We often see newspaper and magazine headlines that say things like "Housing Prices Dropped" or "Housing Prices Jump...".  The media, when making these dramatic headlines and television news stories, are usually quoting the Case-Shiller Housing Index.  The media often uses this index to lead the public to believe that they are talking about their local town or neighborhood.  As Realtors in Lawrence, Kansas, we often hear people quote this kind of news regarding housing prices as a reason for their choices and decisions for their Lawrence, Kansas real estate purchases or sale.

In fact, however, the Case-Shiller Index has very little to do with real estate in Kansas and almost nothing to do with real estate in Lawrence, Kansas.

The Case-Shiller Index, often quoted by the media, only includes data from these major cities:

Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, Washington.

There are no cities in Kansas or Missouri that are used in that index.  As a matter of fact, there doesn't appear to be any cities in any of the states that neighbor Kansas except for Denver, Colorado that are factored into that index.  So, it is a long way from any of these cities to Lawrence, Kansas or even Kansas City.  Denver, the nearest city in the index, is over 550 miles away from Lawrence, Kansas.  It takes over 8 hours to drive to Denver from Lawrence, Kansas.  So, it seems silly to use Denver as a factor in considering real estate in Lawrence, Kansas.  The other cities in that Case-Shiller Index are even much further away.   

The real estate market in each of these 20 major markets that are factored into the Case-Shiller Index is much different than the real estate market in Lawrence, Kansas.  Homes in most of those 20 major markets went up in value much faster over many years.  So, now that those homes are going down in value fast in those major cities, the decrease in home values from their peak seems very dramatic and makes for dramatic, attention-getting headlines and news stories.

On the other hand, over the last 10 years or more, real estate and home values in Lawrence, Kansas have consistently edged up in a much more reasonable low single digit percentage fashion compared to homes and real estate in the cities listed in the Case-Shiller Index where some homes doubled in price or more in a few years time.  Therefore, homes and real estate in Lawrence, Kansas are not taking the dramatic declines or decrease in value that we are seeing in that index of major cities not near Lawrence, Kansas.

So, when considering a real estate decision in Lawrence, Kansas and the surrounding area, we hope that you will consider the advice of our local experts, our Realtors, who have the data and the information about the Lawrence, Kansas real estate market in order to help you sell your Lawrence, Kansas home or real estate or in order to help you buy a home or real estate in Lawrence, KS.  Please contact us, we would love to help you.

Realty Executives - Hedges Real Estate Realtors have the forms and information in order to help homeowners with homes in Lawrence Kansas who need help selling their real estate in order to prevent forclosure.

Realty Executives - Hedges Real Estate Reatlors have also learned techniques in order to help homeowners who owe more on their mortgage or mortgages than the value of their home in Lawrence, Kansas or the surrounding area.

If you or someone that you know needs help selling their home in order to prevent foreclosure or if you or someone you know owes more than the value of their home in the Lawrence KS area, please see www.HedgesRealEstate.com or contact Realty Executives - Hedges Real Estate at 785-841-2400.

We can help homeowners in Lawrence Kansas and the surrounding area put their homes market their properties and coordinate with their mortgage companies to possibly arrange for the sale of the property.  We market our real estate listings in Lawrence Kansas and the surrounding area on over 100 real estate websites in addition to our other marketing in order to help real estate buyers find the homes we are marketing in this area.

For Immediate Release
Friday February 29, 2008

Realty Executives reports strong 2007 despite real estate market being down nationally

Realty Executives had their Mid-America Region Awards Convention at the Intercontinental Hotel on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City on Friday February 29, 2008 to celebrate the achievements of their Realtors in 2007.

Realty Executives Mid-American Region that includes 50 Realtors at Realty Executives – Hedges Real Estate in Lawrence, Kansas (KS) reported sales of $2.5 Billion in 2007.  They had 14,873 real estate sales transactions in 2007.

Four Lawrence Realtors from Realty Executives – Hedges Real Estate were honored for their Lawrence, Kansas and Douglas County real estate sales for being in the top 50 out of 1,200 Realty Executives Realtors in the Mid-America Region including Craig Brown, Kassi Robinson, Larry Northrop, and Glen Sohl.  This places these Lawrence, Kansas Realtors in the top 5% of their company in sales.

In Lawrence, Kansas, Realty Executives – Hedges Real Estate announced that they had moved into the #2 position in Lawrence and Douglas County market share for number of sales transactions closed and number of Realtors based upon the Lawrence MLS stats for 2007.

Realty Executives – Hedges Real Estate has 50 Realtors in their Lawrence office, making them the agency with the 2^nd largest number of Lawrence Realtors.

Realty Executives – Hedges Real Estate had 577 sales close in Lawrence and Douglas County in 2007 making them the #2 agency in total number of transactions closed according to Lawrence MLS data for Lawrence, Kansas (KS) real estate sales and Douglas County, Kansas (KS) real estate sales.

Realty Executives – Hedges Real Estate was #1 in the Lawrence and Douglas County markets in Realtor productivity with the highest average number of transactions per Realtor in 2007 Lawrence, Kansas real estate sales and Douglas County, Kansas real estate sales.