KC Condo Tracker

Below you will find an overview of the May 2019 Kansas City Housing Market Report from the Kansas City Regional Association of REALTORS® and Heartland Multiple Listing Service. Highlights from the May data include:

May 2019 average sales price for new & existing homes combined ($256,336) is 4.5 percent higher than May 2018.

There were 4,134 home sales (new & existing combined) for May 2019 - 4.9 percent lower than last May (4,349).

I'm not sure what I'm more excited about for this upcoming weekend in Kansas City!!

Eating dinner out this evening for restaurant week...

Cooking, staying cozy by the fireplace with a good book and glass of wine...

Watching the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday...

Or for our real estate teams Featured Listings of the week...

Featured Listings

What do you have planned for this weekend?!?

Go Chiefs!!

AJ Gentry, Chartwell Realty, AJ@UrbanKCLiving.com

Being a Colts fan since my college days at IU and becoming a KC fan after having moved here in 2004 this makes for an exhilarating time for both cities and me.   Fortunate for me, I have lived in Indy and KC and have watched both Cities embrace and celebrate their teams.  Both cities create a social environment around their teams for their people that encourages conversations, healthy competition and badgering, and support of the team colors from red or blue Friday to city landscape lights. 

Indy and KC are similar in so many ways.  Cost of living is affordable, the Urban boom and growth in the downtown economies is creating a draw to the urban areas, to the suburbs and the rise in multi-use properties so you can live, work and entertain in the same space.   Indy has the renowned Children's Museum and the Indy 500 Speedway and KC has Union Station and Kaufmann Center.   They have St Elmo's Steakhouse and we have Joe's KC.  They have Broadripple and we have Country Club Plaza and Westport.  Both cities have art and culture, diverse populations, dive bars,  local talent and music,  zoo's , walking trails, and dog parks.  You can easily get around in both cities and you will find that both cities and its people will welcome you .   I am proud to have called Indianapolis my home and I look forward to visiting every year.   And I am equally as proud of KC.  It has been fun to be a part of all of the changes this city and metro areas have made since I moved here.  Both places are home.  Both places are worthy of putting your roots down.   You won't be disappointed calling either of these your home.  We all have visited cities that don't give us the warm and fuzzy.  KC and Indy have worked hard not to be those cities.  It is fun to see them in the spotlight of the playoffs.  They are beautiful places with a lot to offer.  So here's to watching a good game this weekend.  I would be happy with either team in the Superbowl, but if I do have a preference; I am all about our Kansas City Chiefs.    GO CHIEFS. 

~ Kristin Mudgett, REALTOR, Kristin@UrbanKCLiving.com

• November 2018 average sales price for new & existing homes combined ($239,110) is 5 percent higher than November 2017.
• There were 3,039 home sales (new & existing combined) for November 2018  - 4.2 percent lower than last November (3,173).
• Home inventory (new & existing combined) for November 2018 (8,425) is 0.3 percent higher compared to November 2017 (8,396).
• The supply of new and existing homes for November 2018 is 2.5 months representing a home market favoring sellers. 

The Country Club Plaza has been a popular attraction for Kansas City locals and visitors to our great city alike. From shops and restaurants you can only find on the Plaza to the unique architecture, people have been coming to the Plaza for unique experiences throughout the last several decades. While the landscape has changed over the years, the idea has stayed the same, attract unique retailers and restaurants and the people will come. Turn on the Plaza lights and people will come. Change the color of the fountain water to blue for our Royals or red for our Chiefs or pink for Susan G Komen and people will come. More often than not, the Plaza can draw a crowd year-round.

Recently the Country Club Plaza has been in the news for two major announcements: Nordstrom is relocating to the Plaza in 2021 and Shake Shack is coming to the Plaza this Fall. While the Shake Shack is just a fancy burger joint, its addition to the Country Club Plaza is exciting because until recently you had to travel to cities like New York and London to order yourself an awesome burger and chocolate shake. And while Nordstrom has been in the Kansas City market for some time, the relocation of Nordstrom to the Plaza is exciting for multiple reasons, but mostly because it means no more driving from KC to Overland Park just to grab your favorite pair of jeans or your favorite bottle of cologne.

Both of these additions to the Plaza will not only change the appearance of the Plaza but will also create a new reason for shoppers to frequent the Plaza.

And as the shopping district itself continues to evolve, the areas surrounding the Plaza continue to evolve with new remodels and new construction homes filling in all of the surrounding areas. Whether you are looking for a single family home, a townhouse, or a condo – there are plenty of options around the Country Club Plaza.

If you or someone you know are thinking about buying or selling real estate around the Plaza or throughout the great Kansas City area, feel free to give us a call to see how we can serve you: 816-699-0084.

We’ve been reading for weeks about the proposed tax bill and as REALTORS, concerned for our clients, we’ve been reaching out to lawmakers to hopefully save some of the tax benefits for homeowners. Today, we learned that while we didn’t get everything we were hoping for, we were able to impact some of the provisions in the bill positively. Below are some positive points for homeowners and prospective homeowners from the President of the National Association of REALTORS, Elizabeth Mendenhall:

• Capital gains exclusion. In a huge win for current and prospective homeowners, current law is left in place on the capital gains exclusion of $250,000 for an individual and $500,000 for married couples on the sale of a home. Both the House and the Senate had sought to make it much harder to qualify for the exclusion.
• Mortgage interest deduction. The maximum mortgage amount for households deducting their mortgage interest has been decreased to $750,000 from the current $1 million limit. The House bill sought a reduction to $500,000.
• State and local tax deductions. Both property taxes and state and local income taxes remain deductible, although with a combined limit of $10,000. Both the House and Senate bills seek to eliminate the state and local income tax deduction altogether.

It appeared for some time that the original tax bill may take away some of the value of owning a home. Something which collectively could have been a disaster for the housing market, which in recent years has been overall a strong market. After more than a year of seller’s market conditions in the greater Kansas City metro area, the market has somewhat evened out. Though inventory levels have remained around the 2-month level (meaning if no new homes were added to the market, we would run out of homes to sell in two months), buyers have still been out shopping fairly consistently. New home construction has not really slowed and even developments that stalled after the not-so-great bursting of the real estate market bubble of 2008, those developments have not only picked back up but some have even been completed.

2018 might be another great year to buy or sell a home and if you are thinking about exploring your options, our network of lenders, inspectors, and appraisers are some of the best in the business. Let us connect you with someone who can make your real estate transaction seamless. Our clients can attest that the more enjoyable and efficient their search, the more success they have in finding the right home at the right price. Let our team at Urban KC Living and KC Condo Source help you reach your goals. Give us a call at 816.699.0084 or drop us an email at Team@UrbanKCLiving.com today!

Show of hands, who thinks KC needs a new airport?

On November 7, 2017, Kansas Citians overwhelmingly voted to move forward with a new, single-terminal version of Kansas City International Airport (MCI). Opponents of the project feared some hidden taxpayer burden, though, as of now airlines and concessions in the airport will take care of the cost (https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/11/08/they-voted-yes-kansas-city-get-new-1-billion-airport-terminal/844622001/), but we’ve seen how taxpayers have had to help cover the cost of attractions like Power and Light and the KC Streetcar. In reality, does it matter who foots the bill? Don't we all ultimately gain something from a new, state-of-the-art single terminal airport?

The airport of the future looks incredible, and you can see for yourself here: http://www.flykci.com/newsroom/terminal-master-plan/.

The potential to have more direct flights both domestically and internationally is a huge bonus and the one I am most excited about, personally. For business travelers, having an airport where a delayed flight doesn’t equate to extreme boredom or starvation is also a bonus. Who's arrived at the airport at the last minute with a Starbucks craving only to find out once you are through security, there is NO STARBUCKS and your only choice is a basic coffee which tastes like it was made last week? Or, better yet, you just want to grab a quick burger only to discover your only options are a sit-down meal with slow service and subpar food/drink?

Whatever your thoughts are on the new airport, one thing is for sure: a new MCI is going to attract more revenue for the city, more businesses like Amazon’s HQ2 may find relevance and interest in our city and other large nationwide companies may give us a second look. More revenue means a better Kansas City for all of us. Whether you live in Brookside or Overland Park, a state of the art airport will make your travel life better and possibly more efficient, just wait and see.

If you’ve got comments or thoughts on the new MCI – share them below in our comment section.