Tag Archives: Overland Park Kansas Realtor

Important Effects Of The Fiscal Cliff Deal On The Kansas City Real Estate Market

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

2012 was a much improved year for the Kansas City real estate market. Even through the slower fall months, supply, demand and housing prices remained steady and the housing market continued its rebound. The months of inventory on the market in most local areas was at the lowest points seen in years. All together, home prices in most price ranges had stabilized and that’s been music to many weary home seller’s ears. But all of that was threatened by the Fiscal Cliff and if a deal hadn’t been struck by Congress the housing market could have quickly fallen into turmoil.

Photo 1210

A critical factor in the Fiscal Cliff deal is the extension of the tax relief offered to Short Sale home sellers. For at least the next year, sellers who achieve a successful Short Sale with their lender will continue to NOT have to treat the forgiven debt as taxable income. This is huge because without it a lot of sellers would have lost motivation to try to work out a short sale… And that would have meant a whole lot more foreclosures on the market and ultimately lower sales prices in most areas.

Just as importantly, the mortgage interest deduction for homeowners will continue untouched. The mortgage interest deduction is one of the most important factors in owning a home versus renting, so this part of the legislation was extremely critical. All together, the Fiscal Cliff deal will help prevent an influx of new listings on the market and thus allow the real estate market to (hopefully) continue on the path of recovery.


Posted by Jason Brown

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Foreclosure Evictions Postponed By Major Players During The Holiday Season

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Delaying foreclosures on someone who’s stopped making their mortgage payments comes to the disdain of many homeowners who continue to meet their financial obligations during tough times. The whole foreclosure mess is frustrating to tax payers who feel they’re footing the bill in many cases, while a neighbor continues to live in their home for “free” while awaiting completion of the foreclosure process. Yet when looked at more closely, this has merit and is clearly the compassionate thing to do, since it gives families a chance to get through the holiday season.

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It doesn’t stop the banks from taking all the other steps they go through to keep the foreclosure process moving along — it just temporarily stops the sheriff from showing up at the door and evicting people from the home. From what I’ve read to this point, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Bank of America – three of the major financial institutions involved in today’s foreclosures – have all halted foreclosures for approximately two weeks beginning this week.


Posted by Jason Brown

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Pre-Inspections Could Cause Kansas City Home Sellers To Face Double Jeopardy

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

I’ve debated other Kansas City real estate agents over the years about whether pre-inspecting a home is a good idea for home sellers. There’s a few agents who agree that there’s more downside than upside to pre-inspecting but the majority of agents are quick to recommend pre-inspections to their home sellers. One of the main benefits to pre-inspections are they provide home buyers reassurance in the home. Another reason home sellers might pre-inspect is to give themselves ample time to address inspection items that may come up — before a buyer gets involved and possibly tries to dictate the repair process. These sound like very decent reasons to pre-inspect but you’ve also got to consider the downside of facing double jeopardy of sorts when it comes the home inspection process.

I certainly don’t recall any home buyer ever choosing a particular home simply because it had been pre-inspected. You can bet that, whether or not a home has been pre-inspected, a home buyer is going to hire their own home inspector to look things over once the home goes under contract. Doing a pre-inspection will cost a home seller several hundred dollars and the seller is then required by law to disclose ALL material defects in the report to future buyers. In most cases, a home buyer is going to expect a seller to have addressed all critical items in the pre-inspection report. Then the buyer is going to do their own home inspection and the seller is going to get to go through the repair process once again after the buyer’s home inspector pours over the home.


Posted by Jason Brown

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Check Your Credit Score Today If You Want To Buy A Kansas City Home In The Future

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

It’s often the last thing on a home buyer’s mind yet credit scores are a powerful aspect of buying a Kansas City home. I’ve seen borrowers with a 20% down payment and buying WELL below their means get turned down for a home loan because their credit scores stink… And if you think you can quickly fix issues with your credit, think again because I’ve never seen someone “fix” their credit score in just a couple of weeks time. It can take months to deal with errors and longer to deal with legitimate issues that have pushed a credit score down.


Being late on your monthly payments can kill a credit score and consider that credit scores are as much about a borrower’s responsibility as it is about their ability to make the payments.  A person who barely gets by but always makes their payments on time will surely have a better credit score than someone who makes twice as much but is often late with their payments. You can check out how your credit report is looking by getting a free, once-a-year, credit report check at  AnnualCreditScore.com. 

The formula for credit scores is more of an ancient Chinese secret than how Mr. Li got those shirts so clean in those 1970’s commercials, but the following are some frequent common denominators of people with 800 credit scores… 4 revolving accounts such as credit cards, 2 installment loans like a home loan or car loan, at least one active credit account that’s 10+ years old, having no revolving accounts that are more than 1/3 maxed out, not having a single late payment on any account the past 5 years and having less than 5 inquiries against your credit during the past year.


Posted by Jason Brown

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Overland Park KS Real Estate Statistics * 15-Day Update On Overland Park Kansas

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Hands On The Heartland
Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

City of Overland Park Kansas Real Estate Update <> 15-day Glance:

Overland Park KS Real Estate Market Stats

Type

#

Average $

Avg DOM

–

Newest Listings

133

$313,622

–

View Newest Listings

Total Active Listings

1,010

–

–

–

Newest Under Contract

59

$226,811*

72

View Newest Under Contract

Newest Solds (Closed)

39

$266,753

59

View Newest Solds

 

In the city of Overland Park Kansas there continues to be more homes coming on the market than homes going under contract (pending) or than homes being sold (closed). This creates a further surplus of supply in Overland Park. Using the past 15 days as a basis for figuring the absorption rate in Overland Park, there is just about 12.9 months of inventory on the market.  Keep in mind that a 15-day period is a small sampling of market activity designed to look at the what’s going on now in the current real estate market. While a 15-day period could indicate a trend it does not necessarily show a real estate markets long-term trend.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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*Average Newest Under Contract considers the price the homes were listed at when they went under contract. Data pulled from Heartland MLS and deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Low samplings in any category can skew a particular category. DOM is Days On Market. Note the date of this post as market stats become outdated. Stats may not be an exact 15 days. Stats were pulled at 9 AM on 2/11/09.

Overland Park Kansas Real Estate Update * 15-days Of Overland Park KS Market Stats

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Hands On The Heartland
The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

City of Overland Park Kansas Real Estate Update <> 15-day Glance:

Overland Park KS Real Estate Market Stats

Type

#

Average $

DOM

Newest Listings

57

$346,967

–

View These Listings

Total Active Listings

948

–

–

–

Newest Pending

22

$299,803*

105

View These Pendings

Recently Sold (Closed)

31

$251,306

72

View These Solds

* The average price of the Newest Pending is the list price of the home when it went under contract – actual contract and/or sales price unknown until post-closing reporting. Notes: All information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. If there is a low sampling of homes in any particular category, an average can be easily skewed high or low by an unusually high or low sale during the 15-day period. Note the date of the post as any market stats quickly become outdated. Depending on when the stats were pulled the stats may not be an exact 15 days.
 

In the city of Overland Park Kansas there continues to be more homes coming on the market (57) than homes going under contract (22 new pending) or than homes being sold (31 closed). This creates a further surplus of supply in Overland Park. Using the past 15 days as a basis for figuring the absorption rate in Overland Park, there is just over 15 months of inventory on the market.  Keep in mind that a 15-day period is a small sampling of market activity designed to look at the what’s going on now in the current real estate market. A 15-day period doesn’t necessarily show a real estate markets long-term trend. Also note that January is a typically slow time of year for sales. We’ll check back later this winter to see how things are looking.

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1) In the Subject line put “Receive subdivision updates”.
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Posted by Jason A. Brown

Comments Can Be Left Below…
Don’t see the LEAVE A COMMENT section below? 
Click on the headline at the top of this blog post.