Spring in Residential Real Estate

We have made it through another winter and are enjoying the good weather and final days of the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit program. The current program provides up to an $8,000 federal income tax credit to eligible first time home buyers and up to a $6,500 credit for eligible non-first time home buyers. In order to qualify, an accepted offer must be in place by April 30th and the sale must close by June 30th. Our office is very busy. Many agents are working late into the evening and often seven days a week.

It is hard to truly measure the impact the program has had on demand, but most of us would suggested it has been considerable. Year to date unit sales of existing homes in Tippecanoe County through March 31st are 17% higher than the same period last year. However, as I have mentioned in other writings, the strong demand has not been enjoyed by all price points. Here is a break down of 3/31 year to date unit sales in Tippecanoe County by price range compared to the timeframe last year.

1. Unit sales of home price less than $200,000 grew by 21% from 214 to 260.
2. Unit sales of homes priced between $200,000 and $400,000 grew by 4% from 44 to 46
3. Unit sales of homes priced above $400,000 dropped by 40% from 5 to 3.
4. Total unit sales grew by 17% from 263 to 309

These numbers would indicate that: 1) the middle price and upper price ranges are still soft and 2) the Federal Tax Credit is driving demand in the typical first and second time home buyer price ranges. It will be interesting to learn in early May what happens to our demand after the first eligibity deadline has passed. We are all hoping that the natural momentum of spring buyers season and the pleasant weather will support much of the demand we are enjoying. I'll report back in mid-May and report what we find.

US Housing Prices Fall Modestly in the Fourth Quarter: 2009/Greater Lafayette Fares Better

Recently published data from the Federal Housing Finance Authority reports existing home sale values dropped by 1.2% from the fourth quarter of 2008. That compares very favorably to a 8.2% decline in the fourth quarter of 2008 over 2007.

The numbers for Greater Lafayette are more encouraging. Of the 298 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Greater Lafayette's appreciation in housing value in the fourth quarter on a year over year basis, ranked number 32 with an average 0.19% appreciation. Other Indiana MSA's also fared well. In fact, Terre Haute was ranked number one.

City/Rank/Year to Year 4th Quarter Appreciation

Terre Haute/1/3.11%
Bloomington/20/0.83%
Evansville/29/0.43%
Lafayette/32/0.19%
Indy/53/-0.55%
South Bend/93/-1.70%
Anderson/102/-1.95%
Fort Wayne/123/-2.55%
Gary/149/-3.38%
Kokomo/208/-5.98%

Again, the processes measures and ranks appreciation in housing value from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the fourth quarter of 2009.

For those who spend time in the south, Florida continues to struggle. Here are the same statistics for selected Florida MSA's

Punta Gorda/191/-5.48%
Fort Meyers/263/-9.71%
Tampa-St. Pete/271/-10.75%
West Palm Beach/272/-10.86%
Naples/287/-8.03%
Miami/288/-14.02%

For those who are interested, the lowest rank MSA was Las Vegas, with a 19.30% average 12 month loss in value. Our issues in central Indiana appear less complicated as one reviews the economic statistics in other communities.

2009 Awards

Last Tuesday, Coldwell Banker Shook hosted its annual awards breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Our featured speaker was Mayor Tony Roswarski, who gave an interesting overview of the many capital projects the city embarked upon in 2009.

After Mayor Roswarski's comments, the 2009 awards were announced. The company had a very impressive year, during what was one of our country's more difficult years in residential real estate. The company ended the year with a commanding 22.4% of the market and 43.4% for properties above $300,000. Amongst its friends in the Coldwell Banker community, Coldwell Banker Shook was the number one office in the state and the largest office in its size category in the Northern Region, one the three geographic Coldwell Banker regions.

Coldwell Banker National is proud to present awards to its top sales across the country each year. Many of the Coldwell Banker Shook agents earned these national distinctions. 2009 national award winner from Coldwell Banker Shook are as follows.

INTERNATIONAL STERLING SOCIETY

Julie Runner-Boyce
Jan Dowell
Kathryn Oreovicz
Dolly Poston-Zollars

INTERNATIONAL DIAMOND SOCIETY

Individual

Cheryl Butcher
Olga Jeffares
Sherry Peck
Kelly Schreckengast

Team

Corbin-Flock Team

Brenda Hatfield Team

Mary Holtz and Kent Brewer

The Junius Group

INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT’S CIRCLE

Kathy Lafuse
Leslie Weaver

In addition, we learned that Kathy Lafase was the number one Coldwell Banker agent in the state.

The breakfast was adjourned by the company's management sharing how proud it is of the entire sales staff and the loyal and dedicated staff of administrative and management professionals that hold the organization together. Before leaving the breakfast we played a short, but rousing game of trivia.

2009 Real Estate Report

My cousin and business partner, Steve Shook, and I have recently completed our annual real estate report. It is an indepth study of the what occured in the Tippecaone County commercial and residential real estate markets in 2009 and a set of projections for 2010.

If you are interested in a copy of the report, please send me your emial address and I'll forward you a copy in the form of a Word document. My email address is cshook@shook.com.

A tip of the cap to RPAC

It isn't often that a fundraiser is fun, but the Lafayette Regional Association of Realtors held a "fun" fundraiser last Thursday for its Realtor Political Action Committee (RPAC). Before I tell you about the event, let me tell you about RPAC. Our national trade association, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is one million member strong and has one of the most meaningful and respected governmental affairs activities, both in Washington and Indianapolis.

Although our lobbying efforts are going to be noticeable due to the size of our membership, our real strength comes through the grass roots nature of our businesses, the breadth of home ownership in the United States ("the American dream") and the critical nature of real assets in the success of most commercial enterprises. RPAC certainly uses its monies to support elected officials who support the norms of private property rights, our real value comes in unique quality of information we can aggregate through our individual MLS's. In Indiana, our local Realtor Associations have agreed to share "sold" information with our state trade association (the Indiana Association of Realtors) to create a real property data base. In the most recent quarterly, we began to release monthly information about statewide and county trends in residential real estate.

Last week, the organizers of our local RPAC fundraising efforts, led by Maggie Stark of our office, hosted "Dancing with the R's" at the Outpost. Patterned off of the TV show, six Realtor members of the Lafayette Regional Association of Reatlors took dancing lessons from Arthur Murray's and competed in a dance competion. The 2009 dancers were Eddie Gallegos, Penny Mattingly, Lisa Godby, Ryan Parker, Deb Talbot, Brett Leuken. All of the dancers were great. They demonstrated courage and finesse. I give all six of them credit for being the center point of a great fundraiser. Everybody had a good time and lots of money was thrown at RPAC.

Home Value Statistics

In its 2009 second quarter publication, the Federal Housing Finance Authority reported Greater Lafayette ranked number 7 among the nation's 296 largest MSA's in the year to year change in home values. According to the government report, the average home value in the second quarter in Greater Lafayette was 2.25% greater than the second quarter of 2008. Personally, I believe this number is optimistic, but the relative ranking of 7 among 296 is encouraging and believable.


Interestingly enough, in reviewing the 25 largest MSA's, only three had a positive year over year change and of those three, two were less than one percent (Denver and Pittsburgh) and the third was 2.90% (Houston). The most troublesome changes in value were in Merced, CA (-27.15%), Las Vegas (-26.21%), Vallejo, CA (-23.75), Miami (-22.53%) and Medesto, CA (-22.53%).


Of the 296 MSA's, the only communities ranking ahead of Greater Lafayette were Spartanburg, SC (3.48%), Amarillo, TX (2.67%), Fort Smith, AZ (2.55%), Houston (2.42%), Macon, GA (2.33%) and Lubbock, TX (2.27%). Here is how the other major Indiana cities fared:


City: % change, rank

Anderson: -1,82% 98
Bloomington: 0.40%, 50
Columbus: -0.45%, 95
Elkhart: -2.36%, 142
Fort Wayne: 0.08%, 70
Gary: -2.79%, 152
Indianapolis: -1.24%, 119
Kokomo: -1.72%, 135
Michigan City: -0.03%, 73
Terre Haute: -3.18%, 160


Although the relative condition of the Greater Lafayette residential market is reason to be thankful, it is not time to break champagne, noise makers and balloons. We are still experience nervous buyers, inconsistent demand, on-going foreclosures and frequent short sales. However, our numbers are not getting worse, our supply of new and existing homes for sale is better matched with local demand compared to one and two years ago and there is every reason to believe we are much closer to the end than the beginning. Have faith.

Parade of Homes

Just a reminder, the Builders' Association of Greater Lafayette is hosting its annual Parade of Homes on Saturday and Sunday, July 18th and 19th and Saturday and Sunday, July 25th and 26th. Each Parade home will be open from 1:00 -- 5:00. For detailed information about the 20 homes in the Parade, including an impressive mapping feature, visit the BAGL website.