Happy Spring!!! We hope this newsletter finds you excited that we are now officially in spring and looking forward to all of the activities that brings. The kids are counting down the days until the end of school and for those of us with school-aged kids, spring break is here. Summer break follows shortly thereafter. Lots of memories to be created!
Speaking of memories created, we are celebrating our team since we are all moving forward to exciting times with our lives. Thea is looking forward to spending more time with her son, however she will still be working with a few clients this year. Kylie is looking forward to helping our office in an administrative role while she continues working on launching her healthcare company. Mark who is our virtual assistant will take a bit of a break and then work with other real estate clients to help them like he did with us. Mark was a whiz at editing our intro video and newsletter. You will see some changes starting next month as we transition over to our new team and communications. I will still record my video, but the paper newsletters will go away and you will be receiving an electronic version. We hope you like the new one!!!
We had a great time at our March Happy Hour!!! Loved seeing everyone and so many new faces!!! Don’t worry, we will be continuing the Happy Hours so you can look forward to attending those and if you haven’t been to one yet, come on out as our next one will be on Thursday, April 18th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s. Hope to see you there!!! FYI-I will be in Orlando at All-Star Worlds Cheerleading competition with Brigid and Tali as Tali defends their world champion title. Will let you know how she does. Lots more teams are competing so the competition will be fierce!
Lots of talk about the commission settlement! I talk about this in my video, so hope you will take some time to watch it. Bottom line, starting July 1st, it is law that before a buyer’s agent can show you a house, you must have an Exclusive Buyer Agency Agreement approved. This is a huge change. Also, buyers are responsible for paying their agent now, however they can ask the seller to cover this cost in an offer. I suspect many sellers will still see the benefit in offering compensation to a buyer’s agent and will still do so, but it will be done slightly differently. Contrary to what President Biden said, this will have ZERO impact to real estate prices. Those are continuing to go up and will do so for the foreseeable future. Interest rates are not projected to be below 6.4% now vs. 5.8% as predicted earlier this year. Lots of changes and LOTS of misinformation. If you have questions about any of this, please call me-317-339-7698. Happy to get into more details and answer any questions you have.
As for me, again I am not retiring!!! Please call me with any real estate needs. I still have a great team to help you or anyone you care about. I will also be doing some coaching and training and am very excited about that. If you know of an agent struggling with all of these changes, send them my way. Would love to help them navigate these new rules and become more successful!
Here are some stats from MIBOR on the 17 counties is tracks comparing February 2024 to January 2024:
Median Sales Price-$280,000-no change
Closed Sales-1,883 units-UP 17.8%
New Listings-2,450 units-UP 18.8%
Pending Sales-2,436 units-UP 10.7%
Median Days on Market-16 days-DOWN 46.7%
Average Days on Market-48 days-DOWN 15.4%
Price per s.f.-$151-UP 2.0%
% of List Price Received-97.4%-UP 0.2%
Active Inventory-3,247 units-DOWN 13.7%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.7 months-DOWN 26.7%
These numbers are all trending toward an even tighter seller’s market and I expect it will only get worse as spring continues. Call me if you or someone you care about needs help navigating these turbulent real estate waters!!!
Click here to read our April newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!!
Friday, March 22, 2024
Saturday, February 24, 2024
March 2024 Newsletter
Welcome to March and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! We wish you the ‘luck o’ the Irish’ and hope you are looking forward, like us, to some spring weather!
As you should have heard via our video we sent out a couple weeks ago, the social media announcement and the letter we mailed about a week ago, there are some BIG changes coming to our team. We are extremely excited for some new opportunities for each of us that change is bringing. Thank you to everyone who has reached out via social media, text, phone call, e-mail, or in-person for the extremely supportive words of encouragement. One thing I want to be absolutely clear on and that is I am not retiring! In case you missed our big news, here is a breakdown.
Thea, as most of you know had her first child last May and has decided that staying home to raise her son is what she is being called to do. We are so excited for her and her family and know that she will love spending more time with Parks. Thea will continue to work with our buyers currently under contract and buyers currently looking for homes. We will ensure all of our buyers continue to receive the same outstanding service they have become accustomed to receiving!
Kylie is going to start a health company. This has been a dream of hers for over 10-years and we are excited she is following that dream and wish her all the best in her next chapter. If you have worked with our team in the past 10-years, you have experienced Kylie’s work and know just how detailed and systematized she truly is. She has been such an amazing asset to our clients for the past 10-years.
Our virtual assistant Mark helps Kylie behind the scenes working on reports, social media posts, video editing, website work and communications. He has been given the opportunity to get into management at his company. Mark has been such a great addition to our team and we are so fortunate to have been able to work with him for the past 3-years.
So, that leaves me! I have been called to coaching and training. It is something I have wanted to do for the past 3-years and many people have encouraged me to be a coach. I developed a curriculum that doesn’t exist anywhere that will help real estate agents provide a higher level of service to their clients, while making quite a bit more money; clients get a much better experience; and the vendor partners involved in the transaction get more work and provide a higher level of service as well being a part of this program. It is truly a triple win! I am excited to teach this on a national level!
So, our team is going to partner with The James Embry Team and combine forces. I will be a Senior Partner. You will still hear from me regularly and I will still be available to answer questions, provide insight on the market, and be involved in real estate. I just won’t be directly selling. Again, I am NOT retiring! I have known James for over 20-years as he and I worked at my dad’s company CENTURY 21 Realty Group I and then at Keller Williams. James and his team are outstanding and are the #1 team in our office. We have shared the high expectations our clients have become accustomed to and they are committed to ensuring those are met.
Our official transition date is April 1st. Like Thea, I will continue to work with our pending transactions as well as sellers who are active and going on the market before April 1st. I will also be helping a few sellers with whom I have been helping prepare to go on the market. We have been planning this transition for over 3-months to ensure it is as smooth as possible.
I will still be sending out our monthly newsletter and video and will look forward to celebrating your birthdays and anniversaries with you as well! You know those are my favorite calls to make! I will share how things are going in our new ventures in those monthly communications.
The one thing I am happiest about most is that all of us are following our dreams. Truly, I wish that for everyone. Every single person deserves to follow their dreams. We absolutely adore our clients and are so protective of them…some for 3 generations! When you, or someone you care about is thinking about buying a new home, selling your current one, building a home, investing in real estate or need to find an excellent agent outside of Indianapolis, please call me!! We will continue to take great care of you/them.
Please do call and stay in touch-317-339-7698. I always love hearing from you!!!
Finally, we sure hope you will come to our March Happy Hour sponsored by Walla Painting. We are moving it up a week this month to the 2nd Thursday of March, the 14th from 5-6:30pm due to March Madness starting on March 21st. Please RSVP to Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. This will be an opportunity to say farewell to Kylie and Thea and we hope you will stop by. I will still be hosting our Happy Hours and will look forward to seeing you the rest of the year!
As always, here are the MIBOR stats for the 16 counties around Indy comparing January 2024 to December 2023:
Median Sales Price=$280,000 UP 0.4%
Closed Sales=1,589 units DOWN 23.6%
New Listings=2,052 units UP 30.5%
Pending Sales=2,343 units UP 38.6%
Median Days on Market=31 days DOWN 1.6%
Average Days on Market=57 UP 4.6%
Price per s.f.=$148 NO CHANGE
% of List Price Received=97.2% DOWN 0.2%
Active Inventory=3,325 units DOWN 21.2%
Months Supply of Inventory= 2.1 months UP 3.1%
These numbers are all indicating that our market is heating back up from winter and we are already seeing some very big numbers in new listings, showings and multiple offers. The biggest wild card is The Fed and if they will hold steady on the rates or if they will start cutting them as was expected a couple of months ago. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are predicting 30-year fixed conforming mortgage rates will hit 5.8% by the end of this year. We will see if that plays out. Hold on tight as this spring is gearing up to be very busy!!
Click here to read our St. Patrick's Day edition of our newsletter.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please continue not keeping us a secret!!!
As you should have heard via our video we sent out a couple weeks ago, the social media announcement and the letter we mailed about a week ago, there are some BIG changes coming to our team. We are extremely excited for some new opportunities for each of us that change is bringing. Thank you to everyone who has reached out via social media, text, phone call, e-mail, or in-person for the extremely supportive words of encouragement. One thing I want to be absolutely clear on and that is I am not retiring! In case you missed our big news, here is a breakdown.
Thea, as most of you know had her first child last May and has decided that staying home to raise her son is what she is being called to do. We are so excited for her and her family and know that she will love spending more time with Parks. Thea will continue to work with our buyers currently under contract and buyers currently looking for homes. We will ensure all of our buyers continue to receive the same outstanding service they have become accustomed to receiving!
Kylie is going to start a health company. This has been a dream of hers for over 10-years and we are excited she is following that dream and wish her all the best in her next chapter. If you have worked with our team in the past 10-years, you have experienced Kylie’s work and know just how detailed and systematized she truly is. She has been such an amazing asset to our clients for the past 10-years.
Our virtual assistant Mark helps Kylie behind the scenes working on reports, social media posts, video editing, website work and communications. He has been given the opportunity to get into management at his company. Mark has been such a great addition to our team and we are so fortunate to have been able to work with him for the past 3-years.
So, that leaves me! I have been called to coaching and training. It is something I have wanted to do for the past 3-years and many people have encouraged me to be a coach. I developed a curriculum that doesn’t exist anywhere that will help real estate agents provide a higher level of service to their clients, while making quite a bit more money; clients get a much better experience; and the vendor partners involved in the transaction get more work and provide a higher level of service as well being a part of this program. It is truly a triple win! I am excited to teach this on a national level!
So, our team is going to partner with The James Embry Team and combine forces. I will be a Senior Partner. You will still hear from me regularly and I will still be available to answer questions, provide insight on the market, and be involved in real estate. I just won’t be directly selling. Again, I am NOT retiring! I have known James for over 20-years as he and I worked at my dad’s company CENTURY 21 Realty Group I and then at Keller Williams. James and his team are outstanding and are the #1 team in our office. We have shared the high expectations our clients have become accustomed to and they are committed to ensuring those are met.
Our official transition date is April 1st. Like Thea, I will continue to work with our pending transactions as well as sellers who are active and going on the market before April 1st. I will also be helping a few sellers with whom I have been helping prepare to go on the market. We have been planning this transition for over 3-months to ensure it is as smooth as possible.
I will still be sending out our monthly newsletter and video and will look forward to celebrating your birthdays and anniversaries with you as well! You know those are my favorite calls to make! I will share how things are going in our new ventures in those monthly communications.
The one thing I am happiest about most is that all of us are following our dreams. Truly, I wish that for everyone. Every single person deserves to follow their dreams. We absolutely adore our clients and are so protective of them…some for 3 generations! When you, or someone you care about is thinking about buying a new home, selling your current one, building a home, investing in real estate or need to find an excellent agent outside of Indianapolis, please call me!! We will continue to take great care of you/them.
Please do call and stay in touch-317-339-7698. I always love hearing from you!!!
Finally, we sure hope you will come to our March Happy Hour sponsored by Walla Painting. We are moving it up a week this month to the 2nd Thursday of March, the 14th from 5-6:30pm due to March Madness starting on March 21st. Please RSVP to Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. This will be an opportunity to say farewell to Kylie and Thea and we hope you will stop by. I will still be hosting our Happy Hours and will look forward to seeing you the rest of the year!
As always, here are the MIBOR stats for the 16 counties around Indy comparing January 2024 to December 2023:
Median Sales Price=$280,000 UP 0.4%
Closed Sales=1,589 units DOWN 23.6%
New Listings=2,052 units UP 30.5%
Pending Sales=2,343 units UP 38.6%
Median Days on Market=31 days DOWN 1.6%
Average Days on Market=57 UP 4.6%
Price per s.f.=$148 NO CHANGE
% of List Price Received=97.2% DOWN 0.2%
Active Inventory=3,325 units DOWN 21.2%
Months Supply of Inventory= 2.1 months UP 3.1%
These numbers are all indicating that our market is heating back up from winter and we are already seeing some very big numbers in new listings, showings and multiple offers. The biggest wild card is The Fed and if they will hold steady on the rates or if they will start cutting them as was expected a couple of months ago. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are predicting 30-year fixed conforming mortgage rates will hit 5.8% by the end of this year. We will see if that plays out. Hold on tight as this spring is gearing up to be very busy!!
Click here to read our St. Patrick's Day edition of our newsletter.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please continue not keeping us a secret!!!
Saturday, January 27, 2024
February 2024 Newsletter
Happy Valentine’s Day!!! We hope that you are able to spend some quality time with those you love. This is always such an exciting time of the year between NFL Playoffs, signs of coming out of winter and spring break around the corner and the crazy spring selling season!
Lots happening with our team and the real estate market, so we hope you will read on to find out more.
Steve’s daughter Natalia turned 14 years old on January 26th and had a fun birthday party at an escape room. Nothing like a house full of teenage girls when you and the dog are the only guys around. ;-) Tali had a great time with her friends and enjoyed her birthday. Her big surprise was her older sister Ana who is a freshman at IU came up to surprise her and take her out to spend time with her. That was probably the best present she could ask for! Us, too!!! Tali’s cheer team also won Grand Champion last week at their cheer competition in French Lick and earned a fully paid bid to Worlds in Orlando in May. They are so excited!!!
Ana is doing great at IU and got good grades for her first semester. She also just finished rush and is now a pledge for her first choice sorority Chi O. She has quickly made friends and loves being part of a new group and we couldn’t be more excited for her.
Brigid is still doing great at Merck and is interviewing for a new position. She is excited at new opportunities this will bring her and is one step closer to getting promoted.
Kylie is still doing well and is keeping us organized with a slew of new listings we are putting on the market already. The spring market is heating up early this year!
Thea is doing great and so are Michael and Parks (their baby). She has been busy early this year working with buyers trying to beat the spring rush and rapidly-escalating prices expected in the next month or two.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Happy Hour last month and to Rhoda Israelov with Say It for You (www.SayItforYou.net). We had a good crowd and lots of fun!! If you would like to sponsor a Happy Hour this year and get your business in front of hundreds of people, e-mail me at Steve@Welcome2Indy.com. We only have a few spots left. We hope you will join us for our next Happy Hour on Thursday, February 15th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. Drinks and food are on us!!!
We have been getting lots of questions about what to expect with the real estate market in 2024…and for good reason. It has been in the news almost daily. The biggest issue is lack of affordability, which is comprised in part due to lack of supply, higher interest rates, price appreciation being more rapid than wage growth. There is even a movement to endorse long-term renting over owning. The argument is: 1) lower monthly payments, 2) much lower acquisition cost, 3) low to no maintenance costs, 4) easier and less expensive disposition. While this is all true, what it doesn’t mention is the absolutely best form of leverage and net worth growth available to anyone. Where else can you purchase a, say $600,000 asset for $30,000 and use someone else’s money for the rest…and take advantage of tax savings…and pocket all of the accrued equity you build? Speaking of equity, this is huge! The average net worth of a renter is $9,700 and the average net worth of a homeowner is $396,300!!! Real estate appreciation is like compound interest…you can never catch up to someone who started before you did. It is also the greatest form of wealth for most people and over 70% of millionaires and billionaires owe the majority of their wealth to real estate.
While I will never advocate owning real estate is for everyone, it should be a goal for most as it is the #1 generator of generational wealth in the US, period…and is a significant source of retirement income for many.
We are expecting to see 15-18% growth in 2024 in real estate sales, which would take us back to 2018/2019 levels, which were very good. Consumer confidence is very high right now for the economy and most experts are predicting we will either avoid a recession altogether or have a very mild one. Fannie and Freddie are expecting mortgage interest rates to sink into the high 5% range by Q3 2024. We are short 30% of needed housing inventory and 25,000 houses in Indiana alone! Bottom line, housing values aren’t going down anytime soon. The longer people wait, the more expensive housing will become. The key is to get into the game as soon as possible and lock in the price and start taking advantage of the appreciation.
Here are some stats from MIBOR coming December 2023 to November 2023:
Median Sales Price-$278,000-DOWN 4.1%
Closed Sales-2,055 units-DOWN 7.7%
New Listings-1,558 units-DOWN 29.7%
Pending Sales-1,790 units-DOWN 4.7%
Median Days on Market-31 days-UP 40.9%
Average Days on Market-54 days-UP 33.6%
Price per s.f.-$148-DOWN 2.0%
% of List Price Received-97.4%-DOWN 0.1%
Active Inventory-2,926 units-DOWN 41.5%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.4 months-DOWN 36.6%
While these numbers look pretty bad, keep in mind downward trends in December are normal, maybe not to this extent, but our expectation is that these numbers will only improve as the year progresses. If you have questions about your home’s value or the real estate market in general, please contact us as we would be happy to answer questions and provide guidance.
Stay tuned!!! We have a HUGE announcement next month that will be coming out separately. This is the biggest news we have ever shared with our clients in 51-years in real estate, so you do not want to miss this announcement.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Click here to read our February newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Lots happening with our team and the real estate market, so we hope you will read on to find out more.
Steve’s daughter Natalia turned 14 years old on January 26th and had a fun birthday party at an escape room. Nothing like a house full of teenage girls when you and the dog are the only guys around. ;-) Tali had a great time with her friends and enjoyed her birthday. Her big surprise was her older sister Ana who is a freshman at IU came up to surprise her and take her out to spend time with her. That was probably the best present she could ask for! Us, too!!! Tali’s cheer team also won Grand Champion last week at their cheer competition in French Lick and earned a fully paid bid to Worlds in Orlando in May. They are so excited!!!
Ana is doing great at IU and got good grades for her first semester. She also just finished rush and is now a pledge for her first choice sorority Chi O. She has quickly made friends and loves being part of a new group and we couldn’t be more excited for her.
Brigid is still doing great at Merck and is interviewing for a new position. She is excited at new opportunities this will bring her and is one step closer to getting promoted.
Kylie is still doing well and is keeping us organized with a slew of new listings we are putting on the market already. The spring market is heating up early this year!
Thea is doing great and so are Michael and Parks (their baby). She has been busy early this year working with buyers trying to beat the spring rush and rapidly-escalating prices expected in the next month or two.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Happy Hour last month and to Rhoda Israelov with Say It for You (www.SayItforYou.net). We had a good crowd and lots of fun!! If you would like to sponsor a Happy Hour this year and get your business in front of hundreds of people, e-mail me at Steve@Welcome2Indy.com. We only have a few spots left. We hope you will join us for our next Happy Hour on Thursday, February 15th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. Drinks and food are on us!!!
We have been getting lots of questions about what to expect with the real estate market in 2024…and for good reason. It has been in the news almost daily. The biggest issue is lack of affordability, which is comprised in part due to lack of supply, higher interest rates, price appreciation being more rapid than wage growth. There is even a movement to endorse long-term renting over owning. The argument is: 1) lower monthly payments, 2) much lower acquisition cost, 3) low to no maintenance costs, 4) easier and less expensive disposition. While this is all true, what it doesn’t mention is the absolutely best form of leverage and net worth growth available to anyone. Where else can you purchase a, say $600,000 asset for $30,000 and use someone else’s money for the rest…and take advantage of tax savings…and pocket all of the accrued equity you build? Speaking of equity, this is huge! The average net worth of a renter is $9,700 and the average net worth of a homeowner is $396,300!!! Real estate appreciation is like compound interest…you can never catch up to someone who started before you did. It is also the greatest form of wealth for most people and over 70% of millionaires and billionaires owe the majority of their wealth to real estate.
While I will never advocate owning real estate is for everyone, it should be a goal for most as it is the #1 generator of generational wealth in the US, period…and is a significant source of retirement income for many.
We are expecting to see 15-18% growth in 2024 in real estate sales, which would take us back to 2018/2019 levels, which were very good. Consumer confidence is very high right now for the economy and most experts are predicting we will either avoid a recession altogether or have a very mild one. Fannie and Freddie are expecting mortgage interest rates to sink into the high 5% range by Q3 2024. We are short 30% of needed housing inventory and 25,000 houses in Indiana alone! Bottom line, housing values aren’t going down anytime soon. The longer people wait, the more expensive housing will become. The key is to get into the game as soon as possible and lock in the price and start taking advantage of the appreciation.
Here are some stats from MIBOR coming December 2023 to November 2023:
Median Sales Price-$278,000-DOWN 4.1%
Closed Sales-2,055 units-DOWN 7.7%
New Listings-1,558 units-DOWN 29.7%
Pending Sales-1,790 units-DOWN 4.7%
Median Days on Market-31 days-UP 40.9%
Average Days on Market-54 days-UP 33.6%
Price per s.f.-$148-DOWN 2.0%
% of List Price Received-97.4%-DOWN 0.1%
Active Inventory-2,926 units-DOWN 41.5%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.4 months-DOWN 36.6%
While these numbers look pretty bad, keep in mind downward trends in December are normal, maybe not to this extent, but our expectation is that these numbers will only improve as the year progresses. If you have questions about your home’s value or the real estate market in general, please contact us as we would be happy to answer questions and provide guidance.
Stay tuned!!! We have a HUGE announcement next month that will be coming out separately. This is the biggest news we have ever shared with our clients in 51-years in real estate, so you do not want to miss this announcement.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Click here to read our February newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
January 2024 Newsletter
From our family to yours, we hope you have enjoyed the holidays and are looking forward to a prosperous 2024! 2023 has been a, shall we say, different year? From lots of politics in the news, to conflicts around the world, to several-decade high interest rates and inflation, to trying to stave off a recession…and all of this on the heels of the COVID pandemic; we have had a LOT of distractions and things to worry about.
We truly hope that 2024 will be a little less crazy, even though we have a presidential election to contend with, which will certainly prove to be entertaining.
The holidays for our family have been fairly quiet with hosting Steve’s family on Christmas Eve and then to Brigid’s family on Christmas evening. It has been nice to stay at home and not have to travel and just enjoy some quiet time together, especially since this is Ana’s first time home for Christmas being a college student. The family just feels complete when she is home.
Thea went back home to Cleveland to spend time with her family and Michael’s for their son Parks’ first Christmas. They have enjoyed being around family for this special first Christmas.
Kylie has enjoyed being able to take the last 10-days of the year off to spend time with her family in Carmel. She puts a lot of time in during the year and we are happy to see her able to enjoy a much-deserved vacation.
The end of the year brings endings and new beginnings. For me, that means officially finishing my term as Chairman of The Board of Directors of the Westfield Chamber of Commerce. That is a bittersweet transition as it will add a lot more time into my schedule, but I will miss leading the work we have done. I will still enjoy being part of the board and exec team as Immediate Past Chair, but happy to turn the reins over to my successor. I will continue to serve MIBOR on the Professional Standards Committee, which hears cases relating to potential violations of the Code of Ethics. This has been an extremely educational experience for me these past couple of years serving on that and the 3 prior years serving on the Grievance Committee. I am also serving as one of a few Mediators for MIBOR. We mediate commission disputes between members and strive to find some common ground between the parties before the case gets elevated to Arbitration. This is also extremely gratifying as we provide a hopefully more equitable experience for the parties involved.
The real estate market has been wonky to say the least. Statistically, we are in a strong sellers’ market with only 2 months of inventory, however due to the ‘high’ interest rates and high cost of housing (it is the highest on record-even higher than it was in the 1980s when interest rates peaked at 18.3%!), coupled with the artificially low mortgage interest rates we saw over the past few years, people aren’t wanting to sell and buyers are reluctant to buy. Additionally, millennials who make up the majority of the first-time buyers are more mobile than prior generations and are choosing to rent much longer that prior generations. The average age of a first-time homebuyer today is 38-years old-a full 10-years older that the decade before! Their net worth is being negatively impacted as data shows the average net worth of a renter is $10,000 (down $12,000 in the past decade) and that of a homeowner is $398,700 (almost double in the past decade)! Bottom line, the faster you become a homeowner and start paying yourself and allowing appreciation and debt pay down to build your net worth (not to mention the tax advantages), the faster you will be on your way to financial security. Housing prices are only predicted to increase into the foreseeable future as there will be no silver bullet to our housing shortage. In fact, in any 10-year period, housing has always gone up (even including the recession of 2008-2012).
If you would like to learn more about buying, selling, or building as it relates to your specific situation, please e-mail Steve@Welcome2Indy.com.
Finally, our first Happy Hour of 2024 will be on Thursday, January 18th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. Rhoda Israelov with Say It for You will be co-sponsoring this month. We are looking for someone who would like to co-sponsor with her. Send Steve an e-mail if you are interested! Great opportunity to reach hundreds of people for half the price of a usual sponsorship!
Here are the stats from MIBOR comparing October 2023 to November 2023:
Median Sales Price-no change-$289,950
Closed Sales-DOWN 4.5% to 2,200 units
New Listings-DOWN 23.3% to 2,202 units
Pending Sales-DOWN 10.3% to 2,008 units
Median Days on Market-UP 46.7% to 22 days
Average Days on Market-UP 14.0% to 41 days
Price per s.f.-no change-$151
% of List Price Received-DOWN 0.7% to 97.5%
Active Inventory-DOWN 11.0% to 4,497 units
Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 6.7% to 2.0 months
Keep in mind that this is these are typically the slowest months of the year and seeing slowdown in stats is not unusual. Pay attention to the slowdown in new listings as that will impact the new year as well as pending sales. Houses are staying on the market longer and getting lower sales prices. We will see if the spring market turns these trends around, as it is expected to do so.
Happy New Year!!
Click here to read our Janaury newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
We truly hope that 2024 will be a little less crazy, even though we have a presidential election to contend with, which will certainly prove to be entertaining.
The holidays for our family have been fairly quiet with hosting Steve’s family on Christmas Eve and then to Brigid’s family on Christmas evening. It has been nice to stay at home and not have to travel and just enjoy some quiet time together, especially since this is Ana’s first time home for Christmas being a college student. The family just feels complete when she is home.
Thea went back home to Cleveland to spend time with her family and Michael’s for their son Parks’ first Christmas. They have enjoyed being around family for this special first Christmas.
Kylie has enjoyed being able to take the last 10-days of the year off to spend time with her family in Carmel. She puts a lot of time in during the year and we are happy to see her able to enjoy a much-deserved vacation.
The end of the year brings endings and new beginnings. For me, that means officially finishing my term as Chairman of The Board of Directors of the Westfield Chamber of Commerce. That is a bittersweet transition as it will add a lot more time into my schedule, but I will miss leading the work we have done. I will still enjoy being part of the board and exec team as Immediate Past Chair, but happy to turn the reins over to my successor. I will continue to serve MIBOR on the Professional Standards Committee, which hears cases relating to potential violations of the Code of Ethics. This has been an extremely educational experience for me these past couple of years serving on that and the 3 prior years serving on the Grievance Committee. I am also serving as one of a few Mediators for MIBOR. We mediate commission disputes between members and strive to find some common ground between the parties before the case gets elevated to Arbitration. This is also extremely gratifying as we provide a hopefully more equitable experience for the parties involved.
The real estate market has been wonky to say the least. Statistically, we are in a strong sellers’ market with only 2 months of inventory, however due to the ‘high’ interest rates and high cost of housing (it is the highest on record-even higher than it was in the 1980s when interest rates peaked at 18.3%!), coupled with the artificially low mortgage interest rates we saw over the past few years, people aren’t wanting to sell and buyers are reluctant to buy. Additionally, millennials who make up the majority of the first-time buyers are more mobile than prior generations and are choosing to rent much longer that prior generations. The average age of a first-time homebuyer today is 38-years old-a full 10-years older that the decade before! Their net worth is being negatively impacted as data shows the average net worth of a renter is $10,000 (down $12,000 in the past decade) and that of a homeowner is $398,700 (almost double in the past decade)! Bottom line, the faster you become a homeowner and start paying yourself and allowing appreciation and debt pay down to build your net worth (not to mention the tax advantages), the faster you will be on your way to financial security. Housing prices are only predicted to increase into the foreseeable future as there will be no silver bullet to our housing shortage. In fact, in any 10-year period, housing has always gone up (even including the recession of 2008-2012).
If you would like to learn more about buying, selling, or building as it relates to your specific situation, please e-mail Steve@Welcome2Indy.com.
Finally, our first Happy Hour of 2024 will be on Thursday, January 18th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. Rhoda Israelov with Say It for You will be co-sponsoring this month. We are looking for someone who would like to co-sponsor with her. Send Steve an e-mail if you are interested! Great opportunity to reach hundreds of people for half the price of a usual sponsorship!
Here are the stats from MIBOR comparing October 2023 to November 2023:
Median Sales Price-no change-$289,950
Closed Sales-DOWN 4.5% to 2,200 units
New Listings-DOWN 23.3% to 2,202 units
Pending Sales-DOWN 10.3% to 2,008 units
Median Days on Market-UP 46.7% to 22 days
Average Days on Market-UP 14.0% to 41 days
Price per s.f.-no change-$151
% of List Price Received-DOWN 0.7% to 97.5%
Active Inventory-DOWN 11.0% to 4,497 units
Months Supply of Inventory-DOWN 6.7% to 2.0 months
Keep in mind that this is these are typically the slowest months of the year and seeing slowdown in stats is not unusual. Pay attention to the slowdown in new listings as that will impact the new year as well as pending sales. Houses are staying on the market longer and getting lower sales prices. We will see if the spring market turns these trends around, as it is expected to do so.
Happy New Year!!
Click here to read our Janaury newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Sunday, November 26, 2023
December 2023 Newsletter
Happy Holidays! It is so hard to believe they are here yet again. Where did this year go? We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family and were able to take some time out to reflect on all of your blessings. Our family enjoyed Thanksgiving at my sister Michelle’s house with her family as well as my parents. It was nice to not have to cook this year like in years recently past. The food was excellent and the company good, however we missed their son Caleb who was in NYC with his fiancee Candice. Yes, Caleb and Candice got engaged a bit ago and we are excited to celebrate their marriage next year.
This was our first Thanksgiving with Ana in college, so we got to have her back home for about 10-days. It was so nice seeing her again and spending some time with her. She was excited to get back to IU and see all of her friends. As a parent, you are sad to see your child leave, but happy their are happy at school and have friends to get back to see.
If you haven’t been to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt, I highly recommend it! Every year it gets better and is rated as the #1 Christmas market in the US for the past 3-years. We also saw Lindenhouse aka Christel de Haan’s house aka Restoration Hardware aka RH. It was amazing!!! 42,000 s.f. of space including a restaurant and a wine/coffee bar so you can walk around the house with your favorite beverage! It is something to behold. Trust me, you do not want to skip this. Simply stunning! I posted some photos on my FB and IG feed, if you would like a sneak peek. @zulugroup
A HUGE shoutout to Kylie and Thea for all of their help making our busiest month for client events a success! Kylie was able to relax at home this holiday with her family and spend time with her parents and sister. Thea headed back home to Cleveland to spend time with her family and her son Parks’ first Thanksgiving.
Thank you to all of our clients and referral partners who attended our final Happy Hour of the year! Thank you, especially to our sponsor Chris Odle with JLK Financial for sponsoring! If you would like to sponsor a Happy Hour for 2024, please e-mail Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. Sponsors allow us to keep hosting these for you each month. If you haven’t attended one, please stop by. They are usually held on the 3rd Thursday of each month from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. FREE food and drinks!
We also had our annual Photos with Santa right before Thanksgiving and had a great turnout! Hope you enjoyed the professional photos with your family!
Finally, we enjoyed seeing almost 100 of our clients and referral partners at our annual Thanksgiving Pie Pick-up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This is our favorite day of the year as we get to see so many clients and catch up briefly on your lives and families.
November is such a busy month for us and we absolutely love seeing so many clients and saying thank you for inviting us into your families and to be such a big part of your lives. We are blessed and honored to do something we love and to work almost exclusively by referral and repeat clients. Thank you for recommending us to so many of your friends and family so we can remained focused on helping people and not ‘dialing for dollars’.
Speaking of business, this year has been nothing but weird. We are in one of the lowest inventory markets in history, but also one of the most expensive. Interest rates are coming down and are off their highs of around 8.25% and are around 7.25% and are projected to continue to come down into the 6% range next year. If interest rates dip under 6%, as they are projected to do, we are expecting a circus in the real estate market. We expect to see multiple offer situations again, and if you believe Barbara Corcoran and many other economists, the real estate market is expected to appreciate 10-15% next year. Time will tell.
What we do know is that things are really weird right now and no one has a clear crystal ball. If you or someone you care about is thinking of selling in 2024, e-mail steve@Welcome2Indy.com. I would be happy to dive deep into your property and give you tips and inside tips to maximize the value of your house and show you why our listings sell 10% faster and for 7.91% MORE than the industry average. Not only does this cover our professional services fee, but we also have a full Concierge Program to make getting ready to sell as smooth and easy as possible (and we pay for most of the services we recommend!) E-mail me to learn more!
Here are the MIBOR stats comparing September 2023 to October 2023 for all 16 counties MIBOR tracks:
Median Sales Price-$290,000-DOWN 3.3%
Closed Sales-2,276 units-DOWN 9.7%
New Listings-2,851 units-DOWN 7.5%
Pending Sales-2,401 units-UP 6.9%
Median Days on Market-15 days-no change
Average Days on Market-36 days-DOWN 5.4%
Price per s.f.-$151-DOWN 1.9%
% of List Price Received-98.2%-DOWN 0.3%
Active Inventory-4,635 units-DOWN 5.0%
Months Supply of Inventory-2.0 months-UP 5.1%
As you can see, the market has softened in some areas, however pending sales is going up, which should translate into more closed sales next month. We are seeing that although we are in a strong sellers’ market, in reality we are in a buyers’ market, in most cases. It is essential to properly prepare your house for sale and buyers expect houses to be in ‘HGTV, market-ready condition’ when they hit the market. If not, the house will sit and/or you will get ‘low-ball’ offers. We have seen this time and again recently.
We hope you enjoy the final newsletter of 2023. Click here to read our Decdember newsletter. It is full of fun holiday stories, trivia, and recipes. Let us know what you think!
From our family to yours, we wish you a very happy holiday season.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret
This was our first Thanksgiving with Ana in college, so we got to have her back home for about 10-days. It was so nice seeing her again and spending some time with her. She was excited to get back to IU and see all of her friends. As a parent, you are sad to see your child leave, but happy their are happy at school and have friends to get back to see.
If you haven’t been to the Carmel Christkindlmarkt, I highly recommend it! Every year it gets better and is rated as the #1 Christmas market in the US for the past 3-years. We also saw Lindenhouse aka Christel de Haan’s house aka Restoration Hardware aka RH. It was amazing!!! 42,000 s.f. of space including a restaurant and a wine/coffee bar so you can walk around the house with your favorite beverage! It is something to behold. Trust me, you do not want to skip this. Simply stunning! I posted some photos on my FB and IG feed, if you would like a sneak peek. @zulugroup
A HUGE shoutout to Kylie and Thea for all of their help making our busiest month for client events a success! Kylie was able to relax at home this holiday with her family and spend time with her parents and sister. Thea headed back home to Cleveland to spend time with her family and her son Parks’ first Thanksgiving.
Thank you to all of our clients and referral partners who attended our final Happy Hour of the year! Thank you, especially to our sponsor Chris Odle with JLK Financial for sponsoring! If you would like to sponsor a Happy Hour for 2024, please e-mail Kylie@Welcome2Indy.com. Sponsors allow us to keep hosting these for you each month. If you haven’t attended one, please stop by. They are usually held on the 3rd Thursday of each month from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s in Carmel. FREE food and drinks!
We also had our annual Photos with Santa right before Thanksgiving and had a great turnout! Hope you enjoyed the professional photos with your family!
Finally, we enjoyed seeing almost 100 of our clients and referral partners at our annual Thanksgiving Pie Pick-up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. This is our favorite day of the year as we get to see so many clients and catch up briefly on your lives and families.
November is such a busy month for us and we absolutely love seeing so many clients and saying thank you for inviting us into your families and to be such a big part of your lives. We are blessed and honored to do something we love and to work almost exclusively by referral and repeat clients. Thank you for recommending us to so many of your friends and family so we can remained focused on helping people and not ‘dialing for dollars’.
Speaking of business, this year has been nothing but weird. We are in one of the lowest inventory markets in history, but also one of the most expensive. Interest rates are coming down and are off their highs of around 8.25% and are around 7.25% and are projected to continue to come down into the 6% range next year. If interest rates dip under 6%, as they are projected to do, we are expecting a circus in the real estate market. We expect to see multiple offer situations again, and if you believe Barbara Corcoran and many other economists, the real estate market is expected to appreciate 10-15% next year. Time will tell.
What we do know is that things are really weird right now and no one has a clear crystal ball. If you or someone you care about is thinking of selling in 2024, e-mail steve@Welcome2Indy.com. I would be happy to dive deep into your property and give you tips and inside tips to maximize the value of your house and show you why our listings sell 10% faster and for 7.91% MORE than the industry average. Not only does this cover our professional services fee, but we also have a full Concierge Program to make getting ready to sell as smooth and easy as possible (and we pay for most of the services we recommend!) E-mail me to learn more!
Here are the MIBOR stats comparing September 2023 to October 2023 for all 16 counties MIBOR tracks:
Median Sales Price-$290,000-DOWN 3.3%
Closed Sales-2,276 units-DOWN 9.7%
New Listings-2,851 units-DOWN 7.5%
Pending Sales-2,401 units-UP 6.9%
Median Days on Market-15 days-no change
Average Days on Market-36 days-DOWN 5.4%
Price per s.f.-$151-DOWN 1.9%
% of List Price Received-98.2%-DOWN 0.3%
Active Inventory-4,635 units-DOWN 5.0%
Months Supply of Inventory-2.0 months-UP 5.1%
As you can see, the market has softened in some areas, however pending sales is going up, which should translate into more closed sales next month. We are seeing that although we are in a strong sellers’ market, in reality we are in a buyers’ market, in most cases. It is essential to properly prepare your house for sale and buyers expect houses to be in ‘HGTV, market-ready condition’ when they hit the market. If not, the house will sit and/or you will get ‘low-ball’ offers. We have seen this time and again recently.
We hope you enjoy the final newsletter of 2023. Click here to read our Decdember newsletter. It is full of fun holiday stories, trivia, and recipes. Let us know what you think!
From our family to yours, we wish you a very happy holiday season.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret
Monday, October 23, 2023
November 2023 Newsletter
Happy Thanksgiving!! Can you believe we are almost to the holidays already? It seems like summer was just here and so were the warmer temperatures and longer daylight. We hope that you are enjoying, what is for many people their favorite season of the year. Mine? I love fall, however my favorite season is spring. Specifically, mid-May. You see, you have the buzz around the Speedway, the fresh smell of spring in the air, daylight hours are continuing to get longer, school is almost out and the kids are excited and the entire summer (and usually a nice vacation) is ahead of us. Whatever season is your favorite, we hope you will enjoy this fall weather and the beautiful colors all around us.
Lots of info this month, so grab a cup of coffee and sit back and relax.
First of all, as you know Thea and Michael had their first baby Parks in May. Thea has been a valuable member of our team for over 4.5 years and has been our Senior Buyer Specialist for that entire time. She has gone from never selling a house to a well-respected expert to her clients and other agents. After a long reflection period, Thea has decided to spend more time with Parks and will be taking a step back from her current role on the team. She will stay on the team in a consultative role and will train her replacement. While Thea is not leaving the team, we will miss seeing her daily, but know motherhood is calling and she is where she needs to be.
So, who do you know who is looking to partner with a well-respected real estate team with over 50-years of experience, is in the top 1% of agents in Indy, and has systems and processes in place along with a formal training program to ensure success? Who is the first person who comes to mind? Have them send me an e-mail to steve@Welcome2Indy.com or call me at 317-339-7698. We would love to fill this role by the end of the year.
We hope you received your Annual Thanksgiving Pie postcard and were able to reserve your favorite flavor-apple or pumpkin. If you haven’t done so already, reserve your pie by following this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAAAE2CA57-44975663-kwindy#/ Pick up is at our office on Tuesday, November 21st from 11am-6pm. We hope to see you!
Another annual client favorite is our Photos with Santa. Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 18th from 11am-4pm at our office. We will have 2 rooms this year. One will have Santa and the other a non-Santa winter wonderland theme. Reservations are required and space is very limited already, so if you haven’t signed up, please do so TODAY. Everyone will be given a specific time to avoid the large crowds experienced last year. Follow this link to sign up for a slot: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAAAE2CA57-44975663-kwindy#/
Our final Happy Hour of the year is Thursday, November 16th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s. Chris Odle with JLK Financial is our sponsor. Chris is a longtime friend and client and he knows his stuff. Come and meet him and celebrate the holidays with us for our final Happy Hour of 2023. Thank you to Walla Painting for sponsoring October!
Who do you know who is thinking of selling in the next 12-months? Have them contact me at steve@Welcome2Indy.com to register for our next Seller Workshop where were will talk about what you need to do to prepare your house for sale in this crazy market in order to sell 23% FASTER and for 7.91% MORE than the average listing. It is Zoom only on Tuesday, November 14th from 5:30-6:30pm.
As for an update on our family, Ana is still enjoying IU. We have seen her quite a bit between coming home for a couple of breaks to seeing her for home football games. She is learning about time-management and how to deal with teaching assistants who aren’t good teachers or speak English very well. She has made lots of friends and is enjoying her time in Bloomington.
Tali is at the end of her school cheer season and as I write this State Finals is just a few days away. She has enjoyed cheering for the football games as well as for the sideline cheer team and competition cheer team at cheer comps. Next up starting November 11th is her ICE cheer season opener at South Bend. Cheer is a year-round sport!
Brigid, Tali and I returned from Fall Break down in Tampa visiting Brigid’s parents in their new house. It was very relaxing in their resort-like community and we essentially had the pool and clubhouse to ourselves.
The real estate market has been in the news a LOT recently, and for good reason. With the record-high housing prices and decades-high mortgage interest rates, home affordability has been at the lowest level in a long time. With that said, inventory is still extremely low at 1.8 months for the Indy metro area and 1.3 months in Hamilton County. Mortgage interest rate relief is sorely needed and unlikely to come in the short-term. For people wanting to sell, demand is still there, but there are qualifications to this such as location, condition, and price point…all making a huge impact as to whether the house will sell quickly or sit on the market for several weeks. Bottom line, if you or someone you know is thinking of selling in the next year, give me a call-317-339-7698. I am happy to talk specifics about your unique situation so you can make an informed decision.
Here are the latest market stats for all of the MIBOR service area (17 counties) from August 2023 to September 2023:
Median Sales Price-$299,045-DOWN 0.3%
Closed Sales-2,482 units-DOWN 12.6%
New Listings-3,071 units-DOWN 9.3%
Pending Sales-2,427 units-DOWN 5.8%
Median Days on Market-14 days-UP 40.0%
Average Days on Market-38 days-UP 23.6%
Price per s.f.-$154-DOWN 0.6%
% of List Price Received-98.5%-DOWN 0.3%
Active Inventory-4,454 units-DOWN 0.3%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.8 months-UP 14.1%
As you can see, inventory is going up and so is days on market showing the market softening, but activity is down. Bottom line, we need more inventory!
We hope you enjoy this month’s edition of the fall newsletter where you will find:
Honest Fun
Helpful Tips For Traveling During The Holidays
Savory Pumpkin And Cranberry Chutney
November Roundup
Quick Tips For Smartphone Bliss
Creative Household Hacks
Exercise Boosts Heart Health Regardless Of Weight Loss
Book Club, Anyone?
Click here to read the November Newsletter. Enjoy!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Lots of info this month, so grab a cup of coffee and sit back and relax.
First of all, as you know Thea and Michael had their first baby Parks in May. Thea has been a valuable member of our team for over 4.5 years and has been our Senior Buyer Specialist for that entire time. She has gone from never selling a house to a well-respected expert to her clients and other agents. After a long reflection period, Thea has decided to spend more time with Parks and will be taking a step back from her current role on the team. She will stay on the team in a consultative role and will train her replacement. While Thea is not leaving the team, we will miss seeing her daily, but know motherhood is calling and she is where she needs to be.
So, who do you know who is looking to partner with a well-respected real estate team with over 50-years of experience, is in the top 1% of agents in Indy, and has systems and processes in place along with a formal training program to ensure success? Who is the first person who comes to mind? Have them send me an e-mail to steve@Welcome2Indy.com or call me at 317-339-7698. We would love to fill this role by the end of the year.
We hope you received your Annual Thanksgiving Pie postcard and were able to reserve your favorite flavor-apple or pumpkin. If you haven’t done so already, reserve your pie by following this link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAAAE2CA57-44975663-kwindy#/ Pick up is at our office on Tuesday, November 21st from 11am-6pm. We hope to see you!
Another annual client favorite is our Photos with Santa. Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 18th from 11am-4pm at our office. We will have 2 rooms this year. One will have Santa and the other a non-Santa winter wonderland theme. Reservations are required and space is very limited already, so if you haven’t signed up, please do so TODAY. Everyone will be given a specific time to avoid the large crowds experienced last year. Follow this link to sign up for a slot: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094CAAAE2CA57-44975663-kwindy#/
Our final Happy Hour of the year is Thursday, November 16th from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s. Chris Odle with JLK Financial is our sponsor. Chris is a longtime friend and client and he knows his stuff. Come and meet him and celebrate the holidays with us for our final Happy Hour of 2023. Thank you to Walla Painting for sponsoring October!
Who do you know who is thinking of selling in the next 12-months? Have them contact me at steve@Welcome2Indy.com to register for our next Seller Workshop where were will talk about what you need to do to prepare your house for sale in this crazy market in order to sell 23% FASTER and for 7.91% MORE than the average listing. It is Zoom only on Tuesday, November 14th from 5:30-6:30pm.
As for an update on our family, Ana is still enjoying IU. We have seen her quite a bit between coming home for a couple of breaks to seeing her for home football games. She is learning about time-management and how to deal with teaching assistants who aren’t good teachers or speak English very well. She has made lots of friends and is enjoying her time in Bloomington.
Tali is at the end of her school cheer season and as I write this State Finals is just a few days away. She has enjoyed cheering for the football games as well as for the sideline cheer team and competition cheer team at cheer comps. Next up starting November 11th is her ICE cheer season opener at South Bend. Cheer is a year-round sport!
Brigid, Tali and I returned from Fall Break down in Tampa visiting Brigid’s parents in their new house. It was very relaxing in their resort-like community and we essentially had the pool and clubhouse to ourselves.
The real estate market has been in the news a LOT recently, and for good reason. With the record-high housing prices and decades-high mortgage interest rates, home affordability has been at the lowest level in a long time. With that said, inventory is still extremely low at 1.8 months for the Indy metro area and 1.3 months in Hamilton County. Mortgage interest rate relief is sorely needed and unlikely to come in the short-term. For people wanting to sell, demand is still there, but there are qualifications to this such as location, condition, and price point…all making a huge impact as to whether the house will sell quickly or sit on the market for several weeks. Bottom line, if you or someone you know is thinking of selling in the next year, give me a call-317-339-7698. I am happy to talk specifics about your unique situation so you can make an informed decision.
Here are the latest market stats for all of the MIBOR service area (17 counties) from August 2023 to September 2023:
Median Sales Price-$299,045-DOWN 0.3%
Closed Sales-2,482 units-DOWN 12.6%
New Listings-3,071 units-DOWN 9.3%
Pending Sales-2,427 units-DOWN 5.8%
Median Days on Market-14 days-UP 40.0%
Average Days on Market-38 days-UP 23.6%
Price per s.f.-$154-DOWN 0.6%
% of List Price Received-98.5%-DOWN 0.3%
Active Inventory-4,454 units-DOWN 0.3%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.8 months-UP 14.1%
As you can see, inventory is going up and so is days on market showing the market softening, but activity is down. Bottom line, we need more inventory!
We hope you enjoy this month’s edition of the fall newsletter where you will find:
Honest Fun
Helpful Tips For Traveling During The Holidays
Savory Pumpkin And Cranberry Chutney
November Roundup
Quick Tips For Smartphone Bliss
Creative Household Hacks
Exercise Boosts Heart Health Regardless Of Weight Loss
Book Club, Anyone?
Click here to read the November Newsletter. Enjoy!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
Wednesday, October 04, 2023
October 2023 Newsletter
Welcome to October and Fall! Whether you love or hate pumpkin spice everything, Fall is filled with festivals, activities, beautiful colors and crisp air. We hope you will take some time to enjoy what Fall has to offer.
For our family, it means football and cheer!!! We have been big Notre Dame fans since birth, so we always follow our Irish, who are actually playing pretty well this year, except for that heartbreaking loss to Ohio State. We also have been attending some IU football games since Ana is a freshman at IU this year and have enjoyed those as well. coming from a tradition of only seeing a Notre Dame football game live, going to an IU football game is an entirely different experience! The tailgating is the main event, not the game itself, which is so foreign to us. They are still fun to watch and we love seeing Ana while we are there, if only for a brief while.
Speaking of Ana, she is doing very well in her first year at IU. She is getting accustomed to college life, classes, ‘adulting’, and of course the social scene. We are very proud of her and loved seeing her when she came home for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
Tali is doing great in 8th grade. Her school cheer season for football ends this week with their final home game. Her competition season for school ends at the end of October with State. Fingers crossed for a good finish! They finished 2nd last year and are hoping for 1st this year. Her ICE All-Star cheer team has been practicing all summer and fall and is gearing up for the start of their season at the beginning of November. We love traveling with the other families and getting away for a night.
Brigid is doing great at work and still travels to Philly about once/month for a few days for meetings. She still loves working from home and managing her team.
Jack and Mary Anne just finished a long, almost 3-week trip to see family in down south and are glad to be home. They have been able to see Tali cheer, which is great!
Kylie was off for about 2 1/2 weeks as she took care of her son Jackson who had back surgery. He is recovering well and is already back at school!! It is amazing how quickly kids heal!! We are so happy he is doing well and that Kylie is back with us again.
Thea is doing great with Parks and her husband Michael is enjoying paternity leave to spend time with him. Thea is able to work from home and spend quality time with him as well as help our buyer clients.
Thank you to Jeff Lazar with Lazar Insurance for sponsoring our September Happy Hour!!! We enjoyed seeing friends and clients and hope you will join us for the 2nd Thursday this month due to Fall Break the following week.
Please join us for Happy Hour on October 12th this month from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s. Note the date. Jonathan Walla with Walla Painting is sponsoring this month. He is our go-to painter for all of our clients and our personal needs.
Be on the lookout for our Save The Date card for our Thanksgiving Pie Pickup again this year, which will be on Tuesday, November 21st. Look for our annual Photos with Santa info on the post card as well. We hope to see you there!!!
The real estate market has been absolutely bonkers lately! As of this writing, 30-year mortgage interest rates hit 7.75%, which is the highest in decades. Homes prices have hit their highest ever recorded, making housing affordability the lowest ever. The bright side is that mortgage interest rates are tied to inflation. While it hasn’t continued to tick downward as quickly as we would like, we are optimistic it will continue downward and mortgage interest rates will follow. Keep a keen eye on this as interest rates go down, buyer activity will pick up and sellers will start putting their houses on the market. We are bracing for another circus in the real estate market when mortgage rates dip below 6%. The question is when??
Builders are making up for low inventory, which is sitting at 1.4 months right now in Indy. A balanced market is 6-months. This is keeping prices high. If you are thinking about buying, this would not be a bad time to do so as there isn’t as much competition and we are not expecting housing prices to retreat for the foreseeable future. The key is locking in your housing price now, so you can take advantage of the appreciation down the road and build wealth. There are some good tools out there such as 2/1 buy downs, that can make the mortgage payment more affordable and then you re-finance when rates go back down. Rates are not expected to go below 5% again in our lifetimes!
We have fielded LOTS of questions from clients, so feel free to call and we will happily share info so you can make an informed decision.
Below is an updated list of market stats from MIBOR and its 17-county service area from July 2023 to August 2023:
Median Sales Price-$300,000-no change
Closed Sales-2,790 units-UP 0.8%
New Listings-3,354 units-UP 5.7%
Pending Sales-2,789 units-UP 3.7%
Median Days on Market-10 days-UP 11.1%
Average Days on Market-30 days-DOWN 4.8%
Price per s.f.-$155-no change
% of List Price Received-98.8%-DOWN 0.3%
Active Inventory-3,976 units-DOWN 2.1%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.4 months-DOWN 2.9%
We hope you have a wonderful Fall!! Enjoy this month’s edition of the newsletter, which includes some fun stories including an elephant on a rope, some funny jokes, computer stretches, and a doorbell for a fish!
Enjoy!! Click here to read our October newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
For our family, it means football and cheer!!! We have been big Notre Dame fans since birth, so we always follow our Irish, who are actually playing pretty well this year, except for that heartbreaking loss to Ohio State. We also have been attending some IU football games since Ana is a freshman at IU this year and have enjoyed those as well. coming from a tradition of only seeing a Notre Dame football game live, going to an IU football game is an entirely different experience! The tailgating is the main event, not the game itself, which is so foreign to us. They are still fun to watch and we love seeing Ana while we are there, if only for a brief while.
Speaking of Ana, she is doing very well in her first year at IU. She is getting accustomed to college life, classes, ‘adulting’, and of course the social scene. We are very proud of her and loved seeing her when she came home for the first time a couple of weeks ago.
Tali is doing great in 8th grade. Her school cheer season for football ends this week with their final home game. Her competition season for school ends at the end of October with State. Fingers crossed for a good finish! They finished 2nd last year and are hoping for 1st this year. Her ICE All-Star cheer team has been practicing all summer and fall and is gearing up for the start of their season at the beginning of November. We love traveling with the other families and getting away for a night.
Brigid is doing great at work and still travels to Philly about once/month for a few days for meetings. She still loves working from home and managing her team.
Jack and Mary Anne just finished a long, almost 3-week trip to see family in down south and are glad to be home. They have been able to see Tali cheer, which is great!
Kylie was off for about 2 1/2 weeks as she took care of her son Jackson who had back surgery. He is recovering well and is already back at school!! It is amazing how quickly kids heal!! We are so happy he is doing well and that Kylie is back with us again.
Thea is doing great with Parks and her husband Michael is enjoying paternity leave to spend time with him. Thea is able to work from home and spend quality time with him as well as help our buyer clients.
Thank you to Jeff Lazar with Lazar Insurance for sponsoring our September Happy Hour!!! We enjoyed seeing friends and clients and hope you will join us for the 2nd Thursday this month due to Fall Break the following week.
Please join us for Happy Hour on October 12th this month from 5-6:30pm at Matt The Miller’s. Note the date. Jonathan Walla with Walla Painting is sponsoring this month. He is our go-to painter for all of our clients and our personal needs.
Be on the lookout for our Save The Date card for our Thanksgiving Pie Pickup again this year, which will be on Tuesday, November 21st. Look for our annual Photos with Santa info on the post card as well. We hope to see you there!!!
The real estate market has been absolutely bonkers lately! As of this writing, 30-year mortgage interest rates hit 7.75%, which is the highest in decades. Homes prices have hit their highest ever recorded, making housing affordability the lowest ever. The bright side is that mortgage interest rates are tied to inflation. While it hasn’t continued to tick downward as quickly as we would like, we are optimistic it will continue downward and mortgage interest rates will follow. Keep a keen eye on this as interest rates go down, buyer activity will pick up and sellers will start putting their houses on the market. We are bracing for another circus in the real estate market when mortgage rates dip below 6%. The question is when??
Builders are making up for low inventory, which is sitting at 1.4 months right now in Indy. A balanced market is 6-months. This is keeping prices high. If you are thinking about buying, this would not be a bad time to do so as there isn’t as much competition and we are not expecting housing prices to retreat for the foreseeable future. The key is locking in your housing price now, so you can take advantage of the appreciation down the road and build wealth. There are some good tools out there such as 2/1 buy downs, that can make the mortgage payment more affordable and then you re-finance when rates go back down. Rates are not expected to go below 5% again in our lifetimes!
We have fielded LOTS of questions from clients, so feel free to call and we will happily share info so you can make an informed decision.
Below is an updated list of market stats from MIBOR and its 17-county service area from July 2023 to August 2023:
Median Sales Price-$300,000-no change
Closed Sales-2,790 units-UP 0.8%
New Listings-3,354 units-UP 5.7%
Pending Sales-2,789 units-UP 3.7%
Median Days on Market-10 days-UP 11.1%
Average Days on Market-30 days-DOWN 4.8%
Price per s.f.-$155-no change
% of List Price Received-98.8%-DOWN 0.3%
Active Inventory-3,976 units-DOWN 2.1%
Months Supply of Inventory-1.4 months-DOWN 2.9%
We hope you have a wonderful Fall!! Enjoy this month’s edition of the newsletter, which includes some fun stories including an elephant on a rope, some funny jokes, computer stretches, and a doorbell for a fish!
Enjoy!! Click here to read our October newsletter.
Your Friends in Real Estate,
Steve, Kylie, Thea, and Mark
P.S. Please don’t keep us a secret!
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