Vacation Rentals

If you have a vacation home and are looking to rent it, there is a low cost advertising option at LongmeadowBiz.com. For only $50/year, we will design and host a webpage on LongmeadowBiz including photos, rental details and more. Periodic updates (e.g., changing photos- summer vs. winter) are included with the annual fee.

Rent to your friends and neighbors.

Check out the sample rental webpage to see what features are available. There is already one vacation property available for rental.

To list your vacation home, send an email to webmaster@longmeadowbiz.com.

Latest Longmeadow Housing Stats

[click to enlarge]

The latest stats for housing sales in Longmeadow do not show any signs of a recovery....

June showed 16 houses sold vs. 23 in June 2007 continuing the trend that has been observed in 2008. For the first six months of 2008, home sales are down 36% vs. the corresponding period in 2007 (64 vs 100).

The median sales price seems to have stabilized at ~ $300,000 for the past four months after dropping from the peak of $360,000 last September- a 17% drop.

Both of these trends (slower sales and lower prices) are following the national trends. Perhaps the sharp decline in median price which appears to have now stabilized is the start of the "bottoming" process.

Sales prices over the past year have correlated pretty well with official assessment values. The average house under $400K has sold at slightly above the official assessment value. 64 out of 160 homes that have sold in the past year have sold at less than the official assessment value.

With year to date sales of 64 homes and a current inventory of ~ 125 homes for sale, the average time to sell a house is now approaching 12 months- certainly not a robust sales environment not matter how you evaluate it. The other watchout is that there are many people in town who have withdrawn their homes from sale and are awaiting the beginning of a better sales climate. When housing market improves, the inventory of homes for sale will likely increase significantly.

Details of Longmeadow Real Estate Transactions for the past two years (2006- 2008) that are used to generate the above charts can be found here.

Hopefully, the report next month will show some better results and some signs of a housing recovery in Longmeadow!

Protect Your Privacy When Selling Your Home

Not too long ago, one of our home sellers told us of a frightening experience he had when his home was under a listing agreement with a local agent. As a result of the incident, he canceled the agent's contract and took matters into his own hands. Here's what happened:

Early one day, our home seller left for work, not thinking twice about the lock box hanging on his front door. Later that day morning he received a frantic phone call from his teenage daughter. She was calling from the upstairs bathroom on her cell phone after hearing voices and movement downstairs. Fearing an intruder, her father immediately called the police on his other line and left the office to return home. As he turned into his driveway, the police were already on the scene and were talking to two strangers. Only after speaking with the officer did he learn that the "intruders" were really a real estate agent and his embarrassed client, both now visibly upset having caused such a ruckus. What the seller had not realized when he left in the morning, was that his daughter had a delayed start for school and had not left before him, as was normally the case. She was in the bathtub when the intruders" entered their home.

Thank goodness that the ending was uneventful, but it does point to the need to take privacy issues seriously when selling your home. With a lock box on your door, ANY agent can access your home at ANY time with ANY client. Remember your lock is on the outside of your home. You won't know when you leave in the morning if people are coming or who was there when you return later. You won't know if you left something valuable on your dresser. You just won't know.

When you sell privately, it's just that -- private. You determine who you will show your house to and when.