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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

HOME OWNERSHIP MATTERS



By John Mangas, Real Estate Broker at RE/MAX Preferred Toledo, Ohio


I had the great privilege to be in Washington DC for the REALTOR Rally at the Washington Monument. There was patriotic music, terrific speeches and a feeling of oneness. But the message was much, much more.

Home ownership matters. It’s the reason that many of our ancestors came to America in the first place and the legacy was demonstrated throughout the program. People spoke about the tangible benefits of home ownership such as a great long term investment. However, they also spoke how owning your own home provides a sense of community and can even be traced to higher testing scores among students. Home owners take pride in their property and get involved in the neighborhood, schools and community in ways that are meaningful and provide stability.

Locally, RE/MAX Preferred was involved in over 1900 transaction sides in 2011 which helped many in the Metro-Toledo area achieve their goal of home ownership. In 2012 we are seeing even more people getting into the housing market with historically low interest rates, abundant inventory in nearly all markets and price points and an improving job market.

The dream of home ownership doesn’t need to just be a dream. The opportunity has perhaps never been greater. Housing affordability remains terrific, and in fact the Toledo Market was recently recognized by the Brookings Institute and the 3rd mostaffordable housing market in the United States! It’s time now to turn the dream of home ownership in to the reality of owning a home of your own.

Monday, April 9, 2012

REAL ESTATE RECOVERY TOLEDO STYLE


By John Mangas, Real Estate Broker, RE/MAX Preferred

April 9, 2012

                                                                          

While on his morning neighborhood walk Bob commented “Good morning Frank. Did you hear that the Smith’s house finally sold?” And Frank replied, “yeah…and they only had to bring $17,000 to the closing!”


That is a quick snap shot of the Toledo area real estate market. Home sale are on the upswing. In fact we just had the best first quarter in 5 years, but make no mistake, Toledo and many other badly hurt markets have a very long way to go.

The Brookings Institute MetroMonitor has said that the Toledo is among the Top 20 cities recovering from recession when it comes to manufacturing, the report says. Expansion at the Jeep plant and GM Powertrain have spurred jobs and have helped to provide stability in a very volatile jobs climate. The report did not take the 1,100 service jobs at the new Hollywood Casino which opens in May 2012 into account.

The jobs climate and housing markets go hand in hand. What I’m seeing tells me that we just may have found the bottom in the Great Recession and are beginning to make incremental improvements. To be sure, we will bump along the bottom for a while, but short of  a worldwide disruption of crude oil or an all out mid-East conflict, we should be able to look back in years to come at 2012 and say that’s where the recover began.

Back to Frank and Bob…when asked for advise about buying and selling, I like to remind people that if they are selling at a lower price, that also means that they are likely buying at a lower price. It’s all relative. We have historically low interest rates, great housing inventories to select from and bargain basement pricing; Yes Frank and Bob, homeownership is on sale!