Market Overview

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Recap June 2011

It is a great time to sell a home or buy a home in the Chesterton Real Estate market!!

Median home prices have increased once again this to $214,900. While it is a slow increase since February 2011, the real estate market is doing a steady increase.

Along with the increased median prices, the average days it takes to sell in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market is decreasing. For June 2011, the average days on market before selling was 218, down 7 days from May 2011 at 225 days to sell.

This is a good indication for those selling homes in the Chesterton Indiana real estate that they will be able to sell their home faster for closer to their listed price than in previous months.

Buyers in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market can continue to review the median prices along with the average days on market to determine what position they will be in within the market when they become the seller in the coming years.

At this month’s median price of $214,900 you can expect:

• 3 Bedrooms
• 2 Bathrooms
• .25 – .50 acres
• 1,960 square footage

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Month At A Glance:

• 41 New Listings
• 32 Sold Listings 
• 233 Homes Listed
• 217 Average Days on Market

Do you or someone you know want to buy a home and/or sell a home in Chesterton Indiana?

Call or text 219-649-1296 or email me (jim@jimsimshomes.com) to help you get started!

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Recap June 16, 2011

Buying a home or selling a home in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market? One of the things to look at is the price per square feet of other comparable homes in your market.

The current price per square foot in Chesterton Indiana is $115.00. With this information buyers in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market can determine what size home they can afford.

For example, for those looking at a 3 bedroom home with 2 bathrooms, you can determine the approximate square footage based on the size of the rooms you are looking at. If the bedrooms are larger size then the square footage of the home may be larger as well.

If we look at the median square footage of 1940 and accompany this with the median price per square foot of $115.00, we can determine that the approximate price of the home would be in the range of $223,100.

At this week’s median price of $214,900 you can expect:

• 3 Bedrooms
• 2.5 Bathrooms
• .25 – .50 acres
• 1,940 square footage

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Week At A Glance:

• 14 New Listings
• 5 Sold Listings
• 233 Homes Listed
• 213 Average Days on Market

This is Chesterton Real Estate Recap June 16, 2011

Do you or someone you know want to buy a home and/or sell a home in Chesterton Indiana?

Call or text 219-649-1296 or email me (jim@jimsimshomes.com) to help you get started!

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Recap May 2011

The month of May proved to be successful in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market. With the increasing median price over the previous months of $205,000 to $214,600 in May.

Along with the higher median price for listed homes for sale in Chesterton Indiana real estate market, the number of days a home is listed for sale before selling has decreased from February’s average days on market of 255 to May’s 226 days.

This is a good indication for those selling homes in the Chesterton Indiana real estate that they will be able to sell their home faster for closer to their listed price than in previous months.

Buyers in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market can continue to review the median prices along with the average days on market to determine what position they will be in within the market when they become the seller in the coming years.

At this month’s median price of $214,600 you can expect:

• 3 Bedrooms
• 2 Bathrooms
• .25 – .50 acres
• 1,973 square footage

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Month At A Glance:

• 44 New Listings
• 32 Sold Listings 
• 224 Homes Listed
• 226 Average Days on Market

Do you or someone you know want to buy a home and/or sell a home in Chesterton Indiana?

Call or text 219-649-1296 or email me (jim@jimsimshomes.com) to help you get started!

Portage Indiana Real Estate Recap May 19, 2011

What price should a buyer in the Portage Indiana real estate market pay for a new home?

What price should a seller in the Portage Indiana real estate market sell their home at?

Both buyers and sellers in the Portage Indiana real estate market should be looking at the median listing price for these answers. The market is broken down into 4 quadrants which is broken down by the price accompanied with number of bedroom, bathrooms, square footage, etc.

For those selling a home or buying a home in the Portage Indiana real estate market, you will see the median list price of $150,900 comes with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and around 1780 square feet.

As you can see in the chart, the house you are looking to purchase will increase in price by the amount of square feet it has along with the bedrooms and bathrooms offered.

At this week’s median price of $150,900 you can expect:

• 3 Bedrooms
• 2 Bathrooms
• .25 – .50 acres
• 1,780 square footage

Portage Indiana Real Estate Week At A Glance:

• 12 New Listings
• 11 Sold Listings 
• 229 Homes Listed
• 224 Average Days on Market

This is Portage Indiana Real Estate Recap May 19 2011

Do you or someone you know want to buy a home and/or sell a home in Portage Indiana?

Call or text 219-649-1296 or email me (jim@jimsimshomes.com) to help you get started!

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Recap May 18, 2011

Buying a home or selling a home in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market? One of the things to look at is the price per square feet of other comparable homes in your market.

The current price per square foot in Chesterton Indiana is $116.00. With this information buyers in the Chesterton Indiana real estate market can determine what size home they can afford.

For example, for those looking at a 3 bedroom home with 2 bathrooms, you can determine the approximate square footage based on the size of the rooms you are looking at. If the bedrooms are larger size then the square footage of the home may be larger as well.

If we look at the median square footage of 1976 and accompany this with the median price per square foot of $116.00, we can determine that the approximate price of the home would be in the range of $229,216.

At this week’s median price of $214,999 you can expect:

• 3 Bedrooms
• 2 Bathrooms
• .25 – .50 acres
• 1,976 square footage

Chesterton Indiana Real Estate Week At A Glance:

• 10 New Listings
• 6 Sold Listings   
• 213 Homes Listed
• 234 Average Days on Market

This is Chesterton Real Estate Recap May 18, 2011

Do you or someone you know want to buy a home and/or sell a home in Chesterton Indiana?

Call or text 219-649-1296 or email me (jim@jimsimshomes.com) to help you get started!

What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: April 18th

This week is Holy Week which not only includes Palm Sunday, but also Spy Wednesday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Both the stock and bond market will likely be quiet with the celebration of the religious holiday.

Most all of the key economic reports this week are centered on the housing sector. It started with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) / Wells Fargo Housing Market Index this morning which showed builder sentiment slipped again.

On Tuesday, March Housing Starts and March Building Permits will be published. Mortgage Banker Association Mortgage Purchase Index and March Existing Home Sales will be released on Spy Wednesday. Holy Thursday will provide the Weekly Initial Claims and Continuing Claims, as well as reading on the April Philadelphia Fed Business Index and February FHFA Housing Price Index.

Until a week ago the overwhelming consensus in the markets was that the US economy would have a strong Q1 and optimism for the rest of the year was being touted as continued improvement. Over the past week investors were beginning to re-think the economic outlook and lowering expectations. It started with the IMF revising GDP Q1 growth lower from 2.0% to 1.5%; markets had accepted growth in Q1 at +3.0%.

The Fed’s Beige Book out last week, while remaining optimistic, showed indications that growth isn’t as powerful as markets were thinking. The National Federation of Independent Business overall index fell in April, taking the optimism that had improved since last October null and void.

The decline in consumer spending, until recently, have been ignored by investors. Even with gasoline and food prices increasing markets generally didn’t pay much attention that is until last week. $4.00+ gasoline prices and rapidly increasing food prices will, as we have continued to mention, slow consumer spending. With consumer spending less than expected and the housing markets still showing no signs of stabilizing, investors are getting a little nervous.

US stock and bond market will be closed on Good Friday. Therefore, expect many traders to exit early on Thursday as they will take advantage of an extended holiday weekend. The calendar this week has the following key economic reports:

This is What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: April 18th.

Quick general rule of thumb when keeping an eye on mortgage rates.

Strong Economic News: $$$ from Bonds —> Stocks = Home Loan Rates Worsen

Weak Economic News: $$$ from Stocks —> Bonds = Home Loan Rates Improve

If you or someone you know is thinking about buying a home, the combination of low home loan rates and affordable home prices make this an ideal time to buy a home. Want to know if you can afford a new home? Call or text me at 512-522-7284 to discuss your personal situation and your home loan options!

What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: April 11th

If you thought last week was a very tense time on Capitol Hill as politicians were willing to gamble on whether or not a budget could be agreed upon, this week might be the precurser to an all out battle royale over the 2012 fiscal budget.

President Obama is scheduled to speak on Wednesday as he will outline his 2012 budget after finally coming to aggrements to increase the debt limit. Besides spending cuts that will impact Medicare and Medicaid, it will be of extreme importance to learn how the US will increase tax revenues.

Speaking of raising money, the Treasury will auction $66 Billion of new notes and bonds beginning Tuesday.

The retail and manufacturing sector will be on center stage this week  with the release of March Retail Sales, March Producer Price Index, March Consumer Price Index, April Manufacturing Index, March Industional Production and March Capacity Utilization.

As gas prices have sky rocketed through out Northwest Indiana, inflation concerns continue to increase everywhere except at the Fed. Ben Bernanke believes the recent increase in raw prices and most all commodities as a transitory event. Bernanke is more concerned that the US economy is still fragile.

While that is the case, investors and the markets are moving out of fixed rate investments and into commodities especially gold as a hedge against what private markets increasingly believe, that inflation will get traction by the end of the year.

The current consensus is that the Fed will not begin to tighten their monetary policy until late this year. There are however increasing numbers of economic analysts that are beginning to adjust to rate hikes sooner. By the time the Fed actually does increase the Federal Funds Rate markets worldwide will have mostly adjusted for higher rates.

The mortgage bond market remains bearish. Look for continued pressure on mortgage rates to increase over the next several months. Mortgage rates are still sensitive to stock market direction, global unrest and most importantly inflation. The calendar this week has the following key economic reports:

This is What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: April 11th.

Quick general rule of thumb when keeping an eye on mortgage rates.

Strong Economic News: $$$ from Bonds —> Stocks = Home Loan Rates Worsen

Weak Economic News: $$$ from Stocks —> Bonds = Home Loan Rates Improve

If you or someone you know is thinking about buying a home, the combination of low home loan rates and affordable home prices make this an ideal time to buy a home. Want to know if you can afford a new home? Call or text me at 512-522-7284 to discuss your personal situation and your home loan options!

What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: April 4th

On the heels of another positive Employment Report this past Friday, McDonald’s announced this morning that it will hold it’s first national hiring day to fill 50,000 jobs. This should be a clear sign that large corporations are beginning to see positive signs for the overall economy.

Unlike the barrage of economic reports last week, there is not much this week in the way of economic reports.

The two economic reports of significance this week will be the release of the March ISM Services Sector Index and the details of February Consumer Credit. Recent spikes in oil prices have likely caused consumers to cut back on other spending. The level of borrowing using credit cards should be watched.

This week the European Central Bank (ECB) will meet with expectations that the bank will increase its base rate as inflation in Europe has pushed up above the ECB target of 2.0%.

The Federal Reserve will release on Tuesday the minutes from the last FOMC meeting on March 15th. Recently there has been an increase of the number of Fed officials that are wanting less easing and an end to Quantitative Easing 2 (QE 2).

Global base lending rates are increasing and the Fed will have to follow the pack soon in order to stay competitive. We do not expect the Fed will increase its base lending rate immediately; however, the first step will be ending QE 2, whether it ends prematurely is where the debate centers.

Mortgage rates are still sensitive to stock market direction, global duress and most importantly inflation talk. The calendar this week has the following key economic reports:

This is What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: April 4th.

Quick general rule of thumb when keeping an eye on mortgage rates.

Strong Economic News: $$$ from Bonds —> Stocks = Home Loan Rates Worsen

Weak Economic News: $$$ from Stocks —> Bonds = Home Loan Rates Improve

If you or someone you know is thinking about buying a home, the combination of low home loan rates and affordable home prices make this an ideal time to buy a home. Want to know if you can afford a new home? Call or text me at 512-522-7284 to discuss your personal situation and your home loan options!

What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: March 28th

March Madness continues and I’m not referring to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Although we should congratulate Butler University for being the first university in the state of Indiana to make it the Final Four in consecutive years.

Unlike last week there are events and data points everyday for the bond and mortgage markets to consider. This is employment week with the March Employment Report on Friday. Early expectations are for non-farm jobs to increase 185,000 with non-farm private jobs up 203,000. The unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 8.9%.

In the meantime February Personal Income and Spending was released earlier this morning in line with expectations. March Consumer Confidence will be released on Tuesday. Weekly Jobless Claims, along with the Chicago Purchasing Manufacturers Index will be announced on Thursday. Friday the ISM National Manufacturing Index will be released and take a back seat to the Employment Report.

Above and beyond the economic data this week, there will also be several Treasury Auctions. A combined $99 Billion in US Treasuries will be auctioned as follows: Tuesday $35 Billion of 2 yr notes, Wednesday $35 Billion of 5 yr notes and Thursday $29 Billion of 7 yr notes. Foreign participation and demand has been okay recently, but not quite as strong as auctions last year.

Recent better than expected earnings reports and relaxing of concerns from Japan has boosted equity markets and interest rate markets consequently are taking on a more negative technical pattern. We remain bearish for the outlook on rates, however we are not looking for rates to move substantially higher.

It should be noted that the primary reason the bond and mortgage markets rallied recently was over safety moves on the Japanese nuclear problems. That said, mortgage rates are still temporarily tied directly to stock market direction and global confusion. The calendar this week has the following key economic reports:

This is What’s News for Mortgage Rates This Week: March 28th.

Quick general rule of thumb when keeping an eye on mortgage rates.

Strong Economic News: $$$ from Bonds —> Stocks = Home Loan Rates Worsen

Weak Economic News: $$$ from Stocks —> Bonds = Home Loan Rates Improve

If you or someone you know is thinking about buying a home, the combination of low home loan rates and affordable home prices make this an ideal time to buy a home. Want to know if you can afford a new home? Call or text me at 512-522-7284 to discuss your personal situation and your home loan options!

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