HomesForCincy | Sibcy Cline

Top 10 Locations for a Second Home

Kathy Landstra — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:31:43 +0000

The Wall Street Journal has published their Top Ten list for second home locations. All of the locations are familiar. If you’ve had the opportunity to visit then you know that Maui is no surprise as the #1 2nd-home location.

Closest location to Cincinnati? Ashville, North Carolina. Driving to Kiawah Island is fairly straightforard, too.

Take a look at the WSJ site, because the slide show offers interesting location photos.

The Wall Street Journal List:

Maui, HI
Kiawah Island, SC
The Hamptons, NY
Park City, UT
Aspen, CO
Pebble Beach, CA
Palm Beach, FL
Captiva/Sanibel Island, FL
Asheville, NC
Gasparilla Island, FL

You can visit the Wall Street Journal and see the complete article by following this link..

Act now or risk losing home tax credit

Kathy Landstra — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:26:02 +0000

Contract must be signed
by April 30

A really good article appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer today by Enquirer reporter Ms. Lisa Bernard-Kuhn. In the article, which is much more than a brief summary, Ms. Bernard-Kuhn outlines the timing issues (April 30th and July 1st), the two types for credits for first-time and “move-up” buyers, and the potential effects or issues that short sales could have.

This time around is pretty important, because many real estate watchers are predicting that these tax credits will not be renewed when they expire this spring. If you’re in the market or considering making a real estate move this year, it’s not too late to make a plan and take advantage of the tax credits. Why wait? It’s like free money.

You can access the complete Cinicinnat Enquirer article by following this link.

Monthly Homes Sold Report – February

Kathy Landstra — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:52:23 +0000

We have completed the analysis for the the February Monthly Sold Report for Northeast Cincinnati. Click this link to see the full Monthly Sold Report for February 2010.

The Northeast Cincinnati Analysis for February 2010 shows an almost idential 45 homes sold when compared to the February 2009 value of 44 homes sold. The total value of homes sold in 2010 was $14.7M, which compares to $15.9M in February 2009 (an 8.25% reduction this year).

As the graphic shows, year-to-year, Blue Ash (5 to 8), Kenwood (2 to 5), and Terrace Park (0 to 2) saw the most positive, statistically significant increase in February – when compared to the month of January 2010.

You can see full neighborhood statistics by clicking over to the Neighborhood Resource Page and clicking on your neighborhood of choice.

January Pending Home Sales

Kathy Landstra — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:08:48 +0000

The National Assoication of REALTORS® (“NAR”) released the Pending Home Sales Index (“PHSI”) for the month of January yesterday. A runup in pending home sales for most of last year has been stumbling lately, but we are still substantially above last year’s levels.

As you can see from the leftside graphic, the pending home sales data shows a monthly reduction of 7.6% from December 2009. While this reduction seems to be an increasing trend, it is important to realize that the pending home sales for January 2010 are still above January 2009 by 12.3%.

A number of factors, including severe winter weather, have hampered nearterm home sales, but NAR Economist Lawrence Yun thinks this will change. He says, “We will see weak near-term sales followed by a likely surge of existing-home sales in April, May and June.” Read all of Yun’s comments by visiting the NAR Press Release.

You can find more news information about January’s PHSI at these links:

5 ‘Hip’ Ideas for Do-it-Yourself Staging

Kathy Landstra — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:56:11 +0000

The website Styled, Staged & Sold by REALTOR Magazine presents five “Hip Tipz” from professional stager Charlene Storozuk of DEZINGERDIGZ. Take a look. Some of these offer interesting ideas for a spring DIY project — no need to stage for a move!

A preview of Charlene’s ideas:

Paint bedroom furniture antique white and the walls a darker tint.
Frame a favorite tea towel for display in the kitchen.
Make the rooms off the hallway appear larger by painting them a lighter shade than the hallway.

You can view the complete report and the last two ideas by visiting the online article here.