Putting data into chart form almost always communicates better than simply reading the data. For example, looking at the chart above that shows the total number of homes sold by year in Louisville, KY. It's clear that 2008 and 2009 have been tremendously down years, when compared to the previous five. But look back to the levels of the late 90's and early 00's and they are right in line. Interesting. Ivan Turgenev would have been proud. He originally authored, "A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound."

First American CoreLogic produces some great reports. Not great in the sense that everything is positive but that they are very thorough and timely. This most recent report has this to say about real estate in Louisville, Kentucky. In Louisville-Jefferson County, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.87 percent in February 2010 compared to February 2009. This compares to January's year-over-year HPI, which was -0.10 percent.** Excluding distressed transactions, year-over-year HPI for February is 0.37 percent, compared to January which was 0.92 percent. First American Co

Part of an ongoing series of Brain Teasers focused on real estate in Louisville, KY. Got an idea for the next one? Please contact us! Life is too short to be all work and no play. How about a game? Here's the first ever Louisville Homes Blog Brain Teaser! I was talking with one of my clients yesterday. I'll give you a hint, he's a home buyer. After we finished looking at several homes, I driving back to my office thinking about what we had talked about. Once back, I started to do some research on the Louisville real estate market to see how close my estimates were to reality. I was

Kiplinger, Forbes and other financial publications understand that the general public doesn't care about the minutiae of high finance. So instead to reach and connect with the "every man" they create lists. Today, we see Kimplinger ranking Cities Where Home Prices Have Held Up Best. It's a fairly easy calculation. We chose each region’s top performer in 2009, based on the percentage change in the median home price. So, who do you think won the prestigious East South Central region? Well, this is the Louisville Homes Blog, right? Here's their bio on our fair city. Louisville,

Today begins a new, regular posting of Louisville Home Sales compared to previous years. I find that putting data into pictures helps a great deal and I hope you find this new feature worthwhile! As you can see from the chart, 2008 and 2009 were well off the previous two years. Most notable (at least to me) was that the second half of '09 was significantly better than the second half of '08. Interesting. Still too early to tell about where this year go, but if the activity of my cell phone is any indication, our April numbers should pass 1,000 sales. Part of an ongoing series high

Not the most exciting news but relevant nonetheless. New lead-based paint rules established by the EPA will be going into effect after April 22, 2010. Basically, what this means is that a contractor performing work on any Louisville home containing lead-based paint (built prior to 1978) needs to be a certified renovator who work for a certified company. There you have it! As always, speak with your Realtor® about professionals that they recommend. Then, when interviewing contractors make sure to ask about their certifications. For more information, visit NAR's Field Guide to

Here at Louisville Homes Blog, we absolutely LOVE info-graphics. And Fixr (a great site to find qualified home contractors) has been making some good ones lately. Check out this one about the differences between roofing materials, their durability, color options and costs. Well done! Keep them coming. Roofing materials at a glance. (click to enlarge) .

Schumacher Homes is running a contest where a new Louisville homeowner could win $30,000 in green extras if they sign a purchase agreement by April 30th. Should this sway your decision to use Schumacher over another builder? Not necessarily but as they say in lottery-land, somebody's got to win, and going green is really paying off as energy costs increase. For more details, here's their press release.

Here are a couple pieces of news that relate to Louisville real estate. The first comes from an AP story that WAVE picked up, Pending home sales rise 8.2 percent in February. The National Association of Realtors said Monday its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements rose 8.2 percent from January to a February reading of 97.6. January's reading was revised slightly downward to 90.2. A lot of this is due to the tax incentives that are due to expire on April 30, 2010, but still it's positive news. What will be more telling is the numbers for May and how they compare to the last two y

I wrote a piece in December called Louisville Mortgage Rates Expected to Rise in 2010, complete with a chart showing just how low interest rates had gone. So now let's see why experts believe rates are on the rise. It is actually a forecast that is being espoused by many economists these days. The reason for the rate hike appears to be a combination of the end of the Fed securities buy-back program and potential difficulty in selling off U.S. debt. The Fed will stopped buying back on March 31st so we'll be able to watch this week the initial reaction to this change. Just last week, n

We experienced a much better month in March than February. Every area in Louisville had increases in the number of homes sold (Area 0 stayed even with 10), some realizing a gain of almost 100%—Area 8-Hurstbourne/Middletown/Anchorage went from 44 sales in February to 90 this past month. Sale averages, however, did continue to decline in most areas. As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. March 2010 AREA SALES AVERAGE DoM 0 Central Downtown District 10 $97,905 88 1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively 73

The Bridges of Razor Creek is a new development within Jeffersontown that began in 2004 and is filling out nicely. Elite Homes, famous for their Extreme Makeover Home Edition build for the Hughes Family, is both the developer and builder for this community. The development is off a less busy street so it's very private. Homes start in the low $300k's and move up to to the mid $400k's. Looking to build in JTown? This neighborhood is worth a look! Read More » This post is one in an ongoing series of spotlights on the Best Louisville Neighborhoods. If you have a neighborhood that you