9/25/08 Oshkosh News

Oshkosh Unemployment Rate Unchanged For Year

The Oshkosh Unemployment rate remains at 4.4% for the month of August 2008. This rate is the same as last month and the same as August 2007. Oshkosh is one of only two Wisconsin metro areas to remain unchanged in the past year.

Overall in Wisconsin, unemployment rates decreased in two metropolitan areas
in the last year, eight areas saw an increase and two were unchanged.

9/23/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Oshkosh Housing market for August 2008

The average sold price for a home in the city of Oshkosh in August was $133,098. It sold for 95.8% of its listed price and spent 135 days on the market. This was a reduction of 25 days on the market from 160 days in July. The total number of residential sales in the city for August was 114 a drop of 56 houses sold from August of 2007.

Homes selling under $100,000 made up 33.08% of the homes sold in August, with homes selling between $100,000 and $200,000 making up 47..05%. Homes selling over $200,000 made up 18.01% of all residential sold.

Of the 114 homes sold in August 60% had 3 bedrooms and 55% had 1 bathroom.

Looking ahead into September, the city of Oshkosh had 1176 homes currently for sale. That number is down from the 1237 homes in inventory at the beginning of August and an inventory decrease of 72 homes listed in September of 2007.

Analysis:

The great news in this report is the large drop in the number of days homes are sitting on the market before selling. We carved off 25 days while holding on to 95.8% of list price. Our inventory is still down which might account for the drop in days on market, the fewer properties available the lower the days on market, maybe.

Each month we are seeing fewer homes being listed and a drop of 72 listings over last year is large. Perhaps many home owners are just holding on for the market to turn around and prices to increase again. The concern over this plan is just how fast or even if the market will rebound. We are lucky in Oshkosh to have not seen a real boom and are not now suffering from a bust, but we do seem to have been stricken with concern.

Our real concern should be credit constriction. The real worry on main street is loan denial. Many average credit buyers are not getting a loan than just a month ago would have been no problem. Until the credit squeeze is over the odds of a rise in inventory and sales are dim.

Foreclosure in the neighborhood?

According to RealtyTrac there are 264 properties in the central core of Oshkosh (East-side and south-side) that are either at the auction point or have been taken over by the bank. Here is a handy little link to the map.

8/20/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Oshkosh Housing market for July 2008

The average sold price for a home in the city of Oshkosh in August was $128,234. It sold for 95.5% of its listed price and spent 160 days on the market. This was a reduction of three days on the market from 163 days in June. The total number of residential sales in the city for July was 102 a drop of 17 houses sold from July of 2007.

Homes selling under $100,000 made up 35.28% of the homes sold in July, with homes selling between $100,000 and $200,000 making up 47.13%. Homes selling about $200,000 made up 14.7% of all residential sold.

Of the 102 homes sold in July 60% had 3 bedrooms and 59% had 1 bathroom.

Looking ahead into August, the city of Oshkosh had 1,186 homes currently for sale. that number is down from the 1,215 homes in inventory at the beginning of July. That is an inventory decrease of 61 homes in August of 2007.

8/3/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Newspaper article reports local real estate sales up in 2nd Quarter

In the three county area (Winnebago, Outagamie and Calumet) real estate sales are up 14.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008 over 2007, according to a report on the WISINFO site.

Winnebago county sales are up 19.9 percent comparing 2008 with 2007. Outagamie sales were up 18.3 percent.

The report does not separate out commercial versus residential which can be wildly different. The report states the statistics are provided by the Realtor Association of Northeast Wisconsin. My attempts to find the report on our local board websites were unsuccessful. When the report is made available to the membership as opposed to the media, I will post the numbers.

8/3/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

New Housing Bill has something for everyone in Oshkosh

Congress passed and Bush signed a new housing bill last week. This is a quick breakdown of how you might just get something out of it.

FIRST TIME HOMEBUYERS - You will be eligible for an interest-free loan from the government in the way of a new $7,500 or 10 percent of the purchase price, which ever is smaller. This is a tax credit, which you will subtract from the money you would pay to the IRS. There are income qualifications, at $75,000 or $150,000 for married filing jointly it begins to phase out.

The tax credit must be paid back over the next 15 years in equal amounts on your federal taxes. That is what makes this more like a loan. The credit is also retroactive to homes purchased since April 9th and will continue through June 30, 2009.

MORTGAGE RENEGOTIATIONS - Loans that were originated on or before Jan. 1, 2008 are eligible for renegotiation to a new fixed-rate loan that will last for at least 30 years. The loan can not be for more than 90 percent of what the property is worth today. Your monthly housing payment, including mortgage, interest, taxes and insurance, must be at least 31 percent of your monthly household income.

The catch on this is, lender are not required to give you this new deal, even if you qualify. It is expected to only effect 400,000 households in the country out of the estimated more than 2 million currently facing foreclosure.

There are a couple other doozy of catches on this one.
1. For the next five years you can not take out take out a home equity loan
2. You have to pay a fee of 1.5 percent each year on the remaining balance of your mortgage
3. You must give to the government no less than 50 percent of any appreciation your home has when you sell.
4. If you sell in under five years you will have to give over all of the appreciation gained.

This program begins October 1 and ends September 30, 2111.

ADDITIONAL TAX DEDUCTION - If you own a home and don't currently itemize your deductions, you can now take an additional federal tax deduction of $500 or $1,000 if you are married and filing jointly. This is in addition to the standard deduction.

This will be great for those folks who pay little or no interest on their current mortgage. However, you must report how much property taxes you paid and if it is less than $500, the deduction will be limited only to the actual property taxes paid.

CHANGES IN REVERSE MORTGAGES - Origination fees for new reverse mortgages would be limited to 2 percent of any loan up to $200,000 and 1% for loans more than that. The entire fee is capped on $6,000.

Lenders are forbidden from requiring additional financing or insurance products as a condition of making the loan. Also the maximum amount people can borrow has been raised to $625,600.

WHAT IS A JUMBO LOAN - The definition of a jumbo loan has changed in the higher cost areas of the country. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can now purchase loans up to 115 percent of the local median home price.

VETERANS BREATHING ROOM - Foreclosure proceedings will now be held off for nine months instead of 90 days for veterans returning from the military. Also, lenders must wait for one year to raise interest rates on a mortgage held by someone returning from military service.

These are some of the good provisions of the bill which will have an effect on many of us in Oshkosh. There were some not so good provisions as well. Those will wait for another update.

7/11/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Oshkosh June Sales Down 41% over 2007 but sell price steady

In June the City of Oshkosh saw a 41% decline in residential sales over June of 2007. That makes for a year-to-date decline of 23%. Eighty homes sold in June versus 136 last year giving us a grand total of 500 residences sold so far in 2008.

We currently have 1169 number of listed homes for sale in Oshkosh, that is a 9% decrease over 1271 number in June of 2007. Two price ranges of homes have the largest inventory $100k - $140K (18%) and $200K - 300K (18%).

The sales price/listing price percentage has remained steady at 96.4% over last year and our Days On the Market has increased two days.

Both sellers and buyers appear to remain cautious, but those that sell and those that buy are still doing quite nicely.

6/23/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
By PETER LOVENHEIM, New York Times

There’s talk today about how as a society we’ve become fragmented by ethnicity, income, city versus suburb, red state versus blue. But we also divide ourselves with invisible dotted lines. I’m talking about the property lines that isolate us from the people we are physically closest to: our neighbors.
According to social scientists, from 1974 to 1998, the frequency with which Americans spent a social evening with neighbors fell by about one-third. Robert Putnam, the author of “Bowling Alone,” a groundbreaking study of the disintegration of the American social fabric, suggests that the decline actually began 20 years earlier, so that neighborhood ties today are less than half as strong as they were in the 1950s.
Why is it that in an age of cheap long-distance rates, discount airlines and the Internet, when we can create community anywhere, we often don’t know the people who live next door?
Published: June 23, 2008

6/4/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Save 15+% in moving to Oshkosh/Appleton?

CNN.com has a cool new tool to figure out how much you will save by moving to a new town. According to the form's output, if you moved from Milwaukee to Oshkosh/Appleton you would save:

Groceries will cost: 6.92% less
Housing will cost: 15.727% less
Utilities will cost: 3.373% less
Transportation will cost: 7.326% more
Healthcare will cost: 1.903% less

Imagine if it was Chicago, D.C., New York or even Atlanta. Try it yourself.

5/15/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

March Oshkosh Real Estate Reports

The Oshkosh real estate reports are out for April. Almost half as many homes were sold this April as compared to April 2007, but our average sale price increased by nearly $1000.

Compared with April of last year 78 residences were sold this march, while 131 sold a year ago. The days on market (DOM) increased from 133 days to 189 days over last year, but our homes are selling at 95.7% of listing price. Last April home owners were receiving just 87.8% of list price.

And remember all the talk about how many houses are on the market? Just drive around town and it seems that every block has multiple houses for sale. Is this reality or just over over tuned imagination? Check the numbers. At the end of last april Oshkosh had 1,259 homes on the market. As of April 30, 2008 our inventory of residences is down more than 190 homes (1,069).

Many homes are selling almost as quick as they hit the market. Ranch style homes are incredibly coveted and can even find themselves with multiple offers. Homes under $200,000 are leading the sales pack especially if they have been updated and have great curb appeal.

5/2/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Oshkosh man charged with securities crimes

Mark H. Brenner, 49, of Oshkosh, was charged today with six felonies in connection with a real estate scheme in which the elderly husband and wife alleged victims invested nearly $100,000, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today.

Three of the felonies allege that Brenner engaged in securities fraud by making false representations, and omitting other material information, in soliciting the investments. The other three felonies arise from Brenner’s alleged failure to properly register the documents evidencing the transactions with the Department of Financial Institutions, as required by Wisconsin law.

According to the criminal complaint, filed in Winnebago County, a financial advisor referred the elderly victims to Brenner, who explained he needed operating capital for his real estate business.

Brenner informed the investors that his business involved purchasing distressed properties, cleaning, repairing and refurbishing them, and then reselling the properties for a profit. Brenner represented that his business was established and “going,” enabling him to pay big interest and that he was working with a loan officer who fed him information when the loan officer’s bank was getting ready to foreclose on a property. FDLReporter

4/1l/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

March Oshkosh Real Estate Reports

The real estate reports are out for March in Oshkosh. As was expected Oshkosh's market keeps plodding a long. It is down a tiny bit, but when compared to many markets we are downright robust.

Compared with March of last year 81 residences were sold this march, while 97 sold a year ago, but the average sale price was UP almost $4000. The days on market (DOM) expanded by 11 extra days (160 to 171) but we are still getting almost 96% of our listing price on average. Not too darn bad for a "really down market."

And remember all the talk about how many houses are on the market? Just drive around town and it seems that every block has multiple houses for sale. Is this reality or just over over tuned imagination? Check the numbers. At the end of last March Oshkosh had 2000 homes on the market (1198). As of March 31, 2008 our inventory of residences is down more than 130 homes (1060).

As an agent showing a lot of homes this week I can assure you the number of homes available is down. We need more folks to gain confidence in our local market and take the plunge. Now is not only a great time to buy but it is a great time to sell.

The vast majority of homes on the market that were selling had 3 bedrooms and 1-2 baths, which is not really surprising since the vast majority of homes in Oshkosh fall in to that category. Our buyers were mostly using conventional mortgages but there was an uptick in FHA use and cash is coming back into the market.

There was a nice even spread of home prices selling. No one price range dominated the market which shows buyers of all price points are looking and purchasing. The trend over the last few months is positive and should continue in that direction for the rest of the spring.

Oshkosh never really had a boom which in the long run is pretty darn nice since we now won't have a bust. We just keep plodding along.

3/28/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

Location, Location, Location

And I am not talking about real estate. The biggest Oshkosh news isn't about the housing market it is about the location preparation downtown for the movie shooting of "Public Enemies."

This week the production crew were beginning to reshape the 400 block store fronts by removing signs and adding new facades. Sattori Imports has the foundations of a new front and the former bicycle shop is now devoid of all identification. Construction crews are blocking off parking and the constant "beep, beep, beep" can be heard driving store owners batty.

Over on The Polly Blog progress on the movie will be posted along with pictures. Any tips, rumors or actual production news will be passed along. The third week of April is looking to be very interesting.

Oshkosh February Home Sales Report

Winter always puts a crimp in people's home buying. It is hard to slog through the 4 ft high snow driffs to penquin walk into a home, put on the contrasting blue booties and make believe you can see the owner's incredible description of their award winning rose bushes. However, this February buyer's seemed more reluctant than normal.

According to the self reported numbers compiled by the NE Wisconsin Real Estate Board, Oshkosh homes sales numbers were down 27% over last February. Twenty-three percent of the homes sold were priced between $100,000 - 139,000. Thirty-two percent were sold below $100,000 and twenty-eight percent sold for more than $200,000.

The majority of Oshkosh chose a 3 BR/3BA home.

We will know soon how March numbers look and the trend for our Spring and Summer.

2/22/08 Oshkosh Real Estate News

House prices steady in state

"... Fewer houses were sold in Wisconsin last year than in 2006, but prices held relatively steady, according to data released by the Wisconsin Realtors Association on Thursday.
It certainly indicates that we are in a softer market, but it's not as weak as it is elsewhere," David Clark, a professor of economics at Marquette University, said.
Drop in home sale prices affects appraisals

Drop in home sale prices affects appraisals By Jacque Georgia

"...Kyle Cousineau of Badger State Appraisals said, "there is no such thing as a perfect comparable because no two homes are exactly alike and that is why adjustments have to be made." This is also a good reminder to always talk with your experienced real estate agent before investing money into your home to ensure it will be returned.
So, why is your home not appraising at the same value it did two years or even six months ago?"