Our Home Prices Up

Higher-cost metro areas see 18 percent plummet.

It's a point many Wichita Realtors hammer home as 2008 winds down: Wichita's housing market is in better shape than many nationally.

That claim got another boost Tuesday with the third-quarter release of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which indicate that housing prices haven't bottomed out in many large metropolitan areas.

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Source: Wichita Eagle, by Bill Wilson, Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Transform Your Business with 2009 New Year's ReVolutions

While the origin of New Year’s resolutions goes back as far as 153 B.C., in modern day times, they usually evoke feelings of guilt. Most verbs associated with resolutions are restrictive in nature, including “to quit, stop, loose, reduce or eliminate.” The implication is that you need to improve, fix or repair something that’s broke or not complete. By its very nature, people see New Year’s resolutions as a difficult exercise at best, requiring discipline, determination and willpower…which are not exactly energizing words. As a result, most people “make” the resolutions January 1, and usually begin to “break” them by February 1 as their commitment fades and enthusiasm for attainment wanes. Case in point: The extreme increase in traffic at a health club the beginning of the year, which quickly subsides as the weeks and months progress.

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Source: RISMEDIA, Dec. 29, 2008, By Michael Guld

Wichita Home Sales Plunge 37%

Home sales in Wichita were off 37 percent in November, the largest year-to-year decline of 2008, according to data released Tuesday by the South Central Kansas MLS.

In the Wichita metropolitan area, 470 existing homes were sold during November, down from 748 the previous year.

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Source: Wichita Business Journal, by Chris Moon, Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Fed Cuts Interest Rate to Historic Low

RISMEDIA, Dec. 18, 2008-(MCT)-By cutting its benchmark lending rate to historic lows Tuesday and promising to combat the U.S. recession head-on and aggressively, the Federal Reserve served notice that more unconventional actions probably are ahead as it fights to reverse the nation’s economic woes.

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If you are think about buying a new home or refinancing, now is a great time. Call me today so I can help you get the best deal possible.

Source: RIS Media, by Kevin Hall, December 18, 2008

Mortgages at Less Than 4%?

The possibility of mortgage rates below 4% on home sales has received a mixed reaction among real estate and banking locals.

Federal regulators are considering a plan to push 30-year mortgage rates "well below 4 percent," one top federal official said on Wednesday.

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Source: Wichita Eagle, by Bill Wilson & Dan Voorhis, Thurs., December 11, 2008

Wichita Housing Market Down 17% in October

The local housing market showed little change in October, with total home sales down 17 percent that month, according to the numbers released this week by the Wichita Area Association of Realtors.

The October data, which was released two weeks later than normal, showed 822 homes were sold in October, down from 994 the previous October. The number was down just slightly from September, however.

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Source: Wichita Business Journal, by Chris Moon, Friday, December 5, 2008