About Oldham County, KY

Just the other day (February 29th Leap Year to be exact) I closed on a short sale transaction as the listing agent. My sellers lender happened to be J.P. Morgan Chase and as many people have probably heard about the short sale market...the big commercial banks TAKE FOREVER to get through the short sale process (more like a "long sale"). Typically you hear stories of deals taking anywhere from 2-6 months and then sometimes even longer.

Well after just closing with CHASE, I must say I have to give them a big round of applause and their well deserved KUDOS!

CHASE provided me with a private negotiator who I could call and speak with on a regular basis. If he did not answer, he would usually get back within 24 hours maximum, if not the same day. Our first offer was withdrawn by the buyers because they got cold feet after 30 days and wanted to move on to a typical home sale. Just a few days later we received our second offer...

36 Days Later....

We Closed! That's right...Chase was so efficient and well organized that we were able to go from CONTRACT to CLOSE to just a mere 36 days, which as many of you will know is even faster than many typical home purchases in today's market. My sellers and I were of course thrilled, but as you can imagine the buyers where estatic! They got a great deal and even mentioned "this was smoother and faster" than the last time we purchased a home.

I really wish and hope more banks move into this direction so we can speed up the short sale process to help move the stagnant inventory of homes. If we can push through this mess the housing market can begin to move forward into a steady, positive direction. So once again, I want to give praise to J.P. Morgan Chase for providing my sellers, myself, the buyer's agent, the buyers and the attorneys a stellar short sale transaction. Hopefully this will spread some light on the market and give hope to other Realtor and home sellers that are dealing with the overbearing inventory of short sales!

It's that time again for year end market reports!

A little late actually, I've been working diligently on my new website to have it up and ready by the end of the month so I apologize for the late market reports this year!

These reports were run using only Single Family Homes in Oldham County, KY that sold and closed in the years noted.

Oldham County saw an increase overall in number of units sold as well as a large increase in Average Sales Price:

The greater increase is shown in the Average Sales Price for 2011:

Another notable change: Average days on the market for homes in Oldham County went from 104 days in 2009 to a respectable 91 days in 2011.

So...whats the bottom line?

A small increase in the number of homes sold in 2011 however, overall homes in Oldham County, KY sold faster and for MORE MONEY than they did the previous two years!

Rarely am I this excited about a Christmas event. But this year is special - we have a new family that moved to town (Mike and Vonnie Glover) from California and they are specialists with the Christmas decorations. Think of the house where Christmas lights were synchronized with Transsiberian Orchestra music and you get the idea.

Downtown LaGrange will be hosting a similar celebration with lights and music. The program is 70 minutes long. Because everyone might not get to see it tonight, they will run it through several times through New Year's Day. It should be spectacular! It looks like California's loss is Oldham County's gain.

Oldham County reporter Emily Hagedorn from the Courier-Journal wrote a really nice article about it and how it came to be - check it out: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2011311300046.

And here is some more great information about the event: http://discoverlagrange.org/special-events/light-up-la-grange/

Festivities begin at 6:00 and will include Christmas carolers, dancing, music, and of course, shopping. Have a great time and maybe, just maybe, you'll see me there! ;)

-Lynda White, Administrative Manager