Here is the newest edition of our LowryTeam.com Monthly Real Estate Trends Report. This report, published monthly, provides a look back at the last six months worth of real estate data for West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township, Ohio. It is a local trends report and makes no attempt to draw overall conclusions or make predictions for the larger real estate market. In fact we believe that anyone that makes an attempt to predict future, national real estate market conditions or draws conclusions on recent historical data nationally is just out of touch with reality. There is no such thing as a national weather forecast and there is no such thing as a real estate one either. ALL real estate is local!

The source of our data is the Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service. By seeking out and understanding the trends in our market place we are better able to forecast the upcoming market conditions and counsel our clients on pricing strategies to get their home sold for the highest possible price. Any thoughts and insight into what may occur in the future are solely our opinions and forecasts.

The first thing we look at is unit sales for the last six months (April – September):

A look at the sales numbers:

As we move into October and look back at this most recent six months of data, the trend that we are watching for right now is to see how unit sales will play out in the 4th quarter of the year. The 4th quarter sales last year (2010) were extremely weak, so we expect to see home sales continue to show improvement when compared to 2010. Sales in July thru September of 2011 have shown significant increases over the sales numbers for July thru September of 2010. The sales in July 2010 really dropped off after the expiration of the Homebuyer Tax Credits that were in place last year.

As of the end of September, the year to date sales for 2011 are very close to the same as the year to date sales for 2010 in West Chester & Liberty Township.  2011 year to date sales are down -1.66%

Average sale prices:

In this graph you can see the movement of the average sale price for West Chester and Liberty Township, Ohio real estate sales from January 2010 through September of 2011. The trend line continues to show you a decline for average home sale prices. Average sale price gets quite a bit of attention in the media with reports that quote “home prices fell” or “home prices rose” in this particular quarter or month or whatever. The average sale price is nothing more than what it’s called – an average price of all of the homes sold in a particular time frame.

Track Home Sales In Your West Chester or Liberty Township Ohio Neighborhood Here >> Become A Market Insider!

Any increase or decrease in the average sale price is reflective of the activity of that time frame not the exact value of any one home. Falling home values do clearly effect the average sale price, but that is not the whole story. The mix of homes and their values definitely play a part in this fluctuation, ie., many more lower priced homes selling than in the luxury market.

List to sale price ratio:

The List to Sale Price ratio is calculated by dividing the final sale price into the list price to find the percentage of the list price that a given home sells for. The West Chester and Liberty Township Ohio List to Sale Price Ratio was 96.32% for September 2011. As you can see the monthly List to Sale Price Ratio has seen some big swings up and down in the last year. Overall the recent months list to sale price ratio seems to be fairly stable and on a slightly upward track. The highlighted center area of the graph shows what appears to be the middle ground right now for the market.

Summary:

As we have stated previously in the LowryTeam.com: West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township real estate market update, our market remains challenging, yet full of opportunity. Clearly the value of homes in West Chester, Beckett Ridge & Liberty Twp has fallen over the past couple of years and frankly, the values may still fall farther. The primary threats or obstacles to the final quarter of 2011 real estate market and any potential recovery are continued high unemployment, a considerable oversupply of homes for sale and the potential loss of the mortgage interest tax deduction. Interest rates have settled back down and are at historical low levels around 4.25% which provide a great environment for buying a new home.

Wondering what the value of your home currently is? We would be happy to provide you with a detailed market value analysis of the value of your home. You can request your Market Value Analysis here

Other related posts you may be interested in:

What Are Mortgage Interest Rates In West Chester & Liberty Township OH?

Top 10 Tips When Selling a Home In West Chester, Liberty Twp Or Mason Ohio

Your comments and questions are always welcome!

Which price ranges are in the best shape from a home sellers perspective in West Chester, Ohio and which are not? The best way to measure the general strength of the West Chester, Ohio real estate market and to break down it’s different price ranges is to evaluate the amount of homes for sale in both the total area and also in each different price range.   

SEARCH ALL HOMES FOR SALE IN WEST CHESTER, OHIO   

In the chart below you can see that there is clearly more activity in some price ranges than others and certainly more homes for sale in some of the ranges also. In each of the different price ranges you can see the number of homes for sale, the number of homes that have sold in the last six months and the months supply of homes.    

The number of homes for sale is a pretty straight forward statistic, the number of homes that have sold in the last six months is used to determine the rate that homes are currently selling. The key number in this chart is the months supply of homes for sale.    

A seller’s market would show a month’s supply of less than 5 months, 5-6 months supply of homes for sale is considered a neutral market and anything over 6 months is considered a buyer’s market. The higher the number the stronger the buyer’s market.    

Looking back at the January Real Estate Market Breakdown you can see that in a number of the different price ranges the months supply of homes for sale has greatly increased.  This is caused by two factors: (1.) There are more homes for sale now and (2.) The pace at which homes were selling in this last six month period has slowed considerably.  Clearly we can see that a number of price ranges, as well as the overall market are a buyer’s market. No surprise there, but when listing a home for sale you must understand the level of pricing pressure and competition that you face so that you can employ the correct pricing strategy in selling your home.   

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Here is the newest edition of our

The source of our data is the Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service. By seeking out and understanding the trends in our market place we are better able to forecast the upcoming market conditions and counsel our clients on pricing strategies to get their home sold for the highest possible price. Any thoughts and insight into what may occur in the future are solely our opinions and forecasts.

The first thing we look at is unit sales for the last six months (September – February):

As mentioned in the February Real Estate Market Trends Report this most recent six months of data continues to reflect the decline in unit sales felt in the time immediately after the homebuyer tax credit expiration. The tax credit had the impact of drawing a lot of home sales into the first six months of last year and caused an extensive slow down afterward. The graph shows that the leveling off of home sales in West Chester and Liberty Township during this last six months timeframe continued in February.

February 2011 homes sales showed a small uptick in sales when compared to the month of January 2011.  February sales were however 9.38% lower than February of 2010.   So the year over year comparison of sales does not look promising, particularly as we head into the next couple of months which will be compared to the “tax credit” months of last year. 

The next few months represent very tough comparisons moving forward as we will be comparing sales levels this year against the sales levels of the months of last year when the tax credits for homebuying were in place.  Generally we expect the year to year comparisons to be much lower than 2010 unless there is some unexpected development in the marketplace.

Average sale price for the last six months (September – February) is next:

In this graph you can see the movement of the average sale price for West Chester and Liberty Township, Ohio real estate sales from January 2010 through February of 2011.  The trend line continues to show you a gradual decline for average home sale prices.  Average sale price gets quite a bit of attention in the media with reports that quote “home prices fell” or “home prices rose” in this particular quarter or month or whatever.  The average sale price is nothing more than what it’s called – an average price of all of the homes sold in a particular time frame. 

Track Home Sales In Your West Chester or Liberty Township Ohio Neighborhood Here >> Get Your Personal Market Snapshot!

Just to be clear here, homes are not worth more now than they were at the beginning of the year.  Any increase or decrease in the average sale price is reflective of the activity of that time frame not the exact value of any one home.  A perfect example of this is the month of January which according to the graph shows a huge decrease in the average sale price over the month of January 2010.  A look inside the numbers explains… In January 2010, 8 of the total 42 closed sales that month were under $150,000 in sale price, in January 2011 there were 14 of a total 49 closed sales in that same price range.  More sales in the lower price ranges will cause the average sale price to be lower.  In addition, in January 2010  there were 6 closed sales over $400,000 compared to just 3 closed sales in January 2011 over $400,000.  The luxury home market is facing a very difficult period in the next six months to a year with very high inventory levels and competition from the Homearama show homes.

So, was the average sale price lower because homes were worth less?  No, there was just a very different mix of homes that sold.  Falling home values do clearly effect the average sale price, but that is not the whole story.

List to sale price ratio: 

The List to Sale Price ratio is calculated by dividing the final sale price into the list price to find the percentage of the list price that a given home sells for.  The West Chester and Liberty Township Ohio List to Sale Price Ratio is 94.02% for February 2011.  As you can see the monthly List to Sale Price Ratio has seen some big swings up and down in the last year and we took another big drop down in February.  The swings up and down are an indicator of the lack of stability in the West Chester and Liberty Township real estate market right now.  The highlighted center area of the graph shows what appears to be the middle ground right now for the market. 

The trend here had been on an upswing, indicating that homeowners are generally pricing their homes at levels that reflect market value.  One important fact to keep in mind here is that these figures are calculated based on homes that have sold.  Homes that are priced too high when listed will not get 95-96% of their list price, in fact in this market, they won’t sell at all. 

The one factor that remains true, through all of the market’s ups and downs is that homes that sell quickly, sell for a much higher percentage of their list price.  In the most recent six months, homes that sold in the first thirty days that they were on the market sold for 96.75% of list price.  As you can see, this is a much higher final sales price compared to the overall market average.

Summary:

As was stated in last month’s LowryTeam.com: West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township real estate market update, our market remains challenging, yet full of opportunity. Clearly the value of homes in the area has fallen over the past couple of years and frankly, in certain price ranges, the values are likely to fall farther.  The primary threats to the 2011 real estate market and any potential recovery are continued high unemployment and the potential loss of the mortgage interest tax deduction.  Interest rates have now risen off of their lows, but still remain at very attractive levels below 5.00% which provide a great environment for buying a new home.

Your comments and questions are always welcome!

Search Homes For Sale In West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio

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posted by Eric Lowry
Email Me | Search For Homes
www.LowryTeam.com | P: (513) 874-1830

Hot off the presses is our LowryTeam.com Monthly Real Estate Trends Report for December 2010.  This report, published monthly, provides a look back at the last six months worth of real estate data for West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township, Ohio.  It is a local trends report and makes no attempt to draw overall conclusions or make predictions for the larger real estate market.  In fact we believe that anyone that makes an attempt to predict future, national real estate market conditions or draws conclusions on recent historical data nationally is just out of touch with reality.  There is no such thing as a national weather forecast and there is no such thing as a real estate one either.  ALL real estate is local!

The source of this data is the Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service. By seeking out and understanding the trends in our market place we are better able to forecast the upcoming market conditions and counsel our clients on pricing strategies to get their home sold for the highest possible price. Any thoughts and insight into what may occur in the future are solely our opinions and forecasts.

Unit sales for the last six months (June – November) is first:

Unit sales in West Chester and Liberty Township have seen a steady decline in the last six months.  The spring market saw a fairly strong sales environment which was supported by the government’s home buyer tax credits.  These tax credits expired on April 30th, 2010 and you can see on the graph, that homes sales (closed units) peaked in the two months after, as these tax credit sales closed , 30-60 days later.

With no intervention or subsidy of the housing markets by the government you can see that home sales have made their way much lower in the following months.

To put these levels of home sales in proper perspective we compare them to the same time periods of the last two years.  In the fall of last year (2009) we were under the influence of the original first time homebuyer tax credit which definitely had a positive impact on home sales at the time.  In the fall of 2008 we were in the midst of the financial crisis with the all of the bank failures, etc. which caused a very significant slow down at the time in home sales.  So when you compare the last three year’s home sales for this time period of June – November you can see that our current level of home sales are at a level that is even below the levels seen during the financial crisis.

This is a pretty amazing statistic when you consider that we are operating in an environment of both extremely low interest rates and home prices.  One factor that may provide an uptick of some sort in home sales in the near term is rising interest rates.  Rates have definitely risen off of their lowest levels and history tells us that when rates go up, they tend to go up fast.  Some homebuyers may be fearful of missing out on these really low rates and will jump into the market to get a home under contract while the below 5.00% interest rates are still available.  This could result in a small upward trend for home sales in the next few months over the current levels.

Average sale price for the last six months (June – November) is next:

In this graph you can see the movement of the average sale price for West Chester and Liberty Township, Ohio real estate sales in 2010.  If you watch the trend line you can see a gradual decline for 2010.  Average sale price gets quite a bit of attention in the media with reports that quote “home prices fell” or “home prices rose” in this particular quarter or month or whatever.  The average sale price is nothing more than what it’s called – an average price of all of the homes sold in a particular time frame. 

Homes are not worth more now than they were at the beginning of the year.  Any increase or decrease in the average sale price is reflective of the activity of that time frame.  A perfect example of this is the month of August which according to the graph shows a huge increase in the average sale price over the month of July.  A look inside the numbers explains… In July 17 of the total 82 closed sales that month were under $140,000 in sale price, in August there were only 6 of a total 78 closed sales in that same price range.  Less sales in the lower price ranges will cause the average sale price to be higher.  In addition, in July there were just 4 closed sales over $400,000 compared to 9 closed sales in August over $400,000.  So, was the average sale price higher because homes were worth more?  No, there was just a very different mix of homes that sold.

List to sale price ratio: 

The List to Sale Price ratio is calculated by dividing the final sale price into the list price to find the percentage of the list price that a given home sells for.  The West Chester and Liberty Township Ohio List to Sale Price Ratio is 95.68% for the six month period of June – November 2010.  As you can see the monthly List to Sale Price Ratio has seen some big swings up and down in the last year.  The swings up and down are an indicator of the lack of stability in the West Chester and Liberty Township real estate market right now.  The highlighted center area of the graph shows what appears to be the middle ground right now for the market.  The last two months have been below this range, indicating that homeowners are accepting lower offers when compared to their list prices than had been the case in previous months. 

The one factor that remains true, through all of the market’s ups and downs is that homes that sell quickly sell for a much higher percentage of their list price.  In the most recent six months, homes that sold in the first thirty days that they were on the market sold for 97.09% of list price.  As you can see, this is a much higher final sales price compared to the overall market average.

Summary:

The West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township real estate market remains challenging, yet full of opportunity. Clearly the value of homes in the area has fallen over the past couple of years and frankly, in certain price ranges, the values are likely to fall farther.  The primary threats to the 2011 real estate market and any potential recovery are continued high unemployment and the potential loss of the mortgage interest tax deduction.  Interest rates have now risen off of their lows, but still remain at very attractive levels below 5.00% which provide a great environment for buying a new home.

Why?  If you are looking to sell within the next two years, the highest sales price you will be able to attain for your home is it’s current value.

This is not just my speculation or guesswork.  In November, Fannie Mae forecasted median home sales prices for the next eight quarters.  Their projections call for prices to fall and to not again reach today’s values until the 3rd quarter of 2012.

Home prices will not begin to rise again until…. (1) we have a more stable economic climate with higher consumer confidence  (2) unemployment begins to come down significantly (3) the inventory of homes listed for sale in West Chester & Liberty Township is reduced.
 
Just waiting for the spring months to get here before putting your home on the market can cost you real dollars.  Yes, it’s true that there are more buyers out looking at homes in the spring.  There are also a lot more homes on the market for sale then, meaning much more competition and thus a great deal more pricing pressure.  Waiting to list your home for sale will almost undoubtably mean you will be listing your home at a lower price and will be selling for less.  Home sales are not increasing, in fact you can see in the graph below that home sales in West Chester & Liberty Township are decreasing and have been for six months now. 

But isn’t this just the seasonality of the market you ask?  Take a look at the graph below and you will see a comparison of the last three year’s home sales for West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio.  And while you can clearly see the seasonal peaks and valleys, the real issue here is that moving forward there appears to be no driving force to increase sales (demand) very much.  The other concerning note here is that we are currently operating at sales levels that are lower than sales were during the financial crisis of 2008.

So as we move into 2011 and the time of the year when inventory of homes for sale begins to grow, my advice?  Don’t Wait!   Get your home on the market and price it to sell today for today’s market.  Sell before the flood of additional homes come on the market.

And please don’t misunderstand me here, I am not trying to portray all gloom and doom and be overly negative, but I do think it is only responsible to state the facts and try to draw some reasonable conclusions.  There is reason to act with a sense of urgency here. 

Oh yeah… one other reason to not wait.  If you are also going to be buying a home, in addition to selling your current home you need to know that interest rates are going up and going up fast.  Keep waiting and they will be even higher.

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

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Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

What is Tuesday Open House?? Well, it’s clearly not an “open house”. Open Houses don’t sell homes… good internet marketing does… but it seemed like a good title for this weekly blog post.

It is my way of throwing the doors open on the RealEstate-Ink.com blog and offering up a few quick articles and facts on real estate for the West Chester, Liberty Township, Beckett Ridge, Mason and Fairfield Township, Ohio areas. It is not intended to be all about homes for sale, but it will be about that some of the time…

The Union Centre Bash:  There have been a number of questions recently regarding the Union Centre Bash and when it was, etc.  So after a little research I found that it is no longer called the Union Centre Bash, but is now known as the Union Centre Boulevard Blast.  It is scheduled to be August 13 -15, 2010.  According to an article in the Journal News that I found online the “Blast” will be more of a regional draw, employing some best practices from similar showcases across the country.  The direction of The Blast will be directed at families, adults, teens and children with multiple activities happening at the same time, “sort of like what you’d see at a state fair.  You can reach the entire article online here >>Union Centre Boulevard Blast

New Listing: 5466 Sugar Maple Run, Liberty Township, Ohio.  Check out this new listing in Falling Water subdivision in Liberty Township, Ohio.  This is a terrific two story home located on a private,  wooded lot and features a finished, walkout lower level, island kitchen w/ adjoining morning room & hardwood floors and much, much more!  >>See all of the details including interior photos, video tour on LowryTeam.com

Searching for foreclosures or short sales?  Get a list of all of the foreclosed (bank owned) homes and short sale homes listed for sale in our area for free.  Don’t pay for a list of foreclosures, short sales or distressed properties and don’t pay a subscription fee to any website for one either.  These are homes that are listed for sale and you can have the information on these homes for sale, for free and without any obligation by just clicking here >>Request your list of foreclosures and short sale homes for sale here

Homes Sales Graph West Chester & Liberty Township

2010 Home Sales in West Chester & Liberty Township, Ohio:  The tax credit is over and now is when we find out if the homebuyer tax credits for both the First Time HomeBuyer and the move up homebuyer have had an impact on home sales overall.  The key thing to watch moving forward is the unit sales numbers each month for West Chester & Liberty Township compared to last year.  As can be seen on the graph, the last couple of months have seen home sales above last years totals.  The real indicator of the housing market’s recovery will be what happens moving forward with home sales.  Clearly the homes sales in West Chester & Liberty Township Ohio picked up when the tax credits were in effect, but what remains to be seen is; Will the home sales in the next few coming months remain at or above last year’s numbers so that the total sales numbers for the year remain above last year?  If the sales remain stable and we can stay at or above last years sales numbers, then we would have to judge the tax credits to be a success in stablizing the housing market.  If the sales numbers in the few months are not able to be sustained and in fact fall to levels below last year, then all we will have accomplished will be to move sales up into the early months of the year from the later months (July, August, September) and we will not have really improved the West Chester & Liberty Township housing market in the long term.  What you can see on the graph is a steady increase in the home sales from January through May of this year in a much more dramatic peak than in the last two years indicating that there clearly was an impact from the homebuyer tax credit incentives.  We will continue to monitor the home sales numbers and we will see where we go from here.   >>You can read my 2010 1st Quarter Real Estate Market Report here

Our facebook fan page of the week is: West Chester Farmer’s Market  You can find information on the Farmers Market, the products that are available there through the summer and more.  As of this writing their page has 129 fans, so I ask that you check out their fan page, become a fan and invite your facebook friends to do the same.

While you are on facebook checking out the West Chester Farmer’s Market fan page, please visit and become a fan of our facebook page:

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

Relocating To West Chester, Liberty Township Or Mason, Ohio??  Request Our Free Relocation Information Package By Clicking Here!

Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio

There are somethings to keep in mind here before you go off the deep end regarding your homes current market value.  The first is, don’t forget your basic math. Average sale prices have been going up in some areas, down in others. The average sale price is the just the value that occurs when all of the sales that occur in a given market are added up and divided by the number of sales. For example, if 100 homes have sold for a total sales volume of  $16,570,000. the average sale price would be $167,500. This simply represents the average of all of the homes that have sold and does not establish anything remotely close to a property’s value.

The second thing to remember is, when you hear these national news reports and economists discussing the rising or falling home prices, they are talking about national averages and these have nothing to do with our market values in West Chester, Beckett Ridge, Liberty or Fairfield Township areas.

These national reports are very much like getting a national weather forecast.  The average temperature in the United States tomorrow is not likely going to effect your life very much.  What you want to know if what the weather is going to be here tomorrow and if you are concerned about your homes value, you need to know the market data for our area, not some large metro area or state or country.  Local real estate market information including data on recent homes sold and homes for sale in your neighborhood in available to you by simply clicking here!

The best way to determine the value of your home is to get it analyzed by an experienced real estate professional. There are many factors in determining home values today and picking an average out of the air could hinder the sale of your home and frankly could cost you money. In today’s real estate market it is more important than ever to price your home appropriately.

If you would like to learn the current market value of your home you can request it here!

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I am very focused on providing the best information possible and to being the real estate expert in our area.  Please let me know if you have any questions regarding any of this information.  So let’s get started:

SALES:

There were 294 units sold for the 2nd Quarter of 2009 compared to 364 units sold in the 2nd Quarter of 2008.  This represents a decrease of 19.23%.  If you simply leave it at that, it looks pretty bad, however if you dissect the market a little, you will see that things can look a little different depending on the price range.  Below, you will see the sales broken down by price range, which paints a picture of several different markets within the West Chester and Liberty Township, Ohio real estate market.

Price Range	2009 Units	2008 Units	+ or – %
Less than $200,000	140	143	-2.10%
$200,000 – $249,999	72	100	-28.00%
$250,000 – $299,999	40	56	-28.57%
$300,000 – $399,999	25	39	-35.90%
$400,000 – $499,999	13	17	-23.53%
$500, 000 +	4	9	-55.55%

AVERAGE SALE PRICE:

The average sale price in the 2nd Quarter of 2009 for the West Chester and Liberty Township Ohio markets was $214,898 compared to $231,621 in the 2nd Quarter of 2008, which constitutes a decrease of 7.22%.  So, let’s talk about what this means and what it doesn’t mean.  First, it does mean that the average price of all of the homes that sold was quite a bit lower, 7.22% lower in fact.  However, what this doesn’t mean is that the value of our homes fell by 7.22% in this period.  This average sale price is affected quite a bit by the fact that a much larger percentage of sales occurred in the under $250,000 range, thus causing the average to be lower.  So, is this good news or bad news?  Really to be honest, it is no news.  To know the value of your home and just how much the value has fallen you need a detailed, analytical analysis of the current market value.  You cannot draw a conclusion from market averages, and certainly not from what you read in the newspaper, Cincinnati Enquirer, USA Today or otherwise.

SUPPLY OF HOMES FOR SALE:

The oversupply of homes for sale is where the pricing pressure comes from.  Too many homes for sale in relation to how many are selling is a critical indicator to monitor as we watch for signs of market stabilization.  At the end of the 2nd Quarter of 2009 we had 729 homes for sale in the West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township, Ohio marketplace compared to 924 homes for sale in 2008.  This represents a huge reduction in the amount of homes for sale.  With a current inventoryof 729 homes for sale, based on our current rate of sale we have just under 7.5 months worth of inventory for sale.  Meaning if we continue to sell homes at the current pace and no new listings come on the market, it would take us just under 7.5 months to sell them all compared to a 7.6 month supply one year ago.  So, because the pace of sales has fallen so dramatically, the level of inventory is really the same on a relative basis.  However, just like unit sales, these numbers can vary greatly by price range as you can see below.

PRICE RANGE	HOMES FOR SALE	MONTHS SUPPLY
Less than $200,000	251	5.38
$200,000 – $249,999	159	6.63
$250,000 – $299,999	85	6.38
$300,000 – $399,999	114	13.69
$400,000 – $499,999	45	10.39
$500,000 +	75	56.39

INTEREST RATES:

At the end of the 2nd Quarter of 2009 interest rates on a Thirty year fixed rate mortgage were hovering around a range of 5.30% – 5.40%.  Just one year ago at the end of the 2nd Quarter of 2008 interest rates for the same mortgage were 6.25% – 6.50%.  This is a very clear example of the extreme value of today’s interest rates.

TOP 10 SALES:

The top 10 sales of the 2nd Quarter of 2009*:

*These sales are not necessarily those of Eric Lowry

Summary:

The West Chester, Beckett Ridge and Liberty Township real estate market remains challenging, yet full of opportunity.  Clearly the value of homes in the area has fallen over the past couple of years and frankly, in certain price ranges, the values are likely to fall farther.  I would expect in the market overall for the rate of decline to slow, however, only when the supply of homes for sale drops and the number of buyers increases, will prices stabilize.  It will take a number of years to return to the values that we once experienced.  Exactly how long will be determined by the overall economy including the unemployment rate and of course how long interest rates are able to remain low.  This is a great market to buy a home and is particularly good for 1st time homebuyers. It is also very favorable for homeowners looking to move up to a larger home.  Any loss experienced on the selling side should be more than made up for on the purchase side.

Your comments and questions are always welcome!

Wondering what your home is worth in today’s real estate market?  Request a market analysis here!

 Check Out My Feature Homes For Sale In West Chester, Fairfield and Liberty Township, Ohio