Kansas Mortgage Activity Slows, Inventory Rises

There seems to be a lot of homes for sale these days in Emporia, but according to local real estate agents, it isn’t because this Kansas housing market is an unattractive place to be.
In fact, the abundance of real estate is making Emporia attractive for potential Kansas mortgage borrowers, agents say.

Maurice Schmidt of Eck Real Estate has been in the real estate business for 30 years.

“We have probably the most inventory for this time of year that we’ve had in the last 10 years,” Schmidt said.

Despite the high inventory, Schmidt said in the 1980s this kind of inventory accumulation would be normal.

“Is this a crisis?” Schmidt said. “Absolutely not.”

The Kansas real estate agent said he personally believes that people in the Midwest are reading and watching national media.

“It’s kinda like they think ‘Gosh, real estate activity is down on the coast…why isn’t it here?’” Schmidt said. “And maybe there’s a little nervousness if you will.”

Joel Phipps of Remax Select Realtors agrees that the selection for homes in the Emporia market is a little high. But, he said, it’s been a great year overall for home loan activity in the region. He said the third quarter was a bit slow last year, but it bounced back in the fourth quarter of 2006.

In a normal market year, Schmidt continued, there is a three-stage process in the slowing of the market when it creeps closer to the end of the year.

“The first is usually around the Fourth of July when 100-degree weather sets in,” he said. “The second is when school starts and the third (is a) decrease in activity when you get to the point where you can smell the Thanksgiving turkey.”

Both Phipps and Schmidt agreed that there’s nothing extraordinary going on in Emporia that is impacting the housing market. Schmidt said traditional reasons such as career changes, job transfers, family changes and seniors going to retired living are causing some of the turnover.

The abundance of available real estate in Emporia isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Schmidt concluded.

“Quite frankly, the accumulation of inventory in our local market, I think to a certain degree, is good for Emporia because we’ve operated on very low inventory for several years,” he said. “… I have advised a lot of customers that right now could very well be a prime opportunity for a lot of home buyers to own their first home or to upgrade their current home.”