Recent stock market gyrations have been challenging and general economic news hasn’t been inspirational, to say the least. Fortunately we live in the Tri-State where both economic data and housing sales are better than last year and moving in the right direction. Nationally there are actually slightly fewer employed people that there were last year at this time. On a statewide basis, there are almost 50,000 more people working and the unemployment rate has dropped from 10.1% to 8.5%. In our area there are almost 9,000 more people working and the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.4%.

 

     Home sales are also up for the past two months, compared to June and July of last year. Closed units in our MLS were up 8% compared to last June and July. I expect a similar trend for the remainder of this year. Another subtle shift from last year is in the price range of homes sold. Last year, partially due to the home-buyer’s tax credit, less expensive home sales increased significantly from the previous year. This year sales of homes priced under $150,000 have declined just over 10%. Homes priced from $150,000-250,000 have been essentially unchanged, while homes priced over $250,000 have increased over 9%. Keep in mind, that the median sales price in our market is under $110,000, so there are always more homes sold under $150,000 than over that amount.

 

     Our marketing and technology departments continue help me provide tools to make buying homes for my clients easier. I know I have already mentioned TuckerMobile.com. This GPS enabled mobile site continues to attract more traffic with over 30,000 unique visitors last month. Recently we acquired TuckerOpenHouses.com. Starting on Thursday of every week, you can view not just F. C. Tucker Emge open houses, but any home scheduled to be open that is posted with our MLS service. It is a great tool because you can search for open houses just like you search for any other listed property. Give it a try; I’m sure you will like it.

 

    Although real estate prices have not changed considerably here, it never hurts to get a yearly market analysis on your home. Kathy and I would be more than happy to prepare one for you. Just give us a call at 812-499-9234 and we will get things rolling.

 

   Enjoy the rest of the summer months. We are sure looking forward to cooler temperatures.