The Spokane-Coeur D’Alene Home Guy Blog

The Washington State Housing Finance Commission offers incentives to purchase homes in specific areas in Spokane to promote home ownership.  Qualified applicants recieve lower interest rates, lower down payment requirements (0% with VA) and other great opportunities.

As of 8/12/2008 - rates are as low as 6% with minimal down payment requirements.  

For more information and for a list of homes available in these designated areas please do not hesitate to contact me.

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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For first time home buyers, the government just sweetened the pot.

The message: get out there and buy a house.  The Reward: up to $7,500 in tax credits.

This works similar to other tax credits, it’s not free cash but it’s interest free cash for up to 15 years.  A qualified first time home buyer need only purchase an owner occupied residence (this can even be new construction). To qualify for the credit.  A first time home buyer is one who has not purchased or sold a primary residence in any of the last 3 years.  If you are married to someone who has, sorry, unfortunately you don’t qualify.

If you do, your accountant can apply for the credit which caps out at $7,500 on your taxes.  This credit is refundable, so even if you owe nothing to the IRS you can get a check back.

The money can be paid back over 15 years with payments as low as $500 / year (presumably paid in your annual taxes).  When you sell your house, you can pay back the “credit” with your equity (assuming you have equity to pay it back).

Interested?  Let’s talk.

Tags: Idaho Real Estate, Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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Transactions remained steady in July, the only increase was Coeur d’Alene with an increase of 3 transactions to 79 for the month.  Post Falls dropped 6 to 45, and Spokane dropped 18 to 732 (which represents the most steady month-to-month numbers for Spokane this year).

The average sale price went up in all three markets.  Coeur d’Alene jumped over $15,000 to an average of $259,511.16, Post Falls jumped just under $21,000 to $214,720.29, and Spokane with the smallest increase in average sales price changed to $222,803.16 from $219,829.47.

 The list to sold ratio (the ratio between what a seller lists their house and what the home ultimately sells for dropped in all three markets.  Coeur d’Alene dropped to 96.66% of asking price, Post Falls to 98.07% of asking price and Spokane to 97.87% of asking price.

 Interested in seeing more?  Click here for the full report.

Tags: Idaho Real Estate, Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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Comparison of 3 markets.  Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Spokane.

I think you’ll be interested in what you see.

Download Report.

For other Idaho Cities - shoot me a note.

Tags: Idaho Real Estate, Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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The residential numbers are in… and they look good.

June proved successful. The average closed sale price jumped over $6,000 to $219,829.47 the largest jump since March to April. Is this a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer season?

Transactions are also up 123 to 750 for the month of June.

The only number that slipped was the Sold to List % dropped 8/100ths of a percent making June the third best month for sellers behind April & May 2008.

Download The Report.

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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Looking at the data from Closed Sales January through May, I’m seeing that prices are holding firm and sellers on average are getting between 97% and 98.5% of their asking price.  Granted, this does not account for any price reductions and time on market, but what it does tell us is that when a property is priced correctly, Spokane buyers will pay the price.  Pricing is very important.

 Our best month for closed transactions (Jan-May) was March with 978 closed transactions, but March was also the lowest average price per transaction at just over 200k.  Since then the transactions have leveled out to between 559 and 627 and the average transaction price has climbed between 209k and 213k. 

Sellers gave up more in January and March taking home between 97.12% and 97.6% of their asking price.  May was considerably better with 98.39% (a couple thousand dollars based on the average sale price).

For a graphical review of this report, click here.

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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Like I do every few weeks, I stuck my little toe into Paragon and pulled some statistics.  This week I pulled the 150-250 price range for residential, site built properties the Spokane County area.  To my surprise - things seemed to be going quite well in this sector.

Out of 2,332 listed since Jan 1, 2008 a surprising 1 in 3 has sold (1 in 5 expired) with an average time on market of 65 days.  Not too shabby!

To further detail - the average price of those sold was $193,623, and the average price of the unsold properties was $201,492.  If you are a seller curious on whether you should price your property - under 200k seems to be the mark.

The 150 to 250k range is pretty hot, and to make it hotter - price and PRESENT your property well and it will sell.  For information on other areas and price ranges please do not hesitate to contact me!

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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Spring was out with all its rays for two whole days.  Buyers woke up and started looking for properties.  My open houses were extremely successful.  I was able to meet a lot of great people out enjoying the day looking for properties.   Occasionally I get asked - “Isn’t it better to list a home now, in the springtime.”  To which I always answer  - whenever it’s best for you, you should list. 

Low-and-behold - I was watching HGTV while eating dinner and up came the 25 biggest Real Estate Mistakes show.  They addressed the same question.  Their answer was similar.  Sell when it’s best for YOU.  Don’t put off your dreams and everything just for weather.  With 100+ days on the market in most areas, it’s important to get your property listed when it’s right for you.  With that said - they noted that there may be seasonal aspects to your home that you can really utilize to make your home more desireable.

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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Just recently I heard that most conventional 100% financing options are gone (for the time being).  There are still options to go 100% financed with FHA or VA (with VA probably being one of the best options).   What does this mean to sellers?

Offering FHA is a GREAT option when selling your home - if it qualifies.  The buyer pool for FHA loans is growing more and more every day.  FHA still has some legal gift programs such as Neamiah where sellers can gift funds to help buyers get into homes easier with less down.  For the conventional buyer - you’re going to need a down payment.

Why is this happening?  The banks can write the notes, but they can’t get their Privat Mortgage Insurance to cover the loan, which is why FHA and VA can still do it - they are government backed loan programs which aren’t affected by the PMI issues. 

For more information - I’d be happy to put you in touch with my lender, give me a call or shoot me an email and we’ll discuss it! 

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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I’ve always been facinated with Manito Park and the whole Manito area.  So much neat Real Estate around there.

I thought this was interesting - the Friends of Manito are putting on a Tropical Plant Sale. Check it out!

Tags: Spokane Real Estate by Spokane Home Guy (509) 990-7653
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