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Louisville Home Prices Stabilizing

Mar 10, 2010 News, Trends/Statistics

Here’s an interesting CNBC spot on the stats that show homeowners aren’t cutting prices like they have been. Looks to be another sign that we’re nearing the end of this housing recession.

As always, keep in mind that the Louisville real estate market doesn’t experience the wild highs or lows that plaque other parts of the country (see this post).

Tags: CNBC, Diana Olick, Heather Fernandez, Trulia.com

Louisville KY Home Sales: February 2010

Mar 2, 2010 Trends/Statistics

We’re getting mixed results in February compared to January. Most areas saw total sales drop but home values increase. For the entire market, average home prices moved up approximately $2700 (not seasonally adjusted).

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

February 2010

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	10	$134,550	102
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	59	$42,211	35
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	53	$202,696	88
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	38	$257,989	106
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	42	$89,560	86
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	34	$116,618	114
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	75	$124,810	77
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	60	$190,029	71
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	44	$260,789	102
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	45	$212,863	105
11 Bullitt Co.	48	$135,864	81
19 Spencer Co.	12	$160,986	116
20 Oldham Co. – North	16	$281,576	92
21 Oldham Co. – South	16	$187,825	91
30 Shelby Co.	20	$195,555	123

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: February 2010, home sales, Louisville

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 – $160,018

Louisville KY Home Sales: January 2010
Number of Houses Sold This Month – 702
Average Selling Price This Month – $155,995

These 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.

1. Pittsburgh, PA
2. Louisville, KY
3. Houston, TX
4. Minneapolis, MN
5. Indianapolis, IA
6. Memphis, TN
7. Columbus, OH
8. St. Louis, MO
9. Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
10. 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

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]

Tags: First American CoreLogic, Louisville home prices

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

The Future of Louisville Real Estate, 2010 Edition

Jan 11, 2010 Trends/Statistics

At the turn of every year, we like to look back and reflect on the year past. Here at Louisville Homes Blog, we’re no different. But it’s also important to look forward and see how to best take advantage on the real estate market for your own situation.

Predicting the future is always a tricky task but there are some very bright minds at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) who make it their job to study the data.

Now, this data isn’t specific to Louisville, KY but we can still learn a few things from it. Here are some of the high points from a recently published NAR article.

National: Existing Homes

National: New Homes

These national numbers are interesting but don’t translate well for Louisville real estate. Let’s look at data from the Louisville MLS.

Louisville Kentucky: All Homes

So from 2008 to 2009, the total of all home sales went up 2.5%, while prices dropped 4.5%.

If we use National projections for 2010, which I don’t necessarily recommend but it’s a fun exercise, then Louisville should have approximately 13,002 sales and average prices would rise to $164,037 for our market. Check back next January to see how close we were.

Tags: MLS, National Association of Realtors

Greater Louisville 3Q Improves in 2009

Jan 4, 2010 Residential, Trends/Statistics

I’ve got another post on deck, but before we look forward I wanted to highlight some data I just found about Louisville’s 3rd Quarter of 2009 in real estate.

The first table shows total units for Greater Louisville, Region 3 of Kentucky.

As you can see, that’s a pretty big jump; higher than many projected. Which brings us to the second table. Why was the increase that large? Probably because prices dropped so much.

It’ll be interesting to see what prices did over the entire year. Be sure to check back and I promise to keep throwing more Louisville real estate statistics your way.

Louisville KY Home Sales: December 2009

Jan 2, 2010 Trends/Statistics

Numbers are down for December, as expected, especially after a stronger than normal November. But maybe not as down as one might have guessed.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

December 2009

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	6	$135,721	25
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	74	$46,566	77
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	68	$178,766	76
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	37	$244,747	82
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	52	$102,138	67
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	55	$102,387	69
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	96	$116,143	93
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	111	$164,247	80
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	79	$226,479	85
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	63	$222,647	83
11 Bullitt Co.	81	$134,269	73
19 Spencer Co.	17	$161,819	77
20 Oldham Co. – North	37	$260,946	86
21 Oldham Co. – South	27	$211,465	91
30 Shelby Co.	37	$145,713	131

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: December 2009, home sales, louisville ky

Louisville Mortgage Rates Expected to Rise in 2010

Dec 24, 2009 Trends/Statistics

All good things must come to an end. That’s how the saying goes anyway. Today this concept applies to our 40-year, low mortgage interest rates. I’ve published this chart before, but it bears a repeat visit.

Many experts believe that rates will rise in 2010. America’s #1 Mortgage Broker posted about this on ActiveRain just this week. He believes rates will rise to 6% by March. Here is his reasoning:

Mortgage rates have been steadily climbing, from a low of 4.5% around November 27, 2009 to above 5% on December 22, 2009. For the past two months I’ve been warning that this will eventually happen. It’s not because the economy is recovering; it isn’t recovering. The reason mortgage rates will rise to 6% or above, soomer rather than later is because that is the “natural” market.

What does this mean to you? Well, maybe nothing but then again, maybe everything. If you refinanced your Louisville home since rates have been down under 5%, you’re a winner! If not, I recommend that you speak with your loan specialist as soon as possible.

If you’re considering a move, there’s no time like the present. Here’s an example from a standard mortgage calculator:

Just as an example, let’s say you are borrowing $180,000.00 for 30 years with an interest rate of 5.000%. If the value of your home is $200,000.00, your property taxes $3,000.00 per year and your insurance is $1,500.00 per year, you can expect to be making a total payment of $1,416.28. This is because you need to pay $966.28 toward the actual loan, plus $250.00 for real estate taxes and $125.00 toward insurance.

Now up the interest rate to 6% and see what it looks like. The payment jumps to $1,529.19 which translates to an extra $40,647.60 in interest payments over the life of the loan. That’s not pocket change.

If you’re looking for a Louisville Realtor®, I’d love to work with you. Drop me a line.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Louisville #37 in Nation for Housing Recovery

Dec 8, 2009 Trends/Statistics

There is a lot of great real estate information on Forbe’s site. Today we’ll look at America’s Fastest-Recovering Cities. Louisville comes in at 37th, ahead of Indianapolis (44), Columbus (47), Cincinnati (55), Memphis (69) and Dayton (89) but behind Nashville (19) and Knoxville (32). Lexington did not make the list.

Louisville’s Sales Rate Rank is 3rd, which is incredible, while our Gross Metropolitan Product is 85th and really drags down our overall ranking. It’s also interesting to see that foreclosures in Louisville are only a small percentage of overall sales.

Visit their full list for sortable data and ranking methodology.

Tags: Forbes, housing recovery

Louisville KY Home Sales: November 2009

Dec 2, 2009 Trends/Statistics

Possibly in reaction to a strong October, November numbers were, as expected, down. Following yearly trends, December should also be down as well, but according to many experts, 2010 should show some positive growth.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

November 2009

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	6	$286,000	184
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	61	$59,669	71
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	79	$178,683	54
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	52	$198,109	80
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	86	$106,308	66
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	82	$119,621	97
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	126	$123,810	76
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	129	$164,435	72
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	76	$239,938	88
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	99	$244,364	91
11 Bullitt Co.	67	$141,394	84
19 Spencer Co.	11	$163,767	92
20 Oldham Co. – North	35	$283,600	127
21 Oldham Co. – South	24	$202,838	106
30 Shelby Co.	41	$143,388	83

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: home sales, louisville ky, November 2009

Louisville #24 in Bang-For-The-Buck Rankings

Dec 1, 2009 News, Trends/Statistics

I love lists! Can you tell? Some of LHB’s most popular posts are from my Top 10 Lists articles. Today, I’m talking about a recently releases Forbes.com list of Best Bang-For-The-Buck Cities for 2009.

Of interest to real estate enthusiasts is the full rankings which shows Louisville’s strong suit to be low real estate taxes. Forbes puts us at 17th best in the country in that category. Future job forecasts looks pretty good too at 21. Our current unemployment numbers, however, aren’t as promising with a ranking of 66. The list only includes the 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

Tags: Bang-For-The-Buck, Forbes

Louisville Homes Sales Up, Thanks to Tax Credit

Nov 24, 2009 Trends/Statistics

Saw this article in the CJ citing the reason for the increased number of Louisville home sales in October.

First-time buyers taking advantage of a special tax credit gave sales of existing homes their biggest surge in a decade, raising hopes for a turnaround in the housing market and pleasing Wall Street.

Looking specifically at Louisville the increase was substantial.

The Greater Louisville Association of Realtors recently reported that its members sold 1,210 homes in October, a 26 percent increase over a year earlier. The median price for homes sold by GLAR members was $133,500, also an increase from October 2008.

Critics say that these buyers were planning on buying anyway just not this early. Now that the tax credit has been extended, it’ll be interesting to see how sales move going into 2010.

Tags: Louisville Home Sales

Louisville KY Home Sales: October 2009

Nov 2, 2009 Trends/Statistics

In all but one of the Jefferson County areas home sales were up in October. That goes against seasonal trends where activity tapers off as we head into the Holidays. Average home sale prices were generally up as well, compared to September.

As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

October 2009

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	8	$201,431	85
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	79	$42,525	57
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	84	$181,561	71
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	74	$209,440	64
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	82	$106,503	82
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	84	$109,830	73
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	146	$123,125	83
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	135	$155,343	62
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	95	$246,533	103
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	106	$264,781	93
11 Bullitt Co.	70	$167,793	81
19 Spencer Co.	19	$148,361	166
20 Oldham Co. – North	30	$283,302	110
21 Oldham Co. – South	41	$243,695	80
30 Shelby Co.	39	$141,699	97

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: home sales, louisville ky, October 2009

Louisville Housing Market Getting Mixed Signals

Oct 28, 2009 News, Trends/Statistics

The WSJ published this piece today—Home Prices Rise, Yet Confidence Fades—which highlights just how tricky things are in the housing market today. As always, you want to look at home buyers and sellers separately.

For home sellers, the fourth straight month of home value increases is a breath of fresh air after all they’ve been through. Home values are still down from highs that occurred in 2005 and 2006 (depending on market) but it’s most assuredly a step in the right direction. As prices continue to rise, expect to see more sellers list their homes, especially in the Spring.

Home buyers, on the other side, are seeing the end of bargain basement prices that many have enjoyed during this housing downturn. As prices return to more normal levels, Louisville home buyers will now need to pay a little more to get their choice home.

Inventory levels are still high (7,754 active listings for single-family homes in the Louisville MLS) and interest rates are just a point higher than the 30-year lows we experienced in 2003 (see below). In this environment, home buyers are still getting two of the three important factors to lean in their favor.

The other piece of news in the WSJ article highlights that consumer confidence is down and appears to be dropping. This makes sense in light of the current unemployment situation but also points to consumers having little optimism about the direction our economy is heading. The current administration is spending money at a record pace while small business continue to bear too large a tax burden to truly foster innovation on a large scale.

Based on this, all consumers are being wary about how they spend their hard-earned dollars and understandably so. A great deal will always depend on your particular situation.

If you are considering a real estate transaction, my best advice is to find a trusted Realtor® and chat with him or her about your home and future plans. If you’d like to contact me, I always welcome emails from my readers.

Tags: home values, Louisville MLS, Mortgage Rates, WSJ

Louisville Ranks 2nd in Home Price Gains

Oct 8, 2009 Trends/Statistics

Had to hunt to find this juicy tidbit about the nation’s top 15 home price gainers. The following appeared in yesterday’s Business Courier.

Other regional metros in the top 15 include Louisville, ranking second with a 19.7 percent quarter-over-quarter gain; and Columbus, at No. 5, up 17 percent.

It appears that the Midwest is leading the housing recovery and Louisville KY near the top of it. Great news for Louisville home sellers!

Tags: Cincinnati, Columbus, home price gains, Louisville

Louisville KY Home Sales: September 2009

Oct 1, 2009 Trends/Statistics

Numbers are mixed compared to August which actually isn’t too bad considering that each year numbers typically drop off when summer is over and school starts. Like always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

September 2009

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	8	$160,089	164
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	84	$47,110	71
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	82	$174,103	66
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	66	$207,960	73
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	69	$99,848	73
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	71	$115,532	59
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	129	$122,406	103
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	124	$161,737	71
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	75	$194,034	83
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	93	$225,000	102
11 Bullitt Co.	82	$145,298	97
19 Spencer Co.	21	$175,813	133
20 Oldham Co. – North	37	$229,825	90
21 Oldham Co. – South	34	$207,170	79
30 Shelby Co.	46	$157,035	107

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: home sales, louisville ky, September 2009

Louisville Home Prices Rise

Sep 30, 2009 Trends/Statistics

Quick little story in the CJ today titled Home Prices Rose in Most Major Cities in July. Here’s their basis:

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities rose 1.2 percent from June to a reading of 143.05, according to seasonally adjusted data released Tuesday. Though home prices are still 13.3 percent below July a year ago, the annual declines have slowed in all 20 cities for the sixth straight month.

We’re still a little way from the values of two years ago, but this is another indicator that the housing market appears to have reached its bottom. I’ll be posting September data in few days.

Tags: Courier-Journal, Standard & Poor

Louisville KY Home Sales: August 2009

Sep 2, 2009 Trends/Statistics

Fairly large drop from July but many experts believe we’ve reached the bottom of this housing recession. We’ll see if their prediction prove true.

Like always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

August 2009

AREA	SALES	AVERAGE	DoM
0 Central Downtown District	3	$143,333	82
1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively	65	$47,028	80
2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn	75	$188,340	52
3 Brownsboro/StMatthews	71	$230,092	71
4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station	62	$104,477	89
5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park	63	$104,816	69
6 Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek	134	$117,870	74
7 FernCrk/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown	125	$174,676	87
8 Hurstbourne/Middletwn/Anchrg	84	$256,290	88
9 Anchrg/Lyndn/Prospct/UpRvrRd	86	$225,955	70
11 Bullitt Co.	65	$144,046	82
19 Spencer Co.	22	$186,302	142
20 Oldham Co. – North	39	$298,141	101
21 Oldham Co. – South	34	$223,055	95
30 Shelby Co.	44	$157,701	116

Source: MetroSearch, Inc. Values are not warranted by LHB.

Tags: August 2009, home sales, louisville ky

Louisville Beats Nation as Values Level Out

Jul 22, 2009 Trends/Statistics

The data isn’t very different from when I posted Home Prices Drop Nationally, Louisville Holds Steady but with, perhaps a slightly better result.

First American Core Logic puts out reports from time to time and just recently published, National Home Price Declines Continue to Improve. I already know that the national numbers have little effect on Louisville’s market, but they do a good job of supplying data for many metro cities. Here’s the part I really liked.

In Louisville/Jefferson County, home prices have decreased 1.79 percent in May compared to a year ago. In April 2009, Louisville/Jefferson County showed an increase of 0.00 percent compared to one year prior.

So this means our price drop, albeit nothing to be happy about, appears to be coming to an end. Here’s hoping we’ll see a quick return to our steady, annual increases of 4%-5% here in Louisville, which are the norm going back 40 years.

Tags: First American Core Logic