Carl Junction MO Market Wrap Up for 2010

The real estate market in Carl Junction has been the driving factor in the City's ability to continue to decrease the property tax levy from 2000 through 2008 while at the same time spending on the order of 6 million dollars to build a new Police Department and City Court building then most recently the new Community Center and City Hall. In that same time the city has spent 100s of thousands of dollars in improvements to the parks, streets, water and wastewater systems.

The market has taken a hit the last 3 years in particular however. As the graph below illustrates Carl Junction suffered from the same problems those around us have in that the inventory of homes for purchase has gone up significantly since 2005 resulting in many more homes for sale than there are available buyers.

New construction took the major hit the last few years. From a high of 44 new homes sold in Carl Junction in 2006 there have only been 31 new homes sold for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 combined. Overall sales in Briarbrook have started to come back since the situation surrounding the golf course has started to settle down but new construction has yet to see much of a comeback. There was some inventory that needed to be sold but in 2006 there were a total of 18 new homes sold in Briarbrook whereas there have been only 21 new homes sold in Briarbrook in the years since then combined. New construction has started to tick back up though so hopefully 2011 will see new home sales start to make a come back.

How does this impact my taxes? Building and selling new homes adds to the total property valuation of the city. Selling existing homes with appreciating prices also increases the total valuation for the city. If the total valuation for personal and real property taxes goes up faster than the rate of increase in city expenditures, then the property tax rate can be (and has been) dropped. With the contraction in the market and prices of the last few years, coupled with the lack of new construction, the total valuation has fallen though, creating a need to increase the property tax levy in order to meet city expenditures, even though the actual budget for the city has not increased that much (the City budget has averaged 4.65% increase per year over the last 6 years. The inflation rate has averaged 2.44% over that same period). (Note: Federal spending during this same time average over 7.5% during this time and has been over 10% the last 2 years.)

What does the future look like? Interest rates are still at an all time low. House prices are as affordable as they've been in 30 years or so. If the economy starts to gain some momentum 2011 could be a good year for Carl Junction. The bottom line is that if you need to sell you still have to make sure that your house is in top condition and priced "in" the market as opposed to just being on the market. If you need to buy, then there's been no better time than now and waiting is no guarantee that it will get better. Have a great 2011!