Five agents are teaming up on Sunday to have an open house extravaganza in Corinth Downs, a maintenance provided community in Prairie Village. The homes will be open from 1 to 4 p.m., and the listing prices range from $500,000 to $950,000. Above, agent Gwenn Venable with Reece & Nichols shows off the front of her listing at 7925 Bristol Ct. Below, Twyla Rist’s listing at 26 Coventry Ct., also Reece & Nichols.
Other homes on the tour include Reece & Nichols agent Sandy Palmer’s listing at 7927 Bristol Ct., Robbie Smart’s Prudential listing at 23 Compton Ct., and Reece & Nichols agent Joanne Edward’s listing at 14 Coventry Ct. An interesting tidbit: Called “The Star of Kansas,” Prairie Village was named the best planned community in America by the National Association of Home Builders at its conception in 1949. Below, this four-bedroom house in Corinth Downs lists for $659,000.
Stats show big sales drops in May, end of tax credit brings new woes
New-home sales tumbled 33 percent last month to a record low annual pace of 300,000, the Commerce Department said this week. And that’s only half the bad news. Sales of previously owned homes fell 2.2 percent in May, the National Association of Realtors said, even as mortgage rates stayed at all-time lows. The end of the April tax credit put a strain on a market still hurting from the worst collapse since the Great Depression. Foreclosures may reach 1.9 million this year after a record 2 million in 2009, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Penn. And in the near future, combined sales of new and existing homes will drop 12 percent in the third quarter from the three months ending June 30, according to a forecast by Fannie Mae. The median U.S. home price slid 29 percent to an almost eight-year low of $164,600 in February from a peak of $230,300 in July 2006, according to data from the Realtors group. Prices will drop 3.6 percent this year after falling 4.5 percent in 2009, the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association estimates. And all this bad news – lower prices, fewer home sales and a drop in residential construction – will sap consumer spending. But in the end, unemployment is the main reason housing is weakening without the tax credit to spur demand. People just don’t buy homes when they are worried about their jobs, experts said.
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Home Sense offers expert advice
Hunt Midwest recently launched Home Sense, a web-based video show featuring topics like staging your home for a faster sale, tips for improving curb appeal, and hot trends in new homes like organizational “drop-zones”. Local experts like Danny Triplett of Westland Landscape (above) share tips on outdoor lighting and landscape. Home Sense can be viewed via huntmidwest.tv, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.