Tag Archives: Overland Park Real Estate

Tax Credit Party Continues With News That May Homes Sales In Kansas Were Up More Than 20%

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

When it was reported about a month ago that April home sales in Kansas had risen more than 40% from the previous April, I was very impressed. Although the news had to be taken with a grain of salt – because it was tax credit fueled – I was still looking forward to seeing some more tax credit fueled sale’s figures for May. Well the figures are out and the party continues with news that Kansas home sales were up more than 20% in May 2010 over May 2009.

This is good news no doubt, but not as impressive as April’s report was compared to the nationally sales figures. In April, the increase in the sales rate from the previous year in Kansas was almost double that of the comparable national sales rate. But in May the increase in the Kansas sales rate was much more in line with what’s going on nationally — a 22.6% increase locally in Kansas compared to 19.2% nationally. The raw numbers, as reported by my Kansas Association of Realtors (KAR), shows there were 3,355 homes sold this May, compared to 2,737 in May 2009.

KAR reports there’s 5.6 months of inventory on the market, which is a slight improvement over April’s report of 5.7 months of inventory. Before there was an extension to the deadline for tax credit closings to occur, many close dates were set for mid to late June. So I expect that when June’s figures are release those will be better than last year as well. The extension provided for closings may also lead to higher sales rates when the July and August stats are reported down the road. In other news from the May report, the average sales price in Kansas was $157,822. This is a decrease from the $161,928 average sale’s price in May 2009.  Taking an isolated look at the Johnson County Kansas real estate market, there were 935 home sales in May of this year, which was a 22% increase over May 2009.


Posted by Jason A. Brown

Only You Can Truly Decide How Much Kansas City Home You Can Afford

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

As a Kansas City home buyer, the Golden Rule for how much you can afford is to simply ask yourself. No one is more qualified than YOU to decide what YOU can afford. Now a mortgage lender is going to tell you the max amount they’ll let you borrow. But that amount may be much more than you can or want to truly afford. And by afford, I mean how much you can “afford” to sacrifice other things in your life. It’s one thing to afford a $2000 a month house payment and another completely to be able to do so without compromising your favorite boat or expensive dining habits.


So when the lender says here’s your Pre-Approval Letter and you can buy up to a $290,000 home, the better question is “how much will my payments be? Once you know that you’ll know if buying a $290,000 works into your master plan. If it doesn’t, then maybe you should be looking at $200,000 or $250,000 homes. It’s up to you and this is not something than any loan officer, Kansas City Realtor, friend or family member can decide for you. When a lender pre-approves you, the underwriting guidelines are designed to minimize the lender’s losses and are not in place to protect your  future finances. A good loan officer will certainly help you with that, but the underwriting guidelines that spit out a Pre-Approval Letter don’t factor it into the equation.

So what are some good rules of thumb when deciding what’s the right amount of mortgage payment? A good general rule of thumb is that your house (including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and PMI on the loan and also including your HOA dues) should not take up more than 25% of your gross income. But if you use this rule of them then you’ve already broken the Golden Rule in  the first paragraph. I know that I’m seeing buyers purchase homes at double to quadruple the amount they make per year.  In other words you could use as a general rule of them that someone who makes $50,000 may be able to purchase a $200,000 home — of course that’s making a whole lot of assumptions. But you would never use a rule of thumb anyhow when making such an important decision, would you?


Posted by Jason A. Brown
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A Home’s Beauty Is In The Eyes Of The Seller, Buyer, Lender, Independent Appraiser, County Tax Appraiser…

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

A common question that home sellers ask is “what’s my home worth?”. If you’ve followed my blog very long you’ll know that’s a question that neither a real estate agent nor an appraiser (tax appraisers certainly included) can answer. The truth is that the market determines what a seller’s home is worth. Taking that a step further, the price that a home goes under contract isn’t the value either. The home must close and only at that time will we know what the seller’s home is worth. If a buyer backs out of a deal because of inspections, the home isn’t worth what the previous buyer offered – because it never closed. The next buyer (after closing) will have determined the home’s value.

If a buyer should add $50,000 in upgrades the month after they move in, there home isn’t “worth” $75,000 more. It’s not even “worth” even $10,000 more. The point is that until the home sells again we won’t know what a home is worth. So the only time that anyone knows the true worth of a home is at the closing. What a Realtor can do however is study the area comparables (listings, pendings, sales, expireds, etc.) and help a seller to make an informed pricing decision based on a home’s condition, location and relevant market conditions. 

It’s interesting how sometimes a home can be viewed SO differently through different eyes… 

Seller’s View… 

Buyer’s View… 

Lender’s View… 

Independent Appraiser’s View… 

County Tax Appraiser’s View… 

Posted by Jason A. 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.