All of this in a sensational Coralville location in the highly desirable Welsh Village neighborhood with a straight shot to Iowa City, UIOWA and the UI Hospitals.

***Bonus: Highly motivated sellers are relocating out of state and willing to pay up to $10,000 for closing costs and prepaids with acceptable offer. (Please call me for details @ 319-400-0268).

And we’re not done yet … Owners also willing to throw in hot tub with price if desired… Watch your favorite College Football games from the hot tub – It doesn’t get any better than that!!!

Price: $224,000

Bathrooms: Master Suite + 2 Full Bathrooms + 1 Half Bath

MLS# 20101706

584 Active Listings
101 Homes Under Contract
12 Homes Sold March 1 – March 6
8.0 Months of inventory on the market

An absorption rate of 8 months means Iowa City remains a buyers market for now. The absorption rate takes into account homes sold and not those under contract. And with 101 homes under contract we can see there’s a lot of buyer activity in Iowa City with buyers wanting to take advantage of the homebuyer tax credit before the deadline of April 30, so we will probably see some changes in this trend soon.

If you’re not familiar with the absorption rate, more than 6 months inventory of homes on the market is a buyers market. 6 months of inventory of homes is considered neutral and less than 6 months a sellers market. For more info here’s a link to the first post I wrote including the absorption rate with an explanation on how it’s calculated.

Last week’s real estate market update for Iowa City

Real Estate Market Report for Iowa City February 2010

226 Active Listings
39 Under Contract
6 Home Sold March 1 – March 6
8.8 Months of inventory on the market

An absorption rate of 8.8 months means Coralville remains a buyers market. Coralville does well with move-up buyers and there is a lot of buyer activity right now. The homes sold number is starting to tick upwards, so it looks like those repeat buyers taking advantage of the homebuyer tax credit may soon have a positive impact on the Coralville real estate market.

If you’re not familiar with the absorption rate, more than 6 months of inventory of homes on the market is a buyers market. 6 months of inventory of homes is considered neutral and less than 6 months a sellers market. For more info here’s a link to the first post I wrote including the absorption rate and an explanation of how it’s calculated.

Last week’s real estate market update for Coralville

Real Estate Market Report for Coralville February 2010

253 Active Listings
65 Under Contract
12 Homes Sold March 1 – March 6, 2010
5.5 Months of inventory on the market

The absorption rate for North Liberty is 5.5 months and still trending towards a sellers market. North Liberty continues to benefit from the homebuyer tax credit and we should see some real action in the next couple of months as buyers take advantage of the credit before the deadline of April 30.

If you’re not familiar with the absorption rate, more than 6 months of inventory of homes on the market is a buyers market, 6 months of inventory of homes is considered neutral and less than 6 months a sellers market. For more info here’s the first post I wrote where I included the absorption rate with an explanation of how it’s calculated.

Last week’s real estate market update for North Liberty

Real estate market report for North Liberty February 2010

You can check the schedule for movies at the Coral Ridge Mall Movie Theatre in Coralville and the Sycamore Mall Cinema in Iowa City…

Exciting weekend for movie-goers this weekend with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp sure to make box office with Alice In Wonderland. Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter and I’m sure he’ll be sensational! The other new release this week is Brooklyn’s Finest also starring some pretty top notch actors, including two of my favorites, Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke. It’s a tension filled drama revolving around three police officers in the NYPD. Hardly worthy competition for Alice! So sorry guys, maybe next time…

When it comes to live entertainment you can’t beat The Mill – as readers of the Press Citizen will tell you. Tonight, members of the renowned Writers Workshop will be picking up their guitars and singing rather than reading their work – Very Dylanesque… On Saturday Dave Zollo & the Body Electric will be playing their brand of blues and rock music.

If you like your country music with dance then check out the Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon. Great music and great food and free wi-fi…They often have specials too like all you can eat ribs on Wednesdays…They’re on Facebook and do a better job than anyone else I’ve seen using that media to give info on specials and upcoming events.

I’m going to round it up this week again with The Iowa City Yacht Club. They hit my radar recently as it seems they find the bands with the most original names to play there… Hen House Prowlers & Porch Builder will be playing there tonight. (Definitely up there for original names.:-) The fun continues on Saturday with Dennis McMurrin & The Demolition Band.

For more ideas on things to do in Iowa City this weekend I’ve written a couple of posts pulling things together making it easier for you to find theaters and live entertainment venues in Iowa City.

Here are a couple of links to other posts with on info on public schools. Check back frequently, this is an ongoing process as I figure out new and better ways to get information out to folks relocating to the Iowa City area.

Map of Schools in the Iowa City School District

Elementary Schools in Iowa City: Location & Contact Info

First of all, students who are claimed as a dependent by their parents will not qualify for the credit. HOWEVER, if they are not claimed as a dependent then it’s a whole different story…

This is an excerpt directly from the IRS site:

S2. Taxpayer A is a single first-time home buyer. Taxpayer B (parent) cosigns for A and does not qualify.

A. Yes. Taxpayer B is not a first-time homebuyer and cannot claim any portion of the credit, but A may claim the entire credit ($7,500 for purchase in 2008; $8,000 for purchase in 2009), if the home was purchased as Taxpayer A’s primary residence.

Here’s a link to the original document and some different scenarios.

Here are a few links to other posts I’ve written about the homebuyer tax credit:

How the Homebuyer Tax Credit Works

Expanded Homebuyer Tax Credit Now Includes “Repeat Buyers.”

You don’t need to sell your home to qualify for the $6500 repeat buyer tax credit

Phase out range on income limits for the homebuyer tax credit

Of course I’m not a tax adviser, so please don’t make major financial decisions based on this post. Contact a CPA if you’re uncertain about your filing status.

It’s the beginning of the month and time for a first look at home sales for February in the North Liberty area. Because of the seasonal nature of real estate it’s better to compare homes sold last year rather than last month.

Surprisingly home sales are down compared to last year in the North Liberty area. 17 homes sold in February 2010 in comparison to 23 in February 2009.* I say surprisingly, because North Liberty is one of the fastest growing towns in Iowa and home sales are strong in the area. Check out my market report for the greater Iowa City area 2009 and you’ll see what I mean. You may also want to check my weekly market updates in the coming weeks, I’m sure we’ll see this is just a glitch.

The median price of homes sold in February up at $160,000 compared to $135,900 in February 2009. That’s an increase of 18%. The average days on market was 125 days, compared to 103 days on market last year.

North Liberty has benefited from the The expanded homebuyer tax credit and now that some repeat buyers are also eligible it will certainly continue to have an effect on the North Liberty real estate market as we head towards spring. And remember, for this tax credit buyers need to have an accepted offer on a home by April 30,2010, so this will mean a lively couple of months coming up in North Liberty.

Buying or selling a home in North Liberty, we have an interesting market right now. I’m all for getting information out there, so check back frequently to see what’s going on in the North Liberty real estate market. Here’s a link to my weekly market update for this week.

The more you know before you buy or sell a home, the better shape you’ll be in when it comes to either listing a home for sale or making an offer on a home that’s currently on the market. Please do contact me with questions. I’m here to help!

*FYI – Oxford and Tiffin are included in the MLS data for North Liberty. 1 house sold in Tiffin and 1 in Oxford in February.

It’s the beginning of the month and time for a first look at home sales for February in Coralville Iowa. Because of the seasonal nature of real estate it’s better to compare homes sold in February last year rather than last month.

The number of homes sold in Coralville was up in February compared to last year. 11 homes sold in February 2010 compared to 10 in February 2009. This is great news, especially since home sales were down in February in both Iowa City and North Liberty. If you follow my real estate market reports you’ll know that Coralville hasn’t been doing as well with the first time homebuyer as Iowa City or North Liberty. Coralville does well with the move-up buyer and I guess last month was a case in point.

The median price of homes sold in February was $214,900 compared to $185,500 last year. With an average of 88 days on market compared to 120 days on market last year.

The expanded homebuyer tax credit also includes repeat buyers and continues to bring out buyers. The coming months should be interesting in Coralville and the greater Iowa City area.

Buying or selling a home in Coralville, we have an interesting market right now. I’m all for getting information out there, so check back frequently to see what’s going on in the Coralville real estate market. Here’s a link to my weekly market update for this week.

The more you know before you buy or sell a home, the better shape you’ll be in when it comes to either listing a home for sale or making an offer on a home that’s currently on the market. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions. I’m here to help!

Iowa City Real Estate Market Report February 2010

It’s the beginning of the month and time to look at home sales in Iowa City in February. Because of the seasonal nature of real estate it’s always better to compare to the same time frame in the previous year, rather than the previous month.

The number of homes sold in Iowa City in February was down compared to last year. 28 homes sold in February 2010 in comparison to 39 in February 2009. If you look at my weekly update (that I post on Mondays), you’ll see that we have a lot of homes under contract, so even if we didn’t have a bunch of closings in February, they are in the pipeline…

The median price of homes sold in February was $160,500, compared to $162,900 last year with an average of 148 days on market compared to 92 last year.

Right now there are a lot of buyers out and about wanting to take advantage of the expanded homebuyer tax credit for repeat buyers, so it’s not really so much the number of homes sold we should be looking at - it’s the number of homes going under contract we should keep an eye on. Check back next week for my weekly report and see where we’re at then.

Buying or selling, we have an interesting market right now. I’m all for getting information out there, so check back frequently to see what’s going on in the Iowa City area real estate market.

The more you know before you buy or sell a home, the better shape you’ll be in when it comes to either listing a home for sale or making an offer on a home that’s currently on the market. Please do contact me with questions, I’m here to help!