Buying a Louisville condo isn't the same as buying a Louisville single family home. It's important to understand the differences. Here is a very basic checklist that you should use before buying a Louisville condo. This checklist should be put together before looking at any units and making a decision based on emotion instead of logic. By sticking to this checklist you be able to find the perfect condo that you love and meets all of your criteria. 1. What is your price range? Whether you're buying a house, townhouse or condo, you'll always need to figure out how much you can afford

Mark Twain popularized this famous quote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." By their very nature, numbers can be manipulated to show many results, even opposing ones, and still be factually accurate. In the world of real estate, this is true as well. But careful attention usually discerns the treasures within. Organizations collect and manipulate data in a myriad of ways. Then when the time comes to report, let's say home sales in Louisville, do they include all homes? What about condos? They're "homes" too! How about the surrounding counties? Most of

If you are purchasing Louisville real estate, or are putting your property up for sale, you may not understand how square footage is calculated in the home. A real estate agent will be calculating the square footage for you, if you're selling your home, and there are some parts of the house that may not be included in the calculations. Measuring the exterior The first thing that gets done when calculating Louisville real estate square footage is an exterior measurement. The exterior walls are measured and then sketches are made showing the home's perimeter. Depending on landscaping that

Putting more money down in the purchase of their home is more than just a smart decision, people have learned that it also brings peace of mind. All we hear from news sources these days is the horrible condition of the housing market. They're not wrong. The number of homes sold so far this year is acres behind 2010 and likely to arrive at 2009 levels. Because of this, I find the need to balance all the negativity with positive insights. I recently wrote that for Louisville renters, now is an amazing time to purchase their first home because of the historically low interest rates. I've

Homeowners who owe more money than their home is worth are considered to be under water or upside down. But data does indicate that the number of distressed properties is shrinking for the first time since the housing recession began. It's been widely reported that shady lending practices, greedy borrowers and a general lack of wisdom (if not sneaky partisan policies) coming from our elected officials is what brought the housing crisis upon us. A more apt metaphor may be "down around our ears." Since that time, what has been done to improve the system? Have we finally passed the poi

I wrote a piece a couple weeks back called, Did Your Louisville Home Actually Drop in Value? In the piece, I pointed to data that showed while the National home value average dropped about 25% since the housing decline, Louisville homes actually gained 1.5%. I think it's important that people know the truth about their home's value. Now, this doesn't mean everyone's home gained value, many did in fact lose value. Every market is a fluid situation where people, and their emotional decisions, ultimately dictate what something is worth. When you fall in love with a home, sometimes you overpay.

Norton Commons is a great setting for a home show! The people came out in droves to see Louisville's latest new home designs. Homearama is my favorite Louisville real estate event of the year. Only thing better would be a surprise visit from HGTV to re-design a room in my house! This year's Homearama took place in Norton Commons, a great site for such an event. One of the largest on record, there are 21 homes all vying for your vote! In this summer heat, you'll need a TALL glass of lemonade to make it through them all before you pass out. We made it through and out alive to tell th

You surely want to avoid a money pit when buying your next Louisville home. This story will tell you how. Most of the time a home sale goes smoothly. The sellers want to sell, the buyers want to buy and a couple of Realtors have helped the process run like a well-oiled machine. That's the norm. Then there are the real estate horror stories. There are a multitude of ways a new home purchase can be a horror. It could be like this family in Idaho that purchased 'Satan's Lair ' — a house filled to overflowing with snakes. It could be a paper nightmare caused by a relentless str

Just because your home has a pool doesn't mean it'll be easy to sell. Below are some tips to help Louisville home sellers who have pools. Some real estate agents believe that selling a Louisville house with a pool acts as a deterrent to at least 50% of the home buyers. While some agents may not agree with this percentage, almost all will agree that selling a home with a pool is harder to sell than one without. Here are the main reasons why many people are not interested in owning a Louisville home with a pool. 1. Children's safety Drowning is a major concern for parents of toddle

Jefferson County home sales for May 2011 was close to 2009 levels, which was a bad year. Oldham County fared better but clearly the housing market has ground to make up. May has disappointed me greatly. I had far greater plans in mind only to see them dashed on the rocks. According to GLAR data, there were only 664 homes sold in Jefferson County during the month of May. This is down more than 30% from May 2010 where we saw 954 homes sold. This is actually the lowest number of sales going back to the mid '90s. May saw 73 homes Oldham County sell during May which was only a 10% drop

Home prices continue to drop, in some places far more than others. Kentucky fares worse than Tennessee, Indiana but better than Ohio. 6/16/11 - The Wall St. Journal doesn't focus on our local market but the points they make for the country as a whole can be applied to our situation. For some time now, I've been touting the "Big 3" real estate market factors as being enticingly positioned for home buyers. It seems WSJ agrees. Despite all the gloom, however, there are growing indications that it is a good time to buy. Mortgage rates, which fell to 4.55% for the week ending June 2, acc

April's performance fell just shy of the trend line putting more pressure on May to "break the plane." Another month of waiting is behind us. What have we learned? Not much... we're still waiting. April 2011 for both Jefferson County and Oldham County fell below the 7-year trend line for home sales. Jefferson totaled 664 homes sold for the month, which trailed last year's 782. Certainly the record breaking rain had something to do with it so we'll see if those buyers who held off in April might be making their move in May. Oldham came in with 61 properties sold just under the 67 o

We all have heard that the housing market is "down." It's taking longer for people to sell their homes and some just won't sell at all. (This is primarily true in the higher price ranges.) While this tremendous news for Louisville home buyers, sellers continue to have a difficult time. Looking deeper into the data we find that one particular segment of real estate industry is struggling far more than the rest and that's new construction. So why do you think that's the case? This piece on SmartMoney primarily cites cost: The reason for the discrepancy is clear, experts say: New homes

Moving days can be stressful but yours doesn't have to be. As a Louisville home seller you'll need to find out more about moving your belongings before getting started. Moving can be an organized state of affairs or it can be a disorganized disaster just waiting to happen. Here are some must-have tips you need to know before planning your move. 1. Make a checklist Start by making a checklist of everything that you need to pack. This can be done in many forms. You may want to organize your checklist in categories according to the rooms in the house, the types of items you need to pac

While most new construction has halted a select few neighborhoods have continued to build. This sample home is located in Rock Springs, off Highway 22 near the Oldham County line. There's been a lot of talk about how Louisville housing market indicators have shown 2011 to be quite disappointing. While Oldham County showed some noteworthy improvement over the previous three years, Jefferson County lags far behind. (The March report will be published next week on InsiderLouisville.) Forecasters use many data points to try and predict future behavior. This is just as true for the real est

The Kentucky Fairgrounds and Exposition Center is home to the Louisville Home Garden and Remodeling Show, March 11-13. Amid the dozens of bathtup overlay companies, tool shed builders and assorted specialty sales companies (need a new cell phone case?) you'll find some intriguing booths at this year's Louisville Home Garden and Remodeling show which starts today. I'll have more in-depth stories in the next several weeks but a few companies that caught my eye might be interest to you as well. Classic Metal Roofing Systems of Kentuckian: If you're planning to stay in your current ho

Updating your home's kitchen is the first place homeowner's should look when contemplating a sale. Despite what some "experts" might say, we're clearly in a buyer's market. (Let's hope he was misquoted.) Home prices have dropped, a rarity for Louisville, Ky., interest rates are at historic lows and there is a large amount of home inventory for buyers to choose from. That puts home sellers at a distinct disadvantage. In an effort to help Louisville home sellers, we published the Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Louisville Home last week. Now we're going to focus improvin

When should a homeowner rent his home rather than sell?Although the US economy and the housing market seem to finally be on an upward trend, we are still recovering from what was one of history’s nastiest and most volatile recessions. First-time buyers are still finding it difficult to get a good rate on a mortgage and many people are still struggling to sell their homes. Because of this the question arises for sellers; “Should I sell my Louisville home or should I rent it?” Now, this poses many potential benefits to selling in a bad market but also many potentially devastating

I just read a great piece by Dave Kansas over at SmartMoney called, Real Estate: Finally a Good Investment? where he admitted that while the real estate market as a whole has a lot of problems, buying residential real estate makes sense. First, the hard reality about the United States market as a whole. There were a record one million foreclosures last year, home prices are still falling in many regions and the number of "underwater" properties is at a record high. And things don't look much better in other areas of real estate. The number of construction jobs continues to decline, ev

According to a National Association of Realtors survey, the following are the top remodeling trends for 2011. These aren't specific home improvement projects but more like mindsets and attitudes towards a homeowner improving their property. Save Money: Remodel Your Bathroom Must-Do Remodeling Projects Warming Up The House Getting Decked Out Hiring A Great Contractor Paying in Cash Opening Up Rooms Bronze Age Going Green Industrial Flair Creating Relaxation Space Planning Ahead As this relates to Louisville real estate, I've seen several of these in action. If I