A total of 234 residential homes were sold in May, down 30.97 percent from 339 sales in May 2019. The median home sale price in May for the Champaign County area was $171,200, up 14.13 percent from $150,000 in May 2019. 

“As anticipated, May took the full brunt of the coronavirus as a lot of the home sales reported actually went under contract in April when the state was under strict lockdown due to the pandemic,” said Julie Roth, president of the Champaign County Association of REALTORS®.  

According to Midwest Real Estate Data LLC, during May there were 295 pending sales reported in Champaign County, up 13 percent from 261 pending sales in May of 2019. 

A housing shortage that rolled in with 2020 continues on as buyers appear more eager to re-enter the housing market than sellers.

“We think this is only a temporary situation as many homeowners were engaged in home remodeling during the stay-at-home period and are preparing their homes to get ready to sell when the time is right for them,” Roth said.

CCAR also believes that a low mortgage rates will be a factor for buyers moving forward.

The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation was 3.23 percent in May, down from 3.3 percent in April of this year and down from 4.14 percent in May of 2019. According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage dropped to the lowest rate in its survey history to 3.13 percent for the week ending June 18th. Freddie Mac predicts the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is expected to be 3.4 percent in 2020 and 3.2 percent in 2021.

“Record-low mortgage rates are likely to remain in place for the rest of the year, and will be the key factor driving housing demand as state economies steadily open,”  Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS® said. “Still, more listings and increased home construction will be needed to tame price growth.”

In May 2020, the average home sale price increased from $174,817 in May 2019 a 9.71 percent increase. 

Year-to-date home sales for 2020 through the month of May stood at 987, off 3.89 percent from 1,027 home sales during the same period one year ago.

The post May 2020 brought sharp decline in Champaign County Home Sales first appeared on SJO Daily.

Jake Pence isn’t a man who waits for an opportunity to come to him.

Instead, he creates them.

The 22-year old St. Joseph-Ogden alum has always had his sights set on three things: creating opportunities that are sustainable, taking care of his family and being a respectable business owner.

As Pence joined his classmates in the University of Illinois Class of 2019, he wasn’t pining for a job after graduation.

Instead, Pence had already fulfilled the requirements to become a licensed real estate agent within the state of Illinois and established Blue Chip Real Estate with his uncle, Jared Blaudow.

Blaudow has always been instrumental in helping Pence see the world in an entrepreneurial way. 

At the age of 14, Blaudow gifted Pence with “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki. The book about personal finance, real estate and wealth, piqued Pence’s interest. 

“That got my wheels spinning when I was young,” Pence said.

Pence added that watching his mother, Kendra, grow her photography business also showed him that hard work and sacrifice matter.

“I’ve grown up around her business, and seeing the way she does things,” he said. “She’s the most driven, caring, down to earth person you will meet.”

Going through high school, completing his school work and participating in athletics, Pence also continued to read other books, listen to podcasts and take college courses offered through St. Joseph-Ogden High School, giving him a good start to graduating with a degree in finance within 3.5 years.

While ambition played a part in Pence’s work ethic, he also thought about the sacrifices his mom made for him while he was enrolled at the University of Illinois.

“My mom helped me pay to go there,” he said. “Being able to graduate early that’s less that she needs to do. She has really bad rheumatoid arthritis. Getting out quicker means less work for her.

“Being able to get her to take some more time off was really the main thing.”

At this time, Kendra will continue to build her photography business while her son puts his foot into the real estate investment business, but he hopes that one day soon he will be able to hire his mom full-time.

“One of my goals of starting my own business is to make it a family business,” he said.

“I hope that my mom is the first person I hire. She has a physical disease that makes it tough for her to carry a camera around all the time. I’d like to help her transition into something that is not as physically labor-intensive.”

In the meantime, Pence knows that his mother is his biggest supporter. 

“(My parents) instilled a lot of those small-town values into me at a young age,” he said. 

“Athletics really emphasized those. And then when I went to the University of Illinois, a lot of those values reinforced how you treat people.”

One pillar of Blue Chip Real Estate is relationships.

“We are going to do business and treat people the right way,” he said. “We want to be the type of company people want to do business with.”

Although Pence is a licensed real estate broker with eXp Realty, he will not be looking to represent home buyers or sellers. Rather, he will use his license to represent Blue Chip Real Estate as they buy, sell, or rent real estate. 

Additionally, Pence emphasized that Blue Chip Real Estate is not a real estate brokerage company and can not sell your property. Blue Chip Real Estate’s sole purpose is to buy and invest in real estate.

“I took the concept of We Buy Houses for Cash, taking that concept and applying a little more professionalism, transparency, and growth capabilities to that concept,” Pence said.

“We will buy any type of real estate, anywhere.”

At times, that means that they will flip a property to resell at a later date. Other times, it will mean making the necessary improvements to a building and rent it. 

“Our main interest is single-family homes, small apartment communities, mobile home parks,” he said.

“There are so many different things that you can do with real estate, which is one of the most exciting things about it, really.”

Pence is also excited about hanging his license with eXp Realty.

As the first cloud-based real estate brokerage, agents who registered their license with eXp Realty grew by 145-percent from 2018-2019.

“eXp is growing really fast because of the flexibility that it offers,” Pence said. “It’s kind of disrupting the traditional real estate brokerage industry.”

While Pence is affiliated with eXp Realty, he does not go to an eXp Realty office and does not have a boss to report to.

Instead, Pence and Blaudow are held accountable to hitting their targets to create something great for their families.

“Jared and I want to build a sustainable, scalable, multi-generational family real estate business that gives our family the security and freedom to do as they please,” he said.

Pence said he is comfortable setting goals and meeting targets.

“When you’re running a business you can’t hit a target that you don’t see,” he said.

As a business owner, starting at ground-zero, Pence sees that possibility may be limitless. 

“I think what I always try to remind myself is that any person that reaches some sort of level of success in their life didn’t start (at that point),” he said. 

“Everyone has a different starting point. What excites me is that I am starting when I am 22.

“By going all into it now, there’s the lowest risk in my life. The opportunities and the ceiling are much higher. That really excites me.”

The post Pence hits ground running with Blue Chip Real Estate first appeared on SJO Daily.

The total number of residential homes sold in the Champaign County area decreased 12.75 percent in August with 260 homes sold compared to 298 sales in August of 2018. The year-to-date number of home sales are off by 8.93 percent with 1,918 homes reported sold so far this year.

Meanwhile, the median home sale price rose 14 percent to $165,500 in August from $145,000 in the same month a year ago. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less. The year-to-date August 2019 median sale price stood at $155,000 up 1.51 percent through the same period a year ago when the price reported in at $152,700.

The average home sale price rose 11.52 percent in August to $191,651 from $171,853 in August a year ago.

Inventory levels declined slightly by 1.0 percent to 905 homes. New listings were up overall by 5.2 percent to 303 across the area in August. Houses were on the market for an average of 75 days, down 1.9 percent compared to 76 days a year ago in August.

Pending sales, a sign of future real estate activity, were up 4.9 percent to 213 pending home sales from 203 a year ago. Pending sales for the month of August reflect the total number of active listings that went under contract and are awaiting closing, usually 30 to 60 days in the future.

“Consumer optimism in the market should remain steady in the fall as low mortgage rates persist, attracting future potential buyers looking to purchase a home and helping to increase their purchasing power,” said Eric Porter, president of the Champaign County Association of REALTORS®.  “While consumers remain confident in the market, domestic and global economic issues and potential uncertainty may continue to cloud the market this fall.”

The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage for the month of August was 3.62 percent according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, down from 4.55 percent in August of 2018 and down from 3.77 percent in July of 2019. For the week ending September 19^th, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.73 percent.

“More supply of moderately priced homes is needed to help close the gap on what buyers are searching for and what’s on the market,” said Porter.  “As summer winds down and competition lessons, buyers may find greater negotiating power with sellers in order to entice a sale.”

According to the July National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales Index, though home sales will get a short-term boost from lower mortgage rates, nationally existing home sales are likely to be flat at 5.34 million in 2019. The Federal Reserve voted to cut interest rates by a quarter-percentage point on Sept. 18^th in efforts to cushion the economy from a major slowdown. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun indicates the Federal Reserve should have been bolder and made a deeper rate cut, given current low inflation rates. “The housing sector has been broadly underperforming but there is huge upward potential there that will help our overall economy grow,” he said in the August NAR Existing Home Sales Report.

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index inched up 0.1 points to reach a new high point in August. Falling mortgage rates were primarily responsible for the trend, as more people expected lower mortgage rates will continue on the horizon as well as expectations it would be easier to qualify for a mortgage.

The post Champaign County Area Median Home Prices Increase in August first appeared on SJO Daily.

The total number of residential homes sold in the Champaign County area decreased 12.75 percent in August with 260 homes sold compared to 298 sales in August of 2018. The year-to-date number of home sales are off by 8.93 percent with 1,918 homes reported sold so far this year.

Meanwhile, the median home sale price rose 14 percent to $165,500 in August from $145,000 in the same month a year ago. The median is a typical market price where half the homes sold for more, half for less. The year-to-date August 2019 median sale price stood at $155,000 up 1.51 percent through the same period a year ago when the price reported in at $152,700.

The average home sale price rose 11.52 percent in August to $191,651 from $171,853 in August a year ago.

Inventory levels declined slightly by 1.0 percent to 905 homes. New listings were up overall by 5.2 percent to 303 across the area in August. Houses were on the market for an average of 75 days, down 1.9 percent compared to 76 days a year ago in August.

Pending sales, a sign of future real estate activity, were up 4.9 percent to 213 pending home sales from 203 a year ago. Pending sales for the month of August reflect the total number of active listings that went under contract and are awaiting closing, usually 30 to 60 days in the future.“Consumer optimism in the market should remain steady in the fall as low mortgage rates persist, attracting future potential buyers looking to purchase a home and helping to increase their purchasing power,” said Eric Porter, president of the Champaign County Association of REALTORS®.  “While consumers remain confident in the market, domestic and global economic issues and potential uncertainty may continue to cloud the market this fall.”

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the month of August was 3.62 percent according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, down from 4.55 percent in August of 2018 and down from 3.77 percent in July of 2019. For the week ending September 19^th, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.73 percent.         

“More supply of moderately priced homes is needed to help close the gap on what buyers are searching for and what’s on the market,” said Porter.  “As summer winds down and competition lessons, buyers may find greater negotiating power with sellers in order to entice a sale.”

According to the July National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales Index, though home sales will get a short-term boost from lower mortgage rates, nationally existing home sales are likely to be flat at 5.34 million in 2019. The Federal Reserve voted to cut interest rates by a quarter-percentage point on Sept. 18^th in efforts to cushion the economy from a major slowdown. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun indicates the Federal Reserve should have been bolder and made a deeper rate cut, given current low inflation rates. “The housing sector has been broadly underperforming but there is huge upward potential there that will help our overall economy grow,” he said in the August NAR Existing Home Sales Report.

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index inched up 0.1 points to reach a new high point in August. Falling mortgage rates were primarily responsible for the trend, as more people expected lower mortgage rates will continue on the horizon as well as expectations it would be easier to qualify for a mortgage.

The Champaign County Association of REALTORS® is a voluntary trade organization serving Champaign County and surrounding areas and is a leading resource and an advocate for homeownership and private property rights. Statistics are from residential sales within Champaign County area. Data compiled by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC as available on September 14, 2019.

The post Champaign County Area Median Home Prices Increase in August first appeared on SJO Daily.

Residential home sales weakened in July in the Champaign County area while the median home sale price rose 2.62 percent, according to the Champaign County Association of REALTORS®. As lower mortgage rates are prompting more buyers to enter the market, it’s putting pressure on the already tight inventory. The total number of homes sold in Champaign County decreased 12.15 percent in July of 2018 with 282 homes sold, compared to 321 homes sold in July of 2019. The year-to-date total number of homes sales are down slightly to 1,654 sales, off 8.52 percent from 1,808 homes sold through July a year ago.

For the month of July 2019, the median home sale price (for all single-family homes and condominiums) was $156,400, up 2.62 percent from $152,000 in July 2018. The average home sale price stood at $177,056, down 0.13 percent from $177,287 last July.

Pending home sales showed a modest gain. There were 226 pending sales in July, up 6.1 percent from 213 a year ago. Pending sales for the month of July reflect the total number of active listings that went under contract and are awaiting closing, usually 30 to 60 days in the future.

“With mortgage rates at near historic lows and nearly a full percentage point lower than they were last year at this time, this certainly is an attractive incentive for homebuyers,” said Eric Porter, president of the Champaign County Association of REALTORS®. “Low mortgage rates and a thriving labor market should help to boost the housing market in the latter half of this year, given that the economy does not incur a significant slowdown.”

The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage for the month of July was 3.76 percent according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, down from 4.52 percent in July 2018 and down from 3.80 percent in June of 2019. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.60 percent for the week ending August 15, 2019, unchanged from the previous week.

“Even while we have experienced a softer housing market so far this year, we are seeing prices continue to gain traction.” said Porter. “Historic low rates may entice more buyers to enter the market but flat inventory growth is impeding significant sales growth. Some would-be sellers are simply hesitating from moving forward during this peak buying season even while this does present an ideal opportunity for home sales.”

Inventory of homes for sale declined 4.5 percent in July to 868 homes from 909 homes in July of 2018.

The Illinois Housing Development Authority has launched a new, limited-time grant to help homebuyers across Illinois afford their closing costs. Through the new IHDA Advantage Subsidy program, IHDA will give eligible homeowners who meet income requirements an outright grant of either $1,500 or $2,500 depending on household income to pay for closing costs associated with their home purchase. The grant can be layered with IHDA’s current Down Payment Assistance (DPA) programs, allowing homebuyers to receive anywhere from $8,500 to $12,500 in assistance when purchasing a home. In 2018, IHDA was able to help 5,500 people buy a home through two DPA programs: 1stHome Mortgage and Access Mortgage. Visit www.ihdamortgage.org to learn more.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, reports June’s contract signings indicate that buyers are both enthusiastic about the market and of the potential wealth gain, but he added that home builders need to increase inventory. “Homes are selling at a breakneck pace, in less than a month, on average, for existing homes and three months to newly constructed homes,” he said. “Furthermore, homeowners’ equity in real estate has doubled over the past six years to now nearly $16 trillion. But the number of potential buyers exceeds the number of homes available. We need to see sizeable growth in inventory, particularly of entry-level homes, to ensure wider access to homeownership.”

The post Champaign County home sales slow in July first appeared on SJO Daily.