A Kansas City Real Estate Blog by Realtor, Sarah Snodgrass

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As a Realtor who lives in and loves to sell in the core KC area, I am so happy to read the KC Star report that we are experiencing a drop in crime in many of our Kansas City neighborhoods. The article states that 83% of our neighborhoods experienced a drop in total crimes! I was a bit surprised to hear that crime is increasing in a few neighborhoods north of the river in Clay County, but it looks like most of the crime is property, not violent crime which is the better of the two evils, I suppose. These crime reports will be such a great resource to me as a real estate professional because I am not allowed to talk about neigbhorhoods and make generalizations - I can only give facts and now I have them to provide to my clients.

Last weekend I hosted a Christmas wreath-making party for my neighbors and friends, and it was so successful that I wanted to share my thoughts on it. I ordered a big batch of fresh mixed evergreen from my favorite florist, and bought the wreath forms and hardware for everyone. I asked them to bring their own items to decorate their wreath, because this is such a personal thing and a fun way for people to get creative with their wreath. It was a great way to get to know my neighbor ladies, and they all had so much fun and had something beautiful and wonderful smelling to take home.

This article in the Star today reports that the City Council approved the soccer-oriented redevelopment plan for the Bannister Mall area in their meeting last night. I think this means better days for real estate in the vicinity of the project in the long run. It could be a good time to invest because there are some good deals to be had on housing nearby. Also, if you do happen to own in the area, I wouldn’t sell unless you have to - hang on to your property for a few years and see what happens.

I stumbled upon this Time Magazine article from August, 1976. It is a profile of Kansas City, written just before the 1976 Republican convention (which was held at then-new Kemper Arena). Its pretty interesting, and some quotes from the article could almost pass for current news. Check these out:

“The city is now laboring to restore the dreary 140sq. block downtown area, which is populated only during office hours and abandoned at 5.”

“The new 17,000-seat, $23.2 million Kemper Arena, where the Republicans will gather, is set like a snow-white spaceship in the bottoms along the Missouri, just next to the decaying old stockyards. ”

“Some other attractions next week: the Kansas City Royals, currently one of the hottest teams in the American League, will have three home games.”

“New Yorker Writer Calvin Trillin, a native of the city, has rather eccentrically written that Kansas City has the best restaurants in the world. The best of the best, says Trillin, is Arthur Bryant’s barbecue restaurant.”

Here’s a great video (commercial) for for living downtown called “Your Downtown, Our Downtown 2007″. I’ve already put my house on the market and I’m heading out to buy a condo right now (sike, but does make downtown look very happening). According to BlogKC, there is a documentary in the works about the development and revitalization of Kansas City that should be out next year. I found an entire website on the Kansas City Area Development Council’s website about the documentary project - looks like the KCADA is producing the film and will hold all the rights to it. Now, if this doesn’t make you want to call me to help you invest in your downtown real estate I don’t know what will.

The 2007 Cost Vs. Value Report is out. Now you can see if you really should remodel that bathroom… Click HERE for some numbers for our region.

Some insightful analysis to follow…

Chris Lester’s column in the Kansas City Star today has a good analysis of the local real estate situation. Most of the news on real estate we tend to hear provides national statistics, and those are not always relevant to our local market conditions. Basically Lester is saying that Kansas City is a buyer’s market, and that while our real estate market is not as volatile as the national statistics, we are experiencing a market correction from the boom we had a couple years past.

I like this article because is a very reasonable and factual analysis of the current market. And while it is slow and prices are dropping from the levels of the past couple of years , it is still very strong historically. Also, rates are still at all time lows - the other day I saw 30 year conventional with 10% down-payment that had an interest rate below 6%.

I would love to see the inside of this house:

Tomorrow, this impressive home and three other beautiful homes will be featured in the 2007 Kappa Kappa Gamma Holiday Homes Tour. You will get to see the incredible holiday-themed floral designs of some of Kansas City’s premier floral companies while touring the homes. You can find more information about purchasing tickets and times on their website.