Lafayette Indiana Real Estate Statistics For February 2009

The average time for a home to sell based on February closings was 92 days. The owners got 94.6% of the list price. In January we saw an average of 105 days on the market and the owners got 93% of their asking price. The average sale price in February was $148,161. The average days on the market in February for all homes for sale (sold and active) is 143 days. Sales are down a bit but we should see these numbers rise as we get into March and April numbers

David Vaughn

FC Tucker/Lafayette

www.david-vaughn.com

Lafayette Indiana Real Estate Statistics for January 2009

The average time for a home to sell based on January closings was 105 days. The owners got 93% of the list price. In December we saw an average of 92 days on the market and the owners got 93.8% of their asking price. The average sale price in January was $120,141. The average days on the market in January for all homes for sale (sold and active) is 143 days.

 David Vaughn

FC Tucker/Lafayette

www.david-vaughn.com

The average time for a home to sell based on December closings was 92 days. The owners got 93.8% of the list price. In October we saw an average of 99 days on the market and the owners got 96% of their asking price. The average sale price was $123,146. The average days on the market in December for all homes for sale (sold and active) is 150 days. The trend is normally down this time of year and the numbers do not look to bad as of yet. In January we will have some hurdles to over come.

1. The banks have tightened of their lending practices which means it is harder for some to get financed. Hopefully there will be some relief in the future with new ideas from the new presidential administration.

2. Lafayette economy has been doing rather well compared to the national average in 2008. However, in December there have been many announcements of layoff's and cut backs in the Lafayette area for the 2009 year. This has been the national trend for the past 2 years and it is finally made it's way to our area. Let's hope these reductions in the work force will be short and we can keep the same upward trend in our local economy for 2009. If we are able to do this we should have another above average year compared to the national average. Let's keep a positive attitude for 2009.

David Vaughn

FC Tucker/Lafayette

www.david-vaughn.com

As a newer agent I am ending my first year in real estate. Does anyone have any tax tips they can give me that maybe you learned after your first year?

David Vaughn

FC TUCKER/LAFAYETTE

dvaughn@tuckerrealty.com

http://www.david-vaughn.com/

Lafayette real estate Market

There is a misconception with the Lafayette Real Estate market. The Market in the Lafayette area is actually good. It has had a stable and steady growth rate. Please remember when you are watching the news or reading newspapers that the information they are giving you is for the entire nation. Yes the nation's average home price has declined a little. It should decline when parts of the south, east and west have seen a 20 percent or greater decrease in home values. The difference between Lafayette and those other areas is this - Lafayette never saw the spike in home prices like other areas. If Lafayette did see these type of price reductions then that would be about a $20,000 to $40,000 drop in price on an average home in Lafayette. This is not happening. The markets in those areas are correcting themselves for the past 5 -8 years of over-appreciation. Lafayette never saw the spike so there is nothing to correct. The current real estate market in Lafayette is stable. The average time to sell a home in Lafayette according to MLS statistics is about 99 days (just over 3 months). This obviously depends on where the house is in Lafayette and the price but this data is for all prices and all of Lafayette. Not to bad. The homes sold got 96% of their asking price and only 20% of all listings expired without being sold. While there are many reasons why homes do not sell with in their listing contract the majority are due to being over priced.

Another misconception in our area is about mortgagees. Everyone is talking about how hard it is to get a mortgage. This is not really true either. You can still get a mortgage with no hassle right now as long as you are qualified. For the last 9 years or so the banks were giving money away to people who should have never qualified for a mortgage which in return has caused a lot of foreclosures and banks to go under. They are no longer giving financing to those individuals and are no longer giving financing for up to 110% of the homes value. If you have a good credit score and have at least 5% to put down plus closing costs, there should not be a problem on getting a loan. The Midwest in general is in a pretty good position when it comes to real estate as compared with the rest of the United States. Keep your head up and let's hope the job market stays as stable.

David Vaughn

FC TUCKER/LAFAYETTE

dvaughn@tuckerrealty.com

http://www.david-vaughn.com/