You may have seen one of our marketing videos we produce for all of our Louisville Home listings. This week the Courier-Journal’s Alex Davis wrote a story on the new trend.

For a look at our listings and videos check out the following 2 websites:

http://weselllouisville.com/featured_listings (click on Virtual Tour links)

www.luxurylouisvillehomes.com

·         WASHINGTON — Government efforts to provide easier credit to consumers and jump-start flagging home sales could push mortgage rates “well below 4 percent,” a federal regulator says  James Lockhart, whose agency oversees government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made the comments Wednesday at a meeting of Women in Housing & Finance, an industry group. He did not say how long it would take to achieve such a drop.  Treasury Department officials have been considering a program to lower mortgage rates, which would not apply to refinanced loans. Real estate agents and builders have been lobbying intensely in Washington for government efforts to spur home sales amid a severe decline in the U.S. housing market,  www.weselllouisville.com

What will this mean to you as a home buyer? Well I did a little math and the numbers are impressive. If you were to buy a home last month when interest rates at some lending intuitions hovered around 6.5% your monthly mortgage (minus homeowners insurance and down payment) would be approximately $1,514.14 a month. If you bought a home today and locked in a mortgage of 5.75 your payment would be approximately $1,417.15 monthly. But buy a 200,000 home or refinance a mortgage at 4.5% and your payment drops to $1,263.37 a month. That’s a $250 a month savings!

As of right now CNN says “Spokeswomen from Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), declined to comment.”

In any case it’s a great idea and if current  homeowners can save money on mortgages it could help pump money back into the economy.

First the good news:

Now is the time to buy.  If you are considering purchasing a home get off the fence and jump in. Interest rates drooped last week below 6%. Home owners who have to sell are accepting deals lower than anyone could imagine.   Call or e-mail us 24/7 and we’ll send you an updated list of homes on the market.

The bad news is for current homeowners who need to sell:

The month of October has notoriously been a slow month for real estate sales, this year October was worse than expected. According to the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors, the number of homes that sold and closed was down 35% from a year ago.  The number of homes going under contract was down 28% from October 2007. Days on the market increased 5% from October 2007.  (see the numbers below).

Thanks to Foreclosures and Short Sales the value of homes in some areas of town dropped dramatically.   The Median Sales price was down 8% from October 2007 and the Average sales price down 11.5%. There is some positive news, the number of Foreclosures and Short Sales (selling in “as is” condition) in October dropped 24% from 239 homes in October 2007 to 182 home sales last month. It’s too early to determine if the drop in sales means anything more than the obvious slow down in home sales.  

Hope is around the corner, 2009 is just a month away and the spring home buying market starts in February!

[The median sales price is the price that lies in the middle of the list of prices of homes sold, ranked in order of amount (lowest to highest or vice versa). In other words, half the homes in your area sold for more, half sold for less.]

November  2008

November  2007

 For more info head to www.weselllouisville.com

The foreclosure problem continues to grow, the results are devastating! Loss off job, adjusting interest rate on a mortgage, medial problem, divorce even death of a spouse, the reasons so many people are facing foreclosures are many the results are usually the same.  Foreclosure will force you out of your home, ruin your credit rating and potentially effect current or future employment.  Amazingly 7 out of 10 homeowners facing foreclosure never contact their bank or a Realtor to get out from under the problem.

That’s why The Medley Sokoler Team at RE/MAX Properties East created the Foreclosure Relief Team. Real Estate Agents Bob and Norine Sokoler have been trained through the Certified Distressed Property Experts in Florida (C.D.P.E) and along with local attorneys and negotiating staff are working to get help for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Team leader Bob Sokoler says “there are several ways to help people facing foreclosure the most effective way is a short sale. That involves getting the home owners bank to accept an offer on the property from a buyer that’s less than what is owed to the bank”.  The team takes the time to help a homeowner facing foreclosure weight their options. Bob says “ we would love to help Louisville homeowners stay in their home, there are several options that would allow them to do that but it’s not always possible”. 

Homeowners facing foreclosure should be very careful according to Sokoler “there are a number of people out there trying to cash in on someone else’s trouble. Homeowners who are late on their mortgage payments will receive letters everyday from people claiming they can help. If someone wants you to pay for their service the answer should immediately be NO.  The Foreclosure Relief Team does not charge homeowners for their services.

You can reach the Medley Sokoler Team and The Foreclosure Relief Team at RE/MAX Properties East by calling (502) 992-4203 or visiting either www.weselllouisville.com  or www.louisvillehomestoday.com or http://www.louisvilleshortsalehelp.com.

If you have a home listed on the market you probably want to know what buyers think when they walk through your home. As listing agents we want to know as well. Feedback helps everybody. Let’s face it, if a buyer sees a problem or thinks the home is overpriced compared to other homes they’ve seen, we want our sellers to know.

For more than a year now we’ve been using e-mail for feedback. It’s been very successful because agents can answer a series of questions when they have time and at their own pace  The answers are usually much more detailed and thought out. But over the past 5 months we’ve seen a marked reduction in the number of e-mails we receive. My theory is that because there are so may homes on the market combined with so many short sales and foreclosures buyers are asking to see more homes before making a decision . Showing more homes is taking more time and with more homes comes more requests for feedback. I’m wondering if the requests have been overwhelming for some agents. Here at the Medley Sokoler Team my wife Norine and I try to go out together to show homes. That allows us time to answer a clients questions as well as take notes on the home (both good and bad). That helps Norine respond to e-mail and phone requests for feedback (I’m not sure how she ended up with that job but I’m not complaining).

The bottom line is if your agent is not getting feedback from showings, don’t necessarily blame your agent, it may just be that the buyers’ agent is overwhelmed with the number of showings it now takes to make their buyer happy.  

For more information about the Medley Sokoler Team, head to www.weselllouisville.com or www.louisvillehomestoday.com.

New Louisville Kentucky home sales numbers are out for October 2008 and though they don’t paint an encouraging picture or the local housing market,  they also don’t tell the whole story. The number of homes that sold and closed in October 2008 was down 25% compared to October 2007.  Homes that went under contract in October 2008 compared to a year before was down 30%. Uncertainty about the economy, the stock market roller coaster, Presidential election, lingering concern about gas prices and a fear of the value of homes decreasing all played a part in the slower sales report.
 There is some positive news to report starting with the number of homes on the market. Currently 10,482 show active, that’s down by about 500 from a month before. The average number of days on the market is down 10% in October 2008 compared to a month before and up only 4% from a year before.

October 2008:For more information and home listings go to www.weselllouisville.com 

More and more homeowners are heading towards foreclosure. A new article published on Housingwire.com has the title “ Subprime Mortgage Delinquencies Building, Again” . The article points to another wave of upcoming foreclosures. Help may be coming is some form, an article published yesterday on Inman.com says “nearly $4 billion in federal grants will be spent to help state and local governments buy foreclosed and abandoned homes ” The big problem is that for thousands of area homeowners in financial trouble, foreclosure may seem like a viable option. STOP! Before you make that decision you need to know the consequences of a foreclosure on your personal life (yes I said life) and the alternatives.

Did you know that 7 out of 10 homeowners facing foreclosure never seek help from their lending institution to work out a payment plan, or a realtor who can help sell their home in a Short Sale.

What you probably don’t know about a foreclosure will affect you for years to come. For example did you know that some employers now run credit checks on their employees and a foreclosure can put your current position in jeopardy! Additionally a foreclosure is one of the top items that will put a potential new hire in jeopardy if the perspective employer runs a credit check.

The same holds true if you have a security clearance or government position or you’re in military or law enforcement. Check to see if a foreclosure could affect your status, you may be shocked to find out your job or clearance could be in jeopardy.

Your life can be affected in other ways because you’ll have to disclose the foreclosure on any mortgage and many job applications. A foreclosure can haunt you for years, starting with your credit scores being lowered by 300+ points, it’s the most devastating credit issue for future credit availability. You’ll be ineligible for a government insured loan for 5 to 7 years (only 2 years in a short sale). You may end up with a Deficiency Judgment (the mortgage company can still attempt to collect the money they lost from you).

Help is available in multiple forms. If there is equity sell the property, rent it, refinance in what’s called a mortgage modification. You can attempt a short refi which involves the refinance of your home with a reduction in the principal balance and the interest rate as well. You can try a deed in lieu of foreclosure where the mortgage company agrees to take the deed back in exchange for the property. You can file bankruptcy but most of the time a bankruptcy only stalls the foreclosure. Finally there’s the short sale where a homeowner owes an amount on his property that when combined with closing cost and realtor commission is higher than current market value.

Some realtors have been certified to handle short sales. We find the buyer and negotiate with a homeowner’s mortgage company or companies to accept less than the full balance of the loan at closing.

Need help? I’m a realtor at RE/MAX Property East and a C.D.P.E. Certified Distressed Property Expert. Visit http://www.LouisvilleShortSaleHelp.com or Contact Bob at http://www.weselllouisville.com/ or bob@bobsokoler.com .

The numbers indicate that the housing slowdown has been affecting the Louisville are for more than a year now.  There may be an upturn on the horizon for home sales everywhere with reports that home sales in Orlando Florida are up from a year ago.

The number of days the average home sat on the market in September was 85 and though that number is up from 72 in September 2007 it was actually down from the 90 days on the market in August 2008.

The Median sales price of a Home in Louisville Kentucky was actually down 7.5% from $141,500 in September 2007 to $130,000 In September 2008. The drop is price can clearly be attributed to the number of homes on the market in a short sales position and in foreclosure.

www.weselllouisville.com

 For more information go to www.weselllouisville.com.

1)      The number of homes on the market (10,912 as of August 1 2008). That number is high because of the number of foreclosures and short sales on the market. Those homes are not only contributing to the glut of homes to choose from but there average sales price can be 20-40% below similar homes in a neighborhood. The 224 sales of the foreclosures and short sales homes added into the average sales price is artificially driving home values down.

2)      The other problem our area is dealing with is a lack of buyers. The tightening of loan qualifications and elimination of some loan programs has made it very tough finding financing for some buyers. Additionally there is less relocating, plus 2^nd and 3^rd time local move up home buyers are waiting for their own homes to sell.

The bad news centers on the raw numbers. The number of homes sold in July 2008 compared to a year ago at this time is off 44%. The dollar volume of homes sold is down almost 50% (see charts below).

New loan incentives including a $7,500 tax credit for first time home buyers may help. But the truth is that the government sponsored tax credit is really a loan and some of us think it’s simply a new case of “voodoo economics”. See our story below.   

Still want to sell your home? Our Medley Sokoler team is having great success in this down market. Call us for more information on why we’re so successful (502) 376-5483. We also have a series of reports available by e-mail that will help you be the first on your block to sell. Simply send an e-mail to request the series bob@weselllouisville.com or visit www.weselllouisville.com and send us an e-mail..

 For more information go to www.weselllouisville.com.