John Murphy’s MEDINA REAL ESTATE REPORT

Here’s a site produced by Land America that does a good job of explaining the closing process and why you should buy title insurance when purchasing property.

New Century Financial looks as though it’s about to file bankruptcy.  They are the number 2 subprime lender in the country.

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 Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors has published their annual forecast for the upcoming year.   From their take, 2007 will be much like 2006 with the exception being things have leveled out and the deceleration in the market has run it’s course.  Only time will tell if this forecast is accurate.  The market is made up of thousands and thousands of buyers and sellers making decisions each and every day throughout the year.

Many of the state’s Realtor® associations have been working together to allow everyone access to all the listings in the State of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.  This is great news particularly for those of us in the Twin Cities looking for property up north.  Now we can easily access the information right from our desktops! 

If you’re looking for property up north or in other parts of Minnesota or Western Wisconsin, please let me know.

Below is a list of participating associations:

• Duluth Area Association of REALTORS®
• Faribault Area Association of REALTORS®
• Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS® (Brainerd)
• Itasca County Board of REALTORS® (Grand Rapids)
• St. Cloud Area Association of REALTORS®
• Southeast Minnesota Association of REALTORS®
  (Albert Lea, Austin, Owatonna, Rochester and Winona)
• REALTOR® Association of Southern Minnesota
  (Mankato, Fairmont, New Ulm and Windom)
• West Central Association of REALTORS® (Willmar)
• Twin Cities Metro
  (Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS®,
  North Metro REALTORS® Association,
  St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS®,
  Southern Twin Cities Association of REALTORS®,
  Western Wisconsin REALTORS® Association)
• Coming Soon: Lake Region Association of REALTORS® (Fergus Falls)

Below is a graphical view of areas now available through the MLS.

Click on image for larger picture

Yahoo! has decided to post as it’s lead business news story on Yahoo! Finance this New Years Day, “Analysts Say That Housing Slowdown That Hit U.S. Economy Will Persist in 2007.”  Pessimism continues to reign in the media.  Usually the mainstream media is late to understanding business trends.  They missed the rapid down turn.  It’s likely they will continue to be very pessimistic even as the market finally turns.  While there’s no turn in sight just yet, the rapid deceleration has clearly slowed down.  Because the speed with which this market corrected, it’s likely going to feel like a better market in the months ahead because the drop will have leveled off.

Each week, the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors(r) publishes a report that breaks down the housing supply for the Twin Cities. At this point, we have a seven month supply of homes for sale. The way this figure is calculated is they take in to account how many homes are currently pending - i.e. under contract - versus how many are for sale. That ratio is seven months.

Click on graphic for larger image:

For $1 million plus homes, the supply continues to be a problem. There’s a 16 month supply of previously owned $1 million plus homes and a 27 month supply of newly constructed $1 million plus homes.

Click on graphic for larger image:

The first snow of the season finally arrived in the Twin Cities. The snow was wet and sticky and was still clinging to many of the trees in the area three days later. Medina is absolutely beautiful at all times of the year, but it is particularly beautiful in the winter.

Country lane in Medina, MN:

Looking East as the sun rises:

This is one of the more beautiful barns in the entire Northwest Hennepin county area. It sits on the Medina Golf and Country Club’s 2nd hole.

Forbes has published an interview with Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot. (To see how Home Depot tracks with some of the national home builders see this chart comparing Home Depot (HD) with Lennar (LN).

In the interview, Nardelli talks about how they were originally planning for a 5-7% decline in housing and not the 20-40% decline (in sales volume - not price appreciaton) that most parts of the country have seen.

He mentions that they national builders pulled back faster than ever before. This has been a point of conversation I’ve had with others. The national home builders, at least operationally, are trying to model the likes of Wal-Mart and Intel with Just in time inventory and manufacturing. That’s in part way the pull back and slow down has been so rapid. The deceleration on the part of the home builders has been remarkable.

Merry Christmas from the Murphy’s!