AGENT MLS HOME FINDER

The Kansas City real estate market has been generally edging upwards, although there have been some temporary relapses in recent months. A good overall perspective is provided by a Kansas City Business Journal article released on October 19, 2009. The piece found that “The Kansas City-area  home market showed improvement, albeit slight, in September compared with the previous month. Home sales in the Kansas City area totaled 2,383 in September, up 1.1 percent from 2,356 in August and down 1.8 percent from 2,428 in September 2008, the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors reported late Friday. The area had 197 new home sales in the area in September, a 0.7 percent increase from 2,170 in August and a 2.1 percent increase from 2,141 a year earlier.”

However, an Associated Press article from Kansas City reproduced in Forbes found the number of home foreclosures in Missouri increased substantially during the third quarter of the year. The article, which was written on October 15, 2009, stated that “The number of home foreclosure filings in Missouri rose 8.3 percent in the third quarter as the recession bested efforts to help struggling borrowers hold on to their homes. A report released Thursday by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service, shows 7,892 foreclosure filings in Missouri during the July-September period. That’s 11.2 percent lower than the third quarter of 2008, but RealtyTrac said some of the records stopped being collected in January.” On the other hand, Kansas City homes for sale were rated as some of the best places to recover from a foreclosure.

The Kansas City Star had another positive perspective on the real estate market in Kansas City. According to an article written on October 16, 2009, “Kansas City area home sales rose slightly in September, the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors reported Friday. Sales of existing houses in September rose to 2,186 from August’s 2,170. That was a 2 percent increase from September 2008. Sales of new houses last month rose to 197 from 186 in August. But the market for new houses is still under pressure. Year over year, sales were down 31 percent from September 2008.”