Today's interest rate

4.75% on 30-year fixed. Incredible. So, that plus an $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit. Could there be a better time to buy?

Cost vs. Value

One of my favorite real estate tools is out...Remodeling Magazine's annual Cost versus Value Reoprt. I'd love to put the whole thing here on my blog but apparently I'd be arrested by the internet copyright police if I did. I do have a link to the report though (just click on the title above) and you can research your area for average job costs and the percentage of return you can expect for individual home improvements. To research our Central Kentucky market, the best comparison is probably using Louisville as Lexington's not on there. That's my advice anyway!

Hmmm...interesting, maybe? The best return is on a new front door. Also, wood replacement windows rank pretty high -- plus you save on utility bills and they're just plain nice -- been there, done that myself! Worst return on investment...home office remodel!

Want to rent during WEG?

Surely you know what WEG is...Altech FEI World Equestrian Games...drive around New Circle or downtown and see the countdown numbers. While we've been talking about it forever, the games are actually in sight at less than a year away!

If you live in Lexington, you have undoubtedly had the thought enter your head that you should leave town and rent out your house. I have! I won't be doing it though because more than likely my children will need to go to school for those two-plus weeks. However, if you are serious about vacating and renting out your house and/or land, I can help do that now. Bluegrass Sotheby's now has a great system in place to rent your home. I can provide a market analysis of your home's rental value for the games, help you find your guests and help you rent your home as safely as possible for the extent of the games.

Emerald Ash Borer

If you live in Lexington, you probably know why all those trees around town have green, plastic ties around their trunks. If you don't live in Lexington but are thinking about moving here, look at for those green tags and learn to identify an Ash tree. Sadly, our native Ash Trees will soon be the victim of the exotic and evil Emerald Ash Borer.

For the homeowner, this means that you may soon have the expense of treating any Ash trees on your property (estimates I've heard are $10 per inch of the trunks diameter) or losing your trees and paying for their removal. None of it's good. Most of the street and front yard trees around Lexington have now been marked by volunteers armed with green ties, but backyard trees would not be marked. If you aren't familiar with which tree is an ash, click on the title above and it'll take you to an Ash tree link which can help you identify them.

As a Buyer's agent, I'm schooling myself to readily recognize an ash trees for my buyers. While an ash tree wouldn't put me off buying a home I loved, I'd want to know what I'm in for and if I need to factor a tree removal and replacement or treatment into my cost of home ownership.

Tax Stimulus extension

It appears that the home buyer tax stimulus credit extension is a done deal, as well as the passing of the $6500 credit to resale buyers who have lived in their current home for 5 out of the last 8 years. The new deadline is that a home must be under contract by May 1 and closed by July 1.

Call me or email me if you want more details. I have a great little fact sheet on the extension from a lender I work with that I'm happy to share!

Good news...

I'm flying to New York in 3 hours to hang out with my sister in the Big Apple, which is good news for me -- direct flight from Lexington's beautiful Bluegrass Field...truly one of the prettiest airports in America! Not that I'm biased or anything.

But before I leave, I want to share the really good news for homebuyers and sellers! The Senate passed the extension of the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit and has added a provision granting a $6,500 tax credit for resale homeowners buying a new home if they have lived in their present home for 5 or more years and have a combined family income of under $240,000. Now, the measure just awaits the President's signature. Let's hope he signs that soon!

See you Monday!

Fall in the Bluegrass...

Could a day have been more beautiful than yesterday? I took an excursion yesterday to Costco in Louisville via a trip out Russell Cave Road and over Iron Works Pike to pick my daughter up from a sleep-over birthday party on Elizabeth Station farm. A not-so-subtle reminder trip that there couldn't be anywhere more lovely than Central Kentucky in the Fall.

The air was crisp, the leaves brilliant in reds, yellows and oranges against the still-green of manicured horsefields and carefully tended fences. Heading out north of town, the landscape is picture perfect with horses frolicking gleefully in the cold of the morning, their coats thickening up for the winter. Lee, the mother of Mary Rollins' friend, runs a horse operation on 80 acres just over in Bourbon County. We took a drive in her pick-up through the fields to pick the girls up where they were visiting with the mares and Earnest, the world's cutest donkey -- think Brighty of the Grand Canyon. It reminded me of my own slumber parties on Delong Road where I was fortunate enough to have horses and acres of land on which to ride. I didn't appreciate that experience enough at the time, but in retrospect, it was a true treasure. Watching Lee feed the horses in the cold morning air took me back to a good place full of hard work, solitary hours in the barn, and some fine four-legged equine and canine friends! I'm most definitely out of horse practice now -- I haven't mucked out a stall in more than 20 years but like riding a bike, I'm sure you never forget how to wield a pitchfork.

I live inside the Circle now, enjoying the throw-back Fifties lifestyle of Chevy Chase. Raising my children with sidewalks, Ecton Park, charge accounts at Wheeler's Drugstore and Graeter's ice cream a quick bike ride away, I'm a little sorry that they don't know the real world of the horse and the freedom of land. I've made the choice for them to grow up in a neighborhood and they seem happy with the life they live. But they don't pick blackberries in the summer out the back door, they don't try to catch pet mice in the barn, and they don't know the hard work of toting water to a barn when the water lines frozen.

First Time Home Buyer Tax credit

Just in case you aren't paying attention to the news, time is running out for the first-time home buyer's tax stimulus credit. To qualify for the $8,000, buyers must close on a home by November 30. In some markets that may be next to impossible, but it's still quite doable by Lexington-market standards. Typical closing times are 30 days from contract to close although I anticipate we'll see a rush of activity in the next couple of weeks which could possibly create some delays. In addition, rates are down again -- approximately 4.75% on a 30-year yesterday! Truly a great time to stop paying rent and start paying yourself. I have some great start homes on my website you should check out!

Be a movie star...

This is so NOT real estate related but totally Kentucky so I just have to share:



Come be a part of the movie “SECRETARIAT.”

Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky:
The upcoming Walt Disney Pictures’ movie “Secretariat” is seeking extras for filming in the Lexington and Louisville areas. The approximate two-week filming duration is slated to begin at the end of September. All types and ages are needed!

Those interested must BRING A NON-RETURNABLE CURRENT SNAPSHOT OF THEMSELVES, as no photos will be taken at the casting call. Photos can be a basic snapshot printed from a home computer.


THE FOLLOWING OPEN CASTING CALLS FOR EXTRAS WILL BE HELD:

Louisville, KY
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Anytime between 3 pm – 8 pm
Churchill Downs - 700 Central Ave.
Louisville, KY 40208
(Enter at Gate 10. Parking at Longfield Parking Lot. Report to 4th Floor)


Lexington, KY
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Anytime between 9 am – 2 pm
Griffin Gate Marriott Resort
1800 Newton Pike
Lexington, KY 40511
(North Entrance, Salon H and G)

Peaches...

Thanks to Brenda Clark, the owner of my great new listing in Boones Trace (143 Gleneagles Boulevard -- $350,000 -- incredible home, golf course community about 15 minutes to Hamburg!) for a tip on the best peaches north of South Carolina. Actually, they are from South Carolina. In front of the Shell station on Man O'War just south of Tates Creek is a produce stand I've driven past for years. Last Friday, I stopped for freshly imported South Carolina peaches as good as my own last personal imports from South Carolina! And, this stand has oodles of other gorgeous produce. While I love Saturday morning's downtown Farmer's Market, this is a wonderful weekday source for beautiful fresh foods in the 'burbs!

Good housing data news...

I'm posting a link here to a story that came out this morning on Bloomberg. It's nice to see increase in housing activity.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aqnFJ5TBePL8

Busy and slow...all at the same time!

What an interesting summer it's been in real estate! Or maybe it's been an interesting credit market summer which has greatly impacted our real estate market. I seem to spend a good deal of time reassuring my buyer-clients that the third-degree experience they are receiving from their lenders isn't personal and that we just have to muddle through the myriad of requests that are being made for documents that they already provided. I'd say a good fifty percent of the transactions that I've been involved in recently haven't closed on time because of lending issues -- underwriting questions, appraisals, et cetera. When I started in real estate, I'd swear that if you could fog a mirror, you could get a loan! Obviously, those times have changed and we've swung way far to the other side of the pendulum and well-qualified buyers are even finding it difficult to persuade lending agencies of their credit-worthiness.

Tomorrow things can slow us down even more with new Regulation "Z" requirements:
New Truth in Lending Act (TILA) federal disclosure rules for lenders take effect tomorrow, July 30, and closings could take longer as a result. The changes to "Reg. Z" add borrower review periods and require lenders to notify borrowers of any annual percentage rate (APR) changes of more than 0.125 percent. Borrowers then get an additional review period.

That additional review period means longer closing times!