Lexington Number 6 Place to Live

Good article today about Lexington.


By Jaclyn Colletti and Joel Weber, researchers
updated 10:37 a.m. ET, Tues., Oct . 20, 2009

From the moment she finds out she's expecting, a new parent's mind begins to construct a fantasy of the perfect place to build a nest: a community that's safe, nurturing, stimulating, and economically sound. A neighborhood where parents reflect your values — education, health and fitness, concern for the environment — and raise their children the same way. The kind of place where a child can slip on her rubber boots, grab her colorful umbrella, and play on the quiet, tree-lined street outside her home without worry.
The editors of Children's Health wanted to find where in America such places existed and how we can make the communities we live in today more like that ideal, so we embarked on a comprehensive statistical analysis to rank 100 noteworthy American cities scattered across the country. We considered more than 30 factors that parents deem vitally important, including crime and safety, education, economics, housing, cultural attractions, and health. (See the criteria used.) When we crunched the numbers, these were the cities that best complemented family life.


http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33385798/ns/today-parenting_and_family/

Lexington home sales up 13 percent, region up 7 percent

By Scott Sloan - ssloan@herald-leader.com
The Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors said home sales in and around Lexington grew in the third quarter, with September particularly strong. Residential sales rose 13 percent in Lexington and 7 percent in the region as a whole.
The growth for the full quarter, although lower, was still growth, which has been tough to come by as the real estate market suffered during the recession.
The number of residential real estate sales that closed during the third quarter in Lexington increased 4.7 percent, the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors said Thursday. In the 14-county area served by LBAR's members, single-family sales were up 4 percent.
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During the quarter in Lexington, 1,194 sales closed, up from 1,140 in the same quarter of 2008. Sales were gaining momentum as the quarter ended, with a 13 percent rise in September with 347 sales, 40 more than a year ago.
During the quarter in the region, 2,110 sales closed, up from 2,028 in the same quarter of 2008. Sales also gained momentum as the quarter ended with a 6.7 percent rise in September. That month saw 651 sales, 41 more than a year ago.
September is the first month this year that home sales in the region exceeded their 2007 figures, according to the data provided by LBAR's members.
Sales declined 0.7 percent in the region in August but were up 6.2 percent in July.
In Lexington, sales were up just 1.7 percent throughout July and August. The months are not broken out separately in LBAR's statistical report.
Year-over-year price changes varied during the quarter. Lexington saw a substantial decline in the median sales price for residential sales in September: The price fell 7.5 percent to $149,838 from $162,000 a year ago.
The region saw varied results. In July, the median sales price for residential homes was $147,398, down 1.7 percent year-over-year. In August, it fell to $144,000 from $152,900 in August 2008, a drop of 5.8 percent. In September, the percentage drop-off narrowed to 1.8 percent with a median sales price of $140,000.
Central Kentucky's drop in sales prices has not been as pronounced during the recession as other areas of the country.
The average days on the market for a single-family home in the region was 78 at the end of the quarter, down from 93 a year earlier. Lexington was better with an average days on market of 66 compared to 69 a year ago.
The inventory of homes also was down in the region, with 6,238 for sale in September 2009, a drop of 5.4 percent.
"Interest rates are very low; there is a good selection of homes on the market and there is no reason not to be able find the home of your choice," LBAR president Gale Fulton said in a statement.

Does this Sound Familiar?

Not that I am for taking the horse farms and turning them into subdivisions, I am not, but maybe we could learn something from here in Central KY?

Urban planning to blame for housing bubble? - REAL Trends Between 2000 and the bubble's peak, inflation- adjusted housing prices in California and Florida more than doubled, and since the peak they have fallen by 20 to 30 percent. In contrast, housing prices in Georgia and Texas grew by only about 20 to 25 percent, and they haven't significantly declined. In other words, California and Florida housing bubbled, but Georgia and Texas housing did not. This is not because people don't want to live in Georgia and Texas: since 2000, Atlanta, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Houston have been the nation's fastest-growing urban areas, each growing by more than 120,000 people per year. According to a new study by the CATO Institute and Randal O'Toole, this suggests that local factors, not national policies, were a necessary condition for the housing bubbles where they took place. The most important factor that distinguishes states like California and Florida from states like Georgia and Texas is the amount of regulation imposed on landowners and developers, and in particular a regulatory system known as growth management. In short, restrictive growth management was a necessary condition for the housing bubble, says the study. Read more click here.
Real Trends Comment: Thomas Sowell's book, "Housing Boom and Bust" is one great read to understand how it was government involvement at all levels, local, state and federal, that was mostly responsible for both the boom and the bust in housing. At local and state levels, governmental action to reduce the land available for development and the cost of development caused huge price bubbles that exacerbated the wild swings in prices in such markets as San Francisco and Los Angeles when compared to cities like Atlanta and Houston. At the federal level the stimulus to accelerate low income households entry into homeownership caused Fannie and Freddie to purchase too many low downpayment and low credit scoring families - ending with the high foreclosure rates even before the recession.

To Extend or not to Extend

I will make this short and sweet, which is unusual for me, but anyone either in the market to buy or sell, or a real estate professional has an opinion on this current first time buyer tax credit. Now to debate the actual effects of the credit, good or bad, or how it is or is not market manipulation or control at some level is beyond the scope of this post, no matter how well founded or accurate they may or may not be. But like the cash for clunkers this is indeed creating a real shift in demand at least in the short term. Again the long term effect will be another matter all togeher for another time. So here are the top 3 pros and cons as I see it as a real estate professional and a property investor. And my idea to continue the plan so there is no cash for clunker type hangover period should it expire as set to do so in a matter of weeks.
Pro's:
1. Stimulates many on the fence buyers to go ahead an purchase property now rather than later
2. Helps to reduce the inventory available and in theory stabilize prices in the target price range.
3. Gives real a tangible monetary benefit to the average person, not an untangible corporation or group
Con's:
1. Limited to the typical first time home buyer target market and price range which may not address problems that created the current climate
2. Artificial inducement to act may create hangover effect in the future and creates minimum expectation standard for the future, and which may arguably be the root of the problem in the first place
3. By creating a hard deadline creates problems by rushing to act by too much of a sense of urgency to act.
My solution:
Now the numbers are arbitrary and can and should be adjusted as required for area and budget reasons. But here is a plan I think could be introduced to extend and most importantly expand the current credit.
The Ty Brown Real Estate Stimulus and Recovery Act of 2009
- $8,000 Federal Tax Credit in the first year for ANY owner occupied purchaser to be given to the buyer similar to the same current guidelines, except open to ALL buyers.
- and additional $1,000 interest credit towards federal taxes for each of the next 6 years the purchaser remains in the home.
- $2,000 incentive to purchaser to make home more energy efficient should home be in need, again similar to current guidelines -or-
-$8,000 principal reduction credit for a current seller that must sell their home that in turn purchases a new home that will lower their monthly mortgage payment by at least 20%. Then they would not be eligible for the $8,000 credit but would be eligible for the $1,000 interest credit and energy efficiency credit.
So this would be a great deal for someone that wanted to sell their home and couldnt because the value has decreased. They could lower their price by $8,000, the buyer could still use the $8,000 toward the purchase, and both could go to a new home and use the remaining credits.
The two biggest hurdles are 1. Who would fund the $8,000 principle reduction, and 2. Again is this TOO much artificial stimulus in a open market....

Florida Tile to move headquarters to Lexington

Florida Tile to move headquarters to Lexington
By Emily Ulber - eulber@herald-leader.com
State officials announced on Thursday the relocation of a Florida company to Lexington.
Florida Tile Inc. will move its headquarters from Lakeland, Fla., to Lexington, which will bring the company's corporate offices closer to its manufacturing plant and national distribution center in Lawrenceburg.
The move, which should occur in the next year, will result in the initial creation of 25 new jobs, growing to 51 over the term of the agreement. The project represents a capital investment of $3,732,500 for the state.

Kevin Verhoven, a broker for The Gibson Co., is representing the developers handling Florida Tile's move to Lexington. It will be housed in a 10,000-square-foot property in Beaumont Circle, he said.
The move might prompt other companies the size of Florida Tile to look at Lexington in a more favorable light, Verhoven said
The project is one of the first to be approved by the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority under the Kentucky Business Investment Program.
KEDFA preliminarily approved Florida Tile for up to $1,275,000 in tax incentives, which can be earned over a 10-year period through corporate income tax credit and wage assessments. The maximum annual approval amount to be earned is $127,500.

Housing Market Is Bouncing Back???

Housing market is bouncing back
By Alan Zibel and Alex Veiga - Associated Press
WASHINGTON — New-home sales rose last month at the fastest clip in more than eight years as buyers eagerly took advantage of bargain prices — a clear sign, economists said, that the real estate market might finally be bouncing back.
Historically low interest rates and a federal tax credit for first-time homeowners also helped push home sales to their highest level since November, the Commerce Department reported Monday.
Home prices are still falling around the country, but sales have risen for three months in a row. New-home construction is at the busiest level since last fall. And home resales rose in June for the third straight month.
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"The worst of the housing recession is now behind us," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. And as with the overall economy, the "recovery" is likely to be slow and arduous, he said.
Put in perspective, the improvement in sales is modest. The pace of sales for new homes in June was 72 percent below the peak of four summers ago, and there is an enormous inventory of homes lingering on the market.
"There's been signs of improvement, but we're a long ways off from being back to a normal market," said Corey Barton, president of CBH Homes in Meridian, Idaho. Sales were up there in June, Barton said, but "it wasn't our biggest jump in eight years."
But there were clear signs the housing market is showing more life than at any point since the recession began. Keystone Custom Homes of Lancaster, Pa., founded in 1992, had its best June ever. July is looking good, and president Larry Wisdom expects an even stronger August.
"We doubled our sales in May, and then in June it took off," he said.
New-home sales for June came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, blowing past the expectations of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who expected 360,000.
The figure is up 11 percent from May, and May's number of 346,000 was higher than previously thought. The increase is the largest since December 2000, when investors scared by the tech-stock bubble were looking for more stable places to put their money.
Sales were strongest in the Midwest, where they jumped 43 percent from May's total. Sales climbed 29 percent in the Northeast and 23 percent in the West. They declined slightly in the South.
The median sales price was $206,200, down from $234,300 a year ago and $219,000 from May. Economists expect home prices to continue falling until the competition from low-priced foreclosures ebbs sometime next year.
To drum up sales, CBH Homes has had to slash prices by as much as 10 percent from last year's levels. The new homes CBH builds have to compete with the glut of foreclosures, which have drawn many first-time home buyers.
In addition to lower prices, buyers are rushing to take advantage of a federal tax credit that covers 10 percent of the home price or up to $8,000 for first-time buyers. Home sales must be completed by the end of November for buyers to take advantage.
"There's definitely more first-time home buyers in the market than what we've seen in the last several years," Barton said.
Fallout from the housing crisis played a central role in the U.S. recession, now the longest since World War II. Mortgages went bad, home builders pulled back and fired thousands of workers, foreclosures spiked, and lenders were shuttered by the dozen.
Although the real estate market appears to be starting a recovery, that doesn't mean it will instantly become a powerful economic engine. Construction is weak because builders have too many unsold homes sitting vacant.
At the current sales pace, there are enough new homes for sale to last nearly nine months. That's slightly less time than in May but much longer than the six-month mark that indicates a balanced market.
Falling prices mean homebuilding companies won't be making much money anytime soon, but their stocks soared nonetheless on the impressive June sales. Beazer Homes USA gained 13 percent, and shares of Centex and Hovnanian Enterprises rose 9 percent.

June new home sales rise 11 percent

By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel, Ap Real Estate Writer – 1 hr 21 mins ago
WASHINGTON –

New U.S. home sales rose by the largest amount in more than eight years last month, in another sign the housing market is finally bouncing back from the worst downturn in decades.
The Commerce Department said Monday that sales rose 11 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, from an upwardly revised May rate of 346,000.
It was the strongest sales pace since November 2008 and exceeded the forecasts of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who expected a pace of 360,000 units. The last time sales rose so dramatically was in December 2000.
Sales have risen for three straight months. The median sales price of $206,200, however, was down 12 percent from $234,300 a year earlier and down nearly 6 percent from $219,000 in May.
The report is another encouraging sign that the beleaguered housing sector is finally coming back to life. Last Thursday, the National Association of Realtors reported that home resales posted a monthly increase of 3.6 percent in June.
There were 281,000 new homes for sale at the end of June, down more than 4 percent from May. At the current sales pace, that represents 8.8 months of supply — the lowest level since October 2007.
Fallout from the housing crisis has played a central role in the U.S. recession, now the longest since World War II. Foreclosures have spiked, homebuilders have slashed construction, and financial companies have lost billions.