John Murphy’s MEDINA REAL ESTATE REPORT

CNN Money has four quick and fairly painless projects that home owners can do to improve the marketability of their home and increase the sales price of their home.

This reminds me….there’s a home for sale in Medina.  It’s over $600,000.  The challenge will be the home has too much golden oak wood floors, cabinets and trim throughout the home.  They have had to drop their asking price by $15,000…in my opinion, it’s in large part due to the woodwork.

I would have advised this home owner to spend the $2,500 - $5,000 to have their floors refinished and the kitchen cabinets and the trim on the main level enameled.  The hardwood floors could have been finished in a dark stain that would have looked beautiful contrasted with the white enamel on the woodwork.  Instead, all you see is golden oak throughout the home.  It’s a difficult sell.

There has been much written about the rise in foreclosures. We are certainly seeing an increase in the Twin Cities. Investors are getting ready to step in, but should they wait? MarketWatch raises the issues investors should evaluate before purchasing these foreclosed properties.

This may be a little hard to follow, but there are some interesting points BusinessWeek makes regarding the ongoing correction in the housing market. For those who enjoy some of the more technical and intertwining aspects of the U.S. real estate sector, it’s worth a read.

This Old House just published “12 space-saving sensational kitchens.”  It’s available on CNN Money.

Newly elected Mayor Kelli Slavik will present the State of the City presentation at the Twin West State of the City luncheon held on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at the Plymouth Creek Center.

The event starts at 11:45am and is free and open to the public.  The Plymouth Creek Center is located at 14800 34th Ave. N., Plymouth.

A light lunch will be served.

More information may be found on the City of Plymouth’s website.

On Friday, the business channels and financial web sites all ran with the headline and stories about the plunge in construction spending in January.  Forbes.com, CNN Money and the Associated Press all ran stories.  You’ll find in most of the stories that it turns out this number is highly volatile from month to month.  Nationally, we had an unusually warm December (thus all the Al Gore Global Warming Climate Change hysteria) but January turned cold across the country which may have had a significant impact on housing starts.  However, the headlines scream home construction plunges!

Experts were predicting a drop of 2.6%…that show’s you how much the experts know.  Keep that in mind the next time you read a story about real estate and they keep talking about what “could” happen etc.

But here’s the good news.  Permits are way down across the country.  Builders are not building as many spec homes.  They are slowly but surely burning off their inventory.  This is very good news for those trying to sell their existing homes.  The fewer newer homes for sale in the market will help the existing homes because it is significant competition.  I particularly see this in the local market in Maple Grove, Chanhassen, Shakopee, St. Michael etc….all the more outlying areas are greatly affected by the national home builders’ supply of spec homes.

The Star Tribune ran a story about the Minnesota connection to the International Builders Show held in Orlando, Florida this past week.

The manufacturers who sell products to builders have incorporated lots of technology and innovation in to new home products.

One of the items I think will be great is washable flat paint produced by 3M.  But it’s not cheap.  This paint is currently available at Hirshfields for about $35 per gallon.

Consumer Reports has posted many video presentations of the new products introduced at the International Home Builders Show.  And don’t miss the new bath tiles with a spritz!

While this story is several months old, but it has links to some excellent real estate web sites whether you’re looking for information about mortgages, home values, remodeling projects, or how to sell your home.  CNN lists 15 sites worth your review.

As I come across more sites, I’ll add the stories and links.

The odd thing about the story is the author didn’t provide the direct links to the sites so I’ll post them here:

Mortgage Calculator: Mortgage-Calc.com

Home Improvement: DoItYourself.com

Moving Calculator: Moving.move.com

Instant Home Value: Zillow.com

How far will your equity go? hpci.coldwellbanker.com

Home Blueprints: Homeplans.com

For Sale by Owner: ForSalebyOwner.com

Renovate or Move?: LetsRenovate.com

Home improvement publication: HouseBlogs.net

Looking for real estate across the country: Realtor.com

Real estate legal advice: Real-estate-law.freeadvice.com

Bird’s-eye view of a neighborhood: HomePages.com

Real estate insurance questions: iii.org/individuals/homei

Mortgage rates:  Bankrate.com   (please be aware if you are shopping for mortgages online, you may not always be buying what you think you’re buying.  Bankrate has had it’s issues.  If you’re considering using this service instead of dealing with a local loan officer face to face, make sure to do your homework.  Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal that you should take in to consideration).

School Ranking Information: SchoolMatters.com

Looking for a vacation rental?: CyberRentals.com

The Wall Street Journal continues it’s coverage of Zillow. It appears this web site is capturing the attention of millions of Americans who love real estate and want to track their home’s valuation. I had a feeling this would be the most e-mailed story for the Wall Street Journal today, and in fact it was.

As I’ve mentioned before, the service is pretty good and is usually within 10%, but that is still a lot of leeway in a challenging market where pricing the property properly is absolutely critical. In fact, some would say that in selling property today, 90% of it has to do with pricing it properly.

Yahoo has just published the story on the web from the Wall Street Journal.

Here’s Zillow’s web site.

The Crow River News ran this story about the Medina City Council denying the request for a comp plan amendment that would have made way for the Bancor development of 49 townhomes in Medina.

For more on the Townhomes of Rolling Green development see previous entries here and here.