John Murphy Named Twin Cities Super Real Estate Agent for 2008 for Medina, MN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDINA, Minnesota, December 12, 2008 — John Murphy, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Results, Plymouth, MN office, was named a 2008 Super Real Estate Agent for Medina, MN by Mpls. St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business.

Each year Mpls. St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business, in collaboration with Crescendo Business Services, select their list of 650 Super Real Estate Agents for the Twin Cities.  With over 18,000 agents in the Twin Cities, only 3.5% are named to this prestigious list.  To view the list of this year’s Twin Cities Super Real Estate Agents visit: http://www.tcbmag.com/srea/

“I’m honored to be recognized so early in my real estate career by Mpls. St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business as one of their Super Real Estate Agents for 2008 for specializing in Medina.  I have spent the last two years, in part, focused on successfully selling upper bracket properties in Medina,” said John Murphy, RE/MAX Results agent and Publisher of John Murphy’s Medina Real Estate Report at http://www.MedinaReport.com.  As a result of Murphy’s focus and commitment he is currently tied as the number one residential real estate agent for Medina, MN based upon closed transactions for 2008.

John Murphy’s business has continued to thrive despite the real estate correction.  Highlights include:

  • 2008 sales of $8.3 million on 17 closed transactions – 56% growth over 2007
  • Average sales price: $488,000 which is twice the market average
  • Murphy’s sellers achieved 93.75% of original list price at sale – nearly 2% better than the market average of 91.9% which translates in to $4,400 more for his sellers
  • Days on the market until sale – 81 days versus the market average of 151 days – this means a more efficient sale for his sellers, fewer headaches, and more money in their pocket with a faster sale

“The market has shifted to a consumer driven model.  Buyers and sellers expect much more of their agents today.  Besides being able to help them buy and sell a home and make it a smooth transaction, buyers and sellers are looking for an advisor they can trust during this challenging market.  They want innovation, expertise, forthright communication and they want sophisticated analysis as well as deep market knowledge on today’s prices” said Murphy.

Tony and Theresa Jace of Wayzata, MN hired Murphy to help them buy and sell homes this year and said, “John is the most innovative thought leader in real estate today, by compiling specific market data we were able to find a foreclosed home and act quickly.  John’s knowledge of bank foreclosures allowed our transaction to close smoothly and we purchased a home with instant equity!  In today’s market that’s not easy.”

Prior to launching his real estate career, Murphy’s unique background of 18 years in technology media – much of it spent working in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, where he was able to hone his marketing, advertising, and communications skills while leading large national sales organizations in a highly competitive and fast paced field.  As a student of media and technology, Murphy has been able to deploy some of the most innovative and successful real estate marketing programs in the Twin Cities.  His blog, http://www.MedinaReport.com is one of the top real estate blog sites in the Twin Cities providing market leading insight, trend analysis, and opinion.

John Murphy is regularly quoted in the Star Tribune for real estate articles.  Clients of his were recently featured in a big story about luxury distressed properties in the Sunday Star Tribune November 2, 2008.

With the change in the market toward distressed sales and bank foreclosures, Murphy has been able to adjust his business to address this as well.  Having sold several foreclosures and short sales this year, he is very experienced in dealing with bank owned properties and distressed sellers.  He recently published a special report entitled, “How To Buy Twin Cities Foreclosures…The 10 Things You Need to Know Now” http://www.HowToBuyTwinCitiesForeclosures.com.  His background in technology enables him to find three times as many distressed sales in the MLS than the public can find on their own.  “The MLS is an incredibly valuable resource for agents who know how to use it.  Unfortunately, few do,” said Murphy.

Murphy says the demand and interest in bank foreclosures and distressed sales is driving the market today.  He has responded by establishing a Buyers Representation business for bank foreclosures & REOs as well as developed various specialized searches for interested buyers and sellers seeking these kinds of opportunities.  Nearly 150 people have contacted him in the past 8 weeks through his various web sites.  Many buyers want to receive VIP priority access to all the distressed sales and bank foreclosures.  They can sign up at http://www.TCDistressLuxuryHomes.com.

To complement the Bank Foreclosure/REO Buyer Representation, Murphy has become a quick sale specialist helping those who are in pre-foreclosure, upside down on their mortgage, short sales or some sort of distressed situation to sell their homes quickly and move on with their lives. “Distressed sellers seem to be more the norm than not these days.  They need trustworthy advice and they need to sell quickly.  Due to my work with foreclosures, I’ve been able to develop a unique marketing system that enables most sellers to sell their homes quickly – even in this market,” said Murphy.

Regarding Murphy’s ability to put together large, complicated transactions, Bob and Kathy Bernu of Medina, MN commented, “John’s creativity, integrity, market knowledge, and confidence allowed us to successfully buy and sell in a very difficult market in 2008.  His professionalism and performance is worthy of the highest priase and recognition.  It’s fitting that John would be recognized as one of the Twin Cities’ best real estate agents.”

2009 will continue to be a challenging market.  It is important for consumer to work with agents who are busy, successful and innovative in today’s market.  “The agents who will lead this market to recovery will not be the same ones who led the market prior to the correction.  Markets change.  Consumers change.  Expectations change.  Agents will change. If you can’t clearly demonstrate your value as being significantly more than the 6-8% you charge, then it’s time to find something else to do.  Today’s consumer doesn’t have time for the old way of doing business,” said Murphy in some final comments.

John Murphy is a licensed real estate agent with RE/MAX Results based out of the Plymouth, MN office.  Any comments and opinions expressed are that of John Murphy as an independent agent and do not necessarily represent that of RE/MAX Results or RE/MAX International.

Contact:

John Murphy, Real Estate Sales

RE/MAX Results

Ph: 763-443-9821

E-mail: John@JohnMurphyHomes.com

http://www.MedinaReport.com

http://www.JohnMurphyHomes.com

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Bridgewater Foreclosure Expected to Hit the Market Any Day

There’s a luxury home in Bridgewater that sold for $1.1 million a year and a half ago that has gone through the foreclosure process.   It’s expected to hit the market within the next 3-4 weeks.  It’s unclear as to what price the bank will put on the home.  Bridgewater is in the Wayzata School District.
If you’d like to stay up to date on this foreclosure, please go to www.MedinaDistressSales.com and mention Bridgewater Foreclosure.
Luxury Homes

New Construction

Foreclosure

Twin Cities Median Sales Price Down 19% from November 2007

Below is a graphical view of the plunge in median home sales prices in the Twin Cities over the past two years.  According to data just released by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, the Twin Cities median home prices are down 19% compared to November 2007 and down 23% compared to November 2006.  The information for the immediate chart below can be found in the Monthly Indicators Report on page 6.
(Click on graph to enlarge)

Twin Cities Median Price Through November 2008

But if you look under the hood at the data that makes up this chart you’ll see the explosion in sales of homes under $120,000 over the past year.  The table below is something the association publishes regularly and it’s a rolling 12 month report.   You can see the dramatic increase in properties selling under $120,000.  This of course, is where a great many of the foreclosures, short sales, REOs have been.  As I mention to people, it’s good to see the cheaper properties selling because eventually they will be gone and the buyers can begin to move up the food chain.  For now though, the big interest is in the cheapest properties possible.

Twin Cities Housing Supply by Pricing Category November 2008

I broke down the data for homes under $120,000 because they have seen such a large increase in the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months.  Volume for that segment is up 4439 transactions or 216%.

(Click to enlarge the tables)
Twin Cities Housing Supply Outlook - Homes Sold Under $120,000 @ www.MedinaReport.com
Now when we combine the under $120,000 category along with the $120-$150k category the numbers are even more extraordinary.

Twin Cities Housing Supply Outlook - Homes Sold under $150,000 @www.MedinaReport.com
6,235 more homes were sold under $150,000 during the most recent 12 month period compared to the previous 12 months.  Overall home sales were flat so this is a massive increase on the very lowest end of the market.  That’s driving the overall median price down dramatically.  Of course, it doesn’t help that there just aren’t as many buyers today for homes over $300,000 but the driver is the low priced home sales.
Here’s the full Twin Cities Housing Outlook Report updated through November 2008.  It’s 17 pages filled with excellent data and easy to read graphs.  It’s worth a quick look.

Twin Cities November 2008 Homes Sales Data by City

I have mentioned this before, but the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors is leading the way in being able to provide both agents and the buying and selling public information about real estate sales for their specific city.  What they publish each month and will be highlight below, is an excellent example of the kind of transparency that we need in this business.

On about the 10th of each month, the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors publishes the sales data for the prior month. Right now, you can find sales data for over 200 cities in the metro by clicking here.

Overall, the Twin Cities continues its downward trend that we’ve seen the past 18 months and confirmed by the Case-Shiller Index.  Through November 2008, average home prices in the metro are down 13.1% with market times up to 151 days.
(Click on the graph to enlarge)

Twin Cities November 2008 Real Estate Sales Data

Below I’ve linked the November 2008 reports by various cities:

Twin Cities overall

Medina

Plymouth

Maple Grove

Minnetonka

Orono (Lake Minnetonka Area – including Wayzata)

Corcoran

St. Louis Park

Edina

Eden Prairie

Hopkins

Golden Valley

I will publish a separate entry to follow on the median sales price along with a breakdown of the data behind the decline in the median sales price in the Twin Cities.

Bridgewater Lake Medina, MN – 7 Builder Spec Homes For Sale

There are presently 7 finished, brand new spec homes for sale in Bridgewater on Lake Medina.   If you’re not familiar with this new development, it’s just west of Foxberry Farms in Medina.  It’s about 3/4 of a mile west of County Road 116 just off of Highway 55 in Medina, MN.
The project is developed by Charles Cudd Homes and originally just started with 3 custom home builders, but it has since been opened up to a few more.  It seems several of them all decided to build a spec.  Much of this was done in anticipation of the Fall Parade of Homes.  I’m sure many of the builders would have thought at least a few of these homes would be sold.  Here’s a link to the plat map if you’d like to get a better sketch of the development.

The average price for the 7 for sale is $950,000.  Click here to see the list of homes for sale.   They are listed with various agents and builders. The most recent sale in Bridgewater from the MLS closed on 10-15-08 for $890,000 sold by Wooddale Builders.

Bridgewater is often seen in between Foxberry Farms and Wild Meadows in terms of upscale luxury neighborhoods in Medina.  The fact is, if you want a brand new home in Medina, you need to go to Bridgewater.  Foxberry Farms has been built out for the past 6-7 years and Wild Meadows was basically completed a couple of years ago.  There may be one lot left in the south end and perhaps a lot or two in the north.   But with both of those options in Wild Meadows, you will need to build a home in the $1.5 – $3.0 million range.   In Bridgewater, you can still buy a beautifully finished brand new luxury home for about $900,000.
Bridgewater of Lake Medina Monument at entrance

Luxury Homes

New Construction

Medina, MN November 2008 Home Sales Data

The latest home sales data was published by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.  While it looks like Medina made some improvements in pricing from October to November, it’s easy to be fooled by the averages.

Highlights:

  • Average Sales Price: -8.9%
  • Average Days on Market: 234
  • New Lisitngs: -14.4%
  • Closed Sales: -13.7

(Click on the graph to enlarge)

Medina MN Home Sales Data November 2008

Five homes closed in Median in November and one of them happened to be a 50 acre horse farm that sold for $2.8 million.   Click here to see the list of homes that closed in November 2008.

Home sales data for Medina through October was published in this post.   To view the full data sheet for November 2008 from the association, click here.