating an existing room can be put off because it is often seen as a “luxury,” while for many, the addition of a bathroom is a necessity due to changes in the needs of the family.
Just ask any Louisville home builder how many of their projects are remodels vs. new builds.
As the Louisville market rebounds, this phenomenon will decrease. From the lyrics of a hit 80’s song, “He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is.”
Tags: Louisville real estate, National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
Top 20 Home Improvement iPhone Apps
Feb 20, 2010 Home Improvement
Home improvement just sounds complicated. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few handy tools that don’t kill your budget to improve your home improvement? Just whip out your iPhone and get going on that dry wall or cabinet refinishing project. That’s right, for all you do-it-yourself types and iPhone addicts, your have been answered. We’ve compiled a list of 20 handy, dandy apps that make home improvement projects and mundane chores easier (or at least more fun).
- ConsumerReports.org – A trusted resource for consumer product testing. Check the free mobile news and video app for information on products for home, and to get the best bang for your buck. A must-do before you start any home improvement project.
- Home Improvement Calculator – A calculator equipped to estimate exactly how much of a certain material you’ll need to complete home improvements. It covers painting jobs, wall papering, tile laying, fences, concrete laying, brick laying, carpeting, gravel and deck building. Enter the measurements for the project’s size and the calculator will do all the work (almost).
- Home Improvement Store Finder – For 99 cents, find and get directions to nearby home improvement stores. Simple and convenient when you need a quick phone number or address to a home improvement supply store.
- iHandy Carpenter – A toolkit on your iPhone. This app features five carpentry tools, a plumb bob, a surface level, a bubble lever bar, a protractor and a ruler, to make home improvement a cinch. All the tools can be used in landscape mode, and if you calibrate the plumb bob, level bar and surface level, you can use them together as a clinometer to read angles precisely.
- Handyman Sidekick – Another easy-to-use calculator for gardening, wallpapering, painting and flooring. It converts and saves units of measurement for easy reference. At $1.99, this app eliminates the need for a contractor on small jobs and saves a few dollars by figuring the amount of needed materials for a project.
- Home Sizer – A simple app made to calculate the square footage of a room or your home. It can also be used when designing a new home. The app features a file manager to save your data or your “house” plans and a mortgage calculator to estimate monthly payments for your dream house.
- Palettes Lite – A free app to create color palettes. Use it to repaint and develop a color scheme for your entire home. The company also features an upgrade version, Palettes, with more advanced techniques and options at a cost of $9.99.
- Warranty – Who knows where to keep all the warranty junk that comes with a new product? This $4.99 app keeps up with it all for you. No more paper stuffed boxes or drawers full of warranty papers. It’s all gathered in one place at your fingertips.
- Convert Aid/Converter – Two 99 cent apps that calculate units of measurement for you without the algebra book.
- Drywall Calculator – This app adds up the square footage of a room so you can quickly assess how much dry walling you will need for any room in the house.
- ConcreteCalc – Similar to the Dry Wall Calculator, the Concrete Calculator app calculates the amount of concrete you’ll need per cubic yard.
- EZ Loan Calc – Figure up the money needed for a project and get an estimate of what a loan would cost you. It has endless possibility written all over it.
- Distance Calculator – Convert distances easily with the $2 app. No more memorization and calculations for you.
- Goal Tender – A nice app to keep your home improvement goals and projects on track. The price is right at $2.99, and it allows you to write down and review your goals and track your success rates.
- Flashlight – A free app that glows like a tiny flashlight for dark spots. It comes in handy for midnight trips to the bathroom as well.
- Homelogic Mobile Control – An app designed by HomeLogic to control your home with the touch of a button on your iPhone. Use this free app to adjust electronics and other WIFI-enabled systems from your iPhone or the Internet.
- Computer Repairs – When you can’t fix the computer yourself despite all the Computer Programming for Dummies you read, use this 99 cent app to look up a professional in you area to help.
- Trash Day – For those of us that forget home improvement includes the little things like taking out the trash. Program reminders, and never miss a trash pick-up again.
- Heat – A free temperature converter app. It converts Fahrenheit and Celsius as well as Kelvin and Rankine.
- Builder Dan’s Toolbox – This toolbox is a reference of building codes for contractors and do-it-yourself folks. Downfalls? The codes are based on Canadian standards, and it’s $6.99 for the download. Keep in mind, nothing replaces the expertise of a professional. If the sink you fixed, with the help of your new iPhone app, is rerouting water to the toilet and flooding the bathroom faster than a tsunami, it may be time to make the call for a pro.
Tags: iPhone, Nicole Adams
Home Prices in Louisville Trending Upward
Feb 19, 2010 Trends/Statistics
After a couple of down years, it looks like home values in Louisville are heading back up. This information comes from First American CoreLogic.
Home Prices in Louisville-Jefferson County Increase
In Louisville-Jefferson County, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.63 percent in December 2009 compared to December 2008. This compares to November’s year-over-year HPI, which was 0.06 percent.** Excluding distressed transactions, year-over-year HPI for December is 0.11 percent, compared to November which was -0.87 percent.
What’s even better is that they’re forecasting a good 2010. Here’s the 12 Month Forecast, starting December 2009 to December 2010.
Kentucky 3.2% [Single Family Combined] 2.5% [Single Family Combined Excluding Distressed]
National 2.7% [Single Family Combined] 3.5% [Single Family Combined Excluding Distressed]
New Housing Starts Jump in January
Feb 18, 2010 News
A friend in the industry passed along this piece of news today:
What’s driving the market: Treasurys fell as improved economic and corporate news reassured investors about the strength of the burgeoning recovery, undermining demand for safe haven assets.
The National Association of Home Builders reported that housing starts jumped 2.8% in January to an annual rate of 591,000, which was more than expected. Housing starts were expected to have reached an annual rate of 580,000 units in January, according to a Briefing.com consensus of economist forecasts. Building permits, a measure of houses yet to be built, fell 4.9% to an annual rate of 691,000 units in January, which was better than expected. The rate of permits was expected to have slipped to 620,000 in January.
Positive news for the market as a whole, not just Louisville real estate. But as this rebound continues expect interest rates to climb as well. If you’ve been waiting to make your move, time could be running out.
Vacation Alert, Turn Away Quickly
Feb 6, 2010 General
We’re blessed to have the chance to take a vacation to a secluded island in the Caribbean. No cells, no Internet, no opportunity for “life” to intrude. Have a great week and I’ll see you upon my return. Via con dios!
Tags: Caribbean
New Construction in Louisville Waiting for Rebound
Feb 3, 2010 News, Residential
The CJ did a little piece on Monday about where the new construction numbers are and where they’re heading. It should be no surprise to anyone following the situation that most of the action is taking place at the low end of the price range due to the Federal home buyer’s tax incentives, but I did find this quote from a National Association of Home Builders economist interesting.
“It’s like, Louisville behaved really well at the party, but for some reason, you were as hung over as everyone else,” Denk said.
So the numbers would lead us to believe that Louisville’s housing market is poised for a rebound, but because that isn’t happening, what are the causes? Unemployment? Concern over the larger, economic picture? There are experts on both sides of these predictions.
Tags: Courier-Journal, National Association of Home Builders, new construction, Robert Denk
Louisville KY Home Sales: January 2010
Feb 2, 2010 Trends/Statistics
January was down from December in large part due to the weather, but also from uncertainty about the economy. There are signs that things will be picking up as we head into the Spring.
As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
January 2010
| AREA | SALES | AVERAGE | DoM |
| 0 Central Downtown District | 11  |
$165,907 |
90 |
| 1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively | 56  |
$46,375 |
64 |
| 2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn | 54 |
$159,210 |
52 |
| 3 Brownsboro/StMatthews | 35 |
$201,374 |
104 |
| 4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station | 39 |
$88,432 |
51 |
| 5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park | 40 |
$94,728 |
74 |
| 6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek | 87 |
$128,679 |
73 |
| 7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown | 62 |
$165,544 |
92 |
| 8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg | 56 |
$285,128 |
85 |
| 9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd | 51 |
$236,834 |
82 |
| 11 Bullitt Co. | 46 |
$135,667 |
90 |
| 19 Spencer Co. | 15 |
$122,507 |
80 |
| 20 Oldham Co. – North | 20 |
$249,562 |
98 |
| 21 Oldham Co. – South | 17 |
$217,409 |
105 |
| 30 Shelby Co. | 22 |
$179,384 |
111 |
Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.
Tags: home sales, January 2010, louisville ky
Tax Credit Helping Some Louisville Home Buyers
Feb 2, 2010 News
Nice piece in Business First of Louisville about how first-time homebuyers have made their move in today’s housing market due primarily to the tax credit currently being offered by the government. This makes a great deal of sense. Most watching the market understand that the recent increase in home sales is happening predominantly in the lower priced tiers where first-time homebuyers are focused.
What does this mean going forward? Are there still renters on the sideline watching to see what might happen next? Most assuredly.
Like I posted the other day, wise real estate decision makers should consider all four of these variables.
Chief among them are, 1) the historically low interest rates, 2) the never before seen tax credits from the government, 3) the reduced home prices, and 4) the large house inventories across the country.
The Business First article hits on #3 with:
The median selling price declined for the second consecutive year in 2009, falling to $132,000, according to the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors. In 2008, the median selling price was $135,000.
I have to agree with Jacki Shafer in the article that these drops are “unprecedented.” Even after the huge 12% increases of the late 70’s, the “rebound” years that followed were still postive. The average annual home value increase here in Louisville, Kentucky since 1978 is 4.76%. So actually having a decrease for 2009 is something of a rarity, even if it’s very small, especially compared to the rest of the nation.
Here you can see a chart of the year home value changes in Louisville, Kentucky going back to 1978. As you can discern, the negative value in 2009 is the first in the past 30 years. *Source: www.fhfa.gov
Act Before the Tax Credit Expires
For people currently considering a move, I would advise them to decide quickly as the current law requires that a sales contract needs to be finalized by April 30, 2010 in order to meet the tax credit requirement. For more specific details, visit the Federal Housing Tax Credit website.
If anyone reading this post is looking for a trustworthy Realtor®, please feel free to contact me and I’ll help you every step of the way.
Tags: Business First of Louisville, Federal Housing Tax Credit
