Kansas City real estate market

The Kansas City real estate market will eventually recover from its current difficulties, but it continues to face a number of serious problems. According to an April 9, 2010 article in The Kansas City Star, “Kansas City home prices on average are expected to drop an additional 6.3 percent, bottom out in mid-2011 and rebound to pre-recession levels by mid-2013, according to a new report. Though that sounds discouraging, the area fared better than many others in the Fiserv Case-Shiller review of 375 U.S. markets.” The piece, written by Kevin Collison, continued to say that “The study indicated that housing prices in some areas, notably California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, wouldn’t return to their pre-recession peak for more than 15 years. Some communities such as Orlando, Fla., and Sacramento, Calif., weren’t estimated to return to their previous highs until after 2039.”

The high number of foreclosures is one of the negative pressures affecting Kansas City homes for sale, as well as much of the rest of the state. According to an April 15, 2010 article in the Kansas Reporter, “Kansas, like the nation, was hit with record numbers of home foreclosures in March, one of the nation’s top trackers of filing activity reported Thursday. Foreclosure filings were recorded on 2,744 Kansas homes in March, the largest monthly total ever recorded since tracking giant RealtyTrac began reporting on foreclosure trends in January 2005…” The piece, composed by Gene Meyer, continued to say that “Those filings, which cover a range of foreclosure activity from the very first default notices to takeovers by lenders, appear to be between about 30 percent to 44 percent higher than both a month earlier and in March, 2009…More than seven in 10 of the foreclosures, or a total 1,896, were recorded in Wyandotte County in the Kansas City area.”

An April 15, 2010 article from MSN Money targeted the Kansas City area more specifically, saying that “Although new homes on the Kansas City area’s spring homes tour are brimming with potential buyers, a dark cloud has swirled up over another part of the market. Home foreclosure activity in the 15-county area stormed upward by 107.9 percent in March from the previous month and rose a thunder-clapping 174.32 percent from March 2009…”