Can you believe it? December is here!

Weekend Opens!
Our office is kicking off the month with a pile of Open Houses this weekend, from 11 am – 1 pm both Saturday and Sunday. New and recently reduced properties in the area, including 4 homes in neighboring Clearwater. Visit our web site for directions and more property information.

Coloring Contest Begins!
This week’s local papers are helping distribute our 2nd Annual Holiday Coloring Contest, which officially begins today. Kids ages 0-12 can enter their completed coloring for a chance to win some great prizes. There are some awesome new sleds in our office right now, that will go out to First Place winners in three age categories. If you missed it in the paper, stop in our offices for a copy or download the 2009 Coloring here.

Enjoy the season with these upcoming local events!

Immigrants Christmas – this Saturday
Experience an old-fashioned holiday  at the 12th annual Immigrants’ Christmas at Minnesota Pioneer Park. Located just across Highway 55 from our Annandale Office, the park brings to life traditions of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with food, music, a silent auction, horse-drawn rides, and opportunties to purchase homemade crafts and goodies. Santa will be there too! Visit the park’s web site for more information: www.pioneerpark.org.

Holiday of Lights – this Friday & Next
Tour Pioneer Village from 6-9 p.m. for the park’s first Holiday of Lights. The village will be illuminated with lights, filled with music and stores will be open with more goodies for sale.

Plan ahead!
Sunday, Dec. 13th – Lion’s Breakfast with Santa
Monday, Dec. 14th – Holiday Train

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

News has been circulating recently of the first-time home buyer tax credit. This chart shows who is eligible, how much you get, and the current interest rates.

Call us at Oak Realty today if you’d like more information on this and to see if you qualify.

*Information from the National Association of Realtors.

Whether you are in the process of buying your first home, already in a home paying your mortgage, or shopping around for a new home, you may or may not know what PITI stands for. PITI is what decides your monthly mortgage payment. We decided to give you a  break down of the acronym.

P= Principal: The amount of the total payment that goes to reduce the loan that month.

I=Interest: The amount paid that month for the use of the investor’s capital(money). Principal and interest payments are determined by the use of “mortgage factors” (monthly payment per thousand at a given rate over a pre-determined length of time.)

T=Taxes: Annual real estate taxes divided by 12= monthly tax. (Government loans require taxes to be paid monthly to the lender with the payment to protect their interest in the property).

I=(Homeowners) Insurance: Insurance paid annually to protect both the buyer and the lender against loss by fire, etc. With government loans, the lender will require that this be paid monthly (escrowed) to the lender to protect their interest in the property.

I=(Mortgage) Insurance: An insurance premium (PMI on conventional loans) paid by the buyer to protect the lender in the case of buyer default on the loan. Most lenders require this insurance on loans with a down payment less than 20%. FHA (MIP) and VA require mortgage insurance also. DVA refers to as “funding fee.”

We at Oak don’t expect you to be experts on this stuff because let’s face it, it isn’t an easy concept. That is why any of us here would be happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding this topic, or anything else for that matter!

Financial information from DF Institute, Inc.

We are thrilled to bring a highly-requested feature to our web site: an interactive property search by MAP! Use a variety of Direct Links (preset searches by school district, lake name, property type) or do your own custom search. We hope you find this new tool useful and a lot of fun!

Access the Map Search from the PROPERTIES menu.

Above: Oak Realty’s current residential listings. Click on a flag to view brief property information (by the upper-right hand corner of the map) and follow a link to that property’s detailed information page if you want to learn more and see more photos.

Please share with us any feedback you have! You can email us or give us a call.

A few new changes have been made this week on our web site: www.oakrealtymn.com

On our Detailed Search Page (which you can get to by clicking on PROPERTIES on our home page), has a new search field: Street Name. If all you caught was the name on a street sign as you drove by, you now have a field to help search for that property. Or perhaps there are certain streets you are interested in living on — track those listings with this new search field!

The other big change is how you can search for foreclosed/bank-owned properties. The “Bank-Owned” page that was under our PROPERTIES menu is now gone. Come to our Detailed Search Page, and use the links on the right-hand side. Look at just Oak Realty’s Bank-Owned listings, or all company’s, and by price ranges. These results are limited to listings within Wright County. Give us a call to set you up on an automatic search if you’re interested in other areas!

We hope these new tools are useful! As always, we welcome any suggestions to improve our site! Drop us an email at homes@oakrealtymn.com!

Talking real estate these days almost always includes the term “foreclosures”. The volume of bank-owned listings our office is handling grows daily, and this will surely continue into 2009.

The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors® recently released some specific numbers regarding the continued increase of market share foreclosed homes hold in the Greater Twin Cities Area. The information brokedown lender-mediated sales by individual city, both in the month of October and 2008 Year-to-Date.

In the 5-community area we primarily serve (Annandale, South Haven, Maple Lake, Clearwater, and Cokato) the percent of lender-mediated sales thus far in 2008 ranged from 21-36%. In communities just around our corner like Monticello, Buffalo and Big Lake, those percentages climb up to 53% of 2008 sales.

“Reassuring news is that these homes are being bought with the same frequency they’re listed,” the report says. Other good news for traditional home sellers, is that although lender-mediated properties are dragging down the overall median sales price of homes, traditional properties themselves are actually experiencing quieter value declines.

View the full report at www.mplsrealtor.org. Look for the link under In The News.

It is the prettiest time of year here in the Heart of the Lakes. What a great time to tour some wonderful homes and properties that are on the market! We have a number of public open houses scheduled this week and coming weekend…

Wednesday, Oct. 15th, from 4-7 pm, tour four model BayHomes at Pintail Ponds! Pintail is a one-of-its-kind development new to our area, located just South of downtown Annandale at County Road 5 and Ash Street. You’ve seen these new homes going up over the last few months, now is the time to come tour our fully-finished model “The Sanctuary” and 3 other BayHome models with interiors ready to be customized!

Saturday, Oct. 18th, from 11 am – 1 pm, visit listings in two well-known developments in Annandale and Clearwater, and a sportsman’s paradise in the country!…

640 Morrison Circle, Annandale, in the heart of the Southbrook Golf Course Community, will be open to tour. Familiarize yourself with this friendly, family-oriented neighborhood surrounded by a scenic 18-hole golf course. This property has a corner lot, one of the largest in the entire development!

684 9th Street, Clearwater, in Cedar South, is a great location for commuters to St. Cloud or the Metro. This maintenance-free town home has the nicest view in the association, and is ready to enjoy! Come take a look!

If acreage and elbow room is what you’re looking for, visit 7745 125th St. NW, Clearwater, a gorgeous country home that sits on 9.5 acres and enjoys views of Lake Cassidy.

Sunday, Oct. 19th, from 11 am – 1 pm, visit the Heritage Park of Kimball development and tour 463 Elm Street N, Kimball. This newly-built split-entry home has a fantastic view of Powder Ridge Ski Area!

Come say hello! Take a free pumpkin and treat home with you! We hope to see you!

Directions and more open house info can be found on our web site. Click here!

Now available!… Four seasonal cabins on scenic Lake Augusta, on the Clearwater Chain of Lakes. Own your own cabin and make any changes to it, enjoy 3.5 acres of common grounds with natural springs, mature trees, and 400 feet of level, sand beach. Personal dock slip. Tranquility and simplicity at its best!

All cabins priced at $159,900.

Come take a look this Sunday, October 12th, from 11 am – 1 pm!

Property Address: 10049 Newton Ave. NW, Annandale
From Annandale, follow Highway 55 West, turn North on Nevens Ave., follow to L on 100th t., North on Newton Ave., follow the signs.

The RMLS releases Economic and Market Watch Reports quarterly, and it tells us a number of things about the real estate market by county. For Wright County, we look specifically at a couple of zip codes where the majority of our business is being done.

In the second quarter of 2008, 20 homes sold in Annandale (homes with zip codes 55302). The average number of days on the market for those homes was 106. The percent of asking price (sold/list price) was 94.4%. Of the homes that sold in Maple Lake and South Haven in the 2nd quarter, the average number of days on the market was much less at 62 and 45. Average prices of homes that sold were also up in those two communities, and dropped slightly in Annandale.

We had a slow 1st quarter. The market was flooded with bank-owned homes, driving the market down. Now the majority of these homes (specifically in this area) have been sold.  (Southbrook is a great example, where there was over a dozen foreclosed home for sale in the first part of the year, there isn’t one right now.) We had strong sales in our 3rd quarter, and with interest rates dropping again, I see a strong finish to 2008.

To download the full 2nd quarter report, you’ll find a link here.

Thanks for reading!

Nine of our finest country home listings will be open this Sunday, September 14th, from 12-3 pm. Visit our homepage to download and print your own flyer, see more property photos and find specific directions to each home. Our lakeshore tour a few weeks ago was a huge success, and we’re looking forward to meeting a new group of buyers out to find their peaceful place in the country. This is an ideal time of year to tour properties like these! Some have a number of acres, others the acreage plus deeded access to a lake. So put your comfortable shoes on… there will be lots to see on this tour!