Mayfield Heights, OH

Impressive presentations followed by a lively discussion and face-to-face consultations. Home owners and prospective home buyers who attended this Events had an opportunity to meet great professionals, ask the questions and receive good professional answers about hot and yet confusing topics.

• First time buyer tax credit of 2009 - Presented by Svetlana Stolyarova, Local-n-Global Realty

• Ohio 203K rehab financing, how to buy and finance a great property in POS cities with escrow requirements - Presented by Tim Bradford, American Midwest Mortgage

• Short sales - nightmare or great opportunity? Legal aspects of short sales closings - Presented by David Streeter, Jr., Statewide Title Agency

• No and Low Down Payment Mortgage programs. Anatomy of Mortgage crisis - Presented  by Khash Saghafi, Crosscountry Mortgage

• Advantages of Home warranty for the home owners - Presented by Kimberly Loving, HWA
  

Please call Svetlana 216-548-4663 or e-mail to: Realty@Local-n-Global.com.

Subscribe to Greater Cleveland Real Estate Blog

More and more people who want to buy the houses and condos in Cleveland are excited about opportunity to benefit from the First Time Buyer's Tax Credit.  I receive numerous questions regarding this credit from potential buyers. Let's get the answers together in order to help more first time buyers realize the advantages of buying houses and condos in Greater Cleveland in January-December of 2009.

The most frequent question is: Who is the First time buyer?

Answer is  not that obvious as it seems to be. Every person who did not own the primary residence in last three years prior to purchase is considered to be a First Time Buyer. For married couples, both spouses should be the First Time buyers according to the above definition. If husband or wife owned the primary residence during three-year peiod prior to purchase, none of the spouses is eligible for this credit.

Interesting question comes from the potential buyers of condominiums in Mayfield Heights and other communities of Greater Cleveland: Does the Real Estate tax credit apply to condos?

The answer is Yes, it does apply to any housing that will be used as a principle residence. It includes single family detached houses, attached homes like condominiums, townhomes, manufactured homes (aka mobile homes) and houseboats.

What is going on with condominiums in Mayfield Heights this year?

The Cuyahoga County statistics data on condominium sales in 2008 does not look real pretty. According to Realist.com,

However, the condo market in Mayfield Heights is different. Regardless all financial obstacles which Fannie May created for fair borrowers willing to buy Real Estate, especially condominiums, in Cuyahoga County, there are still many people who prefer carefree condominium lifestyle in Mayfield Heights.

Per MLS, this year 25 condominiums in Mayfield Heights closed on the average price of $134,000. It was a lot of negotiations on price, as sellers received 92 % of asking price in 2008.

Same period of 2007 gave us 19 sales for average price of $135,000 (no changes whatsoever). Sellers were not ready to negotiate: Sold price / List price ratio was 98 % in 2007.

Interesting: despite all the negative news on Real Estate market, sellers of Mayfield Heights condos were more optimistic on pricing this year. Reality check, though made them accept the same price as it was in 2007. Out of my and my colleagues' experience - sellers are better prepared for sale this year than a year before. Condos are in a better shape. More remodeling and staging done. As a result, buyers get the better deals. May be that's the secret of better activity on this market?

Dear buyers! Please pay attention to the wonderful condo in the Golden Gate Villas of Mayfield Heights. That's the perfect sample of the sellers' great job on getting it ready for new owners: newly redone bathrooms, nice updated kitchen, fresh paint, comfort and beauty. Just move in!

Need to sell or buy in Mayfield Heights or in other nice Greater Cleveland neighborhoods? Call Svetlana Stolyarova 216-548-4663. Greater Cleveland MLS search. E-mail us: Realty@Local-n-Global.com.

Winter is coming back to Cleveland. After few fine days of almost spring we are watching snowflakes flying and covering green lawns and trees. Wow! Back to reality.

No wonder that one of the most productive Real estate professional activities has been named Farming. Like farmers, we depend upon weather conditions more than people of any other profession. A week of good weather - and we experience a good buyer's activity in Greater Cleveland. More showings on our listings, more buyers attending Open Houses, more hope for our sellers. That sounds funny but it is true.

My favorite Mayfield Heights. Great community, great schools, safe and beautiful neighborhoods, affordable and decent housing market. And - like almost everywhere in Greater Cleveland, we see two parallel real estate worlds here: one belongs to sellers, another one belongs to buyers. From my own and my agents' experience, difference in prices which sellers expect to receive and buyers are ready to pay is more than 25 %. Historic sales data supports neither sellers' expectations nor buyers' hope. We currently have 171 active listings for sale in Mayfield Heights with average asking price of $181,315. Sellers historically receive 95-96 % of asking price for their homes here in Mayfield Heights. So, sellers expect to close with average price of about $172,250 which is much higher than 2007 average price of $153,387 and higher than the record high average price of 2006 - $166,455. The sellers' optimism probably roots in a fact that mortgage crisis almost did not hurt Mayfield Heights. We had just few foreclosures in the area, mostly in the low-end price range. However, amount of sales is a little bit lower than in the record 2006 but still very high. Average price is also lower than in 2006 but is on the very decent level.

Here is the graph of 10 years sales data for Mayfield Heights, OH. Statistics provided by our regional MLS.

This graphics remind that market is pretty steady in Mayfield Heights. Buyers in our community do not depend on fancy "creative" financing which brought a lot of neighborhoods to a deep crisis. Honestly, today we have much more real good buyers with good savings, very high credit score and strong desire to live in Mayfield Heights - if it is not overpriced. There is no base for unreasonable expectations. I hope that this graphics will help two worlds - pre-cautious world of home buyers and anxious but stubborn world of home sellers in Mayfield Heights, OH finally meet in the point where they belong to each other. Let's be reasonable! Mayfield Heights is a very good place to buy the houses and enjoy live. Be reasonable and good luck to all of us!

Svetlana Stolyarova, broker and founder of Local-n-Global Realty, Mayfield Heights Real Estate expert, multi-million dollar producer. E-mail: Realty@Local-n-Global.com

Call 24/7 Free Local-n-Global Real Estate Information Line 877-770-5551