Rachel Luckow, e-Pro TRC CDPE

Sponsored by the local Rotary group, we are selling hotdogs and chips, etc. near the middle school for the drivers. Come to New Prague to experience the annual Dozinky Days or celebration of our czech history and the fall harvest. The car cruise kicks off at 6:30, but come early for the best seats!

The media hype is still goin on and on over the foreclosures, but is it still true? Yes we still have a historically high foreclosure rate, but do youthink it is getting better or worse? From the talking heads on TV you'd think your entire block was owned by a bank. The reality is that the number of foreclosures in coming down, slowly, but we used to be notified of 130-140 a month in our area and now it is more like 30-40. It is still way too many, but a big improvement nonetheless.

The other dirty little secret that isn't being reported is that in the lowest market, under $120,000 we only have a 3.6 month supply, a seller's market. It started last spring and has been picking up steam since. The buyer's I work with understand that they will have to offer more than list in order to get the winning bid for their new home.

I had multiple offers on a home priced in the 300's, but it appraised for 20% more during the boom. The sellers were motivated to move andwere willing to do what it takes to sell. Bottomline, if you want to sell today, you need to price it according to your market.

This is the traditional time of year that we start to see a warming of the market, and this is holding true this year as well. Last Friday, I identified 22 homes that I wanted to preview for 2 different clients and I was shocked to find out that nearly half had offers on them. How did I find that out? I called each realtor before I set up the preview and asked, since I knew my buyers weren't going to be interested in a bidding war.

You may not have heard, but rates are super low and there has never been a better selection available. Prices are the most affordable they have been in years and there is mortgage money available, I have several sources who are ready to lend!

If you are looking for the best deal available and don't mind doing some cleaning, painting and probably buying some new flooring, there are amazing deals out there on foreclosures and also homes that are available via "short sale". Those are a much more complicated sale that involves a number of factors, but if you are patient and have a few months to wait, you may be able to get an incredible deal. Foreclosures are a much more straightforward way to buy, but you may be able to get a better deal through a short sale.

If you are looking for a traditional sale, prices are still very good since they are competing to some extent with the foreclosures and short sales, and new construction models are often very good buys with builders, often with other incentives thrown in.

Any way you slice it, if you have a solid income, a good credit score and the desire to have a piece of the american dream, this is a great time to buy a house!

In case you weren't able to make the public meeting regarding the Parish Marketing fraud case last week and would like to voice your concerns to those in charge of the case, please contact me for the information to reach the investigator, the US Deputy Attorney General of the Special Receiver for this case.

• I will recap the highlights,
• first, there are 250 homes in New Prague, Elko/New Market and Lonsdale involved.
• Of those 123 are in New Prague, the rest in the other 2 cities.
• 85 of them are currently rented and 50 or so are in litigation with unpaid contractors staking their claims.
• 40 of them are not completed
• Over 200 "straw buyers" were involved
• about 25-40 banks are holding mortgages
• Most of them were 80/20 mortgages so there are 2 banks for most properties.

As you can see, this gets more and more complicated. The receiver also indicated that they have not found any large stockpiles of money to pay restitution to the victims. It appears the 30 or so million they pocketed, they spent on a failing business. All of this information was given at the public meeting held last Thursday night at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church to a packed SRO crowd.

One can reasonably expect that this will have a great impact on the housing market in this area for some time to come. Please call if you have specific concerns or need to reach the authorities in this case.

Rachel Luckow specializing in homes in Bloomington, Shakopee, Savage, Burnsville, Eagan, Lakeville, New Prague, Elko/New Market, Jordan, Prior Lake and all metro areas