2009 Real Estate Report

My cousin and business partner, Steve Shook, and I have recently completed our annual real estate report. It is an indepth study of the what occured in the Tippecaone County commercial and residential real estate markets in 2009 and a set of projections for 2010.

If you are interested in a copy of the report, please send me your emial address and I'll forward you a copy in the form of a Word document. My email address is cshook@shook.com.

The trip continues right on time! (Tuesday morning, November 10th)

I spent yesterday traveling across western Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. Each state had its own beauty in contrast to the Midwest. Very early Monday morning we had hour stop in St. Paul. It gave me an opportunity to take a quick walk around the neighborhood surrounding the train station then go back to bed. I woke up Monday in North Dakota, specifically Minot. For some reason, we had a number of passengers join us in Minot and Amtrak gave us a copy of the Minot daily newspaper. One of the interesting points I noticed in the newspaper was that instead of reporting the building permits issued during the week, it reported the number of oil mining permits issued.

The food and service in the dining car has been top notch. Perhaps similar to a cruise, each passenger(s) joins other passengers to fill a table of four. The food, wine and desserts have been delicious (large portions!) and the meals have been a nice way to meet people. As you may guess, most of the travelers on this leg of the journey are from Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington. I found the roomette in the sleeper car to be comfortable and a great place to sleep, but during the waking hours, it is a little desolate. So I’ve moved my papers and book to the lounge (club car with large sightseeing windows up and down both sides of the train). There have always been people to visit with. I’ve met a fellow from Bent Oregon, another guy from England, now living in Southfield MI, a couple from Minneapolis and a couple from Washington.

Just before I went to bed on Monday night, we stopped in Whitefish, Montana, a very upscale skiing community. I’m told by the fellow from Bent, OR that the resorts don’t open until early December (although I saw snow on the ground next to the tracks yesterday afternoon). In the middle of the night (Tuesday morning), we stopped in Spokane, WA for a service break (new crew and supplies for the train). I saw the city on and off while sleeping. In Spokane, the train was divided in two. Half the cars and a new engine went to Seattle and our half is on its way to Portland. My only disappointment is that we traveled through the Glacier l National Park at night. I’m told by most of the folks who live in the northwest that it the views are beautiful.Today, we travel into Oregon and arrive in Portland around 10:00.

I've attached a photo of people I met from MN and MI.

Portland to LA (Wednesday evening, November 11th)

I had a short, but enjoyable visit on Tuesday morning in Portland, between trains (the Empire Builder between Chicago and Portland and the Coast Starlight between Portland and LA). I had four hours, so I bought a one day city train pass and traveled west out of the downtown area to a close suburb, then turned around and took another train back into downtown. I walked through an area called the Pearl District then headed back to the Amtrak station.

The train to LA was longer and more crowded than the Empire Builder. Whereas the Empire Builder was filled with a lot of riders organized by a travel club, mostly from Oregon and Washington, the Coast Starlight was FULL of young people from all over. Both experiences have been interesting. On the most recent leg of my travels, it’s been fun to watch the young folks, generally traveling by themselves, link up over coffee or cards. One fellow I’ve met is named Elliot. He goes to college in Toledo, Ohio and is taking a three week self crafted trip around the country on Amtrak. It is a class project and he is blogging as he travels. Here is the URL for his blog (amtrekkin2.mvstudents.org). Two others were cousins from Browning, Montana who were heading to LA to play in what sounds like an AAU basketball tournament. I also spent time with a husband and wife and their two young kids from Anchorage heading to Anaheim for Disneyland. It seemed like everybody had a story to tell and took the train to make the journey as much a part of the experience as the destination (which I guess was my story).

We saw a lot of Oregon scenery yesterday afternoon (Tuesday), but missed seeing most of the mountains after the sun set. When I woke up this morning (Wednesday), we were at an hour stop in downtown Sacramento. It was very early, but it still gave me a chance to walk around the area surrounding the train station. As the day progressed, I spent all my time in the lounge car. As I said earlier, it’s an easier place to visit with people. We traveled through Oakland/San Francisco, San Jose, Monterey and San Luis Obispo. We are currently approaching the coast and I’m told we will travel along the shore for about 100 miles until we reach Santa Barbara. It’s about 5:00 p.m., so we will lose daylight pretty quickly and miss much of the coastline.

I will arrive in LA around 9:00 this evening (Wednesday) and San Diego around 1:00 tomorrow morning (Thursday). My hotel is a short walk from the train station. If all goes as planned, I’ll be at the NAR convention tomorrow afternoon (Thursday).

The National Association of Realtors Annual Convention (Sunday, November 8, 2009)

I am on the Directors Council of our state Realtors’ Association and one of my duties is to attend two conferences a year. Trust me, other than the difficulty of keeping up with work while I’m gone (and who am I kidding, with Lu Ann’s support, the office runs just fine while I’m gone), fulfilling the duties of attending the meetings is no burden. They are both great opportunities to learn what’s new in the industry and meet a lot of peers from other parts of the state and country.
The 2009 conference is in San Diego, a four hour flight from Indiana. However, I’ve decide to take a different route. I’m taking the train. I left from Riehle Plaza this morning (Sunday) with Turgay and began the trip. After a few hour “lay over” (I don’t know if that’s what they call it with trains), I boarded the Empire Builder to Portland, OR. Turgay is heading back to WL later Sunday night on Amtrak to teach. I will arrive there on Tuesday morning, the board another train to Los Angles. From there, I’ll take a three hour train to San Diego.

My friends are sick of hearing about this trip, because I’ve been so excited as the trip has drawn closer. So, if you’ll bear with me, I’m going to use my blog as a way to periodically journal about my experiences. I don’t have internet access, so I’ll upload my entries and photos when I find a signal.

We’ve just arrived in Milwaukee, so I will sign off and step off the train to stretch my legs.

A tip of the cap to RPAC

It isn't often that a fundraiser is fun, but the Lafayette Regional Association of Realtors held a "fun" fundraiser last Thursday for its Realtor Political Action Committee (RPAC). Before I tell you about the event, let me tell you about RPAC. Our national trade association, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is one million member strong and has one of the most meaningful and respected governmental affairs activities, both in Washington and Indianapolis.

Although our lobbying efforts are going to be noticeable due to the size of our membership, our real strength comes through the grass roots nature of our businesses, the breadth of home ownership in the United States ("the American dream") and the critical nature of real assets in the success of most commercial enterprises. RPAC certainly uses its monies to support elected officials who support the norms of private property rights, our real value comes in unique quality of information we can aggregate through our individual MLS's. In Indiana, our local Realtor Associations have agreed to share "sold" information with our state trade association (the Indiana Association of Realtors) to create a real property data base. In the most recent quarterly, we began to release monthly information about statewide and county trends in residential real estate.

Last week, the organizers of our local RPAC fundraising efforts, led by Maggie Stark of our office, hosted "Dancing with the R's" at the Outpost. Patterned off of the TV show, six Realtor members of the Lafayette Regional Association of Reatlors took dancing lessons from Arthur Murray's and competed in a dance competion. The 2009 dancers were Eddie Gallegos, Penny Mattingly, Lisa Godby, Ryan Parker, Deb Talbot, Brett Leuken. All of the dancers were great. They demonstrated courage and finesse. I give all six of them credit for being the center point of a great fundraiser. Everybody had a good time and lots of money was thrown at RPAC.

Home Value Statistics

In its 2009 second quarter publication, the Federal Housing Finance Authority reported Greater Lafayette ranked number 7 among the nation's 296 largest MSA's in the year to year change in home values. According to the government report, the average home value in the second quarter in Greater Lafayette was 2.25% greater than the second quarter of 2008. Personally, I believe this number is optimistic, but the relative ranking of 7 among 296 is encouraging and believable.


Interestingly enough, in reviewing the 25 largest MSA's, only three had a positive year over year change and of those three, two were less than one percent (Denver and Pittsburgh) and the third was 2.90% (Houston). The most troublesome changes in value were in Merced, CA (-27.15%), Las Vegas (-26.21%), Vallejo, CA (-23.75), Miami (-22.53%) and Medesto, CA (-22.53%).


Of the 296 MSA's, the only communities ranking ahead of Greater Lafayette were Spartanburg, SC (3.48%), Amarillo, TX (2.67%), Fort Smith, AZ (2.55%), Houston (2.42%), Macon, GA (2.33%) and Lubbock, TX (2.27%). Here is how the other major Indiana cities fared:


City: % change, rank

Anderson: -1,82% 98
Bloomington: 0.40%, 50
Columbus: -0.45%, 95
Elkhart: -2.36%, 142
Fort Wayne: 0.08%, 70
Gary: -2.79%, 152
Indianapolis: -1.24%, 119
Kokomo: -1.72%, 135
Michigan City: -0.03%, 73
Terre Haute: -3.18%, 160


Although the relative condition of the Greater Lafayette residential market is reason to be thankful, it is not time to break champagne, noise makers and balloons. We are still experience nervous buyers, inconsistent demand, on-going foreclosures and frequent short sales. However, our numbers are not getting worse, our supply of new and existing homes for sale is better matched with local demand compared to one and two years ago and there is every reason to believe we are much closer to the end than the beginning. Have faith.

Parade of Homes

Just a reminder, the Builders' Association of Greater Lafayette is hosting its annual Parade of Homes on Saturday and Sunday, July 18th and 19th and Saturday and Sunday, July 25th and 26th. Each Parade home will be open from 1:00 -- 5:00. For detailed information about the 20 homes in the Parade, including an impressive mapping feature, visit the BAGL website.