About Minnehaha County, SD

Sioux Falls, SD. January 15, 2010: Minnehaha County has listed all its Arms Length transactions of residential homes and lots on its website. Are you curious about how much your neighbor's home sold for and who your new neighbor is? You can now get this information without having to go to the court house or even making a phone call. According to the release they intend to update the list on a monthly basis. If you would like to see this information the 2009 list can be found at the following link: http://www.minnehahacounty.org/dept/eq/residential_sales/ResidentialSalesOnly.pdf

The year is over and the Sioux Falls area home sales statistics are in. Sales finished down 1.3 percent in December as compared to 2008 after our recent hot streak. So all said and done we saw a 6.6 percent increase on closed sales as compared to 1 year ago with a total closed sales volume of 3,411. Not only did we see an increase in sales, but we also saw an increase in listings to 6,215 new listings in 2009. Current supply of homes is also down due to the increase in monthly sales to 6.4 percent which is over a 15 percent decrease from 1 year ago.

So is there any bad news in the Sioux Falls area home sales statistics? We did see a slight increase in days on market from 87 to 90 days, a drop in average sales price from about $163,000 to just over $157,000, and a .8 percent drop in the percentage of original list to received sales price.

Back on the bright side, mortgage rates saw a slight decrease and the Housing Affordability Index was up again this year to 177.

So what do all these numbers about the Sioux Falls area home sales statistics mean? Loosely translated, and I do mean loosely. It is this Realtors opinion that our housing market is stabilizing and people are once again feeling free to go about their lives. The decrease in average home sales price can likely be attributed to the number of first time home buyers that took advantage of the tax credit offered by the federal government. We here in the Sioux Falls area did not see the drastic drop in home prices that was realized over much of the country, partly due to the fact that we did not see the drastic increases the years prior to the collapse of the national housing bubble.

If you would like more information on these statistics or if you live in one of the surrounding communities and would like to know specifically what your towns numbers were please feel free to contact me, and I would be glad to pass that information along to you.

All stats are from RASE MLS.

Preparing you home for sale can be a daunting task. In order to give this due diligence you should begin at least a month before you hope to have your home on the market. The first thing to do is when you come home from work as your driving up to your house look at it with the mind set of would I want to purchase this property. Notice I said property not home you need to look at it as a property not as your home. Is the exterior of your home in good condition does the landscaping look nice or just presentable. It is important that your home be as desirable as possible from the curb. When you walk into the house does it smell pleasant, if not that is your next task. The next task is to de-clutter, get rid of anything you can and consider putting anything else that you don't need for the next couple of months into storage. Your plan is to move anyway so why not pack it up now instead of putting it off. The next step is to de personalize your home. Take down the wedding pictures and the child shrine. The next step is going to take some time, clean everything. Look at the home through your mother-in-laws eyes (don't tell my wife I said that) Look at all the dirt in places that you never knew existed in your house. The biggest thing I run into with buyers is that the property looks dirty and once they have that in their head it's hard if not impossible to change their mind. The last thing I am going to add tonight is that you need to remember that it could take 3 days for someone to decide that they want to purchase your home, but it only takes 30 seconds for them to decide that they don't want to buy it.

Remodel or move? In the November 2009 publication of Remodeling Magazine there was an article about the return on investment of various home improvement projects. They ranged from 128% return on investment for a new steel front door to 50% return on investment for a sunroom addition. So, how long are you planning on staying in your home? This is the first question that you need to answer when trying to decide which to do. The returns may not seem like they are worth the investment, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't consider it. If you are planning on staying in your home for more than a few years now may be the best time to start your remodeling project. Due to the lack of new construction and the fact that we haven't seen a natural disaster in a while material cost are fairly low. Another good reason is that due to the slowdown in the construction industry many contractors are doing work at lower prices in order to stay in business until the economy turns around. A third reason is that interest rates are low which can decrease the long term cost of the project.

On the other hand, if you do not plan on staying in your current home for more than a few years and have lived there for more than 5 years you could qualify for the homebuyer tax credit. On top of that interest rates are at or near all time lows, which could mean huge savings in the long run. I know that this might not help you make your decision any easier, but I hope that I have given you a little information on the topic. If you are thinking of buying or remodeling there may never be a better time to do either than right now. How long will it last? Nobody really knows, but if you are in a position that allows you to act know I would strongly recommend that you do so.

I recently read an article in Remodel Magazine online that stated that 7 of the top 10 value yielding home improvements were exterior. Why? If you ask me it is because if you don't take care of the exterior of the home you will not get the potential buyers in the door. It takes the average buyer less than 1 minute to decide that a property is not the one that they want to buy. Think about it, the last time you went to an open house how long did it take you to get in the door? If the potential buyer has already decided that they don't like the property before they get inside what difference does it make if the interior is perfect. There are a lot if articles out there that tell you how to stage the interior of a home and how important it is, but aren't we all overlooking something? When I do a buyer consultation they will usually eliminate 50+ percent of the homes that come up on a MLS search just by looking at the exterior photos. So what is the point in all this? If you have a home on the market whether it is listed with me or not please do the following.

•1. Clean-up the property, go around and pick up the garbage that has blown in, pull the weeds, mow the yard (or scoop the snow), and do it on a regular basis.

•2. Check the home, look for peeling paint, broken siding, or anything else that is in need of repair and get it taken care of.

•3. Check the landscaping, are the bushes over grown or are there weed in the flowerbeds, cracks in the concrete, if so these thing all need to be addressed.

I will stop there because I am sure that you have got the point of what I am trying to say, and according to the article that I mentioned in the beginning buy doing these things you will receive a higher return on investment that most other home improvement projects. By doing these simple thing to the exterior, you can make all that time you put into making the interior perfect worthwhile.