HOMETOWN REALTY BLOG » homes for sale

4 Tips to Determine How Much Mortgage You Can Afford

hometown — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:52:59 +0000

By knowing how much mortgage you can handle, you can ensure that home ownership will fit in your budget.
http://buyandsell.houselogic.com/articles/4-tips-determine-how-much-mortgage-you-can-afford/

9 Unexpected Energy (and Money) Savers

hometown — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:11:15 +0000

Here are a few surprising and simple ways to cut your energy bill this season.

Give your pocketbook and Mother Nature a gift this season by taking advantage of these simple, surprising ways to save energy and money.
http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/saving-energy/energy-money-savers/

Real Estate Market Update

cheryl — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:13:03 +0000

For the week ending August 20, Twin Cities home sellers continued to list fewer
properties than last year at this time, as new listings were down 11.8
percent to 1,342. That makes for 11 consecutive weeks of (still welcome)
declines. Meanwhile, buyer activity was up 53.3 percent over last year, the
largest increase in 12 weeks and the 15th consecutive week of double-digit
gains.

Inventory has been a winner all summer, and we haven’t broken the positive pattern yet.
The number of active listings for sale was down 20.0% from 2010 to 24,183
homes. That’s the largest decline since the beginning of 2004 and represents
more than 6,000 fewer homes on the market than at this time last year.

A flurry of housing and employment reports due out this week could set the stage
for the rest of the year. These two economic indicators are more closely tied
than ever.

Although these numbers represent all of the metro area, Hutchinson’s real estate market reflects all these same trends.

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The Real Estate Market (first 30 days after the tax credit expiration.)

cheryl — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:41:19 +0000

According to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, home sales in the Twin Cities housing market took another dip as the hangover from the tax credit expiration continued. For the week ending May 22, there were 624 pending sales—a precipitous drop of 42.5 percent from a year ago.

The biggest drops in sales since the credit ended can be seen in the traditional seller market (i.e., anything that’s not a foreclosure or short sale) and in the middle price ranges from $150,000 to $350,000. Pending sales have dropped in those ranges from 1,085 the week the credit ended to 384 for the week ending May 22. In sum, it may be a difficult summer market for home sellers.

The good news is that new supply is also slowing, which means the market is already self-correcting to avoid a surge in unneeded inventory. New listings fell to 1,581 for the same reporting week, a decline of 15.8 percent from this time last year.

The Supply-Demand Ratio has been updated for June and shows a figure of 5.05, which means there are 5.05 homes for sale for each buyer in the month. That’s a 10.9 percent increase over the mark seen a year ago and is a result of the decline in buyer activity.

Here in Hutchinson, MN the market activity for May, 2010 was still pretty good. We’ll have to see if our housing market sees the same declines as reported for the Twin Cities market.

There Is a New Sign in Town

cheryl — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:51:51 +0000

Recently we unveiled our new for sale signs in the Hutchinson, MN area. You’ll see them on the homes we have for sale as well as homes that have recently sold.
After 25 years of using the other signs, we decided it was time for a new look.
The new signs are in the shape of a house and have brochure boxes attached to the chimney.
We hope you enjoy the new look.