Here’s a few snapshots of the metropolitan area:

In Scott County (for reference: Georgetown KY being one of the major cities), new home permits issued were 768 in 2005.  Only 446 were issued in 2007.  And for 2008 only 184 have been issued for the first 6 months of this year.

In Woodford County (for reference: Versailles KY being one of the major cities), new home permits issued were 154 in 2005.  Only 165 were issued in 2007.  And for 2008 only 52 have been issued for the first 6 months of this year.

In Jessamine County (for reference: Nicholasville KY being on of the major cities), new home permits issued were 643 in 2005.  Only 307 were issued in 2007.  And for 2008 only 90 have been issued for the first 6 months of this year.

In Bourbon County (for reference: Paris KY being one of the major cities), new home permits issued were 54 in 2005.  Only 46 were issued in 2007.  And for 2008 only 19 have been issued for the first 6 months of the year.

Which brings us to Fayette County and Lexington.  New home permits for 2005 were 2469.  Only 1235 were issued in 2007.  And from January 1 through August 30 2008, 534 new home permits were issued.

So, what does this mean for the Lexington real estate market?  It means that the pain isn’t over.  The inventory currently on the market has been moving slowly.  There are just simply not enough buyers to go around, so if you need to get your home sold ASAP, you are going to have offer the property for lower than you’d probably like to get it sold.

But what about the $700 billion bailout rescue plan?  Won’t that help ease the credit crunch by providing banks and lenders some more liquidity?  Well, sort of.  Lets put you into the banker’s position.  The stock market is reeling (it dropped to below 8000 today, and has lost almost 40% of its value in the past year).  Banks are failing.  People are losing their jobs.  Homes are going into foreclosure.   Inventory is WAY up on homes for sale….. Now, do you want to lend some money to someone in that market unless you are WAY over collateralized?  Probably not.  And there you see the dilemna.  Even with this “rescue” plan, it will take a long time before things get back to normal in the real estate market.  So, if you are wanting to get your home sold – you better plan on doing what it takes.  Or you could be waiting for a very long time.

New Lexington Homes For Sale Decline is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

The original concept was proposed to be completed in time for the 2010 World Equestrian Games, but it doesn’t appear that the property can be ready for business by that time.  Many potential occupants for the development are cautious of the relatively soft real estate market nationally, and even though Kentucky has a fairly strong overall real estate market, those retailers are slowing their expansion plans which is causing delays for this Equestrian Crossing development.

Equestrian Crossing may not be ready for 2010 WEG is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

The current financial picture for Georgetown KY is expected revenue of approximately $20.6 million, but it has projected costs of $22.6 million – a shortfall of $2 million.  So, they need to raise additional money (or cut expenses), to address the problem.

The city council members have been discussing an increase in payroll taxes of 0.1% – 0.2%, but Mayor Karen Tingle-Sames is going to recommend a 0.5% increase.  This would result in Georgetown Kentucky city residents in paying a payroll tax of 3%, while non-residents would pay 2.5%.  [Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky employs 7000 persons - of which, roughly 2/3 live outside of Georgetown.]

To give an example:  if a person earned $50,000 annually, they would have a potential additional tax consequence of $250 per year.

Georgetown KY Considers Payroll Tax Increase is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

If you compare these numbers to the national average, nationally the median price was down 7.7% for March 2008 vs. 2007.

The amount of inventory currently on the market and the marketing time needed to sell a home continues to lag the market.  Marketing times for the 1st quarter 2008 vs. 2007, is up 9%.  This indicates that sellers need to be realistic when pricing their homes, as getting the price correct is paramount to getting an offer in a reasonable time frame.  Still, its not all sour grapes for the Lexington real estate market.  Fortunately though, homes are selling (unlike some other parts of the country that are virtual ghost towns with persons waiting for things to hit bottom).  But in order to get a home sold, you need to ensure that you price the value of your home lower than your relative competition, ensure that your home is the nicest relative to your competition, and ensure that your home is getting the greatest amount of exposure to candidates that are most likely to purchase your home.  If you do those things, you can get your home sold.  Falter on any of the bunch, and you are likely to be sitting waiting…and waiting to get your home sold.

Lexington Homes Sales Decline is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

That being said – what about Lexington homes values? While not as rosy as we may not like them to be, we are in a far better position than many other parts of the country. Yes, inventory is up. But at least some Lexington homes are selling. Pricing, staging, and knowing your competition are critical in today’s market. Whatever price range you are in, you want to be at the lower end of that price range, be staged the nicest – and represent a good value for a potential buyer that may be considering making the move to purchase a home. Those will be critical factors that are musts to get a property moved in the current climate.

So, while its definitely not a sellers market at present – you can get a home sold. Again, touching on the national real estaet market perspective: We didn’t see, in general, the huge gains of appreciation that a lot of other parts of the country enjoyed – and which are now being corrected by the softening real estate market overall. I mean, if you saw 300% appreciation in 3 years – who really cares if you lost 20% in this correction. So, lets get real. The only persons that are really stuck are the persons that put little to no money down, but if they can hang on and continue to make their payments, they should be able to hang on.

A significant portion of persons in the Lexington housing market aren’t in that position. Quite a few made at least some contribution toward a down payment when purchasing their home. And we aren’t seeing a “huge” decline as some other parts of the country are currently dealing with.

To get the most value out of your home – you need to ensure that you are getting the most exposure that you can. Anyone can take out an ad in the local newspaper, and throw it on the Lexington MLS. But to attract buyers from other areas, you need to be seen where they are looking. This is currently primarily through the internet. If you aren’t able to be found quickly on a site thats in the first 5 or 10 positions for a particular search engine keyword – then you are missing out on a lot of eyeballs that may be interested in purchasing your home – but just can’t find it. Get found!

Lexington Homes Values: Increasing or Decreasing? is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

Some of the expansion projects include a new terminal building, as well as a runway ramp addition.

The contractor hasn’t been decided at this point in time. Bidding is set to let for this month March 2008, and the actual construction is set to start some time in the middle of the year 2008. There is no expectation that the construction will interfere with any of the Georgetown KY airport’s regularly scheduled flights or operations.

The World Equestrian Games in 2010 is expected to bring 200 more flights to the Lexington Kentucky area – and 60 of those daily flights are expected to go to the Georgetown Kentucky airport.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The airport is not prepared to deal with flights that may be carrying horses planning on coming to the WEG.

The location of the airport is approximately 10 miles from the Kentucky Horse Park.

The proximity of the Georgetown KY airport makes it an attractive option to those that may be concerned about the traffic surrounding the Lexington Kentucky airport.

Georgetown Kentucky Airport to begin $4 million expansion is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

But, there remains a potential for some opportunities for savvy investors.  The Lexington Kentucky newspaper, The Lexington Herald-Leader published an article recently that Lexington KY homes foreclosures for the metropolitan area have increased by 121% for 2007. If you examine the actual numbers, for 2006 there were 210 Lexington KY homes that were in some phase of foreclosure proceedings.  For 2007, there were 464 Lexington KY homes that were in some phase of foreclosure proceedings.  So, if you do the math:

464 – 210 = 254

254 / 210 = 121%

That sounds grim.

But, if you look at it from a broader perspective – that amount represents approximately 0.25% of all the Lexington Kentucky homes in the metropolitan area.  And if you compare it to the national average of 1.03%, and taking it a step further by comparing it to the top 100 largest metropolitan areas national average of 1.4%, things are starting to look a LOT better.

So, again this represents an example of where perception becomes reality.  The Lexington KY real estate market is somewhat softer than what it has been traditionally.  BUT, it is vastly more stable and superior to most of the rest of the United States.

If you want to get really shook up, lets look at some numbers for some other metropolitan areas in the USA:

Stockton California had an increase of 271% of homes in foreclosure

Sacramento California had an increase of 272% of homes in foreclosure

And the list goes on.

So, yes, while it might appear scary on the surface for many Lexington Ky homes owners, things really aren’t as bad as things may initially appear on the surface.

Homes are still selling.  And people are still buying.  You can expect longer market times if you are considering Lexington Ky homes for sale – but if its priced appropriately, and marketed correctly, you can expect it to sell within a reasonable time frame.

So, while many persons are running around like Chicken Little saying the sky is falling, the educated and informed can grasp the opportunity to make some smart purchases from those persons that are buying into the national hype and letting their emotions make some of their business decisions and choices for them.

Its a great time to buy real estate.  If you are considering making an upgrade, its probably worth it to stretch yourself and shoot for some of the luxury Lexington KY homes for sale that have been sitting on the market for a while.  When the market and national perception corrects itself, you will have made a smart purchase and will have probably picked up some built-in equity by buying the property correctly while the market was considered “soft”.

Review of the 2007 Lexington KY Real Estate Market is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

Some highlights of the new Toyota Venza include:

2.7 liter 4 cylinder or 3.5 liter V-6

6 speed sequential shift automatic transmissions

Seating Capacity will be 5

Toyota has invested $350 million to retool the plant to accommodate the new production of the Venza at the Georgetown KY facility.  The V-6 will be the first models to be built, with the 4 cylinder to be offered later next year.  The car is based on the Camry base and is being touted as a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) crossover.  It officially has a 3500 lb towing capacity.

Fuel efficiency or pricing for the Venza have not been released at this point – but Toyota hopes to do sales of 100000 annually. [Toyota is predicting 75000 sales for 2009.]

It will come standard with front wheel drive – but all wheel drive will be an option available.  It will be the first time that they Georgetown Kentucky Toyota Plant will have assembled all wheel drive components for their vehicles.  They intend to produce the Cmary, Camry Hybrid, and the Venza all on the same production line in November.

This is just 1 example of why its a great time to own one of the homes for sale in Georgetown KY.  Job growth with good paying jobs are one of the key economic indicators for a community.  The Georgetown KY real estate market would potentially be a good opportunity for someone to enjoy living in a smaller community while being close to some of the larger features offered in a big town since Lexington KY is a very short distance away.

Georgetown KY Toyota Plant is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

Overall, the sales of homes for sale in Lexington Kentucky decreased by 18.4% for December 2007 – with a year end value of a decrease of 8.2% relative to the previous year in 2006.

Overall, the average price for homes that sold was only slighty decreased from what they had been in previous years as announced by the Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors – so thats good news.  The average sold price was only decreased by 0.3% (a near negligible value in my opinion).  And the median price was only down approximately 1.2% overall.

And there were some high spots in the Lexington KY real estate market.  Values for townhomes and condominiums increased in 2007.  They both saw strong gains rising 6% with a median price increasing by 11%.  However, this isn’t necessarily statistically meaningful as less than 100 units are sold per month in the Lexington KY real estate market – and this number has possibly been swayed by the increase in new units of condominiums for sale in Lexington’s downtown area that are starting to come onto the local market.

December 2007 was a little off – with only 615 properties being sold, and the lowest since January 2007 when the market saw only 524 properties that were sold.

So, by now, I’m certain many of you are wondering how long did the homes take to sell.  The average market time for Lexington KY was 79 days in December 2007.  This is superior to what it was a year prior in December 2006 when it stood at 93 days, but again overall the average market time was much longer in 2007 with the average market time being 85 days – which is 9 days more than it was in 2006.

Again, December 2007 was a slow month for the local market.  The average sold price for a home in December was a decrease of 4.3%, and the median dropped 1.95%.

The amount of inventory on the market (the number of homes for sale in total actively), was fairly flat with less than a 1% adjustment between December 2006 and December 2007 – and overall for the entire year of 2007.  So, from an inventory standpoint, there really hasn’t been much change.  The total market inventory numbers are as follows:  December 2007 had 6263 homes for sale.  November 2007 had 6616 homes for sale.  This decrease can probably be reflected more to homes being taken off the market for the holidays, than homes that actually sold.

Now, lets look at the rate that sales are coming off the market.  For December 2007, the total number of pending homes (homes that have a contract on them that is waiting to close), was the lowest that its been in 3 years with a total of 469.  For reference, there were 594 in November 2007, and 544 in December 2006.

So, if you look at the big picture – you can see some 65oo or so homes for sale.  And that approximately 500-600 homes go pending each month.  This means that there is roughly 13 months worth of inventory on the market.  [6500 / 500-600 = approx. 13]  This indicates a soft Lexington KY real estate market overall.  Anytime you get over a few months of inventory – supply and demand economic basics start taking hold.  Anytime you have too much supply, and not enough demand, prices drop overall.

Now, that being said – is it a good time to sell your home?  YES – if you are moving up to a larger home.  The difference that you lose percentage-wise on your lower priced home, will be more than offset by the value that you will receive by the same percentage on the home of higher value.

If you are looking to downsize, or make a lateral move, its probably not the best time to do that if you have to sell your existing property.

But, it is a great time overall to buy real estate.  There are many sellers that need to get their property sold, and there are deals to be made.  Someone will be making some deals – and in a short period of time, you can reasonably expect that they’ll be sticking that money in their pocket by having built in equity when the real estate market improves.

Lexington KY Real Estate Market Review for 2007 is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate

Nearly all of the cases were in Fayette County (204 were for Lexington).  The next closest was Scott County at 4 filings.

These numbers are approximately 1 foreclosure filing for every 919 households in the 6 county area:

Bourbon County

Clark County

Fayette County

Jessamine County

Scott County

Woodford County

These recent filings put Lexington Kentucky in the dubious honor of being in the top 100 foreclosure rankings for the United State’s largest metropolitan areas.  This is a point of concern for many persons, as Lexington doesn’t have sufficient population to warrant such tainted recognition.

Here’s how some nearby other communities rated:

Dayton Ohio – 17th – 1 filing per 314 households

Columbus Ohio – 23rd – 1 filing per 104 households

Indianapolis Indiana – 24th – 1 filing per 109 households

Cincinnati Ohio – 30th – 1 filing per 145 households

Louisville Kentucky – 66th – 1 filing per 314 households

Knoxville Tennessee – 72nd – 1 filing per 426 households

Hopefully the mortgage industry can help clean up its own situation where they allowed persons with marginal credit worthiness to qualify for homes with loan terms that they wouldn’t be able to afford unless the housing industry remained strong.   Things like 1 year balloon ARMs, stated incomes, and the like created an artificial market that worked fine, unless the real estate and homes appreciations started to slow or even decline, and then it caused the persons that were relying on building equity in a property by using its appreciation – to end up getting into a negative equity position on a property.

Lexington Kentucky Foreclosures Filed at Record High is a post from: Lexington Kentucky Real Estate