The Homes in Bell Tavern Downingtown Pa. are in a prime location!  The location of this neighborhood is ideal for work and leisure. It is close to the Route 30 Bypass, tons of shopping and an amazing public park.

When you are looking for homes in the neighborhood of Bell Tavern you have three home size choices and all are winners!  There are the townhomes in the Chase at Bell Tavern that are 3 bedrooms and have either one or two car garages and are 1600-2500 square feet.  There are singles in the Ridings at Bell Tavern that all have 4-5 bedrooms, two car garages and are around 2700-3750 square feet.  And there are larger singles in The Estates at Bell Tavern that have 4-5 bedrooms, three car garages and are around 3400-5000 square feet.

One of the many benefits the homes in Bell Tavern have is being right next to the Bell Tavern Park.  This park in not included in the home owners association and therefore the home owners do not have to pay to maintain it!  The park includes tennis courts, beach volleyball courts, street hockey rink, soccer field, extensive play structures, pavilions, picnic tables with grills, a water feature that turns on in the summer and rest room facilities.

Another benefit the homes in Bell Tavern have is that it sits inbetween Business Rt 30 and Rt 113.  So nearby you have Wawa, Wegmans, BJs, A.C. Moore, Pet Smart, Dicks, DSW, Steinmart, Orvis, 5 Below, Home Depot, Palace Bowling, Chuck-E-Cheese, Chick-fil-A, Chilis, Regal Cinema and more! (like that wasn't enough!)

Bell Tavern is in East Caln Township and is a part of the Downingtown School District as well.  Basically this is another amazing community in Downingtown Pa with a suburb location and top notch amenities as well!

Krista Fuchs, Realtor. Giving You The Attention You Deserve.

I can always be reached at (484) 459-8025.

Prudential Fox & Roach

(484) 875-2600

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Living in Williamsburg Subdivision in Downingtown Pa.

The neighborhood of Williamsburg in Downingtown Pa. spans both East Caln and Uwchlan townships in Chester County.  This special neighborhood has almost 500 homes and is able to maintain a small neighborhood feel where there are sidewalks throughout the community and the kids can just go outside to play.

There are three types of homes in the development and four subdivisions that make up Williamsburg.  Jefferson Grove, Madison Estates, Williamsburg and Uwchlan Woods subdivisions all make up the neighborhood of Williamsburg.  

Jefferson Grove consists of the Carriage Homes on Chiswell Drive and Burdette Drive.  The Carriage Homes have 3-4 bedrooms and range in square footage from 2000-3000 square feet.  They are larger than they appear from the outside and are close to one of the best amenities of the neighborhood - paved access to the Struble Trail off of Chiswell Dr.  The Carriage Homes are also only connected by a garage wall so they are true Carriage Homes not just large townhomes.

There are smaller single homes that make up the Williamsburg section of the neighborhood.  They are also 3-4 bedrooms and range in square footage from 1750-3000 square feet if the basements are finished.  Larger single family homes make up the Madison Estates and Uwchlan Woods sections with the Madison Estates homes having slightly larger lots.  The larger singles are 4-5 bedrooms and range in square footage from 2400-4200 square feet.

The Williamsburg subdivision is special for many reasons, two of them being it's proximity to the Rt. 30 bypass and the neighborhoods amenities.  The neighborhood is less than one mile from the Rt. 30 bypass but is well insulated from the traffic noise due to the heavily wooded older neighborhood that sits between the bypass and Williamsburg.

The amenities of the Williamsburg subdivision are impressive as well.  The neighborhood boasts a club house, swimming pool, playground, baseball field, basketball courts, paved access to the Struble Trail, sidewalks throughout the neighborhood and an active homeowners association that hosts community activities such as Easter Egg Hunts, Neighborhood Yard Sale and more.

If you have any questions about Williamsburg or other neighborhoods in the area I can always be reached at FuchsRealEstate@gmail.com or at (484) 459-8025

 Krista Fuchs, Realtor.  Giving You The Attention You Deserve.

I can always be reached directly at (484) 459-8025.

Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors (484) 875-2600

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

If your home would sell for up to ~$400,000 the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit can help you!  Research has shown that in Chester County the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit has helped homes up to $200,000 sell.  Homes in that price range have not gone down in value or in number of homes sold. 

So if this is your home NOW is the time to sell! 

There is a deadline of April 30th for First Time Home Buyers to take advantage of this tax credit!

Research has also shown that the tax credit has also trickled up to the $400,000 homes as well.  The value of these homes is slightly down along with the number being sold but it is trending upward the longer the tax credit is in effect.

There is also a second Home Buyer Tax Credit that offers up to $6500 to existing home owners that have lived in their home for five years or more when they purchase a new home. 

So now is a good time to Buy and Sell a home for Many people in Chester County.  If you'd like to see if now is the right time for you I'd be happy to let you know what your home would sell for and what is available for you to purchase.

Krista Fuchs, Realtor.  Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors, 232 Eagleview Blvd., Exton, Pa 19341.  (484) 875-2600. 

I can always be reached directly at (484) 459-8025

Real Estate in Chester County has softened in certain areas and price ranges but we certainly haven't suffered like some of the other parts of the country.  Most of the softening in our market is in the higher price ranges.  Not only have the prices softened but homes in the higher price ranges need to shine with the extras in order to sell.  Let's take a look and see how the homes in the $600,000-$800,000 price range did for the first 3 quarters of 2009.

Unfortunately you can see from the graph that homes in Chester County in the $600K-$800K price range had less sales this year than in the past 3 years.  It even looks as though this price range sold at a lower rate than in the other three years as well.  Let's see if these Sellers lowered their prices from previous years to help their cause.

Interestingly enough the average sales price is consistent with the past three years.   I'm sure if these Sellers lowered their prices they would have seen more sales. 

These numbers represent ALL of Chester County so if you would like me to research what is going on in your township specifically I would be happy to do that for you.  And you can find the data for the price ranges of $400K-$600K, $200K-$400K and $0-$200K by clicking on the links. 

Krista Fuchs, Realtor.  Giving You The Attention You Deserve.

I can always be reached directly at (484) 459-8025.

Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors

(484) 875-2600

The Real Estate market in 2009 for Chester County was not all bad, for sure.  My previous posts on the $0-$200K price range and the $200K-$400K price range showed that.  As we get into the higher price ranges we do see some softening of the market but overall Chester County has not seen any Real Estate bubble popping!

$400,000-$600,000

This price range has been a little tougher for the Sellers this season.   For all of my Sellers in this price range I always tell them "If you don't have to move you shouldn't be moving."   We didn't see much trickle up in the $200K-$400K price range so we're not going to see any here.  Let's take a look!

Unfortunately this graph shows us what Realtors in the field know of this price range; it's a tough one.  The graph shows that 2009 sold the least amount of homes in every month in the past three years.  Not a fun group to be in for sure.

But have these folks been lowering their prices to help their cause?  Let's see...

So the graph shows us that for the majority of the year, and in our Real Estate high season of the Spring/Summer, Sellers have lowered their prices a bit from the previous years.  I'm sure if we would have seen a larger gap in price differences we would have seen more sales in this category.   It's a tough pill to swallow but you really need to shine in this price range and higher in our area and if you're not shining your price needs to come down if you want to sell.

Next we'll take a look at $600K-$800K and see how they fared for the first three quarters of 2009.

Krista Fuchs, Realtor.  Giving You The Attention You Deserve.

I can always be reached directly at (484) 459-8025

Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors

(484) 875-2600

We have already seen the stats in the $0-$200,000 price range from my previous post so now lets take a look at the next level and see if we're seeing any trickle up effect.

$200,000-$400,000

This pricing group represents a smaller percentage of first time home buyers and mostly move up or downsizing buyers.

As you can see from this chart, 2009 had the slowest start but by June was catching up with the numbers from 2008.  Could this be the result of the $0-$200,000 group moving up?  Most likely.  But it could also be from homes in this price range coming down, so lets see.

This graph does show us that average sold prices are down from 2008.  They are very close though and if you really look, in the past 3 years they are only about $10,000 apart at most.  Chester County have been very lucky in this softening of the market.  We haven't seen significant drops, at least in this price range.

We'll look at the $400K-$600K price range next.  This has been a tough range for a lot of sellers for sure!

Krista Fuchs, Realtor.  Giving You The Attention You Deserve.

I can always be reached directly at (484) 459-8025.

Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors

(484) 875-2600

I recently posted a request on facebook for blog ideas and one smarty pants wanted to know when the market was going to come back up.  Well, if I knew that I'd be sipping a pina colada on a beach located on Krista Island!

But it did get me wondering how we are comparing this year to other years.  I know how we're doing this year but the specifics of other years are fuzzy so I researched the numbers to clear things up.

I split my research into pricing categories of $0-$200,000, $200,000-$400,000, $400,000-$600,000, $600,000-$800,000 and $800,000-$1,000,000.  I did this because when I see trends in the field I see them in price ranges mostly.

All of the numbers represent residential real estate in all of Chester County.

$0-$200,000

This price range is the "First Time Home Buyer" range and is usually strong.  This year, I think, it has shown more strength due to the Tax Credit involved.

As you can see from the chart 2006 and 2007 started off the same but 2007 ended lower.  2008 and 2009 started lower than 2006 and 2007 but 2009 surged up to 2006 levels with the data ending in September.  This surge was most likely due to the tax credit the government offered.  But was it also due to homeowners lowering their prices? Let's see!

This graph shows that home prices have been pretty constant for the past few years.  It also shows that home prices are on an upward trend this year.  In September of all the other years it shows the trend is downward but this year it upward! 

So I think it's pretty clear that the first time home buyer tax credit worked well in Chester County because home sales are up along with average sold prices in the $0-$200,000 group.

The goal of the tax credit was to get more people into the housing market with the hopes of the effects trickling upward in the market.  So stay tuned to see if that worked in Chester County PA!

 Krista Fuchs, Realtor  Giving You The Attention You Deserve

I can always be reached directly at 484.459.8025

Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors

484.875.2600

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I've had Growth Leader for some time now.  I have a bunch of prospects most of which have only been to my site once but I have some coming back occasionally, some emailing me and a couple I've been out with showing homes.

Currently I have one that is interested in a property I've shown him, has gotten preapproved and is currently getting his home appraised (mainly because he feels my cma was very low).  So this is good!

Before Growth Leader I was not set up online to capture leads well.  Growth Leader has really opened my eyes to how the internet can work for you if you set it up right.  You can read about how the internet can help your business until you're blue in the face and not realize it's potential until you connect with a real person captured from the internet.  I guess it was harder for me to realize because my main form of marketing was through my SOI and then referrals so I didn't have much print marketing prior to Growth Leader either.

I've been approached by several other lead generation websites/companies since I started with Growth Leader and have only joined one other and it's been horrible, I actually just canceled my account with them.  I'm really hoping I close at least one deal from Growth Leader so I can justify keeping it when it's no longer free for me!  I like the Vision website setup and ease of use and would recommend it to someone that is in the market for a lead generation website.

Still chuggin along!  The leads are still coming in and they are coming back over and over to my site even if they haven't responded to me personally. 

This week I had someone email me with interest in a property.  They didn't leave a phone number so I emailed back asking if they wanted to see the property or if they had any questions but no response. 

I took the Vision 201 webinar today and that answered a lot of my questions which was nice.

Overall, I'm enjoying the program and am getting into a groove of contacting leads and follow up.  Things are progressing so it's encouraging.

One thing I have to get better at is acting like I know who people are when they call me.  I have someone on my site signed on as M S and the other day the husband called and said "Hi, I'm Joe, Mary's husband." (pause) and I said "Yeeeesss?"  Then he said " Are you one of my wives friends that's a Realtor that's been sending us listing alerts? We love those listing alerts!"  So I went on to say that I'm happy they like the alerts and that his wife found me by signing up on my website. And then I asked him if there was anything I could help them with.  He then got a little cooler saying that they were going to do a drive by first and then get back to me.  I really think that if I responded different in the very beginning I could have gotten more info out of him and had him be more open to me.  So...lesson learned!