Act now or risk losing home tax credit
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Cincinnati Real Estate, Home Buyers on March 8, 2010
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Contract must be signedby 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
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Cincinnati Real Estate, Real Estate Data on March 7, 2010
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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
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Real Estate Data on March 5, 2010
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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
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Home Sellers on March 3, 2010
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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:
You can view the complete report and the last two ideas by visiting the online article here. |
Open House – Sunday, February 28th
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Cincinnati Real Estate, Home Buyers on February 27, 2010
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Listed by: Kathy Landstra and Lori O’Brien |
Open HouseSunday, February 28th, 2010 I will be holding two homes open this week Sunday. The schedule will be as follows:
For more information, click the links above or mouse over the pictures and ‘Click’. I hope to see you on Sunday! If you would like more open house options, Sibcy Cline has a terrificlisting of Open Houseseach week. |
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Listed by: Kathy Landstra |
Vote for your Favorite Design
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 27, 2010
The 2010 Desgin Challenge from the National Kitchen and Bath Association (“NKBA”) offers you a chance to vote for your favorite Kitchen and Bath designs. The design challenge presents ten kitchens and ten baths and you are asked to vote online for the best design. It is interesting to see the various
Link to the 2010 Design Challenge
| 2009 Bath Finalists | 2009 Kitchen Finalists |
Case-Shiller: Homes Prices Increase Slightly
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Real Estate Data on February 25, 2010
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The monthly Standard & Poor Case-Shiller Home Price Report has been released. The report finalizes Standard & Poor’s view of 2009 with the national home pricing analysis for December. Unlike previous versions of this report, we are now tracking the Seasonally-adjusted numbers for Case-Shiller. This seems to provide a more consistent view of the data, which should yield more insight into the overall real estate market. As you can see by the graph to the right, home prices continue to improve with the upward trend now hitting seven months straight. While the increases are slight, the longterm trend does appear to be a recovery in home pricing. You can find more information about the most recent Case-Shiller report at these links: |
Open House in Vancouver, British Columbia
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Home Buyers on February 22, 2010
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Photo courtesy MSNBC.com |
If you’re watching the Olympics and wondering about finding a summer home in Vancouver, MSNBC.com has compilied a short list of representative homes that are currently on the market. Their Open House prices range from C$340K to C$5.8M, and MSNBC.com says there are no more bargains, “Homes prices have already recovered to 2008’s peak levels.” You can see the full list of homes by following this link to the MSNBC.com website. |
New DIY Management site from NAR
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 19, 2010
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The National Association of REALTORS® has opened their new Do-It-Yourself site, houselogic.com. According to the houselogic.com home page: “HouseLogic is a free source of information and tools that can help you make smart and timely decisions about your home. With content covering home improvement, maintenance, taxes, finance, insurance, and even ways you can get involved in and enrich your community, HouseLogic can help you increase and protect the value of your home by helping you make confident decisions.” The site looks like it could be really useful for planning and for project ideas. If you’re the DIY-type, or if you’re looking for maintenance or home improvement ideas, it’s worth taking a trip over to houselogic.com. |
Open House, Sunday, February 21st
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Home Buyers on February 19, 2010
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Listed by: Kathy Landstra and Lori O’Brien |
Open HouseSunday, February 21st, 2010 I will be hosting an Open House for a condo that is within the Indian Hill School District. The schedule is:
For more information, click the links above or mouse over the pictures and ‘Click’. I hope to see you on Sunday! If you would like more options for Sunday Open Houses, Sibcy Cline has a terrific listing of Open Houses each week. |
Ouch! Cleveland most miserable?
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Real Estate Data on February 18, 2010
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Forbes.com released their list of yuchiest cities today. Yup, Cleveland tops the list. Ohio gets three “most affordable” from CNNMoney yesterday (including Cleveland neighbor, Akron), but Forbes.com hammers Ohio with this selection. My hometown, Detroit, didn’t hit the list until number 4. A little surprise because of the recent auto industry woes. |
The top (bottom?) five are:
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If you would like to see Forbes.com complete article and their slideshow, follow this link. |
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Most and Least Affordable Cities
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Real Estate Data on February 17, 2010
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CNNMoney.com summarized information from the National Association of REALTORS® to come up with its list of most and least affordable cities. Cincinnati does not show up on either list, but three Ohio cities are on the “most affordable” list. Not surprisingly, New York City and San Francisco lead the “least affordable” list. |
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Most Affordable
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Least Affordable
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To see the full article click here and visit the CNNMoney site. |
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Do you know ‘Green’ Real Estate?
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 11, 2010
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REALTOR Magazine has built an online quiz to test your knowledge of Green Real Estate. More and more people are becoming interested in energy efficiency and construction practices that are environmentally friendly. You can use this quiz to test your Green Knowledge. To take the test, click this link to the REALTOR Magazine Quiz. |
Sample Question #1:
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Monthly Homes Sold Report – January
Posted by Kathy Landstra in Cincinnati Real Estate, Real Estate Data on February 6, 2010
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The Northeast Cincinnati Analysis for January 2010 shows a 71.57% increase in total home sold value when compared to January 2009. ($15.5M Jan-10 vs. $9.0M Jan-09) But we can’t get too excited. A look at the comparable two month (Dec+Jan) totals shows a much closer comparison: $32.8M in 2010 vs. $30.1M in 2009. This comparison shows a much more reasonable growth of 8.9% this year, and it surely indicates the slow down in December 2009 resulted in a more normal burst in January. As the graphic shows, year-to-year, Indian Hill (1 to 4), Mariemont (1 to 4), Montgomery (3 to 6), and Sycamore Township (3 to 6) saw the most positive, statistically significant increase in Homes Sold. You can see full neighborhood statistics by clicking over to the Neighborhood Resource Page and clicking on your neighborhood of choice. |
Six ways to ensure remodeling pays off
Posted by Kathy Landstra in General Info on February 5, 2010
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From the CNNMoney.com website, Josh Garskof (a Money Magazine contributing writer) provides six new rules for making remodeling projects payoff. As he observes, it was not too long ago that any project done correctly and within a reasonable budget would yield a payoff for the homeowner. It may not be that simple today, and Josh provides his quick primer with these simple rules: |
If you would like to see Josh’s explanation of the rules, follow this link to the CNNMoney.com website for the full article. |
What is a Home Warranty?
A home warranty is a service contract, normally for one year, which helps protect home owners against the cost of unexpected covered repairs or replacement on their major systems and appliances that break down due to normal wear and tear. Coverage is for systems and appliances in good working order at the start of the contract.
What is a Short Sale?
If a home is being sold for below what the current seller owes on the property—and the seller does not have other funds to make up the difference at closing—the sale is considered a short sale. A short sale is different from a foreclosure, which is when the seller's lender has taken title of the home and is selling it directly. Homeowners often try to accomplish a short sale in order to avoid foreclosure.
