This week's featured listing from one of our Realtor Partners

This week's featured listing is from Scott Dunkin with Reece & Nichols:

2700 E Buffalo Drive

Columbia MO 65202

$129,900

Single Family HomeNEW ROOF GUTTERS ALSO NEW WATER HEATER HUGE 1/2 ACRE LOT SPACIOUS MASTER BEDROOM WITH HUGE WALKIN CLOSET LARGE WINDOWS IN LIVING ROOM AND KITCHEN LARGE 2ND 3RD BEDROOM


Property Features
Property Type: Single Family Home
School District: Hallsville
Subdivision/Neighborhood: Haystack Acres
County/Area: Boone County
Style: Ranch
Garage: Attached, 2-Car
Year Built: 2003
Fin Sq Ft Main: 1601.00
Lot Dimensions: 111X206
House Faces: N
Age Description: 1 Dy-5 Yrs
ElementarySchool: Hallsville
Jr Sch: Hallsville
HighSchool: Hallsville
Builder Name: VISTA
Arch./Style: Traditional
Cooling: Central Electric
Dining: Eat-In Kitchen
Exterior Features: Driveway-Dirt/Gravel, Windows-Vinyl
Exterior Finish: Brick Veneer, Vinyl
Flooring: Carpet, Tile
Foundation Material: Poured Concrete
Foundation Type: Slab
Heat Fuel: Natural Gas
Heat Type: Forced Air
Interior/Features: Cable Available, Ceiling/PaddleFan(s), Garage Dr Opener(s), Laundry-Main Floor, Smoke Detector(s), Walk in Closet(s), Washer/DryerConnectn
Kitchen/Features: Cooktop-Electric, Counter-Laminate, Dishwasher-Built In, Garbage Disposal, Microwave Oven, Range-Electric, Vent Fan
Patio: Back, Concrete
Porch: Front, Covered
Roof: ArchitecturalShingle
Rooms: Kitchen, Living Room, Main Lvl Master Bdrm, Master Bedroom, Utility Room, Master Bath, Split Bedroom Design
Street/Roads: Gravel, Paved
Utilities: Electric-County, Gas-Natural, Sewage-City, Trash-Private



Courtesy of Scott Dunkin of Reece And Nichols Columbia Realtors

Columbia's Mortgage and Real Estate Market

I attended the Small Business Committee meeting today at the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. We broke into groups to discuss the challenges faced by small businesses here in Columbia, Missouri. And, while the usual topics of health care costs and wages and lack of qualified labor all were brought up, my interest was peaked by a topic that concerns those of us in the real estate industry.

It is becoming more apparent to the business community that we have a severe lack of low to middle income industry. By that I mean jobs for the so called "blue collar" workers. Columbia is becoming a city of those being catered to and those who are being ignored. It seems that members of the Chamber are concerned that we are too focused on attracting only the highly paid and are forgetting that the majority of people fall into the middle income category. This is certainly true if you examine the focus of new home construction in the past couple of years. Builders have primarily focus on high margin/high priced housing.

This has affected our industry in a negative way. Currently the majority of homes sold are under $200,000 and most of those have been pre-owned. We have been lucky in Columbia as the University, the city and the insurance industry have helped our city from downturns in the past. But, Columbia has grown to the point that other industries must be attracted (and bring in new citizens) so that we can continue to grow steadily. We need to get "blue collar" industry so that we don't have a future problem with our burgeoning construction industry. Bringing in buyers of lower priced homes will increase demand and contractors can turn to building at those price levels so that we can ease out of our overstock of high priced homes.

We, as an industry who are concerned about keeping our city a good place to live, need to let our city council and mayor know that we are concerned about more than parks and bike trails. Those are nice but not too much comfort if you are not able to find a job or afford the housing.

Your comments are always welcome!


Brought to you by Professional Mortgage Group, Inc. (http://www.pmg-inc.net/) in Columbia, Missouri.

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Featured Realtor Page

Coming very soon to http://www.pmg-inc.net/ Professional Mortgage Group will roll out our "Featured Realtor" page. On this page you will find a photo and contact information for that month's realtor. You can also read up on their bio and a question and answer session. Last but not least there will be property listings and links to more information about those particular homes and more. The best part of this web feature is that it is completely FREE to our realtors. We hope this will help increase your exposure and possibly land you some business! We have new and unique visitors to our site everyday and you never know when one could find their way to you!

If you are a realtor in the mid-missouri area and are interested in being featured, please contact PMG. We would be happy to establish a relationship and get you on the list in order to be a "PMG Featured Realtor!"

Be sure to check back to see who is the first to be featured!

Brought to you by:
Professional Mortgage Group, Inc.
"Your Columbia, MO Mortgage Broker"

Fall Home Sales Push

It seems yet again amid all the mortgage turmoil that the fall push has begun. Increased mortgage activity is something that has been atypical for this industry lately. At times the mortgage market can be very predictable even in the most unstable environment. The months of September, October and November have always been "good" months for the real estate market and hopefully, god willing, this year will be no different.

We have several key factors that are conducive to a late fall push in homes sales. First, rates are very good with a 30 year fixed rate mortgage holding strong at 6.125% and should drop after September 18th when the fed is expected to decrease the Federal Funds Rate by at least .25%. Second, the secondary market has relaxed a little bit on mortgage backed securities mostly because of relaxing underwriting standards on the FHA product, the increased liquidity on the banking market to fund loans, and the tightening of underwriting standards for sub-prime products. You may be asking yourself, why would tighter underwriting guidelines benefit the mortgage market. Well in the eyes of the secondary market tighter standards mean more quality loans, which then translates into reduced risk and increased profit margins, which then should, hopefully, spark new trends in this market and in turn increased mortgage activity. Third, it is a "buyer's" market. If you are in the market for a home there is no better time to purchase as both sellers and builders are discounting homes in order to reduce inventory and interest costs before the winter months. A savvy buyer can use this to their advantage and strike a great deal on a new or existing home.

Let the fall push begin, every lender, seller, builder, agent, appraiser and title company are ready to service you in your quest to purchase a home. The market needs, wants and desperately requires increased sales. Are you ready?

Brought to you by Professional Mortgage Group.

Your Columbia Missouri Mortgage Broker

Columbia Missouri Market Statistics

In lite of current market conditions both nationally and locally I thought I would dazzle you with some very interesting statistics courtesy of the Columbia Board of Realtors.

NEW HOME SALES STATISTICS: (Boone County Missouri)

- New Home Sales are down 34% through the 1st half of 2007'.
* 218 units sold in 2006' vs. 133 for 2007'
* $42.8M in volume for 2006' vs. $27.7M in 2007'
* Through the 1st half of 2007' building permits are down 67% from 2006' and
105% from 2005'.
* Through the 1st quarter of 2007' the Sales Prices List Price ratio was 98.94
compared to 100.55 in 2006' and 100.04 in 2003'
* The median sales price through the 1st half of 2007' was $150,000 compared
to $149,600 in 2006'

EXISTING HOME SALES STATISTICS: (Boone County Missouri)

-Existing Home Sales are down 2.5% through the 1st half of 2007'
* $105.5M for 2006' vs. $103.2M for 2007'
* Median sales prices for 2007 was $144,000 vs. $146,000 for 2006'
* Through the 1st quarter of 2007' the Sales Price / List Price ratio was
97.56 in 2007' vs. 97.76 for 2006' and 96.62 in 2005'
* 61% of the sales have been under $200,000
* 87% of the sales have been under $250,000
* The average days on market for 2007' has been 131 vs. 119 in 2006' and 117
in 2005'

MISC STATISTICS: (Boone County Missouri)

- The hottest area of was the SW with 208 units sold through the 1st half of 2007'
- The 2nd hottest area was NE with 122 units sold through the 1st half of 2007'
- Overall the Columbia Missouri Market is down 11% from last year
- The slowest area was the SE with only 53 units sold through the 1st half of 2007'


Brought to you by Professional Mortgage Group, Inc.

Your Columbia, Missouri Mortgage Broker

A Big Thank You To Our Guests

We wanted to say thank you to our Realtor friends who came to our first monthly luncheon today. It was a great time to socialize with our peers in the industry.

The following people attended the lunch:

Tracy Arey, Gaslight
Meaghan Kingdon, Gaslight
Hayes Murray, Plaza Real Estate
Tim Kuchta, 3D Realty
John Sorenson, The Ginsburg Group

The meal was catered by our friends from D'Rowe's. We hope everyone had a good time and took away some new information about Professional Mortgage Group and the way we do business.

Brought to you by Professional Mortgage Group, Inc. in Columbia, Missouri.