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Johnson County, IA Real Estate News

By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Coralville City Council Meeting November 22, 2016Bridgewater Development PUD Site Plan ApprovedBack in September I wrote about attending my first Council Meeting in Coralville as a resident specifically interested in the Bridgewater Development. At the time, residents living on the access road put forward a strong case with regard to Part 4 of the Bridgewater Development. The site plan at the time involved putting 4 apartment buildings, each with 36 units in a neighborhood that otherwise only has single family homes. The residents also voiced their concerns about the amount of traffic that would be generated by multi-family housing in an environment that until now has been single family homes. Were their concerns heard? The answer to that question is probably yes and no.The Developers c...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Residents Have Their Say At Public Hearing ~ Bridgewater Development, Coralville IAA couple of weeks ago I got a letter from the City of Coralville informing me of a proposed development in an area that backs up to my house and my neighborhood. It was a two liner, and included a plan of the proposed Bridgewater Development. I'm a Realtor®. I'm also a Homeowner. I was a bit torn about what I thought about this plan. (2 lines is hardly enough info to form an opinion on). On the one side I often walk in that neighborhood and with my Realtor® hat on had often wondered what the hold up was in developing what is a prime piece of land in a prime Coralville location. On the other hand, as a homeowner I'm not fussed on the idea of having the view of my wooded back yard spoilt with apartments abo...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
What are the top 3 emotional reasons to buy a house or condo in Coralville? I had to take off my Realtor® hat for this and think really hard why I think Coralville is such a great place to live and what it is that I appreciate most about the town I live in. Walking and Biking Trails in CoralvilleFirstly, I want to say that if you like to walk, which I do, Coralville offers lots of opportunities for that. For a small town of approximately 20,000 residents we have a really good selection of parks and walking and biking trails. Not to mention, just walking around the tree lined neighborhoods is a pretty walk on its own. I'm fortunate enough to live about a five minute walk from the Brown Deer Golf Club and often I find myself walking along the Brown Deer Neighborhoods, looking at the lovel...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
How's the real estate market doing in the Iowa City area now that Labor Day is here and we're officially saying goodbye to summer? Today's market statistics look at August and the year to date in the Iowa City area. I'm including the number of homes sold in Coralville and North Liberty too, since these three areas flow into one another as part of the greater Iowa City area. Also, including all three areas illustrates just how local real estate is. Even though Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty share boundaries with one another the stats don't look the same for all three areas. Snapshot of Homes Sold January - September 5, 2016 Homes Sold in Iowa City ~ Market Snapshot September 5, 2016 112 homes sold in Iowa City in August 2016 compared to 90 homes sold in August 2015. That's an i...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Many home buyers relocating to Iowa City end up in Coralville, myself included. Why do you suppose that is? I've written before about the many advantages of Relocating to Iowa City. Today I want to look at what makes Coralville such a great place to live. Living in Coralville ~ Location, Location, Location!There are a couple of very big advantages to living in Coralville. The first is the easy access to the Interstate. This is a huge advantage if your daily commute requires a trip to Cedar Rapids or North Liberty. Coralville is also just 20 minutes away from The Eastern Iowa Airport, a 3 - 4 hour drive to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and about the same distance from Chicago. In other words it's strategically well positioned for a multitude of reasons for residents of all ages - students...
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By Karen Feltman, Relocation Specialist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
(Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, IA KW Legacy Group)
This is a wonderful annual event organized by the Iowa City Area Association of Realtors to benefit the Friends of the Animal Center Foundation.  Bring your pets for a wash or a nail trim.  Please bring proof of rabies vaccination as well for the protection of the volunteers.  Located at 812 S. 1st Avenue in Iowa City on Sunday August 7th from 12:00-4:00 pm. I look forward to seeing you there with your dogs! Keep smiling! Karen
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Iowa City Weather - Wait 5 Minutes and it Will Change...When I relocated to the Iowa City area back in 2000 the weather was a big concern for me. I was moving from a temperate middle European climate to Iowa that was known for its hot temps in the summer and oh so much snow in the winter. Did Iowa live up to my expectations? 16 years later I can say, sort of. I'm still not a big fan of the Iowan winters, but on the whole we don't get as much snow as I expected. And it doesn't stick around that long. In fact, there's a saying that I heard for the first time after moving to the Mid West. "If you don't like the weather in Iowa, wait 5 minutes, it will change."  That about sums it up. The highs are very high and the lows are very low. And you can never be sure what's coming next. It's not u...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Home Sales in North Liberty January - September 2014 Home Sales in North Liberty are down by 15% for the year. Buyers have had a hard time finding homes to buy in North Liberty this year with an extremely low inventory of homes on the market during the peak selling time of the year. The biggest shortfall is with condos. Condo sales in North Liberty are down 37.5% for the year. 17 of the 126 homes currently listed as active on the MLS are condos. That's an incredibly low number of condos for sale in North Liberty right now. Especially when you consider just how important the condo market is in North Liberty. The chart shows home sales in North Liberty from January through September. It includes what I'm calling the "market movers" - Single Family Homes, Condos and Zero Lots. These are th...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Home Sales in Coralville January - September 2014 Home Sales in Coralville are down slightly for the year and up for the last quarter, with a surge in September when almost twice as many homes sold in Coralville as last year. The chart shows home sales in Coralville from January through September. It includes what I'm calling the "market movers" - Single Family Homes, Condos and Zero Lots. These are the styles / types of homes that make up the bulk of the residential home sales in Coralville. A quick glance will tell you right away that both single family homes and zero lots were and still are in short supply for the many buyers out and about looking for homes this year.  All the indicators show that Coralville is trending towards a sellers market. There are just 87 listings showing as ...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Halloween is just around the corner and they certainly know how to rise to the occasion at Wilson's Orchard!  All through October the focus is on family fun at this part nature park, part orchard right here in Iowa City. The highlights of the month are the Pumpkin Festival and Trick-Or-Treat Weekend as we head towards the spookiest night of the year. Pumpkin Festival at Wilson's Orchard Saturday October 18: - 10.00 am - 6.00 pm Sunday October 19 - 10.00 am - 6.00 pm Hunt for the biggest pumpkin or  guess the weight of pumpkins for a chance to win prizes. Find a nice big pumpkin for the kids and have them carve it right there at the carving station and let someone else clean up the mess!  Activities from 12.00 - 4.00 pm. Trick or Treat Weekend Wilson's Orchard Saturday October 25 -  10.0...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
  Market Reports for Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty IA, January - December 2013 As we head towards spring and the top months of the year for listing homes it will be very important to sellers to know what's going on in the market place. Real estate is local. Sellers need to know what buyers are buying. These market reports will give you a good starting point to see where the real estate market is at in your town. Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty are all very close together with lots of shared boundaries. That doesn't mean it's possible to put them in one big melting pot when it comes to real estate market trends. Real estate is indeed local and the more local you look at the numbers, the better idea you will get of what you can expect when you put your house on the market. ...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
If you're looking for something fun to do this weekend The Iowa City Jazz Festival is the place to be. I stopped by after my closing yesterday and it was already very busy. It's a weekend of family Fun at the Iowa City Jazz Festival with something for everyone. Jazz fans will love the music. The kids will love the activities, (including a fake skating rink this year). And of course the ever popular Culinary Row is a hit with everyone with culinary choices from all over the globe. The sign that caught my attention yesterday was the one advertising Iowa's largest brat! :) You'll find a full schedule of events for the Iowa City Jazz Festival 2013 on my website denisehamlin.com    
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
Most real estate agents will tell you it's always a good time to list your home for sale. The question is - Is it really? Does it really make sense to list your home for sale over the Holidays when you know the buyer pool will be smaller? After all, many buyers will postpone their home buying plans until after the Holiday Season. What are the chances of the right buyer coming by and putting an offer on your home? There are no easy answers to those questions so let me throw out a few things to think about. The most important factor is that listing a home is a disruptive, intrusive time and definitely not something you want to do if you're not committed to the idea of selling your home. Notice that I do say motivated the sell your home. That's because at this time of the year if you do ge...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
What do you know about Tiffin? Unless you live there probably not a lot. Tiffin is about 4 miles west of Coralville. It's a rural area with A LOT of new construction in the works. According to the 2010 Census there is a population of 1,947 in Tiffin - That's twice as many people than in the 2000 Census and that trend is likely to continue when you look at the rate the land is being developed in Tiffin. A big draw that Tiffin has going for it is that it's home to the  Clear Creek Amana Middle School and High School. This makes it a very popular choice for families looking for a home in a more rural setting with access to necessary amenities. (After all, one of the drawbacks parents living in rural areas have is the amount of time they spend driving their kids back and forth to after scho...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
From my Snapshot of Home Sales in North Liberty at the beginning of the month you know that home sales in North Liberty are up for the year.  Today I have a graph and some numbers to share with you - I always think visual aids are helpful when it comes to processing data. The graph shows the number of homes sold and median price of homes sold in North Liberty January through September 2012 compared to 2011. Home sales were down a bit in February and July, but that doesn't change the fact that home sales are up 20% for the year in North Liberty. Home Prices are also looking good in North Liberty with no major highs and lows on this graph. On the whole home prices in North Liberty are trending higher than last year, (the only real deviation from that being in March).   Click through to th...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
How's the real estate market in Coralville doing? From my Snapshot of Home Sales in Coralville at the beginning of the month you know that home sales are up for the year.  Today I have a graph and some numbers to share with you to give you more to go on for the real estate market in Coralville . The graph shows the number of homes sold and median price of homes sold in Coralville January through September 2012 compared to 2011. You'll notice that unlike Iowa City there are some strong high and low points when it comes to home prices in Coralville. I live in Coralville and probably know this market best of all for the areas I cover. I think that the high and low points have more to do with what type of homes sold in any given month rather than any real hike or drop in prices in Coralvill...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
At the beginning of the month I wrote a post with a general overview of the Iowa City real estate market for the year. Today I have a graph and some numbers to share with you giving you more insights on the real estate market in Iowa City. 743 homes sold in the first 9 months of the year. That's a 16% increase compared to the same time frame in 2011. The average and median price of homes sold is also up. The average price is up by 5%. The median price by 4%. The graph shows the median price of homes sold January through September 2012 compared to 2011. The original post on my website includes a table that shows both the average and median prices. It didn't make sense to put more trending lines on the graph so I skipped putting the average price on the graph. That would only have confuse...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
After looking at home sales in Coralville and Iowa City, I pulled data from the Iowa City MLS to see how home sales in North Liberty are shaping up for the year. Home sales in North Liberty - January 1 through September 30, 2012 Number of homes sold in North Liberty so far this year is up 19.5% compared to 2011 Single family home sales are up by almost 17% - 195 single family homes sold in 2012 compared to 167 in 2011 Condo Sales are up by almost 9%. - 136 condos sold in 2012 compared to 125 in 2011 Zero Lot sales are up by a huge 43.5% - 122 zero lots sold in 2012 compared to 85 in 2011 The average price of a single family home in North Liberty is up by 7% for the year. If you prefer to look at the median price it's up by 8%. This is a very broad look at the data. In the coming weeks I...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
There is no doubt that the real estate market in the Iowa City area is improving, but there are still plenty of homes that failed to sell this year. Mostly this is due to too high expectations of the market. How can you as a seller avoid that? Funnily enough, it's really not that hard. The hardest part is for you as a proud homeowner to disconnect your emotions from the sale of your home. You need to start thinking of your home as a house. Once it's a house it becomes easier to be more objective and make the right decisions - The decisions that will get your home sold in today's market in the Iowa City area. 3 Easy Steps to Getting Your Home Sold in the Iowa City Area 1. Decide just how much you want to move If you're relocating out of state there's no question you're motivated. Selling...
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By Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner, Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices
(Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268)
What does Aborption Rate mean? How will knowing the Absorption Rate help sell your home in the Iowa City area? Real Estate Professionals throw around a lot of terms that don't mean a lot to sellers. Absorption Rate is one of them. The Absorption Rate is a calculation that tells us how long it will take for the market to "absorb" or sell homes based on current market conditions. More specifically, to calculate the Absorption Rate, we look at the number of homes currently on the market and calculate the length of time it will take those homes to sell if homes continue to sell at the current rate. The resulting number is the Absorption Rate. How does that help you as a seller? Well, the first thing it does is give you an idea about what's happening on the market. It helps to set realistic ...
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