Home Run: Housing Market Healthy Around the Great Bend Area

Like two old friends who have moved back to town, the revived oil and agriculture industries are a welcome sight. They are living proof that when the basics are doing well, the rest of the economy follows in their big footsteps.

The local real estate market is part of this economic snowball that is slowly but surely gathering strength throughout the community.

Kevin Keller, Realtor at Keller Real Estate and Insurance Agency Inc., 1101 Williams, said the “slow to moderate growth in the housing economy as a whole” is good news.

“This is acceptable,” Keller said. “You don’t want too much rapid growth. This is an upbeat, positive thing for the city. We are aggressively hustling and doing things well.

“Twenty years ago, there was a decline in the market because the oil industry was hurting,” Keller added. “Then it became stable. The last four to five years, we have seen growth. And the last two years, quite a bit more growth.”

The low prices on the farm and in the oil patch from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s knocked out a generation of people in those industries, Keller noted. “And it limited new people from coming in. Now, all of a sudden, they have had an explosion.”

Newspapers and television news shows have reported for months on the crunch to reduce home foreclosures on the national scene. However, Keller notes, “we are the opposite of the national scene.

“High oil prices hurt manufacturing because of the production and shipping costs. But they are helpful for this region because of oil production. It is back to the basics here – oil and ag.”

The number of days a house remains on the market has decreased but there is always that individual home that doesn’t sell for 18 months.

“Overall, the market is very healthy,” Keller continued. “We see some of everything but there is an under-supply of neat, clean homes to move into. People don’t want to do fix-ups. They don’t have time, with kids’ ballgames and other activities. This is true in all price ranges.

“People don’t care if a house is 100 years old,” Keller said. “But they want slick bathrooms and a slick kitchen.”

Another category in short supply is homes designed with the older baby boomers in mind. This group is facing the empty nest and their housing needs have changed.

“They want everything on one level, minimal or no stairs and handicapped accessibility,” Keller said. “There is a shortage in this area. This will be a big-demand niche to focus on in the next 10 years.”

Keller also noted the cooperation between local government and private business has been helpful to the community as a whole.

“I am impressed with the promotion of new jobs,” Keller said. “The community is taking aggressive steps. Everyone is filling their niche and promoting Great Bend as a better place to live, an appealing place to live.”

Glenna Achatz, Realtor at Coldwell Banker Sell Real Estate, 4000 10th, also says that business is good.

“You hear people talking about the real estate crunch but the larger cities are more affected than we are,” Achatz commented. “In the bigger cities, there are highs and lows but we stay kind of average; we are more neutral.”

The number of listings is down a little right now, but houses that are ready to move into are the ones that are going faster, Achatz said.

“There is a market for the fixer uppers; some people want that,” she added. “But we are seeing more young couples that don’t want to take the time. They don’t want to go in and do a lot of work.”

Achatz acknowledges that some of her clients have mentioned that housing prices are higher here than in other areas of the state. “But I don’t see it,” she said. “A home in Kansas City that would sell for $300,000 would sell for $200,000 here.”

The average time on the market, Achatz adds, is 90 days, and her clients are a mixture of families, young couples and older folks. About half are people coming into town for jobs with Central Kansas Medical Center, USD 428 and other entities. The other half are upgrading.

“I have one young couple who are trying to get their parents to move here,” Achatz said. “And we have seen a lot of movement in bigger houses because of oil and ag. I have sold a couple of farmhouses because people are moving into town and the younger generation is buying in the country. It is hard to move from the country, and daddy may fight it all the way, but he likes it once it happens.

“I show lots of people lots of houses,” Achatz said. “The minute they walk in the door, they know it is the one. Most generally, it happens that way.”

When prospective buyers call, they sometimes want a rental to live in while they look for the right house. “The rental market is very tight but I sure help them out with this,” Achatz said. “That is just customer service. We have a list of rentals and we probably get 10 calls a day about them.”

Achatz also noted that even though the Midwest’s economy is doing well, first-time homebuyers are probably not going to see 100 percent loans anymore.

“That’s what banks and loan companies are telling us,” she explained. “Young people have to learn how to save money and that’s okay. It makes it more fun to be able to say ‘we have saved $5,000 or $10,000.’ And then you know they are serious about buying a house. It might take us a little while to get caught up with this but it is not going to hurt us.”

Kevin Sundahl of Sundahl Appraisal Service, 3731 24th, also noted the lending criteria are getting more restrictive but it’s not a big problem here like it is in other states.

“In the past, some loan companies would make 100 percent loans,” Sundahl commented. “But not now. They have gotten more conservative because of what has happened in California, Florida and Texas with foreclosures. This has a little bit of an effect on us because in the secondary markets you have to get qualified.”

But, Sundahl added, local banks want to loan money. “They know what the economy is like here. The market is good in Great Bend, Larned, St. John – some of the bigger towns. But the little towns of 250 population are not seeing it yet,” Sundahl said.

As an appraiser, Sundahl works with Realtors, banks, other financial institutions, attorneys and individuals. He spent 25 years in the mortgage loan business, earned his residential appraisal license in 1991 and upgraded to his general license in 1997. He is qualified to appraise any type of property.

When appraising a house, Sundahl said it usually takes less than an hour to view the house inside and out, make drawings and take a few pictures. Realtors and lenders want to see photos, including those of the front and back of the house, and the street.

“Overall, the market is probably the strongest I have seen,” Sundahl said. “It started turning for the good in 1991; that’s when I first noticed it. There was the oil bust in 1986 and practically overnight we lost 3,000 in population.

“But now, with oil and ag, the middle section of the country is booming,” Sundahl added. “Appraised values definitely are appreciating yearly. It used to be maybe 5 percent appreciation. I am actually seeing double that now in the last year or two. This probably can’t go on forever.”

Sundahl often hears that houses selling for $100,000 or more are sold quickly, at or near full price, if they are in good condition, marketed correctly, priced right and ready to move into.

“I’d say it’s a boom,” Sundahl said. “In the mid-to-late 1970s it was a boom too. It stayed good until the mid-80s when it nosedived down.

“And this is not just in residential,” he adds. “You can see it in farmland. It’s just gone through the roof. Pasture land that was selling for $300 to $400 an acre is now $800 to $900.”

It’s not that people need more pasture land for livestock. Instead, it’s that people want to have land for hunting excursions, Sundahl added.

Sundahl also noted that interest rates are good now, as they have been in recent years. A 30-year note is around 5 5/8 percent, while a 15-year note is around 5 1/4 percent.