Homes for sale, Real estate update December

We are pleased to announce an update for the national home selling market.



For an update of the local Market in Madison Wi, contact RealEstateGuy

If you are selling a home be sure to check out our Market Insider, for Market data and home sales in your Madison neighborhood or Zip.

Customizable search of all Madison area homes

RealEstateGuy has been a full time, full service Realtor since 1993. He is dedicated to helping people achieve their Real Estate Goals and dreams.  In order to provide more specialized service, he created a team of hand picked specialists. Guy believes in constantly learning more, so regularly attends national seminars and trainings. Guy has been a top producer, leader in his office, a president of the Wisconsin chapter of CRS, and has spoken at the State Realtor Conventions.

Get a chuckle. Watch Real  Estate Guy video. 30 seconds Search all area homes for sale Madison Wi

NEW!! tool for checking out the home market AND great area stats; info.

Homes more affordable in 2011 than ever.

New stats provided by the Keller Williams funded research at Baylor University indicates that home ownership afford ability has never been better.  

In 2011 is takes just 13% of the average salary to purchase a median priced home with a comparable down payment.  The graph below shows the trend over the most recent years. 

A mix of price, good supply and interest rates add to this equation.   But it may not last long.  Experts predict interest rates will go up to 6% by the end of 2012.

Here is our latest search technology.   Search homes for sale Madison Wi

RealEstateGuy has been a full time, full service Realtor since 1993. He is dedicated to helping people achieve their Real Estate Goals and dreams.  In order to provide more specialized service, Guy selected a team of specialists. Guy believes in constantly learning more, so regularly attends national seminars and trainings. Guy has been a top producer, leader in his office, a president of the Wisconsin chapter of CRS, and has spoken at State Realtor Conventions. 

Get a chuckle. Watch Real  Estate Guy video. 30 seconds Search all area homes for sale Madison Wi  RealEstateGuy.  Madison Wisconsin 

History says, now is the time to buy a home in Madison Wi

We have written many times over the last 48 months
that now is the time to buy a home. Now the case can be made, if you own 1, buy
2 more too, such is the opportunity. Of course what we have been saying has
been correct all along.   If you had bought a home in Madison Wi over
the last 2 years you could not go wrong.  But now the proof is mounting
that this elongated opportunity is closing fast.

Let’s start with home sales:
nationally they are trending up to 5.28 million from a low of 3.84 back just 6
months ago. (annualized figure) So Sales are up.

Let’s look at affordability! 
Homes are more affordable that they have ever been, based on price and interest rates against household earnings.  Household income to home price fell to 13% in 2010.

Let’s look at interest rates:
They have gone up almost 1% from all time lows just 3 months ago.  Hovering just below 5% for a 30 year, and predictions they will be at 5.6% later in the year.
Every 1% hike in rates is like adding 10% to the price of a home.
  
How long before we get to a historical average of 8.9% It is
likely, due to increased activity, prices will go up soon, and higher interest
rates will make buying a home less affordable.  I ask you:  Can you
hear me now?  Start here now. Search all Madison Wi Area homes for sale.

If you are underwater in your home, a short sale may
be for you.  About short sales Madison Wi.   

To help in the decision process, watch this series of short
Videos: Sell My Home Madison.  It will help
you decide if you are really a home seller.

If you would like a snapshot of homes sales in your
neighborhood.

RealEstateGuy has been a full time, full service
Realtor since 1993. He is dedicated to helping people achieve their Real Estate
Goals and dreams.  In order to provide more specialized service, he
created a team of hand picked specialists. Guy believes in constantly learning
more, so regularly attends national seminars and trainings. Guy has been a top
producer, leader in his office, a president of the Wisconsin chapter of CRS,
and has spoken at the Realtor Conventions.

Get a chuckle. Watch Real  Estate Guy video. 30 seconds Search all area homes for sale Madison Wi

receive a birds eye view of sales in
your neighborhood

  

What is the Market doing? Madison, Wi.

For the last year I have been tracking Actives and pendings, week by week. I learnt the value of doing this at one of our great company trainings.
Did you know you can not look back a year and tell how many homes were on the market, or how many had an offer? The Realtors tool, the Multiple Listing Service MLS, historically only records Sold and Failed to sell homes.

So where do you get this info? You track it yourself.

Why do I do it? I do it because it gives me a very accurate picture of the trends right up to the last time I recorded the numbers. I graph the results. Wow it is powerful. I can tell how many homes are on the market and how many have offers on them. Home Sellers, this is the type of info you need!!
Sales/Inventory Stats: Figures for Madison East and West. Residential Single family, excluding condos.
Madison East: Active homes Jan 7th : 526 Jan 28: 528 Feb 28 : 489 March 12 : 466
Madison East:A/O Pending Jan 7th : 80 Jan 28: 88 Feb 28 : 129 March 12 : 138

From this, I combine the numbers into a ratio. The higher the ratio, the more homes to recent activity.
Madison East:
Ratio Active/Pending Jan 7th :6.0 Jan 28: 5.4 Feb 28 : 3.7 March 12 : 3.37

Is the market improving? Let me know what you think.

This is extremely powerful to predict how a market is shaping up. Especially useful when pricing a home early in a season. I can tell earlier in the season than anyone else, where the market is heading.
Let's try the figures for Madison West, remember, the December # was closer to 10!! I figure the drop was distorted by a lot of expiring listings, but we are still looking at on market inventory.

Madison West: Jan 7th, Jan 28th Feb 28th Mar 12th
Active listings: 712 709 732 751
A/O Pending: 117 153 211 223
Ratio: 6.0 4.54 3.47 3.36
From Feb 06, the Ratio balanced around 4-6 for a good part of the year. However by the end of the year, the rose to around 9. This is basically the equivalent of 9 homes on the market for every one which got sold over the last, say 45 days. An inventory of 14 months? Recent data suggests down to around 4-5 months?

The good news, however is that the new year saw a steep drop in numbers:-
Guy Lofts
Real Estate Guy
http://www.realestateguy@kw.com/