Des Moines Real Estate Statistics Week Ending 5-29-09

The Wall Street Journal Online reported today that the FHA has finally rolled out the requirements of using the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit to help fund FHA purchases for First Time Home Buyers.

Here is the link to their story. http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/05/29/how-to-get-the-8000-first-time-home-buyer-credit-upfront/ 

Week Ending May 29, 2009
Total Number of Homes For Sale in the Des Moines Area – 5130
New Listings Taken During the Last 7 Days – 259
Accepted Offers (Pendings) During the Last 7 Days – 150
Homes Closed (Solds) During the Last 7 Days – 108
Average Sale Price of Solds – $181,316
Average Days On Market of Solds – 96
If you would like to search for homes in the Des Moines area, feel free to visit my website.  I don’t require

a login or password and collect no information about you.  You can always contact me if you have questions. 
Click Here to begin your own home search or go to http://search.homesbyles.iow.mlxchange.com

Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group

Information on this blog posting is for informational purposes only and not intended as solicitation if you are already working with a REALTOR®.

There is no obligation or fee for any information on this blog posting.
Data Source: Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group
Des Moines Area Association of REALTORS® MLS.
Des Moines Metropolitan Area defined as: Adel, Altoona,
Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Dallas Center,
Desoto, Granger, Grimes, Indianola, Johnston, Norwalk,
Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Urbandale, Van Meter ,Waukee,
West Des Moines, Windsor Heights, Winterset

Des Moines Real Estate Statistics Week Ending 5-22-09

It’s Memorial Day weekend in America.  Time to pause and remember those that have fought for freedom.  Some have paid the ultimate price.  This weekend, we honor these men and women, for without their sacrifice, we surely wouldn’t enjoy the freedom we do today.

 

Week Ending May 22, 2009

Total Number of Homes For Sale in the Des Moines Area – 5126
New Listings Taken During the Last 7 Days – 328
Accepted Offers (Pendings) During the Last 7 Days – 184
Homes Closed (Solds) During the Last 7 Days – 98
Average Sale Price of Solds – $171,089
Average Days On Market of Solds – 97
If you would like to search for homes in the Des Moines area, feel free to visit my website.  I don’t require a login or password and collect no information about you.  You can always contact me if you have questions. 
Click Here to begin your own home search or go to http://search.homesbyles.iow.mlxchange.com

Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group

Information on this blog posting is for informational purposes only and not intended as solicitation if you are already working with a REALTOR®.

Golden Mushrooms Spotted At Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market

No it wasn’t a mirage… 8 oz of Morel Mushrooms for $20.00 or about $2.00 per mushroom! 
Next week I’m searching for truffles…. or maybe Saffron

Des Moines Real Estate Statistics Week Ending 5-15-09

This past week, I was in Washington DC at the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Mid-Year meetings.  NAR held a first ever Economic Summit on Tuesday starting off with an all too short (in my opinion) debate between Pat Buchanan and Harold Ford.  Former Fed Chairman Dr. Alan Greenspan took the stage Tuesday and predicted that while the residential real estate market “may” be near the bottom and starting to turn around, Commercial real estate is going to continue to suffer into 2010.  Former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reich spoke and while one may disagree with his views, he does have a good sense of humor, which the audience enjoyed. 

Probably the biggest news announced during the Summit was from HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  Donovan announced that the First Time Homebuyer $8,000 funds could be made available for FHA buyers at the time of closing in effect letting them use the tax credit for down payment & financing costs.  This was positive with the audience, however as of today it appears that Secretary Donovan may have jumped the gun in this announcement.  When HUD released program details on Thursday, FHA was caught off guard and has currently put the new initiative on hold.  It won’t be long according to some analysts before the plan is back in place.

Week Ending May 15, 2009
Total Number of Homes For Sale in the Des Moines Area – 5,087
New Listings Taken During the Last 7 Days – 288
Accepted Offers (Pendings) During the Last 7 Days – 143
Homes Closed (Solds) During the Last 7 Days – 81
Average Sale Price of Solds – $150,376
Average Days On Market of Solds – 78

If you would like to search for homes in the Des Moines area, feel free to visit my website.  I don’t require a login or password and collect no information about you.  You can always contact me if you have questions. 
Click Here to begin your own home search or go to http://search.homesbyles.iow.mlxchange.com

Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group

Information on this blog posting is for informational purposes only and not intended as solicitation if you are already working with a REALTOR®.

There is no obligation or fee for any information on this blog posting.
Data Source: Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group
Des Moines Area Association of REALTORS® MLS.
Des Moines Metropolitan Area defined as: Adel, Altoona,
Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Dallas Center,
Desoto, Granger, Grimes, Indianola, Johnston, Norwalk,
Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Urbandale, Van Meter ,Waukee,
West Des Moines, Windsor Heights, Winterset

Des Moines Real Estate Statistics Week Ending 5-8-09

Week Ending May 8, 2009

Gray’s Lake Walking Trail… I mean… Unicycling Trail.

This past week the number homes for sale continued to increase.  Although we are still below last years listing inventory, new listings continue to come on the market.

Total Number of Homes For Sale in the Des Moines Area – 5,052
New Listings Taken During the Last 7 Days – 328
Accepted Offers (Pendings) During the Last 7 Days – 167
Homes Closed (Solds) During the Last 7 Days – 71
Average Sale Price of Solds – $175,449
Average Days On Market of Solds – 104
If you would like to search for homes in the Des Moines area, feel free to visit my website.  I don’t require a login or password and collect no information about you.  You can always contact me if you have questions. 
Click Here to begin your own home search or go to http://search.homesbyles.iow.mlxchange.com

Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group

Information on this blog posting is for informational purposes only and not intended as solicitation if you are already working with a REALTOR®.

There is no obligation or fee for any information on this blog posting.
Data Source: Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group
Des Moines Area Association of REALTORS® MLS.
Des Moines Metropolitan Area defined as: Adel, Altoona,
Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Dallas Center,
Desoto, Granger, Grimes, Indianola, Johnston, Norwalk,
Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Urbandale, Van Meter ,Waukee,
West Des Moines, Windsor Heights, Winterset

Des Moines Farmers Market Is BACK!!!!

Ahh a sign that Spring Is Officially Here!  The Des Moines Farmers Market is back in business again!!  Every Saturday from May through October you will find thousands of people flocking to Court Avenue between 5th Street and Water Street (1st Street).  It opens at 7am and ends at noon, but from our experience, the best time to go is around 9:00am… it seems that the early crowd has been there and left… and the late morning crowd doesn’t arrive until about 10:00… Don’t let me fool you, it’s still elbow to elbow in spots, but we clearly could see that more people were that at 10:00 as we left.

The Market boast over 200 vendors this year with products ranging from the obvious fruits & vegetables to wines, arts, crafts and jewelry just to name a few.  The Market allows people to bring their dogs to the event.  If you’ve read my blogs in the past, you’ll know that Willie, my West Highland Terrier gets to go frequently to Farmers Market.

Willie didn’t go this week because we had a special guest with us this weekend.  My oldest daughter, Lindsay brought her fiancé’s son, Patton with us to the market.  Patton is almost 7 years old and could be described as the splitting image of Dennis the Menace.  In looks only… he’s a well behaved young man.

We followed our typical path around the Market stopping to look at different displays and for me to take a picture or two along the way. 

I have a complete set of pictures from The Farmers Market over the last couple of years.  You can view them by going to my Flickr page.

I’m planning on going to as many Farmers Market events as I can this year!  I hear that West Des Moines has a great Farmers Market during the week… I’ll be sure and blog about my experiences there!

~ Les

When Fish Fly

Today my wife & I witnessed a gentleman experience a melt down.   We had taken our lawn mower to True Value Hardware on 63rd St. in West Des Moines to be repaired.  Next door to True Value is a Long John Silvers restaurant.

It was lunch time and we were on our way to the grocery store and you know you aren’t supposed to go to the grocery store hungry.  It was a typical Sunday early afternoon activity in our household.

Neither of us had been to Long Johns for some time, so it sounded like a good plan.  As we walked in, there were a few customers.  A family with 3 boys that had just gotten finished with a soccer game.  Another couple with their young grandchild.  And then there was a single man sitting in a booth next to the front window.  We placed our order and sat down behind him.  He had one of those cards with a number on it indicating that his order was still being prepared.

Within a couple of minutes, out came our food.  Our neighbor was still waiting for his meal.  As soon as the employee walked back to the counter from bringing us our meal, the man stood up and approached the order counter.  He began to yell at the young man that he had been waiting for 15 minutes for his food!  Fortunately, they had just finished preparing his order and handed it to him.  He stomped back to his table.

That’s when the fireworks began.  Anyone that has been to a Long John Silvers knows that they keep bottles of vinegar on each table for the fish.  Something was wrong with the bottle on his table, so he got up and went to the next table and picked up another one.  From what I can tell, this bottle must have done something to really make him angry… the cap must have stuck, or maybe there was tarter sauce on the bottle, but whatever it was, it was enough to put this guy over the edge.

This man began speaking a string of obscenities that would make a sailor blush!  Then as everyone watched the meltdown, he threw his food across his booth and into the two empty booths in front of him.  I thought for a moment that I was at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle!  (Without the swearing of course)

It was like slow motion.  Nobody wanted to believe what they were seeing or hearing.  As quickly as it happened, he stomped out of the restaurant muttering something about never coming back to “this place” ever again.  (Was that a promise?)

We finished our meal and watched as the manager and another employee cleaned up the mess.  The manager went to each of the tables with customers and apologized for what had happened.  What else could he say to customers that witnessed such an outburst?  I replayed the event in my mind and wondered what would have happened if I or another patron had engaged the man.  In years past, perhaps someone would have said something.  Today, we just sat and watched as one man blew up and threw his food.  We will go back to Long Johns again someday.

As we walked out of the building, I had to stop and take this picture.  I can’t be certain, but if the bell wasn’t missing before the man stormed out, it would have probably ended up in the parking lot.

I said a quiet little “Ding” to myself as I snapped the picture and headed to my car.

We were off to the grocery store… no stories to be told there.

~ Les

Des Moines Real Estate Statistics Week Ending 5-1-09

 

The real estate market continues to pick up in the Des Moines metro.  Ankeny led the area with 133 Pendings(new offers accepted).  West Des Moines and Northwest Des Moines were not far behind is 108 and 105 Pendings respectively.  Pendings are offers that have been accepted and while they don’t close for approximately 30 days, it is an indication of market activity.  Check out your part of town for market activity!
Week Ending May 1, 2009

Total Number of Homes For Sale in the Des Moines Area – 5,017
New Listings Taken During the Last 7 Days – 294
Accepted Offers (Pendings) During the Last 7 Days – 166
Homes Closed (Solds) During the Last 7 Days – 111
Average Sale Price of Solds – $135,079
Average Days On Market of Solds – 86

If you would like to search for homes in the Des Moines area, feel free to visit my website.  I don’t require a login or password and collect no information about you.  You can always contact me if you have questions. 
Click Here to begin your own home search or go to http://search.homesbyles.iow.mlxchange.com

Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group

Information on this blog posting is for informational purposes only and not intended as solicitation if you are already working with a REALTOR®.

There is no obligation or fee for any information on this blog posting.

Data Source: Les Sulgrove, RE/MAX Real Estate Group
Des Moines Area Association of REALTORS® MLS.
Des Moines Metropolitan Area defined as: Adel, Altoona,
Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Dallas Center, Desoto, Granger, Grimes, Indianola, Johnston, Norwalk, Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Urbandale, Van Meter ,Waukee, West Des Moines, Windsor Heights, Winterset