About Douglas County, NE

Omaha Real Estate Foreclosures

A recent report from a research firm stated that Nebraska had one of the lowest rates of foreclosures in the United States in 2011.

As active Broker owners of RE/MAX The Producers we found this to be true in Omaha. Yes we have some foreclosures, but not that many especially when come to upper scale homes.

Approximately one percent of Nebraska homes were in the foreclosure process by the end of 2011 which is the fourth lowest rate in the United States. The national foreclosure rate was 3.4 percent by the end of 2011 because 1.4 million homes were in the foreclosure process.

Omaha Nebraska is likely has the highest percentage of foreclosures but our market is reasonably strong and offers many great buys. With today' interest rates at an all time low now is a great time to purchase your new home. Whether you're buying your first home, second home, or getting ready to downsize, now is a great time.

Homes in the Omaha real estate market are selling reasonably fast if they are well maintained and priced accurately. If you're a seller or a buyer on the fence, now is a great time to jump the fence.

Don and Valerie Keeton

RE/MAX The Producers of Omaha Nebraska

www.TourOmahaHouses.com

402-496-3700

Homes for sale in Arbor Ridge in Omaha, NE. Right now 2 homes are for sale in Arbor Ridge. The lowest priced home is $199,000 and the highest is 209,900, with an average price of 204,450. Over the last six month 2 Arbor Ridge homes sold. The sale range from $244,000 to $300,351 with an average price of $272,175.

Find other homes for sale in Arbor Ridge and Elkorn.

Real Estate Market, Community and School information for 68022 in Elkorn, NE.

Appraisers are Getting Tougher

As real estate values have slipped the last few years and with lenders tightening their standards for writing mortgages, appraisals have become much more stringent.

If you are not familiar with the basics of an appraisal, check out What is an Appraisal?

In the heyday of real estate appreciation, and by that I mean 2005 and the several years prior, nearly every house appraised for more than it sold for. At that time lenders did not scrutinize appraisals as they do now; after all since property values could only appreciate, or so people thought, why would anyone be concerned about appraisals. As a result, appraisers could be a more lenient order to reach an appraised value that met or exceeded the purchase price.

Now with homes values down and lenders wary of giving mortgages to anyone except the most qualified, lenders are closely reviewing appraisals. Appraisers now are much more careful on selecting comparable sales and making adjustments as they know that lenders may question the appraisal and the decisions that went into producing it. On top of that there has been a lot of media attention to the sky high appraisals of recent years contributing to the current state of the real estate market, adding additional pressure on appraisers to produce accurate numbers.

What this boils down to is that many homes are not appraising for their purchase price and as a result those purchase prices have to be lowered to the appraised value or the sale falls apart.

So you’re out looking for a new home in Omaha and you think you may have found the perfect one, but you notice that either the sidewalk or the drive way has settled a little. Well don’t let that keep you from finding your dream home. The solution may be mud jacking. It’s a simple process as far as fixing areas in the driveway or sidewalks that need to be raised because of soil erosion that has caused the concrete to sink.

Mud jacking is the term most commonly used in Omaha but the process is also known as slab jacking, concrete lifting, concrete raising, and slab leveling, is a process of basically drilling holes into the existing concrete, placing a line in the hole and forcing this slurry mix underneath the concrete to raise it up. These slurry mixes consists of water, soil, sand and cement that cure to create a solid, sable foundation under the concrete. It does need time to cure or set up so it’s best to not put anything on the area for a few days or longer, the contractor that you hire would be able to tell you the exact amount of time needed to cure. Mud jacking is a professional job so I recommend never trying to do it on your own unless you have the training of a professional mud jacker.

Mud jacking can also be used to help fix the settling of the foundation. How it works is a foundation contractor will go and level the settled sections of the foundation by using push piers, using them to lift the masonry to a level position. When this is complete, mud jacking can be done to fill in the empty space beneath the footing created by the lifting; this will create a stable long lasting foundation. There are several different companies in Omaha that are qualified to do the job.

Omaha Continues to Grow Omaha being the only place I have every lived it’s hard for me to think that this place could get any bigger. I've watched cornfields get turn into shopping areas, old abandoned buildings sit for years empty until someone took a chance and turn it into something beautiful. With the population of the Omaha Metropolitan Area sitting around 865,350 it doesn’t shock me too much to realize that it’s only growing bigger , more fields will get built up to great housing areas, schools, shopping centers, parks and whatever else they can think of. With the Omaha Metro Area consisting of eight counties Cass, Douglas, Sarpy, Saunders and Washington in Nebraska and Pottawattamie, Harrison and Mills counties in Iowa. The greater Omaha area grew by 12.8% from 2000 to 2010 with a projected growth rate for 2015 to be another 5.5% making Omaha hit over 900,000 in population. The employment rate to me is pretty darn good too with only a 5.1% rate of unemployment that makes it very appealing to families moving to Omaha to start over, with a 2010 estimate showing that over 481,000 people the ages 16 or older working in Omaha. In 2010 there were 543,262 employees in the Omaha Metro Area and there were 32,036 businesses established. With their being over 360,000 housing units with 62.6% being owner occupied and more than 100,000 rental units, and an education rate of more than 91%of adults 25 and older with a high school diploma and 32.7% of adults with a college degree makes the Omaha Metro area a pretty stable place to live.