If you drive up and down 1st Ave in Coralville as often as I do you'll know there are some serious changes going on at the Iowa River Landing. This is the area just south of I-80 and very close to the Marriott on E 9th St. Well, if you're curious as to what is going on there, Thursday September 22 is your chance to find out in a "show and tell" walking tour organized by the City of Coralville. There have been A LOT of changes in Coralville since I moved here in 2000. One thing that has always impressed me is just what a well-organized and well-planned little town this is. It's nice to see Coralville continue to grow in a thoughtful and environmentally conscious way. This event runs from 4.00pm - 7.00pm and will start at the Marriott Lower East Terrace with maps posted at each station al... 09/20/2011

After about five minutes of seeing this little guy out of the corner of my eye I decided to get up and try and take a photo of him. This tree is right outside the window of my home office and I felt sure as soon as I started scrummaging around for the camera he would take off. I was wrong. At least initially. I managed to take this good shot of him from inside. I even managed to open the door to the deck without disturbing him. It was only when I took my first step onto the deck that he scarpered. One second he was there, the next he was gone. Quite astounding really, he sat there quietly for a full ten minutes at least and then managed to disappear in the blink of an eye. I wish I could change gears that quickly! We have lots of wild life in Coralville. The wide variety of birds is ama... 09/16/2011

The 2012 Arts & Crafts Show at the Marriott in Coralville will be a two day event - Please visit the original post @ denisehamlin.com for details We have a couple of big Art & Crafts Shows coming up in Iowa City and Coralville soon. I've never been a big fan of Fall, or Autumn as we Brits call it. That was before I moved to Iowa. When I lived in Europe it was the time that was wettest and most depressing time of the year. Not so in Iowa. There's lots of sunshine in the Fall in Iowa and temps in the 60's and 70's, sometimes even higher. It's turning out to be my favorite time of the year here. Apart from the weather, another thing Fall has got going for it are the many Fall Festivals, including Arts & Crafts Shows. The two big ones close to where I live are the Fall Arts & Crafts Show at... 09/14/2011

Today I decided to take a quick look to see what's going on in the Coralville real estate market. Of course not nearly as many homes sell in Coralville as in Iowa City. (Hardly surprising since Coralville has a population of less than 20,000  compared to Iowa City's 67,000). Anyhow, with the market winding down after the summer I figured this is a good time to "take the pulse" of how the Coralville real estate market is trending. Apart from being a "stats fiend," I live here, so it's of particular interest to me. 6 homes sold in September to date compared to 5 homes sold last year by September 13. There are 16 homes Sale Pending or Contingent. (Sale Pending or Contingent means they have accepted offers that may still have contingencies on them to fulfill before closing). Currently 177 h... 09/13/2011

2236 Oakleaf St in Coralville is an exceptionally nice zero lot on an extra large lot. This split Foyer home has a nice open feel with vaulted ceilings in living, dining and kitchen area. The living room leads to the deck with a view of the awesome back yard. (No kidding, it's the best yard on the block!) There are two bedrooms on the main level, one on the lower level. There's a family room on the lower level too that leads to the patio with privacy fence surrounding it.    Oakleaf St is in the nice established Oakridge neighborhood in central Coralville, close to all the amenities you could possibly need. The bus stop is right around the corner, Coral Ridge Mall is 5 minutes away, Lantern Park Plaza with Hyvee, Hobby Lobby and other retail stores are all within walking distance. 2nd S... 09/09/2011

The Coralville Center for the Performing Arts had its Grand Opening last week and is  all set with a schedule lined up for us all this Fall. They kick off the season this weekend with a performance of the hit musical Hairspray by the City Circle Acting Company of Coralville. The show will be running this weekend and next weekend, September 9 - 18 2011. You can find more information and order tickets online at CoralvilleArts.org Schedule for Hairspray at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts Friday September 9 at 7.30pm Saturday September 10 at 7.30pm Sunday September 11 matinee performance at 2.00pm Thursday September 15 at 7.30***Additional Performance since my original post. Friday September 16 at 7.30pm Saturday September 17 at 7.30pm Sunday September 18 matinee performance a... 09/08/2011

Home Sales in Coralville were up in August by a very impressive 52%. According to data pulled from the Iowa City Area MLS this morning 38 homes sold in Coralville in August 2011 compared to 25 homes sold in August 2010. The biggest increase was with zero lots. Things are definitely picking up in the area in the 3rd quarter with home sales in both Iowa City and Coralville up in July and August. Keep an eye open from my weekly reports in September. The way things are progressing I expect to share more positive information on housing trends in the Coralville real estate market in the coming weeks. It's not all sunshine and roses of course. We still have a lot of inventory to get through and this excess of homes on the market means there's pressure on prices. We still have a buyer's market ... 09/06/2011

Summer is on its way out and things are winding down for me after my busiest year in real estate to date. Time now for me to share some of the photos I took of neighborhoods I visited with folks relocating to the Iowa City area these last few months. I'll start with the Brown Deer Neighborhood. Oddly enough, Brown Deer is less than five minutes from where I live and yet it hasn't gotten much airplay in my blog. It's time to rectify that! The Brown Deer Neighborhood is one of the premier neighborhoods in Coralville with many of the homes there boasting views of the spectacular Brown Deer Golf Course.   The Brown Deer Neighborhood is north of Holiday Rd and is on the north east side of Coralville. As you can imagine, with a golf course right in the heart of it there's a lot of green aroun... 09/03/2011

FRYFest will be celebrating all things Hawkeye all day long on Friday, September 2 as we kick off the Labor Day weekend. This is one of the highlights of the year for Coralville and the event takes place in and around the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Coralville. The schedule is below. This year the honorees are Dan Gable, who's contribution to wrestling is unparalleled, and the Scottish Highlanders. I'm apparently a bit behind the curve as far as the Scottish Highlanders are concerned. I had no idea there was ever a bagpipe band at the University of Iowa. You live and learn! FryFest starts at 9.00am with fun and celebrations all day long. Some of the highlights are the Show & Shine Car Show, the Small Fry Zone, (that one made me smile), and autograph session with Dan Gable in... 09/01/2011

Real estate is local. I'm sure you've heard that before. I figure it's worth repeating today. I switched on the TV this morning to doom and gloom in the real estate market. Nationally the number of existing home sales in July dropped. Not in Iowa City it didn't. Or Coralville for that matter. The home sales for July are up in our area. Of course there's no better way to illustrate that than to furnish you with one of my famous market reports. I posted the real estate market reports for June and July for Iowa City last week. This week it's Coralville's turn. I'm going to start with July, since that's the month that got the national media in a tail spin today. To be totally transparent in evaluating trends in our market, the numbers of homes sold in the Iowa City area for the first half o... 08/18/2011

The countdown is on for the 4th of July Celebrations in Coralville. One of the major events of the year. The 4thFest Parade will start tomorrow at 10.00am at the Geico - Macgregor's Parking Lot on 22nd Ave, Coralville and take a similar route to last year. Marching bands, floats and candy. A winning combination and lots of fun for the entire family. There will be fun activities all day long in and around ST Morrison Park, followed by Fireworks after dark. ST Morrison Park has been a hub of activity the last couple of days as Coralville gets ready for the big 4th of July Parade. Today as the excitement mounts there's still time to visit the Carnival at the Park and enjoy free concerts Sunday evening with The Cedar Islands Band, The Grass Roots and headliners, Herman's Hermits. Schedule f... 07/03/2011

24 homes sold in Coralville in May 2011 compared to 40 in May 2010. After starting off the year well the last couple of months have shown a decline in home sales in Coralville. This is pretty much in line with economic sentiment as a whole, but is somewhat surprising to me as generally the real estate market in the greater Iowa City area is considered to be more stable. Low unemployment is one of the main factors that plays into that. Be that as it may, buyers are not out in great numbers this Spring in Coralville.  We'll just have to wait and see how things pan out in the next couple of months.  June and July are the busiest months for closings in Coralville and contingent and pending sales are on the rise. By the end of the summer we'll have a much clearer picture of how the housing m... 06/28/2011

This morning I decided a quick look at what's going on in the Coralville real estate market would be a good idea. 2011 has been a bit volatile up to now and with the spring market in full swing is a good time to "take the pulse" of how the market is trending. 15 homes sold in May to date. There are 51 homes Sale Pending or Contingent. (Sale Pending or Contingent means they have accepted offers that may still have contingencies on them to fulfill before closing). Currently 241 homes in Coralville are showing as Active Listings. The Absorption Rate is at 8.1 months, that's an average of 247 days on market. That's slightly better than Iowa City where the absorption rate is currently at 8.7 months. The number of homes sold and pending is on the rise and June and July are the biggest months ... 05/18/2011

17 homes sold in Coralville in March 2011 compared to 16 in March 2010. There are 50 homes listed as pending or contingent. Pending or contingent means homes that have accepted offers and may still have contingencies on them to fulfill before they close. 299 homes in Coralville are currently showing as active listings on the Iowa City MLS. Spring is getting off to a great start with lots of activity in the Coralville real estate market at the moment. With all this activity it seems like a good time to look at the absorption rate to see how long homes are taking to sell in Coralville. Despite lots of activity the trend is still favored towards buyers with an absorption rate of 10.6 months, that's an average of 322 days on market. (For this post I didn't use the days on market calculated ... 04/18/2011

Spring has finally sprung in Coralville, Iowa. With daylight savings time the evenings are light longer and best of all they're even starting to get warmer now. It was a long, hard winter this year. This is my first shot in a long while where I didn't get cold fingers! I'd just come out of the Olive Garden in Coralville. The food was great, as usual. I love Italian food and ordered a dish with egg plant. It's not just the food either, Olive Garden in Coralville does a wonderful job of making you feel welcome. I was there with a friend who was visiting for the weekend. It was a special evening, made all the more special by the beautiful sky that greeted us when we walked out of the restaurant. There were a couple of days during this particularly hard winter in Iowa that I asked myself wh... 04/13/2011

If you haven't already registered for Anime Iowa 2011 you probably want to get on it right away. Last year I found out about Anime Iowa totally by accident when hotel rooms in the area became a scarce commodity and clients I was working with had to stay in Cedar Rapids! What will makes things even more interesting this year is that there is a stopover in Coralville on the Ragbrai route the very same weekend in July. Coralville is going to be absolutely hopping the weekend starting July 29, 2011! Just in case neither Anime Iowa or Ragbrai are on your radar, let me fill you in on some of the details. Anime Iowa is a three day convention that will be held at the Marriott in Coralville again this year. There will be anime screenings, video games and cosplay will play a big roll for Anime Io... 03/31/2011

8 homes sold in Coralville IA in February 2011 compared to 11  in February 2010. In January the year over year numbers were up. In February they're down. I guess we need to wait for this month's numbers to figure out whether the Coralville housing market is trending up or down. I'll be watching how the housing market shapes up in Coralville and the greater Iowa City area as we head into the Spring market. Check back for updates, or better yet Subscribe to my blog for email updates.   The average price for a single family home in Coralville in February 2011 was $193,100. That's down from last year, but is misleading as two high end homes sold in February 2010 that skewed the average. The average price for condos was $213,500 in February 2011.  5 of the homes sold in February sold at less... 03/19/2011

Another busy week. If you think it's too early to list your home. Think again. Buyers are out in force, even if it is still cold out there and doesn't seem much like house hunting weather. It seems my message about the busy market is being heard, because I added another two listings to my repertoire this week. (And when I wasn't listing homes I was out showing them, hence my comment about buyers). This home on the west side of Coralville. The location is great, within walking distance of Wickham Elementary. Bus stop is just two blocks away on the corner of 12th Ave and Oakdale Blvd. Plus there is a free park and ride lot to the UI Hospitals, VA Center and UI Health Sciences Campus just minutes away. If you need to commute to Cedar Rapids we've got that covered with this one too with eas... 03/13/2011

For a while now we've been watching the building of the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts on the corner of 5th St and 12th Ave. Last summer it was just a hole in the ground. This summer is the scheduled opening. It seems building a Performing Arts Center is no different to building a regular house. There are milestones that are met along the way. Today is such a milestone. Today is your chance to meet the New Performing Arts Managing Director, Megan Flanagan at a Public Reception at the new facility. Public Reception & Tours - Coralville Center for the Performing Arts March 8, 2011 When? Tuesday March 8, 2011What Time? 4.30pm - 6.30pmWhere? Meeting Room A, Coralville Public Library. (Behind the new facility on the corner of 5th St and 12th Ave).Building has progressed to the poi... 03/08/2011

This Sunday is the 17th Annual Spring Arts & Crafts Show at the Marriott Conference Center in Coralville. A must go to event for anyone interested in Arts & Crafts shows. I went to the Fall Arts & Crafts Show in November and was totally blown away by just what a following these shows have with visitors from all over Iowa. The Spring Arts & Crafts Show is taking place here in Coralville on Sunday, March 6. This event was previously held at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. They just moved it a couple of miles down the road to us in Coralville in Fall. It was a huge success then with everyone saying what a great atmosphere there is at the Marriott - I'm sure there will be a repeat performance of that this time round. So now to the details for the 2011 Spring Arts and Crafts Show: Whe... 03/04/2011