Most economists and Ben Bernanke believe that the recession is over.  In addition, the “pending sales index” has increased for seven consecutive months, the first time that has occurred since the index was started in 2001.  Although both of these pieces of information sound great, and they are good, we should look beyond headlines to see what is really happening in the Evansville area.  We have seen a Toyota expansion, we are losing some Whirlpool jobs and we are adding some Berry Plastics jobs.  Currently national unemployment is almost 10% while the Evansville area is less at 8.6%.  Although the economy is improving no one we know is forecasting rapid economic growth.

Local housing sales continue at a very steady rate.  Over the past four months our local MLS has sold 1585 homes compared to 1600 over the same period last year.  Month to month sales have been virtually unchanged since May.  The supply of homes on the market in our area has also stayed very steady.  Although we can not say that sales are brisk, we can say that in some locations and price ranges the supply of homes is limited.  If you are curious about the housing market in a specific location or price range give us a call and we can help you with that information.

From our friends in the financial services industry we have the following to report: But for mildly weak 3-month and 30-year Treasury auctions last week, it was a strong week for the credit markets and even stronger for the real estate market. The reported quantity of mortgage applications for the week prior showed a 16.4% rise overall, with strong jumps for both the purchase money and the refinancing mortgages. The Freddie Mac weekly loan average rate fell to 4.87%. And the average of all mortgage rates (including jumbos, whose rates are declining while applications rise) ended the week at 5.27%.   

A little over a year ago my company, F. C. Tucker Emge Realtors launched a completely redesigned website designed specifically to help make the home buying process easy.  At the same time we started spending less money on print advertising and spent more resources enhancing and promoting our website.  This decision was one of the best decisions we ever made.  We are now selling more real estate than our next two competitors combined and more and more buyers are finding their new home at www.FCTuckerEmge.com  If you haven’t visited the site please do.  We think you will like what you see.