I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "perception is reality". Take the value of brands, for example. People's perception of Tylenol as a safe, pain reducing medicine prior to 1982 was sky high. It was the world's top seller, for crying out loud. Then reports surfaced that a woman died from cyanide poisoning from taking Tylenol. It turns out the medicine was tampered with after the product shipped and was on the shelves but that didn't stop a massive drop in world-wide sales. The perception was that this brand was potentially dangerous and human activity adjusted accordingly. Louisville Hom

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 1

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!

Alia is a small but unique subdivision in Louisville's East End. These high-end single family homes and condos are truly luxurious. Located just off Highway 22, near Northfield and the Woods of St. Thomas, Alia is in a great location, near shopping, restaurants and the expressways. This neighborhood began in the last 90s and is nearing completion now. Read More » This post is one in an ongoing series of spotlights on the Best Louisville Neighborhoods. If you have a neighborhood that you think deserves coverage, please contact us.

According to a new report, Louisville home values showed a decrease of -1.88 percent compared to one year prior. I've seen other reports show -2.7 percent, but either way, that drop is relatively minor when compared to the rest of the nation. The rate of national price declines peaked at -11.9 percent in January 2009 and has since been trending down: April's rate is the lowest year to date and the May preview data suggests further improvements in the rate of decline, perhaps back to the single digits. [source] LoanPerformance HPI Largest CBSAs Ranking: CBSA12 Month HPI Change % Ri

The Wall St. Journal is now talking about positive news regarding the housing market. There's a change! But even this news, while positive, isn't especially noteworthy. In another sign that the housing market may have begun to recover, the number of people who signed contracts to purchase homes increased for the third month in a row. The reason that this isn't a big deal is that this data is seasonal—home sales increase from January to February; from February to March; and from March to April most every year, good market or bad. But here's the good part. Year over year, th

Mixed again this month as East End areas are up and those to the South are down. If you didn't see, here is last month. This is the last time I'll post about this but if you haven't read Louisville Kentucky Real Estate Review of 2008, here's your chance. Like always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. May 2009 AREA SALES AVERAGE DoM 0 Central Downtown District 2 $109,000 69 1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively 78 $44,204 66 2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn 75 $158,728 70 3 Brownsboro/St

This post is one in an ongoing series of real estate bargains in Louisville, Kentucky. These aren't foreclosure properties at this point. If you have interest in seeing any of these properties, please contact Tre Pryor. Location in Louisville Area 9 in Greater Louisville's MLS consists of such areas as Anchorage, Glenview, Lyndon, Prospect, Springhurst and many others within Jefferson County. Winner of Best Bargain Now I know it might be tough to swallow that a $697,300 property could possibly be a best bargain. But you have to understand that this house is on almost 3 acres in Ancho

Glen Lakes is new neighborhood in the popular Eastwood area of eastern Louisville, Kentucky. Just east of Middletown and Lake Forest, Glen Lakes is building new, single-family homes with Elite Homes and McBride Homes. Close to the Polo Fields, the Flat Rock Road area is really booming with several new developments all getting started recently. New homes start in the low $300s and go up from there. This is a lower price point than Locust Creek just a bit down the road. If you're looking for homes less than three years old in this price range, head to Glen Lakes to see what options are av

This article is part of a series devoted to giving pertinent, professional advice to Louisville's homebuyers and sellers. Others include:  • Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Selling Your Home  • Top 10 Things to Consider When Planning a Time to Sell  • Top 10 Tips for Relocating to Louisville  • Top 10 Tips for First-Time Home Buyers  • Top 10 Ways to Prepare Your Property For Sale In today's market, the play of the day is finding a real estate bargain. You can't walk out your front door without hearing about Foreclosures, Short Sales

This post is one in an ongoing series of real estate bargains in Louisville, Kentucky. These aren't foreclosure properties at this point. If you have interest in seeing any of these properties, please contact Tre Pryor. Location in Louisville Area 8 in Greater Louisville's MLS consists of such areas as Douglass Hills, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Anchorage and parts of St. Matthews and many others within Jefferson County. Winner of Best Bargain As I was compiling my data for this post, one of the contenders for best bargain, a little ranch in Douglass Hills, went under contract and sold

If you're "old" like me, you might recall the phrase: "a stitch in time saves nine." Or a more contemporary, "You can pay me now, or pay me later" from a Fram oil filter commercial. My point is doing your homework up front saves both time and money. It's the smart thing to do and in real estate, it's essential if you want to make a smart buy. Just because the housing market has taken a dip here in Louisville, doesn't mean that every property's asking price is a good deal. Sure there are bargains to be found, but doing the research is the key to determining which homes are amazing deals

This post is one in an ongoing series of real estate bargains in Louisville, Kentucky. These aren't foreclosure properties at this point. If you have interest in seeing any of these properties, please contact Tre Pryor. Location in Louisville Area 7 in Greater Louisville's MLS consists of such areas as Fern Creek, Hikes Point, Jeffersontown, Hurstbourne and many others within Jefferson County. Winner of Best Bargain I selected this property because of the great price even without it being a distressed property. While the home could use some updates, it's definitely not an "As Is". Th

My thanks to a reader who thoughtfully sent this in. The Wall St. Journal does certain things very well. One of them is their "handy-dandy" charts. The other is their in-depth analysis. This time with Shrinking Prices, Rising Delinquencies, they only batted .500. This was due in large part to the chart not working properly. That's OK, we'll forgive them because this piece wasn't hidden behind a subscriber log-in. So how did we do? Since the housing market peak in the 4th quarter of 2005, the median home price in Louisville, Kentucky is up 3.2%! Now, this isn't the 4-5% annual apprec

The number of sales is down this month, as expected. Each year as we head into the Holiday season activity dies down then starts back up (slowly) after the New Year. But it's surprising to see prices up in most of the areas. In particular, Areas 7 and 8 saw solid increases and North Oldham went from an average value of $269,452 to $342,139. Now, averages fluctuate more erratically when the sample size is low so we can't put too much stock in these numbers. But it is interesting to see these value increases given the overall downward trend for the year. If you have any questions, please

While it's been a tough year for Louisville real estate, at least we can take some solace in knowing our market isn't behaving like some of those in Florida, California and some other states. But for a city where home appreciation has run 4%-5% annually, any kind of departure from that trend isn't expected or welcome. I read this in the CJ today: The weak performance continued a downward trend of the past several months, and pushed the area's year-to-date median price decline to 3.6 percent Some are predicting a rebound in 1Q of '09 but others say the worst is yet to come. We can't wo

A new land deal was approved by the city council that will allow developers the opportunity to expand 4th Street Live in Louisville's downtown. After a three-hour debate, Metro Council Democrats voted in lock step last night to approve the $12 million purchase of three acres of prime real estate that will allow The Cordish Cos. to expand 4th Street Live. The development, called Center City, would potentially be worth $250 million. It looks like the deal wasn't what the council wanted, money-wise, but the Democrats went along with Mayor Abramson, who's consistently wanted to spend mo

More down than up this month, but where sale numbers are down, prices are rising. Looks like values are balancing out as we head into the Holidays. If you have any questions, please contact me. October 2008 AREA SALES AVERAGE DoM 0 Central Downtown District 8 $162,848 103 1 Downtwn/Old&WestLouisville/Shively 107 $43,226 67 2 Butchertown/Highlands/Germantwn 58 $164,055 62 3 Brownsboro/StMatthews 41 $229,671 60 4 Pleasure Rdg/Valley Station 56 $103,127 73 5 Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Park

This article is part of a series devoted to giving pertinent, professional advice to Louisville's homebuyers and sellers. Others include:  • Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Selling Your Home  • Top 10 Things to Consider When Planning a Time to Sell  • Top 10 Tips for Relocating to Louisville  • Top 10 Tips for First-Time Home Buyers  • Top 10 Ways to Prepare Your Property For Sale Why It's Tough to Sell Your Own Home In a recent National Association of Realtors® survey, only 13% of all transactions were done without the help of a rea

This article is part of a series devoted to giving pertinent, professional advice to Louisville's homebuyers and sellers. Others include:  • Top 10 Things to Consider When Contemplating a FSBO  • Top 10 Things to Consider When Planning a Time to Sell  • Top 10 Tips for Relocating to Louisville  • Top 10 Tips for First-Time Home Buyers  • Top 10 Ways to Prepare Your Property For Sale Updated: 5/15/2009 In some ways, this article is similar to Top 10 Ways to Prepare Your Property For Sale. But it's important to learn that preparing you