Keepin’ it REAL Estate

Things are moving along quite nicely for our beloved surrey square.  They’ve completely torn down the old McDonald’s (on a side note, the new McDonald’s is probably the nicest McDonalds I’ve ever seen, they even have WiFi!) and the old Media Play.  Its now just a big pile of rubbish.  In place of the mound of dirt that now sits, is to be a great big brand new Krogers!  I’m so excited, maybe I won’t have to go to Oakley anymore to do my grocery shopping.  It’s not that I hate the Krogers that there now, it’s a huge improvement from the Thriftway that was there years ago, I’m just excited to be able to purchase grocery items that the current, smaller Krogers has now. 

On the other end of the complex (I didn’t get pictures of that) things are also shaping up nicely.  Gone is the ugly pink and turquoise facade.  This is the end where Chipolte is rumored to be going in (which has been a huge selling point for people I take around Norwood).  I’m super excited about this revamping of Surrey Square.  Its definitely been a great selling point for Norwood.  As the T-Shirt says: “Norwood Happens.”

Norwood sales continue to climb.  My last 3 sales have been in Norwood, all in the past month!  If you’re looking for a place to invest and a place where the city is growing, look no further than Norwood.  I’d love to talk to you about all that is happening around town!

The following information came to me today via the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors.  It just confirms what I have been witnessing as well!

This is great news for Cincinnati home owners and buyers!

1,635 Homes Sold in April;

Up 3 Consecutive Months

Local Realtors sold 1,635 homes last month, marking the third consecutive month of increased sales this year.  The inventory of unsold homes also improved, shrinking to 9.49 months compared to 9.75 months from March and 13.31 months from January.

                                     2008 Home Sales         Months of Invenory   

                        January            1,130                     13.31

February          1,334                    11.32

March              1,556                      9.75

April                 1,635                      9.49

Nationwide, April home sales seasonally adjusted were down 1% from March.  They were off 17.5% from a year ago. 

  “Clearly, we’re making progress in reducing inventory,” said Karen Schlosser, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors, who noted a balanced market is five to six months of homes for sale. “With the spring housing market taking shape, we’ll continue to sell more homes and experience inventory reduction.”

 Local Realtors participated on May 4 in a project called Super Sunday, where Realtors had 2,837 open houses for the public that day. Schlosser said that based on the response from Realtors, that did spur additional home sales.

               The average mortgage interest rate last month for a fixed-rate loan was 6.14%.  That compares to 6.33% one year earlier.  It’s now 6.35%.  Schlosser said the higher maximum FHA lending amount of $337,500 in the tri-state area will help many buyers in their quest for home ownership.    

Summary of Single Family and Condominium Sales

Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati

Cincinnati Area Board of REALTORS®

April Monthly Home Sales

                                    Closings                       Gross Volume                     Average Price

April 2008                      1,635                         $249,290,612                          $152,471

April 2007                      1,968                         $335,789,557                          $170,625

Variance          -16.92%                                   -25.76%                           -10.64%

Year-to-Date Home Sales

                                     Closings                       Gross Volume                     Average Price

Jan-April 2008              5,655                          $   883,713,645                       $156,271

Jan-April 2007              6,805                         $1,135,253,662                       $166,826

Variance            -16.90%                                   -22.16%                           -6.33%    

The spring market is in FULL swing around here.  If you’re even remotly keeping up with what’s happening in your area, you might notice a lot of houses are quickly coming under contract.  I went to go and talk with some sellers today who have a great home on a fantastic little street in Pleasant Ridge.  In less than 1.5 months 3 houses have come on the market and gone into contract on their street alone.  Whats the change you may ask?  Why are the new houses coming under contract faster?

I have a few theories:

1. Spring Time - Spring makes everyone feel good about home shopping!  No one likes to move in the winter unless they have to.

2. New inventory - the current buyers were getting tired of what had been and stayed on the market over the winter months.  They wanted new blood and new they’ve gotten.  There have been some fantastic homes come on the market these past couple of months.

2. More realistic Sellers and Agents - Pricing things correctly for the market.  Last year it seemed as though sellers were still fighting the downward market.  They wanted to price things higher than what the market was allowing.  Then they watched their homes sit on the market month after month.  This new market savy seller has taken the hint from their agents and listened to what is actually happening around them.  They’re pricing their homes right for what today’s buyer is willing to pay.  As a seller you can’t go by what sold a few years ago.  That won’t fly in today’s market.  You’ve got to look at what has recently sold around you to get a clear cut picture of how to price your home.  You’ve got to enlist the help of someone who trained and knowledgeable on where the market it is, where it was and can see where its going.   If you want that kind of help.  Give me a call.

I’m back with good news to report.  We have begun and almost fixed (or at least we hope) our big problem.  As you can see from the photos above, we dug (and by we I mean mostly my husband and neighbor.  I tried, I just moved rocks around and was very inefficient.) and we laid the piping and put the peat gravel in.  Only days after we did this we had a VERY heavy rain.  I ran downstairs and to my glorious surprise, only light moisture around the side wall!  YEAH!  Hopefully after we remove all the big rocks and have a sidewalk poured and graded away from the house, all moisture will be minimal.

Gone are the days of the spouts of water pouring into my basement!  Its taken a couple of weeks to actually do the job (and my front yard is still full of peat gravel) and the actual ditch isn’t yet covered back up but, I think its all been worth it.  Time will tell…

Next I get to scrub the walls and dry-lock it all!  YIPPEE… Do homeownership responsibilities ever end??  Whoever eventually purchases my house, better be glad we have done what we have done

According to cicadamania.com the someone in Madeira has spotted the first cicada of the year.  Now I know you’re thinking, “we just had cicada’s!”  This is true, but these are the 14 year batch.  The emergence we had a few years ago were the 17 year ones.   The College of Mount St. Joseph has a wonderful cicada website that helps you track where they are now, learn more about them and more!

Essentially in this Brood XIV we will see 3 different species.  In addition to looking a bit different on their undersides, they’ll each have a different mating call they sing as well.

I get so excited when cicadas come out.  Although, they can be a bit defining at times, there’s something so neat and mysterious about them.  I can remember as a kid being totally freaked out by them and not really understanding why only sometimes these loud ugly bugs would come out.  During the brood 17 emergence a few years ago, I enjoyed watching them try to fly around and basically dive bomb into things…  Such big wings, its a pitty they can’t use them well.

Here is a haiku, I wrote for the occasion:

Oh fourteen year friend

Cicada, where have you been?

You have now surfaced

What a CRAZY Real Estate week its been.  It seems like every buyer I’ve been trying to get to seriously look, has come out of the woodwork!  Its good, because they’re loosing the things they’d been thinking about and are now ready to finally commit!  I have one buyer who is just kicking himself because he didn’t act on his favorite choice.  Now nothing compares!  As I’ve been saying all along, its a FANTASTIC time to purchase a home in Cincinnati right now.  Home prices are VERY reasonable and interest rates are still low.  Wait any longer and you may miss the boat.  Don’t loose out on that perfect home for you. 

Get on the Internet, go to open houses and see whats out there.  You may be surprised at what you’ll find!  If you’re wondering how to get started, give me a call.  I’ll walk you through it.

Those of you may be aware of our beloved Surrey Square makeover that is occurring in the heart of downtown Norwood.  I drove past it today on my way to the Speckled Bird Cafe and saw that they totally demolished the old McDonald’s and Media Play sites.  YEAH, the new Kroger’s is going to be going up soon!   It made me wonder what is going to be at the other end in the new construction.   So, I asked around.   I have no sources to actually confirm this, but my original source is pretty reputable.  I heard that a Chipotleis coming to Norwood!  How very exciting!  I do hope that this rumor is true… Yummy guacamole

deadmalls.com - you can soon take our beloved Surrey Square off your list of dead malls.

Some people ask me “whats the point of having a buyers agent?” They just feel that we are the tools to get them inside the door of the house and nothing more.  I recently got new neighbors and they really didn’t think their buyers agent did much for them.  They simple said that they always emailed their agent what they wanted to see and she got them in.  Sometimes that is the case.  Perhaps you’re a very picky buyer and can’t accurately tell your agent what you want, or maybe you don’t know what you want.  If you’re struggling with committing to a buyers agent, go ahead and commit. I’ll tell you why.

I had a couple come into town this past week, who are planning on moving to Cincinnati in the next month or two.  They already have sold their house in a different state and are just waiting to close on it.  They had only one day to see EVERYTHING in their price range.  They handed me their list and then I started adding a few more things I thought they should see.  In addition, I made a few phone calls and started talking to other agents about somethings that are not yet on the market.  One agent suggested to me a property that had been up for only a few weeks last year, but because of family reasons, they had to take it off the market.  They said that it described exactly what my clients were looking for.  I quickly made the necessary phone calls.  We got into see it the very next day.  It was PERFECT!  Everything my clients were looking for and more.  Nothing else we saw that day compared to this property.  We made an offer.  They’re happy, the owners are happy!  Its a win-win situation.  Just think, if my clients hadn’t had a pro-active agent, they’d be making an offer on a house that wasn’t as perfect for them….

As you may or may not have heard, this Sunday is Super Rockin’ Open House Sunday in Cincinnati.  Our beloved MLS has been trying to get all of us agents to hold our houses open.  Their goal was to have 2000+ houses to be open.  We actually have 2628 as of this morning.  Duke Energy is also supporting our efforts and offering a $5 rebate for a five-pack of GE 13-watt Energy Smart Bulbs and an invitation to receive a free energy-efficiency kit to everyone who tours our open houses!  I encourage you to go and visit an open house.  Maybe your thinking about moving and don’t know if the time is right - go visit and open house.  Perhaps you are happy where you’re at - go visit an open house.  Maybe you need something to do after the Flying Pig - go visit and open house.  Its a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.  Plus you’ll get energy saving coupons and advice - what more could you ask for??

You can find me at 3 different houses on Sunday:

12-1: St. Bernard

1:30-2:30 Hyde Park

3-4 - A new listing being entered today at 2542 Indian Mound, Norwood.

I will also be holding another Norwood house open on Saturday from 11-1 during the Norwood city wide yard sale.  Come and see me!