New Listing in Saint Louis Park!

Cute and clean this classic Saint Louis Park one and half story will not disappoint. Located just north of Minnetonka Blvd on Edgewood this house is close to everything (e.g. downtown, the new West End, trails, parks, schools). Check out this great backyard!

Here are all the details.

-Michael

Homebuying Tax Credit Extended for Veterans

While the $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers and the $6,500 tax credit for move-up buyers has gone away since April 30th, these benefits still remain in place for veterans of the US military who have recently served. The new law provides that qualified service members who are ordered on a period of official extended duty shall have until April 30 of 2011 to have a purchase agreement accepted to qualify for either the $8,000 or $6,500 tax credits. These contracts then have to be closed by June 30th of 2011. This gives the men and women returning from duty time to get settled and make a smart purchase as it should be.

For full qualification requirements and additional details, visit here.

-Michael

JAM Group's Jacqueline Miller Honored

REALTOR.com® National Speaker, Joe Sesso, has presented to Jacqueline Miller of RE/MAX Results the “Real Estate Online Marketing Award of Excellence”. The Award of Excellence recognizes top agents who consistently provide great marketing services on behalf of their buyers and sellers.

The excellence award was presented to Jacqueline Miller at a recent real estate marketing and technology seminar that demonstrated cutting edge techniques for leveraging the internet and technology in real estate marketing.

CONGRATS, JACQ!

-Michael

Tax Credit Extended?!?!

Yes, but no....

I have heard on multiple occasions from buyers and sellers in the market, "the tax credit got extended!" As much as some of us in the industry wish this was the case it is not what most think.

The Federal Government has extended the closing date to allow buyers with signed purchase agreements before April 30, 2010 to close until September 30, 2010. Originally, buyers had to have an accepted contract before April 30th and then had to close by the end of June. Realtors and buyers pleaded to the government for more time as they struggled to get the files closed with short sale approval delays and title issues. The extra time will make life easier for loan and title companies while assuring buyers who did get their contracts accepted before April 30th that they have sufficient time to close. There was no real discussion of opening the credit back up to new contracts as some had hoped and some still believe is the case.

The tax credit had a good run. Now it is time to see if the real estate market can stand alone on it's own feet.

-Michael

Eden Prairie Goes #1

Eden Prairie was recently named, "Best Place to Live in America" by CNN's Money Magazine. This remarkable distinction is determined by a variety of factors including: average household income, test scores, employment rate, median home price, crime rate, public space, and more. The top spot returns to the Twin Cities metro after taking a year off. In 2008, Plymouth held the honor before giving way to Louisville, Colorado in 2009.

Here is a link to the full article.

-Michael

Number of Showings Down Over 50%

While it is always hard to estimate how many buyers are currently active in the market, one way is to examine the number of showings taking place on a group of listings compared to a similar group of listings one year prior. Analyzing showings on Re/Max Results listings for the months of March, April, and May we find that showings are down considerably from last year indicating there are significantly less buyers now than a year ago. March showed the smallest drop at 21% less while April reports 36% less showings than April 2009. The biggest drop-off was May which only had 42% of the showings that last May had, a 58% drop in buyers viewing properties.

The numbers do not translate exactly but the stats show that there are less buyers in the market now than one year ago. For sellers, this means that they have to price aggressively and show better than the competition to attract a smaller crop of potential buyers. For buyers, this means they have more choices and more leverage in negotiating. For the market as a whole, we could see downward pressure on prices if this trend continues through the summer.

-Michael