Defiance, OH

According to the National Association of Realtors pending home sales have risen for nine months in a row, a first for the series of the index since its inception in 2001.

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in October, increased 3.7 percent to 114.1 from 110.0 in September, and is 31.8 percent above October 2008 when it was 86.6. The rise from a year ago is the biggest annual increase ever recorded for the index, which is at the highest level since March 2006 when it was 115.2.

It is believed that the historic low interest rates and the home buyer tax credits are contributing to the increase. Eventually, the inventory will begin to stabalize and decrease. When this happens we should expect home prices to begin gaining traction.

If you are still on the fence about buying a home, you might want to jump off as the indicators are pointing to smaller inventories, higher prices, higher interest rates and the disappearance of the tax rebates by the middle of 2010.

It was just announced this morning that the sale of existing homes jumped 10.2% last month. It is assumed that most of that had to do with the ending of the first time home buyer's tax credit. However, that credit was extended until next summer plus there was the addition of the tax credit for existing home owners.

I would suggest that if you are considering taking advantage of the tax credits that are available to not wait until the end for a couple of reasons. 1) The more people who wait, the higher demand for the houses toward the end thus providing less choice of homes and potential higher prices. 2) The more buyers in a particualar time frame, the harder it is for the houses to get closed on time because the lenders and others involved get back logged.

Just some thoughts for you to think about.

scott

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Here are the market stats for the Defiance area this year from January 1 through November 8, 2009. These statistics are only for areas that would be considered Defiance, Ohio. If you would like stats for your particular area, just let me know and I can get them to you.

Total Homes Listed: 427

Avg. List Price: $109,209

Total Sold Units: 206

Avg. Sold Price: $94,456

Avg. Days on Market: 154

I will try and keep this up-to-date for you every week so you will have a better picture of what's happening in our market.

Thanks and have a great week!

scott

Our first whole week in business has been absolutely crazy, but good. We stayed extremely busy trying to don the "normal" things you would need to do in a real estate company, but had to also do the things that don't happen except when you open one.

We finally received 11 yard signs today. We ordered 20 that were supposed to be here on Tuesday, but it all worked out just fine. Jeri, our sales rep, has been working real hard trying to get things done for us. Anyway, we placed our signs in the yards of the three listings we have and they really look sharp.

Tomorrow night is the annual Halloween parade here in Defiance. We have a cart all decked out and ready to go. It's a big deal here. If the weather cooperates there will be a few thousand people there. I can't think of a better way to start getting out the news that we are open than our parade. We'll be the talk of the town as people try and figure out who we are. We made 500 flyers to pass out and I have to give big props to Hill Top Printing as they pulled off a small miracle today in getting them done for us. I'd recommend them if you need something done.

I'll post after we get the pictures from the parade and I think you'd agree our cart looks GREAT! Dawn and Brittney Carpenter worked on it for several hours yesterday. Thanks you two!

If not too busy tomorrow night, come out to the parade and say hi. We'd love to see ya.

scott

The news this morning - it appears that GM is going to need to file bankruptcy because they couldn't reach an agreement with the shareholders. I'm not putting them down but having a GMAC name attached to our company has become somewhat of a burden. Because we have a GMAC franchise name many people are wondering whether or not we will be affected by all of this. Because GMAC Real Estate was purchased by a profitable company back in September we are happy to announce that we are not affected at all by the problems that GM is going through. The new company is working diligently to get us a new name and a new identity. I am pleased so far with the news the new company is sending out to us, and the support we are being promised. I am even more pleased that we aren't going to have to explain how we're getting through this in the situation GM is in at this time. It's so much easier to say we were purchased last fall by a lucrative company and that a name change is coming. It will be interesting to see what we end up with as a name!