Greg Miller/ Warsaw & Syracuse, In. Home Mortgage Lending -Conventional, FHA,USDA

Homes prices for Warsaw Indiana remained pretty much even for the 2008 year. Which is really a breath of fresh air for all the negatives that are out there around our nation concerning falling home prices.

• Nationally the average sale price for single family residence dropped by 9.3% to $ 198,600.
• Locally the average sale price for single family residence of non water properties only fell 1% to $141,473.
• Warsaw area water properties were off the most by 24% to $220,841 but the fact that 2007 set a record of $292,222 for Warsawwater properties needs to be considered. 2008 was only off 8% from the 5 year average of water properties for Warsaw.
• County wide Kosciusko county saw a decrease in overall homes prices by 6% to 137,565.Still far below the national average.

Below I have included 2 charts that show the sales of Warsaw single family residence for both Water and non-water properties. These charts show how stable the home prices have been over the last couple of years that nationally have been way off.

Have a adopted member to our family. Her name is Montana,she's a 2 year old German shepherd

Started out in a home with a brother from same liter. Mom, Dad & two kids.

• Mom & Dad get divorce
• Mom leaves with kids
• Brother from liter gets injury and is put down
• Dad gets killed on Motorcycle accident

We take her in (we put down a 12 year old about 14 months ago).

We fall in love with her overnight. She was just starved for affection. She gets along great with our little terrier- Gizmo.

2008 market report for the Lakes Area (northeastern Kosciusko county Indiana) water properties.

For the year the number of sold properties was off by 43% at 126.

Average sale price was $228,767, a 10% reduction.

The following charts show Lakefront and Channel front sales of residential single family homes

Included are sales for the 8 primary lakes in the Lakes area of kosciusko county.

What a day, and the weatherman says its getting colder. Its -8 degrees and getting colder? I ain't going anywhere.

My shower has already froze up. My door handle on my truck broke off. Seems a need to shovel snow every time I look out.Next week when the temps get back up in the 20's we'll all be in jackets.

Since it will be"so" warm next week I would like to invite everyone out to Lakeside Park in Syracuse to attend the Winter Carnival.

Things kick off Friaday night the 23rd Chili supper at the community center from 4:30 - 7:00 pm. Being put on by the Wawasee Kiwanis & Habitat for Humanity.

Then come on down to the beach at 12:00 noon on saturday to watch the snowmobile races on Syracuse Lake.

After this week, you'll feel like working on your tan!

As we begin 2009 I thought I would share some county sales figure for the year that just ended. To say that 2008 was a challenging year in the housing market might be an understatement.

According to the Kosciusko county board of Realtors- Multiple Listing Service(MLS). The number of residential homes that were sold was 868,. A 30 % decrease vs. 2007.

If you were one of the 1958 homes that were listed last year, your chance of selling your home was 44.33% and your average days on the market were 126.

The median sale price for a home was $139,027 a 7% decline.

While these figures seem somewhat gloomy, They are much better than the national averages.

Homes in our county are still selling. A home is still a great long term investment.To sell, you just need to be priced right and standing tall. Inventories are a little high with 853 currently listed, but not overweighted.

Now is the best buying opportunity that I have seen in my lifetime. Interest rates around 5% and homes prices are down with inventories up. That means the window of opportunity is wide open.

Hope you have a fine 09,

Greg