Vince Hoehn of CENTURY 21 Pierce Realty LLC, Manitowish Waters, WI

Today a organization that I belong to, the National Organization of REALTORS (NAR), had to do a little back-pedaling on home sale statistics as reported for the last four years.  The NAR has been criticized at times for being too much of a housing market cheerleader, and perhaps the criticism has some justification.  From 2007 through ...

The headline a few days ago was that 13% of US homes are vacant, up from 12.1% in 2007 (from the US Census Bureau.  Wisconsin is at 13.1%, up from 10.2% in 2000.)  Excel spreadsheet with data on all 50 states  What made it a headline is the concern that an increase in vacancy rates translates into increased downward pressure on home ...

Yesterday I posted a line chart graphing 4th quarters closings in units by year of single family homes throughout the Greater Northwoods Multiple Listing Service.  Today I am restricitng the geograhical area to the area that I generally work -- the towns of Manitowish Waters, Presque Isle, Winchester, Mercer, Boulder Junction, Lac ...

Here is a link to a story that is illustrative of the difficulties faced by real estate agents working with short sales and foreclosures and the buyers and sellers of same.  These types of transactions do not make up a big part of my business (and before about 1 year ago, none at all), but I experienced several in 2010 and ...

A wise man probably wouldn't be so quick to point out his own errors of analysis, but then I have never been saddled with the sobriquet of "Wise Man." One year ago I wrote a piece about the relationship between interest rates, sale price, and affordability and it would have been just fine if I had stopped after making my ...

It seems as if everyday I hear the question "How's the real estate market?"   It is as sure to come up as a topic of conversation as is the weather.  My answer varies somewhat from questioner to questioner, but some aspects of my response are more consistent.  One item I consistently ...

It's time to make some predictions about how the real estate market will fare in Wisconsin's Northwoods in 2010.  My crystal ball is just as murky as the ones belonging to all the other prognosticators, and my forecasts may be worth only what you are paying for it, but here goes:Even though mortgage rates have trended down ...

Earlier this year I wrote about how foreclosures are a rare occurence in Manitowish Waters and my reasons for thinking why this might be so.  Well, two more notices of sheriff's sale were posted at the Community Center just this morning -- an off water home on Powell Road, and a very nice home on Clear Lake.  Add these ...

Subtitled:  Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth is. For some time now I have been saying that this is a great time to buy real estate.  Buy when everyone else is selling, sell when everyone else is buying -- you have heard a variation of it many times.  I've said it, I believe it, and perhaps the following will ...

Nationally, as well as in our local market, most residential real estate activity is centered on lower end of the real estate market.  There are a number of reasons why this is true, not the least of which, at least on the national level, is the sales activity driven by buyers taking advantage of price-distressed foreclosed homes and short ...