Home Sales up for the Year but Dip in November

2013 November Home Sales Report

Sawyer County – November residential sales in Sawyer County were up 12.5%; total sales this year were 36 as compared to November 2012 sales of 32 households. During the same November period the median price dropped 15.3% from $177,000 in 2012 compared to $150,000 this November.  Sawyer County has a strong median price as compared to the $127,000 median price in the rest of the north region of Wisconsin.

Madison - According to the latest housing report by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA), Wisconsin home sales fell 6 percent in November 2013 when compared to November 2012, although total sales for the year remain ahead of 2012, Comparing the first 11 months, home sales were up 11.1 percent in 2013 over 2012. Prices were also higher in November, rising 4.7 percent above the same month last year, to a statewide median of $136,000.

“Over the last two months, the housing market has definitely cooled from the red-hot pace that characterized the first three quarters of 2013,” said Steve Lane, WRA board chairman.

“Although sellers would certainly prefer prices to increase faster, the more moderate rate of median price appreciation of 4.7 percent is healthy for the Wisconsin market,” said Michael Theo, WRA President and CEO. He noted that with current inflation lower than 2 percent, the modest home price appreciation will build total household wealth in real terms. “Wisconsin has enjoyed relatively mild swings in home prices relative to some of the more volatile regions of the country, and that stability keeps the dream of homeownership attainable for Wisconsinresidents,” he said.

The Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index, which shows the percent of the median-priced home that the family with median income can afford to buy assuming current mortgage rates and 20 percent down, stood at 232. This is up slightly from the October value of 225, but well below the level of November 2012 when it was at 275.

Happy New Year!

Life is a Gift...

Live it!

Gary Nathan

Amanda Mavis

October Home Sales

October sales of existing homes in the north region of Wisconsin dipped by 5.3% as compared to 2012.  In Sawyer County our sales were off by 13.5%; we had 32 sales as compared to 37 sales in the same period last year.  The October median price held steady at $147,000.  Year-to-date the Sawyer County median sales price is at $172,000 as compared to $154,250 in 2012; that’s an 11.5% increase.  Total sales for 2013 are up over last year as well; 311 year-to-date sales as compared to 258 for the same period in 2012, a 16% increase.

According to the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association the market tempered in October.  This report from the WRA: “Wisconsin’s red-hot real estate market cooled in October, with sales of existing homes nearly identical to October of last year. October sales were just 0.1 percent lower than last October, representing the first time since July of 2011 that monthly sales did not increase over the previous year. The median sales price however continued to rise, increasing 5.6 percent to $142,500 in October relative to October 2012. On a year-to-date basis, median prices increased 7.5 percent compared to the first 10 months of 2012. “

“While somewhat surprising, these numbers are not totally unexpected,” said Steve Lane, Chairman of the WRA board of directors. “We are comparing sales between two very strong years and two very healthy markets,” said Lane. Year-to-date sales in the state are 12.4 percent higher than the first 10 months of 2012.

All in all it has been a pretty strong year for Wisconsin and for Sawyer County; hopefully the trend will continue.

Gary Nathan

Life is a Gift...

Live it!

Winter Wonderland Fun

Looking for a fun way to enjoy the cold winter months in Hayward? Why not try sledding and sleigh rides...?

Life is a Gift...
Live it!
Amanda Mavis

September Housing Stats

Wisconsin home sales were very strong in September, continuing the robust pace that has characterized the year according to the most recent housing report from the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA). Sales of existing homes were up 15.8 percent in September compared to that same month in 2012 — representing a 13.6 percent increase through the first nine months of the year. Median prices posted similar gains, increasing a very solid 6.7 percent in September relative to September 2012 — an increase of 7.8 percent year to date compared to the first nine months of 2012. Home sales have now been up for 27 straight months and median prices have consistently grown in all but one of the past 19 months.

All regions saw their existing home sales grow by double-digit margins in September as compared to September 2012. The North region which includes Sawyer County grew just over 19 percent for the period.

Housing remains affordable with the Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index standing at 222 in September, down from 257 a year ago. The index measures the percent of the median-priced home that a buyer earning the estimated median family income can afford to buy. It assumes that the buyer is borrowing at current rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 20 percent down payment. “Affordability in Wisconsin is down from last year, but it compares favorably to the national index,” Theo said. The U.S. Housing Affordability Index fell to 154.5 in August. “Wisconsin housing continues to be a good value and with solid appreciation rates over the last year, it is once again a significant way to accumulate household wealth,” said Theo.

August Home Sale Data

The September home sales data won’t be available for awhile and I am tardy in getting the August results out but here is what has been reported by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA).  August home sales and median prices both grew at a healthy pace continuing the hot real estate market in Wisconsin.

“Existing home sales were up 13.7 percent in August compared to last August, closing out a very strong summer for home sales and 26 straight months of sales growth. Home prices showed similar strength with the median price rising 6.3 percent to $152,000 in August. Median prices have been up 17 of the last 18 months.” Now that’s for the whole state of Wisconsin.

In Sawyer County the August Residential median sale for 2013 settled at $175,000 as compared to the 2012 median sale price of $147,700; that’s an increase of 18.5%. In August Sawyer County had 51 residential sales as compared to 42 sales in 2012 which is a 21.4% gain.

In Sawyer County our Year-to-Date median sales price is $169,000 as compared to $164,000 a year ago.  That’s just a 3% increase but we’ll take it. Residential sales so far this year have reached 240 as compared to 198 a year ago.  So unit sales are up by a healthy 21%.

This is all pretty positive; is there any downside to all of this?  Locally the value being received is a little disappointing but the flip side is that unit sales are up and it appears on paper that we are headed in the right direction. 

Life Is A Gift...Live It!

Gary Nathan

Fun for Kids in Hayward

Tomorrow is the annual Fat Tire bike race in Hayward and with this adult event comes lots of fun and exciting things for kids too!

One event that my girls, who are 6 and 4, look forward to every year is the bike decorating contest and parade. It is on Saturday morning in front of the Hayward Bakery on Main St, starting at 8am with the parade at 9am.

Speaking from personal experience, my two girls LOVE this event! They love that they get to express their creativity by decorating and adding "Bling" to their bikes and when they are all finished the best part is they to parade up and down Main Street to show off their hard work.

This is a super simple and fun event with prizes and treats for the kids and lots of fun photo opportunities for the parents. I encourage any one with kiddos to check it out and then stay to watch the Fat Tire bikers race down Main Street at 10am. If you don't have kiddos you can come and cheer on the kids and enjoy their unique displays of creativity!

Life is a Gift...Live it!
Amanda

Happy and Sad...

In the current real estate market, specifically Hayward WI, it is not uncommon for a home or property to take a year or two or even longer to sell. We know that there are many factors involved in how quickly a property will sell including the property attributes, age of the structure as well as the size of a buyer pool searching at any particular price level.

Over the many months and years that we end up working in partnership with our sellers, we become quite close. Just as we would want the very best for a family member or a close personal friend, we feel the same about our sellers. We listen emphatically as they tell us about their need to sell; to move on to a different stage in their lives. Some of our sellers have been with us through the real estate highs of 2004-2008 and now, with many of them, we are wading through the challenges of our current real estate market. Once we get a listing sold, not just an offer, but actually closed and out the door, we are happy and excited for our clients, but at the same time, we are also a little sad to say goodbye. We've spent countless hours pondering our listings, how best to market them and brainstorming ideas to bring just the right buyers. When we close and say goodbye we are saying that to not just a client, but also a friend with whom we have developed a lasting relationship. 

We are in a continual pursuit to make Woodland a better real estate company, not merely for our personal gain, but more importantly for the betterment of our sellers. We seek success for Woodland because that ultimately means success for our sellers.
We are truly grateful for the trust you place in us and you have our promise that we will continue to strive to do our best and meet those expectations.

Life is a Gift...Live it!

Bring on the Walleye

We just received an email from the Hayward Lakes Visitors and Convention Bureau about Gov. Walkers plan to increase Walleye population in our lakes.

______________________

Governor Scott Walker will hold a press conference at Lakewoods Resort in Cable on Saturday, May 25th, 2013 at Noon.  The Governor announced the Wisconsin Walleye Initiative in Madison early Wednesday.  This plan will significantly turn around the walleye population within our lakes in a short period of time.

Attached is the announcement regarding walleye stocking efforts in Wisconsin. Click to view.

___________________________

Life is a Gift...Live it!

Amanda

Woodland Developments and Realty

Website Traffic

We invest in one of America's premier networks for online listing management with respect to real estate and receive a monthly online marketing report from them. It gives us some pretty interesting data that hopefully helps us target buyers as well as trends. The tracking for this is done by GIS coding; a technology used to geographically locate online consumers. Interestingly the highest online traffic ranking by state is as follows:
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois
Texas
Iowa
Colorado
Arizona
California
North Dakota (yes, my home state)
Florida

Far and away Wisconsin is number one and then Minnesota and Illinois are a close second. The North Dakota one kind of has me puzzled – me thinks my family must be checking out my web site a great deal and tracking my work – yikes. As the months roll along we intend to track this and see what changes there are if any.
Here’s the list in terms of City rankings:
Hayward (no surprise)

Minneapolis
Saint Paul
Bloomington, IL
Beloit
Eau Claire
Rice Lake
Waukesha County
Baraboo

Savage, MN
Cable
Champlin, MN

Hmmm, no North Dakota cities in this bunch. Obviously there is a jungle of data available but I thought this was rather interesting although it doesn’t keep me up at night thinking about it…thank goodness!!

C’mon spring!!!

Life Is A Gift…Live It!

Gary Nathan

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

On March 10, 2010, Governor Doyle signed into law Senate Bill 415, legislation that

requires ALL homes to have carbon monoxide detectors beginning on February 1,

2011. This new law expands the current carbon monoxide detector requirements to all

one and two family homes and parallels requirements for smoke alarms for ease of

installation. Specifically, this new law will require carbon monoxide alarms to be

installed in the basement of the dwelling and on each floor level except the attic or

storage area of both newly constructed and existing homes. For new construction, the

alarms must be hard-wired in order to be current with national model safety codes. For

existing homes the alarms can be battery operated and can be multipurpose (both smoke

and carbon monoxide). Dwellings with no attached garages, no fireplaces and no fuel

burning appliances are exempted from this requirement.

Also, beginning April 1, 2010, all existing multifamily units are required to have carbon

monoxide detectors. Plug-in alarms are acceptable to comply with this new law in

existing multifamily units.

Where to Place the Detectors

It is important to properly place the smoke detectors in the home. In most locations

throughout the U.S., smoke detectors are required in all new homes. The number and

location are listed below:

Number and Location Requirements

The minimum standard as stated in the National Fire Prevention Association's National

Fire Alarm Code (NFPA 72): There should be a smoke detector on every level of the

house, including the basement and outside every bedroom.

New homes require hard-wired alarms to be interconnected so that if one alarm is

activated, all alarms will sound the alarm signal. New homes require smoke detectors in

every bedroom. On floors without bedrooms smoke alarms should be installed in or near

living areas, such as family rooms and living rooms.

Placement Requirements

As stated by the NFPA: "Since smoke and deadly gases rise, alarms should be placed

on the ceiling at least 4 inches from the nearest wall, or high on a wall, 4-12 inches

from the ceiling. This 4-inch minimum is important to keep alarms out of possible

"dead air" spaces, because hot air is turbulent and may bounce so much it misses

spots near a surface. Installing alarms near a window, door or fireplace is not

recommended because drafts could detour smoke away from the unit. In rooms where

the ceiling has an extremely high point, such as in vaulted ceilings, mount the alarm at

or near the ceiling's highest point."

Additional Guidelines for Installation

If you sleep with your bedroom doors closed, it is recommended that a smoke detector

be installed inside each bedroom. Alarms should also be installed in other areas of

your home where people sleep.

Wired systems should not be connected to a circuit that could be turned off with a wall

switch.

Plug-in systems should have a restraining device at the outlet to prevent the plug from

accidentally coming loose.

Hard-wired systems should be installed by a qualified electrician.

Do not install the smoke detector near windows, doors or forced-air registers where air

flow would interfere with the operation of the detector.

Green Spring Cleaning

With spring just around the corner it is time to get the house spiffed up and all the winter grime wiped away. Here are some tips on cleaning your house the Green Way....

Green Cleaning with a Lemon

What does Weather have to do with Real Estate?

Last year we had one of the warmest springs on record including one of the earliest recorded "ice outs" ever! So what does that have to do with selling real estate? We think it can be significant. Have you ever considered going shopping or out for lunch and then you realize it is bone-chilling-cold. Bingo, change in plans and you find yourself ordering food in and surfing the web or eating from a fast food joint that has a drive thru so you don't have to get out of the car. 

Buyers tend to think the same way when it comes to looking at property. Unless they absolutely have money burning a hole in their pocket they tend to surf the Internet until temperatures heat up. Once the snow melts and the ice is out we find buyers coming out of the wood work like Asian beetles on warm spring days. Our phone starts to ring and Amber has little time to do much else other than answer and direct buyers and sellers to our great agents.

So if you are a buyer, beat the rush give us a call and start looking at property while it is still relatively calm and there is a good inventory of property available. If you are a seller hold tight, it will happen. I suggest to sellers that they take their patience pills. You can rest assured knowing that when you are listed with a Woodland Agent your property is marketed extensively on the Internet and in local print media! If a buyer wants to virtually browse they will find your property through one of our vast web connections.
The weather for March 2013 looks to be cold and brisk, but by April we should start to see things thaw.

Life is a Gift...Live it! 
Amanda Mavis

2012 Housing Results

Sawyer County home sales rebounded back up to 2008 levels with 324 homes sold in 2012 as compared to 262 homes in 2011. The downside is that the median price fell to $154,750 as compared to $178,500 in 2011. The 2012 median price mirrors the values we experienced in 2009-2010.


Strong growth in home sales since the middle of 2011 seems to indicate that buyers perceive the value of investing in housing again and that the trend for home sales is moving in the right direction. Hopefully values will begin to increase as well even if at a modest pace. There appears to be some pent-up buyer demand yet so we may see more activity as buyers seek reasonable pricing in the midst of a pretty inflated local inventory. And let's not forget about those low mortgage interest rates.

Overall the Wisconsin housing market was up in 2012, with sales of existing homes growing substantially and median prices up modestly, according to the latest figures released by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA). Sales of existing homes for 2012 were 20.7 percent above the levels of 2011, and the statewide median price increased 1.1 percent to $133,500 over that same period. Foreclosure activity in the state is also receding at a good pace. On average the home inventory level is declining across the state.

Life Is A Gift…Live It!

Gary

Real Estate Provisions in "Fiscal Cliff" Bill

Following is a brief from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) with regards to the fiscal cliff legislation as it relates to real estate.


On January 1 both the Senate and House passed H.R. 8, legislation to avert the “fiscal cliff.” The bill will be signed shortly by President Barack Obama. Below are a summary of real estate related provisions in the bill.

Real Estate Tax Extenders:

•  Mortgage Cancellation Relief is extended for one year to January 1, 2014

•  Deduction for Mortgage Insurance Premiums for filers making below $110,000 is extended through 2013 and made retroactive to cover 2012

•  Leasehold Improvements: 15 year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements on commercial properties is extended through 2013 and made retroactive to cover 2012.

• Energy Efficiency Tax Credit: The 10% tax credit (up to $500) for homeowners for energy improvements to existing homes is extended through 2013 and made retroactive to cover 2012.

• Permanent Repeal of Pease Limitations for 99% of Taxpayers Under the agreement so called “Pease Limitations” that reduce the value of itemized deductions are permanently repealed for most taxpayers but will be reinstituted for high income filers. These limitations will only apply to individuals earning more than $250,000 and joint filers earning above $300,000. These thresholds have been increased and are indexed for inflation and will rise over time. Under the formula, the amount of adjusted gross income above the threshold is multiplied by 3%. That amount is then used to reduce the total value of the filer’s itemized deductions. The total amount of reduction cannot exceed 80% of the filer’s itemized deductions. These limits were first enacted in 1990 (named for the Ohio Congressman Don Pease who came up with the idea) and continued throughout the Clinton years. They were gradually phased out as a result of the 2001 tax cuts and were completely eliminated in 2010-2012. Had we gone over the fiscal cliff, Pease limitations would have been reinstituted on all filers starting at $174,450 of adjusted gross income.

• Capital Gains: Capital Gains rate stays at 15% for those at the top rate of $400,000 individual and $450,000 joint return. After that, any gains above those amounts will be taxed at 20%. The 250/500k exclusion for sale of principle residence remains in place.

• Estate Tax: The first $5 million dollars in individual estates and $10 million for family estates are now exempted from the estate tax. After that the rate will be 40 percent, up from 35 percent. The exemption amounts are indexed for inflation.

We will keep you posted on any new developments; let us know how you feel about this or if you have any other comments. 

Gary Nathan
Amanda Mavis