Promotions for the Fitchburg Open House Event, this Sunday, July 12th

It looks like the weather will cooperate for this Sunday's Fitchburg Open House Event. And we have new listings signing up every day, which could leave us with about 40 participating listings.

Two of the participating listings are offering special promotions. Linda Zivney from Stark Company Realtors will be holding a builder open house from 1 to 4 at 5643 Old Oak Drive. She'll be joined by a builder, who will be available to answer your questions about building a home in today's market.

Les Hynum from Coldwell Banker Success will be holding an open from 1 to 3 at 2635 Targhee Street. The builder of this home, Kegonsa Builders, is offering $10,000 toward the buyer's down payment. For more information on this incentive, please contact Les at 438-5169.

Have a good one,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

July home buyer seminars

Both the UW Credit Union and the Dane County Housing Authority offer home buyer seminars during the month of July - and a good opportunity to learn about the home buying process before the first-time home buyer tax credit expires on November 30th.

The next UW Credit Union Seminar is Tuesday, July 14th from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.

The next Dane County Housing Authority seminar is a two-part series with sessions on both Tuesday, July 21st and Tuesday, July 28th. Both sessions run from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Click here for more course details and registration info.

Have a good night,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

The latest in commercial real estate

It's been a few months since we covered the Dane County commercial market.

Sales via the South Central Wisconsin MLS have been light, with one property selling in the month of May for $168,000. Meanwhile inventory continues to trend at over 100 months.

Have a good day,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Page hits and the market

We've commented in the past how year in and year out June is always the highest month for closings, which means the hottest months for sellers tend to be March, April and May. These are the months when the most people are out searching for homes and making their offers.

The page hit statistics for our MLS map search tool show the seasonality of the market. You'll see from the graph below our search tool received at least 23,000 map hits during March, April and May. Web activity dipped to 19,000 map hits in June. That's still a lot of activity, but a sign that leverage is shifting away from sellers and toward buyers as we enter the second half of the year.

Have a good day,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Gorman & Company is matching the $8,000 tax credit

As part of the July 12th Fitchburg Open House Event, Gorman & Company is hosting several different condo opens in its Galway Green neighborhood. Here's a virtual tour for one of the participating condos.

Gorman & Company also has a very aggressive buyer incentive program in place through November 30th. For qualifying buyers, Gorman & Company will match the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit with a credit at closing. The offer is good for any one of the Gorman and Company condominium neighborhoods: Galway Green (www.galwaygreen.com) or Crosswinds at Hawks Landing (www.crosswindsathawkslanding.com) and Lots with Homes in residential neighborhoods: Waterford Glen (www.waterfordglen.info) or Prairie Creek (www.prairiecreekhomes.net).

Between the Tax Credit and the Gorman match, a first time home buyer that qualifies and closes by November 30, 2009 could receive up to $16,000 for their new home. For details on the Tax Credit, go to http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/ or contact your tax advisor.

For more information on any of the Gorman & Company properties, please feel free to contact Jim Zernicke at 277-0795 or jzernicke@gormanusa.com.

Have a good one,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

30 year mortgage rates dip back below 5.5%

Mortgage rates have come down a bit - after rising by about a full point over the last few weeks. You'll find the latest rates from local lenders on the mortgage update page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

Have a good one,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Fitchburg open house event is Sunday, July 12th

We've invited 160 different Realtors to participate in a Fitchburg open house event on Sunday, July 12th. We're expecting several dozen listings to participate in the event - including homes, condos and builders with lots - across a variety of price ranges. Earlier in the year we promoted similar events in Middleton and Madison's west side, and the turnout was tremendous. It should be a great day for anyone with an interest in Fitchburg to get out and tour the local inventory.

We'll start publishing the list of participating listings as more of them jump on board. Prior to the event we'll also feature a few different properties that are offering special buyer incentives.

Stay tuned.

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

No more FHA condo "spot approvals"

Buyers can purchase a condo with an FHA loan if it is on the HUD list of approved condominium projects.

Until a few days ago, if a condo development was not on the HUD-approved list, the buyer's lender could complete a form documenting information about the development's occupancy, ownership, and financial history. If the completed form verified that the condo project met the FHA standards for funding, the condo development could be granted "spot approval" for an FHA loan.

The spot approval process is now a thing of the past, meaning it has suddenly become more difficult for many condo buyers to obtain a low down payment loan. We have one client with an FHA loan who is expecting to close on her condo next week. Now we're working with her to put another financing plan in place.

If you've been planning to purchase your condo with an FHA loan, check with your lender to see if the spot approval change will affect your transaction.

For more information, you'll find these links useful:

• Blog post, from Rob Seibert of Flabox
• HUD mortgagee letter 2009-19 (select the top document in the list)

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Dane County homes and condos under contract - by price range

Last month 22% of the Dane County homes listed on the South Central Wisconsin MLS had an accepted offer (read more info here). The number for condos was 10% (read more info here).

As of June 20th, the percent of homes under contract remained at 22%. In other words for every single family home listing that had an accepted offer, roughly 3.5 other listings were working for a signed contract.

The percent of condos under contract as of June 20th improved to 11%. For every condo listing with an accepted offer, there were roughly 8 other condo listings working for a signed contract.

Going strictly by the numbers, home sellers generally have more leverage than condo sellers. But the leverage varies a lot by price category. The two charts below show how the numbers vary by price range.

June 20th - percent of Dane County homes under contract:

June 20th - percent of Dane County condos under contract:

Have a good day,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

The latest in multi-family real estate

It's been awhile since we covered the Dane County market for residential income properties. Inventory is still very high. As of May 31st, we calculated over 38 months of inventory for the Dane County multi-family market.

Prices have been coming down, but it still takes some digging to find the right, cash-flowing property (most of the properties listed on the MLS don't cash flow at their current list price). In the near future we'll share some ideas for finding the sellers who are willing to sell their properties at a price that represents a good investment.

You'll find our full report on the multi-family market on the economic trends page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

Have a good day,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Lower sales and prices for homes and condos in May

Dane County home and condo sales totaled 546 in May, down 13% from the 625 sales a year ago. The median price was $203,000, down 3% from the May 2008 median price of $209,377. All numbers come from the South Central Wisconsin MLS.

You'll find our full report on the month of May, including a breakdown of the home and condo markets, at DaneCountyMarket.com.

Have a good one,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

One way to find bank and estate-owned properties

We wrote in a recent post about a new loan program for buyers of vacant and foreclosed homes. One good way you can locate these types of properties is to work with a Realtor who will scan the MLS for you.

The MLS database is a powerful tool because it has literally dozens of fields that can be used for customized searches. One of those fields is the "owner" field. If you're seeking a bank or estate-owned property, your Realtor can set up a search of this field for terms like "bank", "REO", "corporate", "estate", and the names of specific lending institutions.

We performed a similar search for an investor this morning. We sent him a list of 30 bank and estate-owned properties. Then we set him up to receive automated MLS updates. Now, whenever a new listing matching his criteria enters the market, he'll receive an immediate email notification with a link to the listing details. He'll also receive an email notification whenever any of the existing properties on his list undergoes a price reduction.

There are other ways the MLS can be leveraged to locate properties with a value upside. We'll be covering some of those ways in the near future.

Have a good weekend,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Foreclosures up, housing starts down

We've written in previous months how foreclosures have surpassed new home construction as a source of inventory. The trend continues.

A total of 107 Dane County foreclosures were filed in May, up from the 105 filed last May.

Meanwhile 54 Dane County housing starts were recorded last month, down from the 64 new housing starts recorded in May of 2008.

For more info on the latest foreclosure trends, you can view our full foreclosure report on the economic trends page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

You'll find our full housing start report on the real estate trends page at DaneCountyMarket.com.

A special thanks to Dominic Collar from MTD Marketing Services of Wisconsin for sharing his housing start data. For more information about his statistics, feel free to contact Dominic at 920/993-8435.

Have a good weekend,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Parade of homes is June 13th through June 28th

This year's parade of homes sponsored by the Madison Area Builders Association runs from June 13th to June 28th. The parade route includes 14 different homes in Middleton, Bristol and Waunakee.

Tour hours run from 3:00 to 8:00 PM Monday through Friday, and from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on the weekends. For more information on the tour, check out http://www.paradeofhomesmadison.com/.

We'd also like to take this opportunity to get the word out about this custom-built, parade-quality home set on 46 acres just outside of Madison. We've inserted a few photos from this listing below. They provide a great example of how staging and professional photos can create a great online appearance. This link from the same listing provides a good example of how a professionally produced virtual tour can help online buyers get an even better feel for a property. As we've mentioned before, 90% of all home buyers shop online, so creating a great online appearance is a must for every good listing.

Have a good night,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com

Where do foreclosures have the biggest market impact?

We recently shared how foreclosures have grown by Dane County location. We also shared information on how foreclosure density varies throughout the county.

Another useful way to look at foreclosure statistics is to compare the number of foreclosures for a given location to the demand for housing within that location. We've done that in the tables below by calculating foreclosures as a percent of homes and condos sold for the year 2008. The higher the number, the greater the impact we expect foreclosures to have on a local market.

The average for all of Dane County is 25%.

Two patterns emerge when we look at the data at more localized levels. First, Madison locations tend to have lower foreclosure ratios compared to the county average. There are some exceptions, however. The zip codes 53714 (30%), 53704 (34%) and 53713 (58%) all have ratios above the county average.

The other pattern is most surrounding community locations have ratios above the county average. The highest ratios among the community group are in DeForest (42%), Stoughton (45%), Dane (67%) and Cambridge (106%). Middleton is well below the county average at only 8%.

Below are the numbers for Madison East, Madison West and surrounding community locations.

Thanks to Andy Lewis and Russ Kashian for sharing their foreclosure data. The home and condo sales data comes courtesy of the South Central Wisconsin MLS.

We'll be updating our foreclosure numbers for the month of May later in the week.

Have a good Sunday,

Dan Miller, Keller Williams Realty and DaneCountyMarket.com