Real Estate info- buying, selling and everything in between

Greetings!

Halloween is rapidly approaching so once again it is time for the  OFallonRealEstate.com Jack-O-Lantern photo contest.  Rules are pretty easy.

Email us a photo(s) of your Jack-O-Lantern and you will be entered into a drawing for an IPOD Shuffle! 

The photo must be one that you have taken and own...simple right?

Photos must be received by 5:00pm November 2nd and winners will announced  November 3rd.    Good luck!

A few entries from years past:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The good(sort of), the bad and the ugly.

The drop from the 3^rd quarter 2007-2008 was at -9%.  From 2008-2009 it is - 10%.  So consistency seems to be the key here (good...sort of).  What this also shows is that the continued slow down. in the O'Fallon Real Estate market is not quite over(bad).  In the last quarter of 2008, 76 homes closed. If one were to use the data above we could expect somewhere in the range of 62 homes closing in the 4^th quarter of 2009(ugly).  Right now in O'Fallon there are 60 homes under contract.  If this number is expanded to include those with a contingency contract the number climbs to 68. Currenlty there are 246 homes for sale.

The wild card is how many folks will purchase and close before the tax credit runs out at the end of November.  The National Association of Realtors projects that between 1.8-2 million first time home buyers will take advantage of the credit.  That comes out to about 350,000 home sales nationwide as a result. 

We are currently in the window where a buyer could still go under contract and get a home closed in time but that window will be closing shortly for most buyers.  For more info on the tax credit click here.  Short sales continue to rise, these are very attractive to home buyers however the time needed to get many of these to closing may be prohibitive to take advantage of the credit in time. 

Things seem to have held steady over the last 30 days or so.  In August, 39 homes closed in O'Fallon and September saw a very slight drop down to 37.  All things considered this is a positive.  The first time home buyer tax credit has helped to keep things rolling.  Currently it is set to expire on December 1^st 2009 but there is much talk about extending it into next year.

Of the 37 homes that closed:

34 were re-sale or pre-owned.  They had an average sales price of $172,388 and averaged 117 days on the market.

3 were new construction.  They had an average sales price of $272,383 and ran about 208 days on market.

Once again the bulk of the activity occurred under $300,000, with 33 out of 37 homes closing below that mark.

Historically speaking things may have leveled off a bit as we are only down 3 homes from September of 2008.

Year to date O'Fallon IL is down 51 homes from this time last year.

As I mentioned earlier monthly totals have started to decline slightly, however the fourth quarter is historically a slower period so expect this to drop over the coming months.  The GOOD news is that currently there are 55 homes under contract.

Foreclosures, pre-foreclosures and short sales  continue to rise however the long term impact they may have on market value remains to be seen.  Appraisers are taking distressed properties into consideration when handling appraisals so that is helping to keep things stable from that end of things.

 Stay tuned for a more in depth of the 3^rd quarter!