Christine Bohn, ABR, e-Pro, GRI~Gainesville, FL Realtor®

The rates are falling !!

The rates are falling !!

The rates are falling !!


Ok folks....this is not "CHICKEN LITTLE" screaming that the SKY is falling.....

it's the home mortgage rates that are falling!






This is REAL !

Hopefully, our National press & media will be shouting this from the roof tops. Your local real estate professional will be telling you about this too! Just pick up the phone and call your local lenders - they are ready to get you pre-qualified and make you feel "confident" about buying a home soon.

It's a BUYERS' MARKET...and with the mortgage rates falling - this should help get the "fence sitters" to become "committed buyers". We have excellent inventory of homes for sale here in Gainesville and communities all over Alachua County - at attractive prices too!

So what are you waiting for???? Let's get busy looking for a home!

The rates are falling !!

Welcome to the Gainesville-Alachua County Real Estate Market Update for August 2008.  

The stats for this report are pulled directly from the Gainesville-Alachua County Association of Realtors database.  

These statistics are for Residential Sales only and do not include commercial properties or vacant land sales.

# of HOMES SOLD in August 2008 is  226.

Average # of Days on the Market (for closed sales) is 127 Days.

AUG 2008	-2BR	3 BR	4+BR	Condo	Total
#Units Sold	18	104	45	59	226
Avg Sale Price	94,080	179,793	337,414	156,922	198,380
Avg List Price	102,622	190,643	356,690	162,115	209,247
List/Sell/Ratio	91%	94%	94%	96%	95%
Median Sale Price	120,000	174,471	288,000	147,300	168,950

Here is a good summary of the "TYPES" of financing of homes sold in August of 2008 and August 2007.   You will see that more buyers this year are using the FHA program to finance their home purchase than buyers in 2007.  Gainesville is holding strong when compared to other depressed areas in Florida.  I am a firm believer that it is a "Great time to be a Buyer" in Gainesville.

	August    2008 Units	August  2007 Units
TOTAL	226	386
Cash	50	64
Conventional	114	297
Private	3	5
Seller Finance	3	1
FHA Loans	49	16
VA Loans	7	3

***  All data is from Gainesville-Alachua County MLS Database.

My Last Market Report was  for June 2008.   I didn't realize that I had not posted a report for July, but I have been busy with very happy buyers!  

It's truly a buyers' market !!

My Saturday morning paper has a wonderful feature.....it's a page called GATOR GAMEDAY.

Yesterday being our season opener and a Home Game was the first "FIX" for my college football addiction. Yes, I am addicted to college football.

GO Gators !!

But, something happened that I don't know if anyone else noticed.......

Our Gainesville Sun Sports Writer, Robbie Andreu is known for his game prediction, called Andreu's Pick.

Saturday's paper showed his prediction of final score : Florida 56, Hawaii 10.

AND GUESS WHAT ???

Robbie Andreu's pick was the final score !

Does Robbie Andreu have a crystal ball?

Way to go Mr. Andreu !!

Yes, I already have the college football fever.

But hey GATOR FANS.....it's time to cast your vote for the ESPN TITLETOWN.

It's time to vote for one of the ESPN Sports Center 20 TitleTown USA finalists. The winner will be announced during the 6:00 PM Sports Center broadcast on 28 July (Monday).

Here's the link to ESPN's site to vote for OUR TitleTown!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/titletown/index

Watch the VIDEOS !!! **** TITLE TOWN VIDEO ****

GO GATORS !!!

It won't be long.......we'll all be "in the swamp" soon...... Let's Make Some Noise !!

Three High Schools in Alachua County, FL are the BEST in U.S. !!

Alachua County is home to three of the nation's top high schools, according to a recent ranking by Newsweek Magazine.
  
In Newsweek's annual "America Best High Schools" report:

Eastside High was ranked 29th

Buchholz High was ranked 109th

Gainesville High was  ranked 532nd.

The ranking put these three Alachua County Public Schools in the top 2% of high schools nationwide.

In another section of the annual report, Newsweek assigned an equity and excellence percentage to each ranked school and all three of the Alachua County high schools were ranked well above average. The equity and excellence score was measure of how many received a score of three or higher on at least one Advanced Placement test sometime in High school.

The national average for all high schools in 2007 was 15.2 percent and all three schools easily surpassed that number this year.

In a news release about the rankings, Alachua County School Superintendent Dan Boyd said the district is proud of the schools because "they have done such an excellent job of encouraging students to stretch themselves academically."

Gainesville is a Great Place to Live !!

Moving to Gainesville???  If you are wanting information about Real Estate in Gainesville Florida, please visit my web site and blog site.