The Longfellow District is one of the  Seven Historic Districts in Iowa City on the National Register of Historic Places.  There are also Four Conservation Districts. If you're like me and wondering what the difference is, it has to do with the density of historic homes in a particular district. Homes in the Historic Districts simply have more homes with the historic characteristics required to make it onto the National Register of Historic Places. The historic nature of the neighborhood makes the Longfellow Neighborhood one of the premier neighborhoods in Iowa City. Longfellow Elementary School is another major factor that contributes to the popularity of the neighborhood, plus of course the fact that the Longfellow Neighborhood is in the heart of downtown. As a college town Iowa City ... 07/05/2012

Goosetown is in the north of Iowa City. The name Goosetown goes back a bit to when Bohemian immigrants settled there in the 1850's and kept geese in their yards. It's about a mile from downtown Iowa City, making it a very popular choice amongst  students and faculty relocating to Iowa City for the University of Iowa. Goosetown is on the east side of the Iowa River, which is where you will find the older period homes dating back to the 1800's. What makes the Goosetown one of the most desirable neighborhoods to live in Iowa City are the historic homes on larger lots and of course it's super location within walking distance to downtown Iowa City. Another good thing it's got going for it is easy access to I-80. Living in the north of Iowa City you have better access to the Interstate than a... 06/27/2012

Another Listing Marketed & Sold by Cardinal Realty Overview Maps Photos Neighborhood $141,000 Townhouse Main Features 2 Bedrooms1 Bathroom1 Half BathroomInterior: 1,557 sqftYear Built: 1993MLS #: 20123272 Location 1809 Earl RdIowa City, IA 52246USA Denise Hamlin Cardinal Realty(319) 400-0268denise@denisehamlin.comhttp://ichomesforsale.com        Our recent listings Sharp, Contemporary Home - A Cut Above the Rest!Super Cute Starter HomeSharp, Updated Zero Lot with Stunning Pond ViewsCharacter-Filled Ranch Style Home - A Longfellow Treasure Subscribe to our listing feed Nearby properties for sale 05/28/2012

Another Cardinal Realty Listing Sold in Less Than 90 Days Overview Maps Photos Neighborhood $215,000 Single Family Home Main Features 3 Bedrooms3 BathroomsInterior: 2,144 sqftYear Built: 1979MLS #: 20123213 Location 1229 Oakes DrIowa City, IA 52245USA Denise Hamlin Cardinal Realty(319) 400-0268denise@denisehamlin.comhttp://ichomesforsale.com        Our recent listings Sharp, Contemporary Home - A Cut Above the Rest!Super Cute Starter HomeSharp, Updated Zero Lot with Stunning Pond ViewsCharacter-Filled Ranch Style Home - A Longfellow Treasure Subscribe to our listing feed Nearby properties for sale 05/25/2012

The spring market has kicked in big time in Iowa City. A few weeks ago the real estate market was chugging along quite nicely with good solid gains month for month. This past couple of weeks there's been quite a shift and homes in Iowa City are going under contract left and right! To illustrate my point, 179 homes are marked on the MLS as pending or contingent. (There were 109 in March when I did my last update). And since the MLS relies on agents to update the data and they're pretty busy right now, it's probably safe to say there are few more houses under contract in Iowa City that we don't know about yet. Until those homes with accepted offers start closing of course we won't see any major changes in the other market indicators. 26 homes sold in April so far. There are 487 listings s... 04/16/2012

A Gem of a Home in the Longfellow Neighborhood - Sold Overview Maps Photos $182,000 Single Family Home Main Features 3 Bedrooms1 Bathroom1 Half BathroomInterior: 1,153 sqftYear Built: 1940MLS #: 20122284 Location 706 Clark StIowa City, IA 52240USA Denise Hamlin Cardinal Realty(319) 400-0268denise@denisehamlin.comhttp://ichomesforsale.com        Our recent listings Sharp, Contemporary Home - A Cut Above the Rest!Super Cute Starter HomeSharp, Updated Zero Lot with Stunning Pond ViewsCharacter-Filled Ranch Style Home - A Longfellow Treasure Subscribe to our listing feed Nearby properties for sale 04/06/2012

What a glorious weekend we've had in Iowa again. We had a couple of nights of rain followed by glorious sunshine in the days. The perfect combination of course to encourage the foliage and plant life to grow at a pace that I definitely have not seen in the 12 years I've lived in Iowa. I took the photo below when I visited clients who will be listing their home in Iowa City with me this week. My only concern at the moment is that considering how early the growing season is starting, just how long we might be pulling weeds this year! 04/01/2012

For the 2014 Easter Egg Hunts please click this link: Easter Egg Hunts in Coralville and Iowa City April 2014 Easter is just around the corner and I'm getting lots of hits to my site from folks looking for schedules for Easter Egg Hunts in the Iowa City area. Next to Halloween this is a great time for kids and just like Halloween the buzz around it gets bigger every year. Below are the schedules for the biggest Easter Egg Hunts I could find in Iowa City, North Liberty and Coralville. I'm sure there are others, this is just to get you started: Easter Egg Hunt in Iowa City organized by the Legacy Active Retirement Community When: Saturday March 31st 2012 - 2.00pm - 4.00pm - For children 10 years old and younger Where: Legacy Active Retirement, 1020 South Scott Blvd, Iowa City This will be... 03/30/2012

Home Sales in Iowa City were up again in February.  22 homes sold in Iowa City February 2012 compared to 21 in February 2011. That's not as impressive as January when home sales were up significantly compared to last year. I don't think this means the Iowa City real estate market is slowing down though since there are currently 81 homes marked as contingent or sale pending right now on the Iowa City MLS, a really good sign that we have a lot of closings coming up! The absorption rate has increased to 6.5 months, that's an average of 196 days on market. The calculation for the absorption rate factors in the number of homes currently listed as active on the MLS. With spring just around the corner the number of homes on the market has risen quite a bit since last month, which is likely the... 03/08/2012

Home sales are on track to be up again in February in Iowa City - This will be the 8th straight month where we see in increase in home sales. It looks like we're in for a really good spring and summer in the Iowa City real estate market. So now to the numbers. 15 homes sold in Iowa City in February so far compared to 11 this time last year. 71 homes are listed as pending or contingent and 379 homes are currently showing as Active Listings on the Iowa City MLS. If you're on the fence about selling your home, now would be a REALLY good time to list it! Spring is right around the corner. Iowa City is a relocation destination and the next few months is when new Residents and Faculty for the UI Hospitals and University of Iowa start looking for accommodation this Fall. Add to that the renter... 02/20/2012

Lately my market reports are full of positive news for housing trends in Iowa City. Home sales for January are no exception. Once again home sales are up in Iowa City. In fact home sales in Iowa City are up by a whopping 138% compared to January 2011. 31 homes sold in Iowa City January 2012 compared to 13 in 2011. And if that wasn't impressive enough. This is the highest number of homes sold in Iowa City in January of any year since 2007 when 35 homes sold! The absorption rate has dropped to 4.8 months, that's an average of 148 days on market. (6 months absorption rate is a balanced market). 4.8 months absorption rate is technically a sellers market. Home prices don't totally reflect that yet. Since I'm on a roll with good news, there is positive data to share with you on that too. Alth... 02/07/2012

When it comes to helping buyers relocating to iowa city I'm always trying to think of new ways to get useful information to them. Often times I think the Internet offers us lots of choices, but they're not always that useful. (Or the websites  are so cluttered with ads they're not exactly a joy to visit). Just last week I stumbled upon a tool that I absolutely had to have on my website that will not only be a great resource for buyers relocating to iowa city, but also sellers interested in researching home sales in Iowa City neighborhoods. It offers all kinds of area information that I'm sure will be really useful, (yes there's that word again), for buyers and sellers alike. This very classy Lifestyle Search Tool is from SpatialMatch.  You can see it in action on Corinne's site, Barring... 01/31/2012

25 homes sold in Iowa City in January so far. That puts home sales way ahead of January 2011 when only 9 homes sold in the entire month. The real estate market in Iowa City is getting off to a great start in 2012. 46 homes are listed as pending or contingent and 310 homes are currently showing as Active Listings on the Iowa City MLS. I'm going to say something now that I wasn't saying last year at this time. We need more inventory! I know for a fact buyers are looking for fresh listings. If you're on the fence about selling your home, now would be a REALLY good time to list it.     310 Active Listings46 Homes Pending or Contingent25 homes sold in Iowa City in January to date -  21 Single Family Homes, 3 Condos and one Zero lot The Absorption Rate is at 4.5 months. That's an average of 1... 01/27/2012

Lately I've been thinking about how I can step up my market reports for Iowa City to make them more useful. It seems for them to be really useful to buyers and sellers they need to show Home sales more specific to Iowa City neighborhoods. Access to the Iowa City MLS means I have lots of data to pull from and through experience I've found the most efficient way to search is by elementary school district. Iowa City has a population of almost 70,000 and has 12* elementary schools. As you can imagine, that means we are talking about relatively small areas for each school. Some elementary schools are bigger than others so logically they also service a bigger area. The Iowa City School District includes schools in Coralville and North Liberty. For the purpose of establishing Home sales in Iow... 01/25/2012

Looks like I picked a good day to do a market update for Iowa City. 16 homes sold in Iowa City in the first 16 days of 2012. Gotta love those numbers - A great kick off to the year, especially considering only 13 homes sold in all of January in 2011. 42 homes are listed as pending or contingent and 282 homes are currently showing as Active Listings on the Iowa City MLS. That's not a lot of inventory. It's possible sellers took their homes off the market for the Holidays. Now would be a REALLY good time to list again - I know buyers are looking for fresh listings!   282 Active Listings42 Homes Pending or Contingent 16 Homes Sold in Iowa City in January to date -  14 Single Family Homes, 2 Condos   The Absorption Rate is at 4.2 months. That's an average of 126 days on market, (and technic... 01/16/2012

Where are the best neighborhoods in Iowa City? I get asked this a lot and yet there's no point in me answering that question since it would be totally subjective. What I can do to help is introduce you to neighborhoods in Iowa City. Today I'm looking at homes and neighborhoods in the  Shimek Elementary School District. Looking at neighborhoods by school district is the most efficient way to look at neighborhoods. Schools affect the desireability of an area and ultimately that will impact the price of real estate. This is universal, not just in Iowa City. Houses close or within walking distance of the University of Iowa are a prime example of how that works. Location is still king and you will pay to be close to the UIOWA!     For more photos visit the original post @ Iowa City Homes For... 01/15/2012

Home sales in Iowa City were up slightly in 2011, as you'll know if you read this post  I wrote last week. Today I'm going to break it down into categories. Single family homes in Iowa City did a lot better than condos in 2011 with single family home sales up compared to 2010 by 12% while condo sales were down by 15%. It's not surprising that condo sales are down. Iowa City is a relocation destination and a good portion of the condo market is driven by students coming to the University of Iowa and residents moving to Iowa City for their residency at the UI Hospitals. Typically when they buy a home it's with a view to selling it again in 3 to 4 years. In 2010 they had the first time homebuyer credit as an incentive, without that incentive it's hardly surprising  that in the current econo... 01/09/2012

This is the first of many market reports as we kick off the new year. I figured I'd start by looking at home sales in Iowa City for the year and drill it down from there. I'll do the same with Coralville and North Liberty. There's plenty of data to analyse now that we have a whole year to look back on. 802 homes sold in Iowa City from January - December 2011 compared to 785 homes sold in 2010. That's a 2% increase in home sales. If that seems a little weak, just take a look at the graph below and you'll see that actually we did really well to come out ahead after what was a dodgy first half of the year.       To view a table with information about the average and median price of homes sold in Iowa City in 2011 please visit the original post at Iowa City Homes For Sale.   Source for data... 01/04/2012

31 homes sold in Iowa City in December to date. 47 homes sold in December 2010 - I have a tough time imagining beating that number with just 7 business days remaining this year. We'll have to wait and see. Next week we will know more... Assuming we don't break any records in December, on the up side home sales for the quarter are up already - And that's before we know how many more homes will close in the remainder of 2011. 142 homes sold in Iowa City since October 1st, compared to 127 sold October through December 2010. There are currently 317 listings showing as active on the Iowa City MLS. (That low number is probably related to sellers taking their homes off the market for the Holidays). Contingent and pending sales are also down a bit. It seems there aren't as many buyers out and a... 12/21/2011

Last week I did my November monthly reports for Coralville and North Liberty. Today it's Iowa City's turn.  49 homes sold in Iowa City in November 2011 compared to 37 homes sold in November 2010. That's a 32% increase compared to last year. That's pretty good for the "quiet time" of the year. The absorption rate has dropped to 5.0 months, that's an average of 152 days on market. (6 months absorption rate is a balanced market). We probably shouldn't take too much notice of that though. It's possible that sellers have taken their homes off the market for the holidays and when they're relisted in the new year the absorption rate will go up again. That said, home sales have been up in Iowa City every month for the last five months. That's a good sign that the housing market in Iowa City is ... 12/13/2011