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KM: I was looking for some houses for some people that were looking between 60 and 100 the other day and there were six houses on the market in Garden City, you know, with the Garden City MLS, that went into that criteria, that's not a whole lot of choices.
LF: Maestas says well-priced homes in good shape aren't staying on the market long. She has seen a trend emerge thanks to the federal tax credit for first time home buyers, which has been extended into next year.
KM: See now my experience has been, I've had more first time home buyers, a lot of people aren't moving up as fast unless they're just moving away, but I think that every agent probably has their own little niche that they work with and this year has been a lot of first time buyers for me or repeat buyers, I mean some people I've sold houses to over the years are moving.
LF: It's a different story in Hays, where home sales are steady. Doug Williams is the president of the Hays multiple listing service.
DW: This year is actually above last year and the year before in terms of number of residential sales in Hays by about 8 percent, in terms of total dollar volume. The number of sales is almost exactly the same year to date.
LF: Like in Garden City, Williams says there are many new buyers in Hays using the tax credit and that there's a low inventory of homes.
DW: Well-priced homes are moving quite well, probably the biggest problem we have in the Hays market is an inadequate supply of saleable homes. We have an inventory problem. And that has been our biggest problem as opposed to lots of homes sitting on the market for a long time.
LF: Williams says overall it's been business as usual and there hasn't been much in the way of home devaluation or foreclosure in the Hays market.
DW: If there's been a trend in 2009 or anything I've been surprised with it's the number of larger homes that have sold. We've had a number of large transactions in the residential market in Hays and that's a little bit unusual for this market.
LF: Both of the realtors in Garden City and Hays say they haven't seen as many people moving up from one house to a more expensive one, which they think could be attributed to caution and inventory shortage. Jeff Whitham is the CEO of Western State Bank, in Garden City. He says home loans have been steady.
JW: Probably 40-50% of our volume is in Garden City, so I'd say in Garden City it's been steady and in those other banking center communities, Ulysses, Scott City, Leoti, and Goodland, Dodge City, it's been steady, not down, not up much.
LF: Although loans have been steady that doesn't mean they've gotten any easier to qualify for in the last year. Whitham points out that interest rates are still good, you can get a 30 year fixed rate conventional home loan at 4.9%, but your credit score has to qualify.
JW: What has changed is credit scores, you're going to have to have about a 680 credit score for us to be able to work that credit successfully, that's up a little bit from two years ago, three years ago. We will make loans up to 95 percent of the value of the home, but it's more difficult to do, the underwriting gets a little bit more challenging. So we're doing a few 95s, we're doing a lot more 85s and 90s than 95s.
LF: Whitham says home foreclosures are up a few percent at the most. I'm Lindsey Fields, HPPR News.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
(2009-12-08)
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GARDEN CITY, KAN.
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LF: Around this time last year I spoke with Kathie Maestas about homes sales in Garden City, Kansas. She's an associate broker with Regan & Company Real Estate. In Finney County in 2008, between January 1st and November 15th 297 homes had been sold. That's for all of the realtors' listings in the county. Maestas says this year to date only 231 homes have been sold in the county. There have been fewer homes sold and a low inventory.
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KM: I was looking for some houses for some people that were looking between 60 and 100 the other day and there were six houses on the market in Garden City, you know, with the Garden City MLS, that went into that criteria, that's not a whole lot of choices.
LF: Maestas says well-priced homes in good shape aren't staying on the market long. She has seen a trend emerge thanks to the federal tax credit for first time home buyers, which has been extended into next year.
KM: See now my experience has been, I've had more first time home buyers, a lot of people aren't moving up as fast unless they're just moving away, but I think that every agent probably has their own little niche that they work with and this year has been a lot of first time buyers for me or repeat buyers, I mean some people I've sold houses to over the years are moving.
LF: It's a different story in Hays, where home sales are steady. Doug Williams is the president of the Hays multiple listing service.
DW: This year is actually above last year and the year before in terms of number of residential sales in Hays by about 8 percent, in terms of total dollar volume. The number of sales is almost exactly the same year to date.
LF: Like in Garden City, Williams says there are many new buyers in Hays using the tax credit and that there's a low inventory of homes.
DW: Well-priced homes are moving quite well, probably the biggest problem we have in the Hays market is an inadequate supply of saleable homes. We have an inventory problem. And that has been our biggest problem as opposed to lots of homes sitting on the market for a long time.
LF: Williams says overall it's been business as usual and there hasn't been much in the way of home devaluation or foreclosure in the Hays market.
DW: If there's been a trend in 2009 or anything I've been surprised with it's the number of larger homes that have sold. We've had a number of large transactions in the residential market in Hays and that's a little bit unusual for this market.
LF: Both of the realtors in Garden City and Hays say they haven't seen as many people moving up from one house to a more expensive one, which they think could be attributed to caution and inventory shortage. Jeff Whitham is the CEO of Western State Bank, in Garden City. He says home loans have been steady.
JW: Probably 40-50% of our volume is in Garden City, so I'd say in Garden City it's been steady and in those other banking center communities, Ulysses, Scott City, Leoti, and Goodland, Dodge City, it's been steady, not down, not up much.
LF: Although loans have been steady that doesn't mean they've gotten any easier to qualify for in the last year. Whitham points out that interest rates are still good, you can get a 30 year fixed rate conventional home loan at 4.9%, but your credit score has to qualify.
JW: What has changed is credit scores, you're going to have to have about a 680 credit score for us to be able to work that credit successfully, that's up a little bit from two years ago, three years ago. We will make loans up to 95 percent of the value of the home, but it's more difficult to do, the underwriting gets a little bit more challenging. So we're doing a few 95s, we're doing a lot more 85s and 90s than 95s.
LF: Whitham says home foreclosures are up a few percent at the most. I'm Lindsey Fields, HPPR News.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
