Presidents 2009 State of the Community Remarks
Delivered at the Annual Owners Meeting
February 20, 2008 at 7:00 PM
PDF Document posted 2/15/2009
Presidents 2008 State of the Community Remarks
Delivered at the Annual Owners Meeting
February 20, 2008 at 7:00 PM Word
Document posted 2/26/2008
Email from the President 3/21/2008
There was a story in the Commercial Appeal about this morning about ZIP
Codes being Black Listed by Mortgage Loan Insurance Brokers. First, neither
of our two zip codes were mentioned and second this mainly pertains to loans
requiring Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and lenders are tightening the
guidelines on these types of loans. In either case, Cordova Club is NOT
involved.
Additionally while 38016 and 38018 are both in declining market area codes,
when Marilyn Moo ran some loans in those zip codes we did not get a
declining market notification. What this means is that the declining market
is in those zip codes but not necessarily Cordova Club. If you are talking
about the mortgage insurance companies pulling out of certain locations,
Memphis is not on their list. FHA did raise their lending limit to
$270,400, which should help sale help in that price range.
Sincerely,
Pete Decker
President, CCOA
Folks:
The Commercial Appeal’s headline today was a bit scary: “Housing
Slowdown -- Home sales tumble suburban real-estate market skids from
year-ago levels” The article went on to assert that “…The fall was
more stark in Cordova’s 38016 and 38108 (Zip Codes) total home sales
down 36 percent , new home sales down 49 percent and existing home
sales down 29 percent.” As we all know, Cordova Club falls into these
two zip codes; so how did we do?
As you know, we monitor, and post to the web site, a Real Estate Report
that provides both a quarterly and year-to-year statistical analysis of
home sales in our community. Attached, you will find the most recent
Real Estate report. What it shows runs counter to the Commercial
Appeals reporting. For example, last August (2006) 9.09 percent of the
homes in our community were for sale and this August (2007) 8.59
percent are. In other words one half of one percent FEWER homes are for
sale today than were for sale last year at this time. Furthermore, I
asked one of our realtor/directors to compare the average per
square-foot price for homes in our community. This is the readily
available figure often used by realtors to evaluate the asking price of
a home for potential buyers. He reports that figure has remained
unchanged at $82.00 per square foot over the last year. In sum, fewer
homes in Cordova Club are for sale this year than were for sale at this
time last year and prices for those that sold remain stable in a
(reportedly) depressed market
Why? I think we have to recognize the cause, and the paucity of Zero
Equity/Sub Prim Rate loans are not it; the Memphis Metropolitan Area
grew by only about one percent last year and the economy is stagnant by
all reports. What that means to us all is that there are very few
buyers looking for homes in the area and yet we retained an
advantageous market position. How can Cordova Club residence
capitalize on this? One thought is, we could ban all For Sale Signs
there by making it appear that even fewer homes are for sale in our
neighborhood and that it is an even more desirable area to move into.
Now that sounds counter-intuitive but it has some merit if you think
about it, while recognizing that the signs advertise the realtor as
much as the do the home that is for sale. Assuming that we will not do
that, what we will do is do everything we can to maintain the
appearance of Cordova Club and that means continued emphasis on CCR
enforcement/Landscaping of the Common Open Spaces.
Sincerely,
Pete Decker
President, CCOA
