Open houses today (Saturday)

Saturday from 11:30 – 1:30 p.m.
4750 Dawnview Terrace, Golden Valley
Beautiful three bedroom, two bath home on an over-sized lot. Huge deck with hot tub and wonderfully updated lower-level entertainment room with gas fireplace.
Price just reduced to $264,900

Saturday from 2-4 p.m.
4840 Ewing Avenue South, Minneapolis
Just came on the market this week – you must see this beautiful three bedroom, two bath Tudor in the wonderful 50th and France neighborhood of South Minneapolis. You’ll love the tasteful updates and brand new lower-level entertainment room – the perfect space to enjoy a snowy, winter day.
Priced at $389,000

4840 Ewing Avenue South – $389,000

Introducing the newest of the Minne-apple listings – 4840 Ewing Avenue South in the desirable 50th and France neighborhood of Southwest Minneapolis. Old-world charm with modern updates! You’ll fall in love with this immaculate three-bedroom, two-bathroom Tudor. Original wood floors, spacious & light-filled living and dining room, updated kitchen and baths & newly remodeled lower-level entertainment room. Move right in and make this home your own!

We’ll be open this weekend on Saturday from 2-4 p.m. and Sunday 12-4 p.m. We’d love you to stop in for a look!

For more details, click on the listing on www.edinarealty.com.

Listings down and pending sales up – hurray!

Improvements to the housing market continue to flourish during the month of February. The number of active listings is down 12% and new listings are down 15% from this time last year. Meanwhile, pended sales are up 25% from last year. Fewer houses on the market + more houses selling = happier sellers.

2008 Tax Credit vs. 2009 Tax Credit

We were quite pleased, in the Minne-apple world, that the most recent Stimulus Bill includes improvements to the homebuyer tax credit. We would have loved the proposed $15,000 tax credit for all homebuyers to have passed, but $8,000 credit for all first time buyers with no repayment is not at all shabby. In fact, it’s fantastic! Not only does this help those in the market to buy a home, it creates an improvement for those selling as well. Let’s watch this tax credit trickle down!

Below is a chart outlining the improvements:

Home updates – a before and after

before

after

We recently received these great before-and-after pictures from one of our first-time buyers who purchased a home over the summer. It didn’t take long before she started making updates to her house and we are so happy that she documented her project and is willing to share.

This is what sweat equity looks like! Job well done! What a difference a retaining wall makes – and we’re certain the neighbors appreciate the update as well!

First Time Homebuyer Coffee Chat – February 17th

Supply-Demand and Housing Affordability

The Supply-Demand Ratio (SDR) tells us how many homes are on the market for every active buyer. In January 2009 the SDR was 8.36, which is down 19.7% from January 2008 when the SDR was 10.41. This number is up 18.2% from January 2007 when the SDR was 7.07%. What do these numbers mean? They mean we are working towards a balanced market – in an evenly balanced market the SDR will be closer to 4 or 5.

The current Housing Affordability Index is at a record high of 192. This is the highest it has even been since the Minneapolis Association of Realtors started tracking affordability during the 1980s. A year ago the affordability index was at 141 – which means that affordability is up 36.2% in the last year alone. For more information on Affordability, click here and here.