Real estate real fast

The area follows the national trend in quick home sales at record low interest rates

By Scott Moyers ~ Southeast Missourian

Jaime Craig walked slowly through the fashionable ranch-style house on Jane Street in Cape Girardeau Tuesday, opening closets, counting bathrooms and nodding favorably at the shaded, fenced-in back yard.

"It's nice," she said. "Lots of room."

That's what Craig and her husband, David, are looking for in a new home, along with a quieter neighborhood and closer proximity to the elementary school of choice for their two sons.

"We just had a baby," she said. "With interest rates what they are now, it's almost a no-brainer. Any rate we got now would be better than the interest rate we have now."

Low interest rates are driving a buying spree this spring, the start of the real estate season, and local real estate agents say they are seeing brisk business and quick sales.

"They're really coming and going," said Sue Britton, a real estate agent with Century 21 Key Realty and president of the Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors. "Interest rates are low and staying low. Plus, the 9-11 scare is not on top of us anymore. Anytime something like that happens, you don't move anything."

As of mid-May, there were 564 single-family homes for sale in Cape Girardeau County and Scott City, which includes the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Those totals are actually a bit down from the 610 that were on the market at the same time a year ago, according to the Cape Girardeau County Multi-List Service Inc., which tracks statistics in Cape Girardeau County and parts of Scott, Perry and Bollinger counties.

But the number of houses sold from January to mid-May this year is 312, which is up from 296 last year, meaning they are selling faster.

"I listed two houses three weeks ago and they're gone already," said Deborah Jennings with Coldwell Banker Abernathy Realty in Jackson. "They're going very quickly. If it's priced right, man, it's gone."

National numbers

Nationwide, home prices jumped 7 percent, with the median sales price for existing family homes hitting $161,500. In this area, the average price for homes under $200,000 -- the vast majority of them -- is $107,000, according to Multi-List.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes should top last year's record level. The NAR recently raised its forecast for sales of existing homes to 5.59 million this year, up from 5.57 million in 2002.

Dr. Mike Devaney -- a finance professor at Southeast Missouri State University and a real estate appraiser -- isn't so optimistic, however, especially when it comes to the national real-estate market.

"Overall, Cape Girardeau has a strong economy and a strong housing market, but I think it's slowed a bit on the national front," he said.

Devaney said interest rates, at a 40-year low, are as low as they're going to get, leaving them nowhere to go but up. They may not climb in six months, but he says it will happen eventually.

"There's not going to be a lot more impetus for home-buying from low interest rates," he said.

Devaney also noted that while the economy is recovering, it's doing so without creating more jobs. And money to purchase homes, in many cases, has come from members of two-salary households.

"If one of them lost a job, it will make it more difficult to get a loan for a house," he said.

Devaney said he didn't want to sound ominous, but he'd rather be cautious.

But Bill Stovall, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, said as long as the interest rates are low, business will be good.

"It's all about the interest rates," Stovall said. "If you've got 5.25 percent on a 30-year fixed rate, well, it goes without saying you're going to sell some homes."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137