David F Joslin, Jr

Media, PA, David F. Joslin, Jr., a Media based Realtor® for Keller Williams Real Estate was recently awarded the Bronze Medal for sales production during the year 2007, placing him as one of the top producing agents in the Keller Williams Real Estate Media Market Center. Recently the awards were presented to a select few agents who showed excellent sales performance during the inaugural year of the office and despite being caught up in one of the toughest real estate markets in history the agents continued to be successful in their business.

"2006 was a tough year as we planned for the opening of the brand new Media Office, but once the doors were open and the dust settled it was time to get back to business in 2007." states Realtor Joslin, "I am just lucky to have such a great sphere of family, friends, clients and team members, especially my business partner Gus Nazaridis, all of them keep our success moving forward. We pride ourselves on integrity, honesty, passion and hard work and we are glad that our clients recognize that with continued support, referrals and repeat business; that is why we succeed."

David F. Joslin, Jr. is an award winning sales associate with Keller Williams Real Estate in Media, PA. He is a member of the Suburban West Realtors Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors (PAR) and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). To contact David Joslin, Jr. please call his main office at 610-565-1995, try him direct at 610-517-8249 or visit his website www.DavidJoslin.com.

The Keller Williams Media Market Center opened its' doors for business December 1, 2006 and has been growing ever since. With over 70 agents now on the roster, Team Leader Emma Payne expects the office to hit the 100 agent mark in the near future.

Delaware County's housing trend update.

The media is killing buyer and seller perception of the real estate market conditions in our area. If they want to dissect neighborhoods there may be a variation up or down but overall the market is not sliding downward, if anything it is still moving upward.

• The number of units listed for sale is up, way up, an astounding 123% over the number of units listed in December '07. However that is 3% less than the number of homes listed in January 2007.
• The Average list price is up about 10% over December ‘07 and up 2% over January '07, a minimal increase in pricing
• The Average SOLD price is down 2% over December of 2007 and the somewhat good news is that the SOLD price from last year was up about 2% over January '07.
• The Average Days on Market was virtually FLAT with a slight change from December ‘07 (65 DOM) to January '08 (66) - Days On Market (DOM) and up only two days from 64 to 66 over January of 2007.

Let's get some perspective on the housing market and take a look at the average sold prices over the past four years in Delaware County...

YEAR AVERAGE SOLD PRICE
2004 $227,248
2005 $247,865
2006 $251,535
2007 $267,609

So Since 2004 the average sale price of a home in Delaware County has increased about 16% percent. Now that certainly looks like an increase to me.

Yes, foreclosures are up across the country as well as in our county, but, the foreclosure process takes a very long time so those going into foreclosure started doing so months and months ago, if not a year or so.

I wish the media would just print the statistics. We are subject to the doom and gloom headlines all of the time when in fact the media could be directly causing buyers not to buy and sellers not to sell. The media could in fact be responsible for the consumer confidence level being so low and a direct factor in why people are not spending money. Oh the sky is falling the sky is falling, give me a break. Enough is enough. Don't believe the hype. If you are looking to buy or sell ask your local professional to provide you with some of these stats, if that is what you are looking for, if not, put your house up for sale or go buy a new one and live your life according to you and not the media.

See Ya!
DJ

Delco's housing trend update...

• The number of units listed for sale is down an incredible 41% over the number of units listed in November '07. More interesting is that the number of units listed is down 20% when compared to December '06.
• Oddly enough the Average list price is up about 5% over November ‘07 and up 1.5% over December '06
• The number of units SOLD is also down 20% from 482 in November '07 to 389 in December '07.
• The Average SOLD price is also up 8.5% over last month and is down about 1% over December '06.
• The Average Days on Market is up 6.5% over November ‘07 and up 1.5% over December '06, in this case up in not good, that is why it is red.

Traditionally the market is much slower during the holidays in December but considering the number of units listed for sale in Delaware County was down 41%, 673 units were listed in November '07 and dropped to 403 units listed in December '07, I'd say that sellers went into hibernation! It appears that the months of negative publicity a wee bit o egg nog and the perception of dramatic declining pricing has sunk into to the minds of those buying and selling near halting the new listing inventory.

SELLERS- Again, if you are thinking about putting your house on the market now is the time to set your goals on being ready for the spring market. Target mid to early March to be ready, tick tock you have three months to prepare your home. And please take the time to really prepare your home. Meet with a Realtor and develop a plan for marketing and staging your property to really make it stand out. Don't delay because I said so, if you are ready to sell and planned to be on the market right now, don't stop. Buyers are still out there looking especially in homes priced between 150K up to 300K they just have the luxury of being a bit more discerning.

BUYERS- Do your homework. Meet with your mortgage representative and Realtor to plan your home buying process. Be sure to give yourself a timeline and a goal. If things seem to be a bit slow or frustrating give yourself time to step away and regroup, refocus and get back into the home search. Also Mr. and Ms. Buyer, make sure you put yourself into a financial position that will work for your budget.

For those of you who have to sell a house in order to buy another home, please be sure to meet with your accountant and mortgage representative, understand your financial position, know what you need to have monetarily in order to buy your next home and then meet with your Realtor and discuss your marketing and purchase plan. This will allow you all to be perfectly clear about your position and what needs to happen to make a move. Remember to just be prepared for buying and selling real estate in a transitional market.

See Ya!

*statistics derived from TrendMLS provider of multiple listing services to the real estate community of Delaware County and many other surrounding counties