Eastman Real Estate Blog

34 Barn Owl

A new condo is hitting the market and it has an amazing view!!!

Eastman sewer owners will be seeing a small increase in their sewer bills. Quite honestly the sewer costs have been amazingly stable and inexpensive for a very long time.

The three page PDF will certainly explain all the details, rules the Eastman Sewer Co has to follow and what they do is not easy!!!

Eastman Sewer Update

I just read a brief article about two houses in Ohio that are magnetized. Just when you think you have heard all the odd issues with homes up pops another one.

Apparently the owners say “their homes became giant magnets”. The builder of the home uses steel joists and some how they have become magnetized and cause interference with cordless phones, computer hard drives get corrupted and tv screens get distorted. Obviously this causes issues for the owners. They have taken the builder to court and have lost every time. The builder says that their home warranty does not cover “magnet” problems.

The law suit is now going before the Ohio Supreme Court. Can you imagine that?

It’s been a few months since I posted some of the state sales figures but here they are. Some of them are rather scary if your a seller. Click on August Sales Stats if you want to go straight to the 3 page PDF file.

Some of the highlights are: The median sale price for all improved properties is $175,000 averaged out year to date. That’s down 6.42% from last year. Sullivan County is down 4.69% but Merrimack County is down 9.51%. I think locally, particularly in Eastman we are somewhat shielded from a 9% drop in a year. We just don’t have that many foreclosures driving prices down like they have in Concord area.

Another number going the wrong way is average selling price per square foot. At $120.00 that is not the lowest I’ve seen but these are August numbers. August sales are typically stronger than November and December. This year we peaked in June. July and August are trending down. It will be very interesting to see where Septembers numbers are.

Eastman specific: We have sold 19 homes so far this year vs. 39 for the same time period in 2010. Slightly less than half of last years numbers. Yet condo sales are up. Year to date there have been 8 units sold vs. 5 last year. By the end of the month the 9th condo sale will take place so that is a good sign.

Another extremely good sign is the fact that the average sales price for homes in Eastman has remained stable from last year. This years average sale price is $284,240. Last year there were three home sales over $600,000 and one sale at $530,000 which raised the average to $304,342. So even though the average is off this year by $20,000 realistically by taking out the highs and lows the average should be right around $280,ooo so this year we have a solid number!!

If you are a buyer, Interest rates are astoundingly low. 30 Year fixed rates with no points at 3.75% Who would have thought that??? The combination of interest rates and home prices are extremely attractive. Don’t be the one to say I should have bought then….It’s a great time to buy….and now is the time!