Georgetown KY Real Estate

The ongoing drama with the economy, softening real estate markets, and banks tightening their requirements on loans continue to pinch the credit lines of Lexington area home builders.  As a result, the amount of new Lexington Homes for sale are on the decline.  This has results in both fewer new Lexington home permits being issued, and a new issue is starting to arise:  half finished homes are becoming more commonplace within the community.  What is happening is as builders get their credit lines called, they simply end up running out of money and can't afford to continue to work on homes - which then ends up costing them their permit (Home permits become void after 180 days of inactivity on the job site).

Here's a few snapshots of the metropolitan…

The Shoppes at Equestrian Crossing may not be ready for the 2010 WEG (World Equestrian Games).  This large development in Scott County KY near Georgetown between the Wal-Mart and the Toyota Plant, and encompasses approximately 850,000 sq.ft. and includes a mixed use retail plan.  On its current projected timeline, the preliminary real estate development plan should be finished within the next 2 months.

The original concept was proposed to be completed in time for the 2010 World Equestrian Games, but it doesn't appear that the property can be ready for business by that time.  Many potential occupants for the development are cautious of the relatively soft real estate market nationally, and even though Kentucky has a fairly strong overall real estate…

The Georgetown KY city government is considering up to a 0.5% increase in the payroll tax to help address budgetary shortfalls.  It is estimated that for each increase of tax of 0.1%, that there would be generated approximately $1 million additional in tax revenue.  [So, for a 0.5% increase, approximately $5 million would be expected to be generated additionally for the Georgetown Kentucky government.]

The current financial picture for Georgetown KY is expected revenue of approximately $20.6 million, but it has projected costs of $22.6 million - a shortfall of $2 million.  So, they need to raise additional money (or cut expenses), to address the problem.

The city council members have been discussing an increase in payroll taxes of 0.1% - 0.2%, but…

The latest news is now available from the Lexington Bluegrass Association of REALTORs regarding the rate of Lexington homes sales.  For the 1st quarter of 2008, there were 835 homes sold.  This equates to approximately a 16 percent decline compared to the 1st quarter of 2007.  Home values were fairly flat, in that the median values of homes sold were down approximately 1% comparing 1st quarter 2008 vs. 2007.  Values for March 2008 was down 5% relative to March 2007.

If you compare these numbers to the national average, nationally the median price was down 7.7% for March 2008 vs. 2007.

The amount of inventory currently on the market and the marketing time needed to sell a home continues to lag the market.  Marketing times for the 1st quarter 2008…

The most recent predictions are out regarding the national real estate and homes values that are expected to happen this year in 2008. Nationally, things are looking pretty bleak. Fannie Mae ran up over $2 billion (yes, with a B) in losses for the quarter and is predicting a decrease in homes and housing values this year. Foreclosure rates appear to be increasing - which when added to the already excess inventory thats built up in most markets around the country, will further exacerbate the problem. This then causes many home owners that got into their existing property for little or no money - to cause their equity to be stripped out completely as the value of their home decreases. Fannie Mae is predicting a potential decline in values nationally ranging…

The Scott County Georgetown Kentucky airport is getting a big makeover in preparation for the 2010 FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games. They are getting ready to begin on a $4 million expansion project and is expected to be completed by the time the 2010 WEG is here.

Some of the expansion projects include a new terminal building, as well as a runway ramp addition.

The contractor hasn't been decided at this point in time. Bidding is set to let for this month March 2008, and the actual construction is set to start some time in the middle of the year 2008. There is no expectation that the construction will interfere with any of the Georgetown KY airport's regularly scheduled flights or operations.

The World Equestrian Games in 2010 is expected to bring…

A review of the 2007 Lexington KY real estate market shows some strength especially relative to many other parts of the country.

But, there remains a potential for some opportunities for savvy investors.  The Lexington Kentucky newspaper, The Lexington Herald-Leader published an article recently that Lexington KY homes foreclosures for the metropolitan area have increased by 121% for 2007. If you examine the actual numbers, for 2006 there were 210 Lexington KY homes that were in some phase of foreclosure proceedings.  For 2007, there were 464 Lexington KY homes that were in some phase of foreclosure proceedings.  So, if you do the math:

464 - 210 = 254

254 / 210 = 121%

That sounds grim.

But, if you look at it from a broader perspective -…

The Georgetown KY Toyota Plant recently announced that they were going to be producing a new model called the Toyota Venza.  This model replaces the Solara in the production line.  This change that could add as many as 75 jobs to the facility - and the Toyota Plant will begin production of the new model in November 2008.

Some highlights of the new Toyota Venza include:

2.7 liter 4 cylinder or 3.5 liter V-6

6 speed sequential shift automatic transmissions

Seating Capacity will be 5

Toyota has invested $350 million to retool the plant to accommodate the new production of the Venza at the Georgetown KY facility.  The V-6 will be the first models to be built, with the 4 cylinder to be offered later next year.  The car is based on the Camry base…

The Lexington Kentucky newspaper, The Lexington Herald-Leader, had an interesting article on their Friday January 18 2008 edition of their newspaper on the front page regarding how homes for sale in Lexington KY and the rest of the central region in Kentucky, had declined overall for 2007.  So, these figures represent the entire metropolitan area including Georgetown, Nicholasville, Versailles, etc.

Overall, the sales of homes for sale in Lexington Kentucky decreased by 18.4% for December 2007 - with a year end value of a decrease of 8.2% relative to the previous year in 2006.

Overall, the average price for homes that sold was only slighty decreased from what they had been in previous years as announced by the Lexington Bluegrass Association of…

Lexington Kentucky Foreclosures are being filed at a record high of 212 new foreclosures this past quarter.  This is the highest amount in the past 3 years.

Nearly all of the cases were in Fayette County (204 were for Lexington).  The next closest was Scott County at 4 filings.

These numbers are approximately 1 foreclosure filing for every 919 households in the 6 county area:

Bourbon County

Clark County

Fayette County

Jessamine County

Scott County

Woodford County

These recent filings put Lexington Kentucky in the dubious honor of being in the top 100 foreclosure rankings for the United State's largest metropolitan areas.  This is a point of concern for many persons, as Lexington doesn't have sufficient population to warrant such tainted…