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Wishing you and your loved ones a holiday season filled with peace, love and gratitude.

Email scams are nothing new, and we've all seen them.  But, would you expect that an email coming from the closing agency, real estate agency, or your real estate agent might really be from cyber criminals trying to trick you into wiring closing funds to an offshore account?

If you are involved in a real estate transaction, or plan to be in the near future, and you are not already aware of the issue, then you should read this.

Reports by The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and New York Real Estate News all identify cases where buyers, believing they were in communication with authorized parties, wired large sums of closing funds to accounts linked to parties with criminal motives, and were left with no money to complete their purchase.

Warnings to consumers have been issued by the National Association of REALTORS® as well as the Federal Trade Commission, as the criminal activity continues.

Who is targeted, how are the criminals operating, and what can you do to make sure it doesn't happen to you?

Real estate markets are local.  So the trends and statistics reported on national, or even regional, housing activity may be very different from what is happening here in the Mahoning Valley.

When you're a real estate broker, people always ask you 'how is the market?'  I feel like I should have some kind of canned answer for that question, but I don't.  It's complicated, and it's different by community, by neighborhood, and also by price range. That's why it's important to be informed about what homes are selling for in your particular community and neighborhood before making any selling or buying decisions.

Speaking in generalities for our tri-county area, median sale prices have been steadily increasing at a slow pace for the past several years. Pendings and sales are holding steady despite the fact that there are fewer and fewer homes for sale to pick from. Now we're approaching the holiday season, so I don't anticipate we will see much of a spike in new listings until after the new year, which can be very frustrating for would-be buyers in the more desirable areas.

Hey friends, for a limited time, from October 15 through December 15, 2017, one of our local lenders is running a special program for Veterans.

They are waiving the lender fees and title fees.  That means we will not need to build these costs into your purchase offer, and you should be able to buy your new home at a lower price!  They are also waiving fees for any qualifying Veterans who want to refinance their mortgage.

Give me a call at 330-360-4538, or complete and submit the contact form, and we will get in touch with you at our first opportunity.  We can answer all your questions and connect you with a qualified loan officer who can get you pre-approved.  Once you have your pre-approval letter we can find you the perfect new home.

Who would have ever thought the trend of dropping housing supply and increasing sales prices would continue for so long?  We are a few years into this seller's market, and there are no signs of it changing any time soon.

Multiple-offers, and offers over the asking price, are fairly commonplace in the more desirable areas and price ranges.  Good homes are selling very quickly, and the housing market keeps churning along in spite of lackluster new construction activity. Recent numbers indicate that low inventory levels are finally showing up in sales activity. It was bound to slow down at some point as fewer and fewer homes are available to buy.

Let's take a closer look at our local housing statistics in Mahoning County for the first 7 months of 2017 compared to the same period last year.