*With a value of $70,000 as a median single home price, its likely that when compiling the data that the analysts considered townhomes as part of the contributing source data.

A big congratulations goes to Nicholasville and its residents.  Its certainly well deserved!

Nicholasville Kentucky Named Most Affordable Small City 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

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

The new school plans were approved by the Jessamine County Board of Education to be constructed at 851 Union Mill Road (also known as KY 169), which is located on the eastern side of Nicholasville KY.  The site encompasses 86 acres and was purchased by the school board for $2,000,000 last year.  [The site also will be utilized to accommodate a new proposed elementary school that is planned to open in 2012.]

The new project is arguably one of the most ambitious, and the most expensive project ever done by the Jessamine County board.  The plans as proposed are to have the school OPEN in the Fall 2009, and is going to cost an estimated $22.4 million.

Some of the amenities included in the proposal are a reflective roof to reduce energy consumption and costs, & the cafeteria will pull double duty as an auditorium as well.

Money is being raised for the project through the sale of bonds.  They are hoping to break ground in March 2008.

The expansion and growth is needed to accommodate the ever increasing community of Nicholasville.  The East Middle School that is currently being utilized was constructed in 1971 on Wilmore Road and currently has enrollment of 833 students.   The new facility is being constructed for 1000 students.  After the new middle school opens, the old facility will then be converted into a facility for pre-schoolers called Jessamine Early Learning Village which is scheduled to be ready in 2010.

The population of Nicholasville KY grew by 14% between 2000 and 2006.  This made it the 7th fastest growing county in Kentucky.

The new schools should certainly be a welcome addition to the community, and should bring some new technological improvements and highlights that weren’t available when the current facility was built in 1971.

Nicholasville KY New Middle School Project 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

The meeting was held at The Clark Building which is located at 109 North Main Street (and is located immediately adjacent to the Nicholasville Cafe).

This meeting was open to the public and the government officials wanted input from the local residents of Jessamine County KY to voice their views on how they would like to see real estate development go on and the future development plans for the city.

The mayor of Nicholasville KY, Mayor Russ Meyer used the campaign pledge that he would lead the city to a revitalization of the downtown area and promote growth within Jessamine County KY.

One of the new developments for the area has included the rehabing of 4 of the historic buildings on South Main Street that date back to the 19th century and were destroyed by fire in December 2004.

The government purchased those burnt out buildings for $210000 and has spent approximately $1.7 million making them a completely renovated asset to the community.

Other expansion and growth that has promised to be coming is a satellite location for one of the Lexington Kentucky staples – which is Common Grounds Coffee House.  They have plans for placing a new location in operation at the corner of Main Street and Maple, and will name their new store Main & Maple because of its location.

The meeting had speakers from several organizations including CDP Engineers who are consults in Lexington acting on behalf of the city of Nicholasville and Jessamine County KY to provide their input regarding feasibility for some of the upcoming proposals as well as providing commentary for suggestions made by the public.

Some of the additional real estate development that was voiced as a desirous by the community was some additional restaurants – feeling that would give persons a reason to go to the downtown area and perhaps support some of the existing businesses that are in the area.

It certainly looks like Nicholasville KY is well on its way toward becoming an even more charming and revitalized area for the community.

Nicholasville Kentucky Real Estate Development Public Meeting 12-8-2007 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