A great commercial for Indy, taking care of the mother ship and a National MLS....

A bit of positive in all of the negative news we've had lately about our economy. Local recording artist Jon McLaughlin has a release out titled Indiana which he's graciously allowed the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce to use in their marketing via the web. You can view the video by going to the Chamber of Commerce web site.

We would also encourage you to support Jon's work at his home page as well. I've heard the song 'For You From Me' about four times and it's already stuck in my head. Thanks Jon for such a great piece of work and the opportunity for our state to be presented in such a good way!

While I'm making a rare foray into music, here's another one for you. My friend Jim Swinson's alter ego is
Pamilco Joe, an environmentally friendly musician from North Carolina that has worked tirelessly educating kids about taking care of the world we live in. His CD's play every night in our house (I can sing them in my sleep) and are a great investment if you spend any time around children. Jim and his better half, Clearwater Flow have played multiple times at the White House and the Smithsonian Zoo. He and his multi talented band are on their 2008 World Tour right now performing at schools, festivals and gatherings spreading the word.

National MLS?
Real Estate site Zillow has begun the inevitable process of forming a national MLS by signing on their first client in Connecticut yesterday. All homes for sale in the state of Connecticut will be on Zillow which is an incredibly user friendly site. Should Realtors be concerned? Uh, yes. Not because it will make us obsolete but because like every service industry, the cream of the crop will survive and the rest will not. It's no coincidence that one of Zillow's founding members was a part of Expedia.com who, along with Priceline and Travelocity and countless other sites have basically put travel agents out of business. 10 months ago I wrote a piece about how the parallel of the travel and real estate industry would mean massive changes for all involved in the process of selling property. I believe in that parallel now more than ever. In a nutshell, here is is:

As Realtors, our value in the future will come not from proprietary information but in the analysis and guidance we give people based on that information.

Mull this over. If you're a consumer, I'd appreciate your thoughts by email or phone contact points listed at the bottom of the post.

Nightly real estate rates mixed
30-year fixed rate at 5.66%; 10-year Treasury yield at 3.34%
Long-term mortgage interest rates ended Wednesday mixed, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 3.34 percent. The 30-year fixed-rate average held steady at 5.66 percent, while the 15-year fixed rate gained to 5.09 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate rose to 5.42 percent. The 30-year Treasury bond yield slipped to 4.21 percent.Rates and bonds are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states. Points on these mortgages range from zero to 3.5.


As always...questions....comments.....donations: Greg@GregCooper.com or
317-848-GREG (4734)

Does the media have ANYTHING good to say about Real Estate?

I was recently interviewed about Indianapolis Real Estate by CNN Money for a November publication date. In having many dealings with the media in the past I've learned that you must have your facts 100% straight and present them in a clear and concise way. In essence it's like a politician speaking to the press which frankly isn't much of a surprise anymore. Business has boiled down to politics in many cases anyway. The questions that were asked were inflamatory and certainly had a direction. "Why has Indianapolis' equity growth become so anemic?" "Isn't it a terrible time to buy real estate in Indianapolis?" "Doesn't being the most affordable major city in America for homes become a disadvantage at some point?" I must admit I had to laugh at that last one. Frankly since Jim Cramer went on his tirade about Indiana real estate on the Today Show a couple of weeks ago I was surprised I hadn't gotten these questions sooner.

Cramer is the loud mouthed media darling who blathers away every night on his 'Mad Money' show on CNBC. Cramer pontificates on everything from stocks to real estate in his holier than thou mode of making every minor financial detail a looming crash and burn. He's taken the trouble to appear twice on The Today Show with Matt Lauer and both times has been less than generous to Indiana real estate investors. Most recently he was on with the National Assocaition of Realtors president who calmly and politely recited statistics while Cramer rolled his eyes like a teenager being questioned about their 3000 text messages in a month. Cramer's job is to stir up, create controvers and exacorbate the obvious to develop television ratings. What he either fails to understand or could care less about (more likely) is that people's liveliehoods can rise and fall with the headlines he creates.

Look it's no secret what I do for a living so that being said I do have an opinion that does have some degree of bias. Post disclosure, here's what I believe to be true based on many, many outside observations of our real estate market in it's current state. It's what I said to the CNN Money reporters and numerous other media pundits over the last several months:

"Those individuals who purchase real estate in the Indianapolis market in the next several months will look back on it as one of the best financial decisions of their lives."

There are those who are more optimistic than I am and have offered those opinions freely. Moody's Financial has repeatedly listed Indianapolis as one of the top five cities poised for a huge financial rebound in it's housing market. At the top of their list:

1. Dallas-Fort Worth (through 1st Q 2009) - Growth rate: 6.4 percent

2. Indianapolis
Growth rate (through 1st Q 2009): 6.3 percent

"Indianapolis is riding a few trends that are bringing about an early recovery in its real estate market. While Indiana's capital city did join in the housing boom this decade, prices didn't reach the stratosphere. Indianapolis still suffered through the downturn, though: Building permits for new homes dropped 30 percent from their peak in 2005. But the housing market hit bottom earlier here than in most parts of the country - during the last quarter of 2006. Now, with the local economy poised to grow faster than the national average over the next two years, house prices are projected to post a respectable gain."

For those naysayers, and there are many, mark this time down. Let's have this talk again in 24 to 36 months. Let's have it again in 60 months. Time will indeed tell if hysterical television talk show hosts or sound economic decisions will rule the day in our real estate market.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
greg@gregcooper.com
317.848.GREG (4734)