About Jackson County, OR

With all of the news on the economy throughout the past several months, its time for a realistic reality check on what the market in Ashland is really doing.

In 1998, the median home sold for $166,250

In 2002, the median home sold for $259,000

In 2007, the median homes sold for $426,250

During that entire 10 year history, the median price has NEVER gone down from year to year. Ashland Oregon real estate continues to be a great long term investment both for homeowners and investors.

www.jaredhokanson.com

How to get more money for your home in Southern Oregon

The answer is simple, to get more money for your home, get an agent that knows how to get more money for your home! Throughout the Jackson County, Medford Oregon area in 2007, the average home sold for about 96% of what their asking price for their home.

Example:

Asking Price: $400,000

Sales Price: $384,000

For the sellers that chose to have Jared Hokanson, one of Medfords top agents sell their house, they got 2.9% MORE!

In the above example, instead of walking away with just $384,000, Jared's sellers would walk away with $395,136, based on his average list price to sales price ratio from 2007, a difference of $11,136.

Where does that extra $11,136 go? Nearly all of that goes straight to the sellers when Jared represents the seller!!!

So, how do you get more money for your home in Southern Oregon? Get a real estate agent that knows how to get you more money for your house.

www.jaredhokanson.com

Re/Max Realty Group sells houses!

As I put together numbers for the past year and all of the houses that we have been selling I was SHOCKED to find how many more houses in Jackson County, Medford Oregon area, our office at Re/Max Realty Group on Barnett Road sold than ANY other top 10 offices in the valley per realtor.

Re/Max Realty Group Branch, 2594 E. Barnett Rd., Ste B, Medford, OR 97504

SOLD 17.4 homes per agent in 2007

The next closest office in the valley was clear back at 10.4 houses per agent, followed by 3rd place at 8.1 houses per agent.

It does make a difference who you choose to represent you on the sale of your home!!!

www.jaredhokanson.com

It seems that everyone wants to know how bad the market is. I feel its kind of like the fine print of a stock offering, "past performance is not a guarantee of future performance." So...if you own a house in East Medford, what has the value done over the past 10 years, lets take a look:

1998 Median Value: $139,250

2003 Median Value: $199,900

2007 Median Value $290,000

If you are interested in finding out how much equity you currently have in your East Medford home, don't hesitate to call Jared Hokanson at 541-772-SOLD (7653) or on the web at: www.jaredhokanson.com

In December 2007, Fannie Mae instituted a requirement that maximum loan-to-value ratios be reduced for loans they make on properties deemed to be in a declining market area, either by the appraiser or by secondary verification sources such as Moody's/Case-Shiller House Price Index.

Depending on which list you look at, cities in Jackson County, Oregon may or may not be included. Updates are being announced by the lenders, and one lender recently deemed all of California and Florida as declining market areas, but does not list Jackson County, Oregon cities. We may not find out for sure on a purchase transaction until you have located your property and we may run the address through the automated underwriting system.

So what does this mean for the average home buyer? You might need to plan on coming to the table with 5% more of a down payment than you previously planned on if you are going with a conventional loan program. For the home buyer choosing the 100% financing program, you may now need 5% for a down payment; for the 97% home buyer, you may now need 8% down payment; and so on.

More home buyers are choosing FHA financing due to these rapid changes. But, FHA programs are also in the process of being updated with guideline changes headed down the pipeline.

If you have been pre-approved for your financing and are presently shopping for your home, you should check in with your mortgage consultant and verify these changes will not affect you.

See you at the closing table!

Karen Cooper - OR/CA Mortgage Consultant - http://www.quality4loans.com/

UPDATE: As of 6/1/08, MGIC put Jackson County Oregon on their Restricted Markets list. Fannie Mae revised their Declining Value Area requirements, no longer requiring the 5% reduction in maximum loan-to-value ratios for their high-LTV programs. Hopefully the mortgage insurance companies will soon follow suit, so first time home buyers are not required to come up with a minimum of 8% for their down payment.