Iowa City, IA

Lately my market reports are full of positive news for housing trends in Iowa City. Home sales for January are no exception. Once again home sales are up in Iowa City. In fact home sales in Iowa City are up by a whopping 138% compared to January 2011. 31 homes sold in Iowa City January 2012 compared to 13 in 2011. And if that wasn't impressive enough. This is the highest number of homes sold in Iowa City in January of any year since 2007 when 35 homes sold!

The absorption rate has dropped to 4.8 months, that's an average of 148 days on market. (6 months absorption rate is a balanced market). 4.8 months absorption rate is technically a sellers market. Home prices don't totally reflect that yet. Since I'm on a roll with good news, there is positive data to share with you on that too. Although about half of the homes sold in Iowa City last month sold at less than 95% of list price, (indicating that buyers are still putting pressure on prices), a few homes sold in Iowa City ABOVE list price in January. That is definitely a good sign for sellers and gives us every reason to be optimistic about the spring market.

To view a table with information about the average price and median price of homes sold in Iowa City please visit the original post at Iowa City Homes For Sale

What's the takeaway this month? If you've got a house to sell, now would be a good time to talk to a Realtor. This market report is further indication that the housing market in Iowa City is definitely on the right track. What you need to know now is how that relates you and you're house. As you can tell from all the information in my market reports, one of my specialties is figuring out the market. I'd love the opportunity to talk with you and discuss your options. You can either call at 319-400-0268 or drop me an email with some basic information about your home and I'll provide you with a complimentary market analysis.

Home Sales in Iowa City January - December 2011

Home Sales in Iowa City by School District January - December 2011

Data for the market report for January collected from the Iowa City MLS February 6, 2012

When it comes to helping buyers relocating to iowa city I'm always trying to think of new ways to get useful information to them. Often times I think the Internet offers us lots of choices, but they're not always that useful. (Or the websites are so cluttered with ads they're not exactly a joy to visit).

Just last week I stumbled upon a tool that I absolutely had to have on my website that will not only be a great resource for buyers relocating to iowa city, but also sellers interested in researching home sales in Iowa City neighborhoods. It offers all kinds of area information that I'm sure will be really useful, (yes there's that word again), for buyers and sellers alike.

This very classy Lifestyle Search Tool is from SpatialMatch. You can see it in action on Corinne's site, Barrington Real Estate Market Solutions. She has an upgraded version of this tool that includes a home search. This isn't an option the company is offering in Iowa City at the moment. You can be sure as soon as they do it will be available on my site too.

In the meantime I'm very happy with the Lifestyle Tool. Through the widget in the side panel on site, Iowa City Homes For Sale you can search for all kinds of things, ranging from schools, golf courses, coffee shops and more. The maps pop out to a full page version, making it much easier to use.

To give buyers relocating to iowa city an idea of how it works I created a search for elementary schools in the Iowa City area. (That's always high on the list of priorities of anyone relocating to Iowa City). The light blue shaded area indicates a half mile radius from the school. I've also added a border around the respective towns, (I started with Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty). If you click on the individual schools you'll get a wealth of information about the schools. If you select the border of one of the towns you'll get loads of information about the town.

Check it out. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I was. (Okay, maybe not quite as impressed, I am a bit of a map fiend AND a data fiend, so of course this was the ultimate find for me!)

25 homes sold in Iowa City in January so far. That puts home sales way ahead of January 2011 when only 9 homes sold in the entire month. The real estate market in Iowa City is getting off to a great start in 2012.

46 homes are listed as pending or contingent and 310 homes are currently showing as Active Listings on the Iowa City MLS. I'm going to say something now that I wasn't saying last year at this time. We need more inventory! I know for a fact buyers are looking for fresh listings. If you're on the fence about selling your home, now would be a REALLY good time to list it.

310 Active Listings
46 Homes Pending or Contingent
25 homes sold in Iowa City in January to date - 21 Single Family Homes, 3 Condos and one Zero lot

The Absorption Rate is at 4.5 months. That's an average of 137 days on market, (and technically a sellers market). If you follow the link you'll find out more about how the absorption rate is calculated. The number of active listings is part of that calculation and since that number is still pretty low it could be that the absorption rate is skewed lower than it really is.

That said, the low inventory is a good sign. (At least from a sellers's perspective, and for the economy in general come to that). Houses are selling in greater numbers again. If this trend continues in the coming months we could see a more stable and balanced market in Iowa City very soon.

Consider this your go to destination for information about the Iowa City real estate market and check back often for updates. Since there is so much misinformation around about how the housing market is doing I consider it my mission to prove with data that housing trends in Iowa City are looking good and things are humming along just nicely in this neck of the woods.

Home Sales in Iowa City by School District 2011

Home Sales in Iowa City January through December 2011

A Closer Look at Home Sales in Iowa City 2011

Source for data for this market report: Iowa City MLS January 27, 2011

Originally posted at Iowa City Homes For Sale

Lately I've been thinking about how I can step up my market reports for Iowa City to make them more useful. It seems for them to be really useful to buyers and sellers they need to show Home sales more specific to Iowa City neighborhoods. Access to the Iowa City MLS means I have lots of data to pull from and through experience I've found the most efficient way to search is by elementary school district. Iowa City has a population of almost 70,000 and has 12* elementary schools. As you can imagine, that means we are talking about relatively small areas for each school. Some elementary schools are bigger than others so logically they also service a bigger area. The Iowa City School District includes schools in Coralville and North Liberty. For the purpose of establishing Home sales in Iowa City, I've only included schools in Iowa City. (North Liberty and Coralville will follow).

***Clicking on the chart will take you to the full size version for easier reading

Shimek & Lincoln Neighborhoods - Lowest Number of Homes Sold - Highest Prices

There are a couple of takeaways from this chart. The first thing is that the areas where the lowest number of Homes sold also achieved the Highest prices. When you think about it, that's in line with economics 101 and the principles of supply and demand. Less Homes sold in the Shimek and Lincoln neighborhoods. Since less Homes sold it's also probable there weren't as many available for sale. Generally speaking, if there is less inventory available for sale the price is likely to be higher. That's simplifying it a bit of course. Buyers are very discerning in this market. If you're thinking of selling your home in the Shimek or Lincoln neighborhoods you will still need to prepare your home properly for sale, you just won't have quite as much competition. By the same token, buyers looking for a home in these neighborhoods should keep in mind there may not be as many choices as in other neighborhoods. In other words, if something you like comes on the market, don't hang around waiting for something better. You might be in for a long wait!

Where Are the Lowest Priced Homes in Iowa City?

So now let's look at the other end of the spectrum. Where are the Lowest priced homes in Iowa City? The Lowest priced homes can be found in the Twain and Grant Wood neighborhoods. The data for the Roosevelt neighborhood jumps out at you of course. Here's the reason for that. Roosevelt is in a neighborhood close to the UI Hospitals. It's also an area where there are A LOT of condos - a hot commodity for Residents relocating to Iowa City. In the case of the number of homes sold in the Roosevelt neighborhood, the number of condos sold totally skews Home prices to the low side as typically condos are less expensive than single family homes. This skewing of the numbers also holds true for the Horn and Mann neighborhoods where there are also a large number of condos. I guess the takeaway for me next time is to split out condos and single family homes into separate posts....

Getting back to my original comments in that last paragraph. The Lowest priced homes were in the Grant Wood and Twain neighborhoods in 2011. In both neighborhoods home sales were up. If you saw my market reports for Iowa City earlier this month you'll know that home sales were up for the year in 2011 compared to 2010. As you can see in this chart, despite good data for many neighborhoods, the fact that condo sales were down had a big impact on a few neighborhoods.

That about wraps up my look at housing trends in Iowa City by school district. I'm all about providing as much information as possible to buyers and sellers in Iowa City. If you have any questions for me, please be sure to drop me an email or leave a comment.

*Roosevelt Elementary will close this year and the new Borlaug Elementary will open after completion. You can find more information about that and other school information on the new Iowa City Community School District Website.

Data for this market report pulled from the Iowa City MLS January 24, 2011

Originally posted @ Iowa City Homes For Sale

Looks like I picked a good day to do a market update for Iowa City. 16 homes sold in Iowa City in the first 16 days of 2012. Gotta love those numbers - A great kick off to the year, especially considering only 13 homes sold in all of January in 2011.

42 homes are listed as pending or contingent and 282 homes are currently showing as Active Listings on the Iowa City MLS. That's not a lot of inventory. It's possible sellers took their homes off the market for the Holidays. Now would be a REALLY good time to list again - I know buyers are looking for fresh listings!

282 Active Listings
42 Homes Pending or Contingent
16 Homes Sold in Iowa City in January to date - 14 Single Family Homes, 2 Condos

The Absorption Rate is at 4.2 months. That's an average of 126 days on market, (and technically a sellers market). If you follow the link you'll find out more about how the absorption rate is calculated. The number of active listings is part of that calculation and since that number is low we can't really pay too much attention to the absorption rate.

That said, the low inventory is a good sign. (At least from a sellers's perspective). It looks like the pendulum may be swinging back towards sellers again. For the longest time we've had more houses than buyers to buy them. With less houses on the market in Iowa City that dynamic may change soon. What happens in the next few months is key to that so check back for updates - If you're a regular reader anyway you know this is the go-to destination for information on what's happening in the Iowa City real estate market. I'm a bit of a data freak and like to keep tabs on housing trends in Iowa City!

Home Sales in Iowa City January through December 2011

A Closer Look at Home Sales in Iowa City 2011

Originally posted @ Iowa City Homes For Sale