March 3, 2008

Interest Rates fell last week to 5.50% for a 30 year fixed on February 29, 2008. But are up again the morning to 5.625%. Lenders, quite frankly are not helping the market right now. There are a large number of qualified buyers out there. We have heard through the grapevine that one major lender is going to be buying down the rate slightly on home purchase loans. That is very good news.

There are several good signs about the real estate market here in Owatonna.

Current real estate listing inventory - 209 active listings in Owatonna as of today. The active listing count has drpped slightly. The fact that the active listing count has not climbed is a good thing for home sellers. As we have posted in the past, 175-180 lostings would be a fairly balanced market in Owatonna. We currently are still in a buyers market but not as severly as June-July 2007. There are still a wonderful deals out there for buyers to jump on. We are including links to two of those properties here.
455 Fairview,Owatonna $119,900 , 1340 Autumn Dr, Owatonna, MN

The number of pending listings remained stable at 26 houses. This is also a good sign as we continue to see the pending count stay stable and not fall.

There have been 30 properties Closed so far in 2008. We continue to see the closed listing count rise slowly. That is very good.

We started posting several new reports here last week and will continue with those. They are comparison charts for the active, pending & sold listings. Please take a look and let us know what you think of these. Active Comparison Chart - Pending Comparison Chart - Closed Comparison Chart . We are already getting good feedback on the new charts.

Our main web site http://bartleygroup.com/ set a record again in February for the most number of unique visitors and the most number of visits since the inception of the site. We are hoping that is an indication of the increased interest in the Owatonna Real Estate market. Even this past weekend was very good and weekends are usually the slowest time of the week for our websites. We will continue to watch and report.

Please continue to give us feedback via comments here, by phone 507-390-2121 or email us, mailto:info@BartleyGroup.com

February 29, 2008

Interest Rates fell this week to 5.75% for a 30 year fixed on February 22, 2008. Lenders, quite frankly are not helping the market right now. There are a large number of qualified buyers out there. We have heard through the grapevine that one major lender is going to be buying down the rate slightly on home purchase loans. That is very good news.

There are several good signs about the real estate market here in Owatonna.

Current real estate listing inventory - 212 active listings in Owatonna as of today. The active listing count has remained stable the last few weeks. The fact that the active listing count has not climbed dramatically is a good thing for home sellers. As we have posted in the past, 175-180 lostings would be a fairly balanced market in Owatonna. We currently are still in a buyers market but not as severly as June-July 2007. There are still a wonderful deals out there for buyers to jump on. We are including links to two of those properties here.
455 Fairview,Owatonna $119,900 , 1340 Autumn Dr, Owatonna, MN

The number of pending listings remained stable at 26 houses. This is also a good sign as we continue to see the pending count stay stable and not fall.

There have been 29 properties Closed so far in 2008. We continue to see the closed listing count rise slowly. That is very good.

We are posting several new reports here starting today. They are comparison charts for the active, pending & sold listings. Please take a look and let us know what you think of these. Active Comparison Chart - Pending Comparison Chart - Closed Comparison Chart . We will continue to post new statistics and charts here.

Buyers are continuing to purchase homes and as we see interest rates creep down again we will see more buyers come off the fence and complete a purchase. Home sellers the questions to ask yourselves are these: Am I ready to sell now or am I just waiting for the market to turn? Are buyers finding the price attractive enough to write an Offer to Ourchase? If the answers to these questions are "NO" or "I'm not sure", then you aren't a true seller. Our current market is a very proactive market, we need to do things that will capture the attention of the buying public.

Please continue to give us feedback via comments here, by phone 507-390-2121 or email us, mailto:info@BartleyGroup.com

February 25, 2008

Interest Rates rose again today to 6.125% for a 30 year fixed on February 22, 2008. Lenders, quite frankly are not helping the market right now. There are a large number of qualified buyers out there. We have heard through the grapevine that one major lender is going to be buying down the rate slightly on purchases. That is very good news.

Current listing inventory - 211 active listings in Owatonna as of today. The active listing count has remained stable the last few weeks and that is a good sign because we have seen the pending count climb. Open houses on Saturday were awesome, all 3 members of our group hosted Open Houses and we had traffic through all of the houses. That is a great sign that things are picking up.

The number of pending listings remained at 26 houses. Again this is a good sign as we continue to see the pending count rise it means homes are receiving acceptable offers to purchase.

There have been 25 properties Closed so far in 2008. The under $200,000 market has been the strongest so far this year. Almost 80% of the homes sold so far in 2008 have fallen in this price range. Only 4 homes above $209,900 have closed in 2008.

Please continue to give us feedback via comments here, by phone 507-390-2121 or email us, mailto:info@BartleyGroup.com

February 22,2008

Interest Rates rose to 6.0% for a 30 year fixed on February 22, 2008. Lenders have not been willing to lower rates right now, but we did hear today that one major lender is going to be concentrating efforts on purchases rather that re-fis. That is very good news.

Current listing inventory - 210 active listings in Owatonna as of today. Showings have begun to pick up again and we are hoping for a good turnout at Open Houses tomorrow.
The number of pending listings remained rose slightly this week to 26 houses. Again this is a good sign as we continue to see the pending count rise it means homes are receiving acceptable off to purchase. There have been 24 properties Closed so far in 2008. The under $200,000 market has been the strongest so far this year. Almost 80% of the homes sold so far in 2008 have fallen in this price range. Only 3 homes above $209,900 have closed in 2008. If your home is on the market and you are just over that $200,000 price break (and I know there are a few of you out there, I've looked at the active listings), it might be a good idea to talk with your real estate professional about a new price

We are still working on some new format for the documents we post here as well as some additional statistics. Please continue to give us feedback via comments here, by phone 507-390-2121 or email us, mailto:info@BartleyGroup.com

Truly Blessed! A Time of Reflection.

I was sitting at my desk this morning working on the computer when one of my partners (Todd) arrived at the office. Now mind you that my partners are Susan (my wife) and Todd (our son-in-law). Todd had in tow his son (our grandson) Thomas (almost 7) who had just been diagnosed with strep throat at the doctors office and couldn't go back to school or to day care. Thomas walked into our office, dropped his coat on Susan's desk, kicked off his boots next to my desk and crawled up on my lap. He proceeded to sit there while I reached around him on each side so I could still reach the keyboard. I answered a multitude of questions on what I was doing & why and explained why we couldn't go to Leggo.com right then. After sitting with me a while he hopped down and began to rummage in our office and desk drawers for things to make his 1st grade science project with. After unloading several drawers, there was a collection of items that he began to construct with.

All of this activity got me to thinking about how Truly Blessed I really am.

Every day I have the opportunity to work with the love of my life. While we may occasionally have a differing opinion on marketing strategy or open house schedules, we have an exceptional working relationship. I am allowed to spend the entire day with my wife, not just a few minutes in the morning in front of the mirror or in the evening after battling traffic and ugly road conditions. I am Truly Blessed.

We have an excellent working relationship with Todd (at least I think so, lol). He has brought a new enthusiam and energy to our team. Answering his questions make Susan & I take a hard look at look at what we are doing, and helps us keep on track and sometimes re-discover things we have done in the past that worked but we had forgotten about. We work with a family member that will do what it takes to get the job done and that we can trust to do it right.
We are Truly Blessed.

My daughter Jennifer worked part time this past summer with us and that was very special. Imagine, commuting to work with your wife and daughetr! Jennifer was a joy to have with us, she set up a complete profile for us on MYSPACE, http://www.myspace.com/bartleygroup , created a slide show of our listings, uploaded photos, delivered flyers, wrote property descriptions and all the time with a smile on her face. She helped get this Blog from a large text page to what we have now, worked with me on PodCasting (on which I've been lax since she went back to school), and even came back on semester break for several days to get us caught up on some things. I am Truly Blessed.

All 4 of our kids and both of our grandkids understand what we do and how that affects our lives. They understand that plans may change with a moments notice bucause of a last minute showing, dinner plans may be delayed because the funds didn't get wired in time for a late closing, or we may have to take phone calls at strange hours to accomodate out of state buyers. Thomas has been to more open houses in his young life than some real estate agents make it to in a carreer & hi sister Molly has been to her share as well. Katie, Stephen & Jennifer have helped host homes during parades and special promotions, they have all helped us to move trash, clean house, move in staging materials, deliver flyers, etc., etc., etc., all without complaint. We are Truly Blessed.

Real estate has been good to us over the years and we have had the opportunity to meet and work with a number of wonderful people. From past clients that have become close friends, to sub-contractors, to other real estate professionals. We have had the opportunity to be associated with truly remarkable individuals. We are Truly Blessed.

So even if the market is a little slower that we might like it to be, homes are still selling, they are just taking a little longer to sell. Even if the weather has been brutal this winter. Even with some of the aches & pains of getting older. I think of that young man crawling up on my lap this morning and smile an think. I am Truly Blessed.

Respectfully,
Brian Bartley
The Bartley Group