Do you want to know what has been happening to real estate in Clifton Gas Light? If so, this is the report for you!

My name is Bryan Casteel and I live in the Clifton area and I am a real estate agent with RE/MAX Unlimited. Along with my Marketing Manager at my real estate team, The RealCincy Group, we just finished analyzing all the sales from the Greater Cincinnati MLS that have occurred in the Clifton Gas Light District since 1993 (almost 17 years of sales!).

We looked at prices trends, days on market, foreclosures and more. Out of this effort, we have produced the Clifton Real Estate Report.

With this report, you will learn:

• What has happened to prices of homes in Clifton Gas Light over the last 17 years
• How home sales have been affected by the foreclosure market
• What the price trends are for different sizes of homes (broken down by number of bedrooms)
• Why certain homes are not selling and other homes are “flying off the shelf”
• Are we “at the bottom” or is there more “pain” to be felt?

We have also included a whole section on what you can do to protect your home’s equity when selling in this difficult market.

We have both worked very hard to pull this information together. It is our hope that you will find this a valuable insight into the current market and where things may be heading in the future. We will continue to update this report on a regular basis to keep you informed.

This report is free for anyone, request your copy today!
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More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

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The historical price range of $163,000 to $171,000 was broken by the housing bubble that started in the late 1990s. The housing bubble peaked in 2005 when the average inflation adjusted price of a single family home was over $205,000.

2008 marked the official end to housing bubble prices in Cincinnati when prices returned to their historical range. In 2008, the average price of a single family home was $170,082.

Unfortunately, after a market bubble, prices often drop well below their historic price range before returning to normal levels over time – a classic bottoming process. So far this year, the average price of a single family home sold in the Cincinnati area tumbled 18.7% to $138,221. Current prices are 15% below the historical price range – a clear sign of a bottoming process.

This is a fantastic market to buy a home and properly priced homes are selling quickly. But it can be difficult to determine if a home is appropriately priced. Both buyers and sellers should be sure they use a full time professional real estate agent who understands the current market’s trends and can provide them with detailed pricing data.

Our team will also be releasing detail real estate reports on Mason, Eastgate and Clifton later this week. These reports will take a detail look at these real estate markets.

Cincinnati home prices from the MLS of Greater Cincinnati. Prices are for Warren, Hamilton, Clermont and Butler counties.

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

Let’s take the house that Randy and I call home.  The auditor’s site is correct. The above grade square footage is accurate. They are also allowing a little less than 1/3 of the total finished basement, about 600 square feet, as we have a side walkout. The lot size is correct. The assessed value, in ratio to current market value, appears valid.

However, a site accessed from Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service, called Realist, used by many agents in the area, including yours truly, is incorrect. It has the square footage listed correctly, but the lot size is inaccurate. We have just over a 1/2 acre lot, and Realist states that we have a .25 acre lot. 

If our home were on the market, and a buyer that didn’t know any better went by zillow.com, they would not have the correct square footage information (no finished basement square footage noted) to make a decent evaluation.   To complicate matters, they have our home in the wrong school district……not even close.
 Poor information at best!

If you formed an offer on our home, per www.zillow.com  information, I would have to run you off my front sidewalk!

Now, on the other hand, if you recently visited www.realtor.com, then to Find Home Values, and brought us an offer based on their valuation….well, you have yourself a deal!!!  Randy and I can be moved by the end of the month!!
 
There was a $40,000 difference in those two sites alone. Personally, I prefered the www.realtor.com numbers, but I have to confess, as a full time working agent, I knew that “there ain’t no way” my home was worth that much. 2005 yes, 2008 no.

So, all that being said, who do you trust?
Do you trust a web site that is only as good as the information entered by humans, filled with human errors?   A web site that doesn’t know that all the lots in that subdivision are ½ acre minimum, so this stated .25 acre is incorrect? A web site that doesn’t know that when the buyers had this home built, they added a two foot bump, so this square foot information is incorrect? A web site that  did not step foot inside these 5 comps, or  last week drove out of town buyers to homes that are priced exactly the same as yours, and know what buyers expect for a $200,000, $350,000, or $500,000 home?  

If you want an honest and complete Home Evaluation, give me a call or send me an email at jcox@realcincy.com. Randy can help you in Kentucky. rhibbard@realcincy.com

Our promise: we may not always tell you what you want to hear, but we will tell you what you need to know!

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

As a seller, you look at your home as the place where you live.    To sell your home quickly, you will need to understand how a buyer will look at your home.  Home buyers use emotion, not facts, when looking at a home.   A home buyer is buying a dream, a lifestyle.  The home buyer needs to see their dream or lifestyle in your home.  

What do I mean by this?  When a buyer sees your kitchen, they are dreaming about the big family get together.  They are thinking about Sunday morning with the kids.  They are not thinking about how YOU live in the home.   

How do you sell a dream?   It is called home staging. Home staging is not decorating.  When you decorate a home you are personalizing the home for you.  When you stage a home you are de-personalizing the home so others can see their dream (not yours) in the home.

Look at your home, does it look like a model home?  Are there lots of family photos around?  Is the kitchen counter covered with stuff?    Is your furniture arranged so you can use the room or is it arranged to show off the room?  Are mirrors used to make your rooms look bigger?  Is all the “clutter” and extra stuff removed?  Everyone loves a model home because they can picture in their mind their family being happy in the home. How do they do this? Model homes are staged and sparsely decorated!

As an Accredited Staging Professional, I help my clients through the staging process.   Staging Professionals are very good at making your home inspire other people’s dreams. We often find the cost of staging a home is less than the first price reduction.  Recent statistics from www.stagedhomes.com prove the point: 

• Average days on market for staged homes is currently 31.8 days
• Average days on market for Non-Staged homes is 160 days

So you want to sell your home quickly for as much money as possible?  Then hire a Real Estate Team who can work with you to properly price and professionally stage your home.

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

The magic sauce is affordability – read monthly payments.  Since the peak, home prices have fallen 10% to 15% while incomes have continued to grow.  Kick in the fact that interest rates are down 70 basis points and we have the makings of a bottom.   

There is still a lot of inventory, but the inventory levels are starting to go down (see Part 2).  If prices start to stabilize, we should see foreclosures level out and start to decline because fewer homeowners will be underwater.

Will we see a rapid recovery?  No Way!  Remember we are talking about finding a bottom.   We may still have a few rough quarters to go through.   It may take years for the Cincinnati real estate market to fully recover.   It may take parts of Flordia a lot longer!  

In 5 years when we look back we will remember idiot phrases like “Home prices never go down” along with “The Real Estate Market will continue to drop another 30% beyond 2008 levels”.   The truth is we live in a world of business cycles.   We have to live with boom markets and bust markets.    At the end of the day we all need a home to live in and affordable credit makes the entire market work.   The Credit Crisis is easing and homes are affordable – so we should be entering a market bottom.

This is the third installment in the Are We At The Market Bottom series.  You can find the previous articles at:

1. Are We At Market Bottom
2. Are We At Market Bottom – Part 2

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

If you look at the number of single family homes and condos listed for sale in the Greater Cincinnati MLS in March 2008 and you compare it to March since 2000, a good trend appears – homes for sale went down. 

I flipped the chart over.  Does this look like a potential bottom?

It looks like a potential bottom to me.  Lets hope this trend continues.    I will keep you up to date.

Remember

• If you are selling a home – Clean it, repair it, stage it and price it right.  Also make sure your home is getting massive exposure on the Internet – most home buyers are starting their search in the Internet.   For our listings we even create a web site just for the listing!  Check out this example:   http://www.1274morten.com/ !
• If you are buying a home – now may be the time to start moving.   Deals are out there and rates are great.

Good luck

Source of the map data is the MLS of Greater Cincinnati Monthly & Yearly Updates

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

Having children myself, I have closely watched school district rankings over the past few years.  Different resources use different formulas to rank schools and school districts.   Recently, two publications produced their “extensively researched” public school rankings and the top school was different on each report!   I don’t think it matters what the rankings say.  The real question is – “What is the right school district for you?”

Evaluating schools isn’t as simple as comparing test scores. You must first consider what it is about a school that matters the most to you.  For example:

• Am I interested in private vs. public schools
• Am I interested in certain sports programs
• Do I have children with special needs
• Is class size important to me?
• Are there special programs that I am interested in (e.g., music, art, etc.)?
• Is the size of the school district important to me?

These are personal questions that only you can answer.  Don’t drive your decision by a simple ranking of schools!

We have prepared a fact filled resource kit for parents to use to help evaluate their needs and alternatives.   The kit includes printed copies of the school reports produced by the State of Ohio, a step by step evaluation guide, links to many rankings and lots of links to other resources.    Send an email to info@realcincy.com with your name, address and the districts your are interested in.  We will prepare a kit for you and send to you right away (free of course).

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com

Also on Sunday, more than 2,000 homes for sale in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties will be open for viewings as part of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors’ Super Sunday open house. Duke Energy is sponsoring the event, and anyone taking a home tour will receive a $5 rebate coupon for a 5-pack of General Electric 13-watt Energy Smart Bulbs. For specific open house times, visit cincymls.com.

More Cincinnati real estate information can be found at RealCincy.com