About Carver County, MN

The Joe and Cindy Team Enjoy this week's article from our Home By Design Magazine:
http://www.homebydesign.com/pages/article/HBD_FEB_10_01/60146/index.html

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Minnesota Home Experts</a>

The dinner will be held at the Waconia Event Center this Saturday, February 6th, 2010 from 4-7:30. The evening will start with hors d’oeuvres at 4 p.m. Dinner ends at 7:30 p.m. There will be great door prizes and raffles. Prizes include trips as well as sixteen different guns. A silent auction will be held and live music is provided by Clark Machtemes and Peter Gustafson of Traveled Ground with special guests, Jenn Bostic and Caitlin Nicol-Thomas.

Advance tickets are available at Bob’s Barber Shop, Hardware Hank, Mackenthun’s Fine Foods and Waconia Ford Mercury. Tickets are also available at the door. See you there!

Forbes.com gave the 10 best metro areas to go from renting to buying. As most people know, the first time homeowners tax credit is still available and interest rates are at historically low levels. However, Forbes states some cities stand out more than others as places to purchase your home now. In the Minneapolis area, they state "the premium to buy--the spread between what you'd spend on renting and what you'd pay each month for a mortgage--is far narrower now than its 15-year average." It is also predicted to have a price hike in roughly five years, making the value of your property go up.

Forbes details how it decided what cities were the best to go from renting to buying at this time. First, they used data collected from the US Census, National Association of Realtors, and mortgage rate information to obtain the premium in the third quarter 2009 and compared it to the average premium over the last 15 years. The cities with the biggest drops ranked highest.

Forbes also looked at areas where home buying is a smart investment so factored in the five-year forecast in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index from Moody's Economy.com. Minneapolis not only had one of the biggest discounts in premiums, but also has big projected increases in home prices over the next five years.

Job stability was also considered, so companies like Target and General Mills that are located in the Twin Cities area was a positive. Other areas mentioned were Charlotte, San Francisco, Portland and Washington DC.

Deciding to buy instead of rent is ultimately an individual choice. If you would like to talk to me about if now is a good time for you, please email me and I will answer any questions you have.

Activity is picking up with more new listings and more recent sales in the entire Twin Cities area. According to the REGIONAL MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE OF MINNESOTA, INC for the week ending January 16 there were 571 signed purchase agreements, up 4.0 percent from a year ago. New listings were 8.3 percent higher than a year ago at 1,668.

The number of homes listed so far this year in Waconia (1/1/2010-1/25/2010) is 38. The median list price is $235,300. The average list price is $265,522.

The total number of active single family homes on the market in Waconia is 109 with the median price being $249,700. The average price is $313,659 but this includes two multi-million dollar homes. If these homes were removed from the equation, the average price would be $283,830. These homes have been on the market an average of 103 days.

Also according to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, there are five months or less of supply in the Twin Cities housing market. They also state the last time the supply was at five months was in March 2006, right before the 24 month slide in home sales and prices.