About Steele County, MN

Interest Rates fell to 5.5% for a 30 year fixed on February 11, 2008. Mortgage rates have been somewhat strage over the last 14 days or so the took a big drop on the 22nd of January for about 3-4 hours and then bounced back up again. The continue to move around between 5.375% & 5.625% every couple of days.

Current listing inventory - 207 active listings in Owatonna as of today. As we speculated last week many of the expired listings came back on the market and brought the count back up. We are continuing to see strong market activity with the number of showing requests that have been scheduled. In addition our website set a record last month for the most number of visitors since we launched the site 6 years ago. Those are the positive signs that we are looking for.The number of pending listings remained stable at 19 houses. There were 22 properties Closed so far in 2008.

We would like to thank all of you who have e-mailed us or comments on our blog. We are working on bringing a different type of format to the documents that we post here. The new MLS system that we went to several weeks ago has much more capability for us to provide additional information, however we need to learn how to present that information to our visitors. This week we are using a different format and we will continue to experiment as we move ahead. Please continue to give us feedbackvia comments here, by phone 507-390-2121 or email us, mailto:info@BartleyGroup.com

Interest Rates rose to 5.5% for a 30 year fixed on February 4, 2008. The Fed dropped interest rates .5% at a meeting last week. This has not actually resulted in mortgage rates falling yet but it has sparked a tremenous amount of consumer interest.

Current listing inventory - 195 active listings in Owatonna as of today, that is the lowest the count has been since January of 2007. However it is primarily due to a large number of listings expiring last week (many of them ours)and they will be coming back on the market. The number of pending listings remained stable at 17 houses. There were 19 properties Closed so far in 2008.

The 2007 year end market absorption chart is available and has quite a bit of interesting data.

Give us a call, 507-390-2121 or email us, mailto:info@BartleyGroup.com

Interest Rates rose to 5.5% for a 30 year fixed on January 28, 2007. Rates had a roller coaster ride last week, one lender told us that rates changed 4 times in one day last week. The Fed dropped interest rates .75% at an emergency meeting last week. This has actually resulted in mortgage rates creeping up a bit.

It is going to take us a few more days to learn all of the capabilities of the new MLS system and to provide you with the most comprehensive data available. Current listing inventory - 212 active listings in Owatonna as of today, that number has remained stable for several weeks now. The number of pending listings climbed a bit to 17 houses. There were 15 properties Closed so far in 2008.

The 2007 year end market absorption chart is available and has quite a bit of interesting data.

Give us a call, 507-390-2121 or email us, info@BartleyGroup.com

Interest Rates have fallen to 5.25% for a 30 year fixed and 4.75% for a 15 year fixed on January 15, 2007. Rates haven't been this low since around 2003.

Buyers if you have been fence sitting waiting for the market & interest rates to bottom out, it sure seems like we are just about there. There is a nice selection of homes, prices are reasonable and interest rates are incredibly low. All in all, a great time to purchase a home.

Current listing inventory - 212 active listings in Owatonna as of today, that number has remained stable for several weeks now. Average days on the market has slid slightly to 173 days. The number of pending listings fell a bit to 16 houses. Average days on the market for pendings is 142 days. There were 7 properties Closed so far in 2008, with an average days on market time of 108 days.

The new market absorption chart for the end of year 2007 is done and has quite a bit of interesting data.

Give us a call, 507-390-2121 or email us, info@BartleyGroup.com

Interest Rates have fallen to 5.375% on January 8, 2007. This is more of a reduction than we expected. It seems like rates may drop just a bit more, but all of the lenders we've spoken with aren't sure how much and for how long rates will stay down.

Current listing inventory - 208 active listings in Owatonna as of today, that number has remained stable for several weeks now. Average days on the market has remained steady at 176 days. The number of pending listings climbed slightly to 19 houses. It is good to see this number begin to rebound slightly. It will still be something to keep an eye on as we move forward into the new year. Average days on the market for pendings is 146 days. There were 7 properties Closed so far in 2008, with an average days on market time of 65 days. We realize that there have only been 7 homes closed so far, but my goodness, 65 DAYS ON THE MARKET IS UP A LITTLE BIT THIS WEEK BUT IS STILL AN AWESOME AVERAGE.

The new market absorption chart for the end of year 2007 is done and has interesting data.

Give us a call, 507-390-2121 or email us, info@BartleyGroup.com