Given our frequent focus on the Madison market, we thought an update about the overall market for real estate in Dane County was in order. So we put together the market snapshot below showing the performance of the Dane County real estate market in each category of sales for October 2010.

As you can see, October sales in Dane County compared favorably to that of, well, molasses. As you can see, no more than approximately 5% of any category of available real estate inventory sold during the month of October. Moreover, sales of the two biggest categories, single family homes and condos, were down over 50% and 70% respectively from last October. Prices held firm for condos and multi-family homes and even increased 10% for single family homes, however…

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This Thursday, as many of us sit down to eat more than we probably should, we all have a great deal to be thankful for. I, for one, am always grateful when Thanksgiving approaches because this holiday affords me the opportunity to thank all of our friends for their patronage this past year and for allowing us to be of service to you.

Safe Thanksgiving Travel Tips

Did you know that 94% of all people in the U.S. traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday will be traveling by automobile? (Only 4% of the U.S. will travel by airplane and only 2% will travel by train.) Also, if temperatures fall below 32 degrees and you try to put air in your tires, it could freeze the valve stem open and cause air to leak out faster.

So please take the time to check your…

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NAR and MBA are predicting mortgage rate rises in 2011I wanted to share something with you in the event that you may still be on the fence about buying a home in Madison (or anywhere in Dane County). As we've seen over the past two weeks, the historically low rates that we've been witnessing are not going to last forever and, in fact, have already started rising. And while it is true that Madison house prices may continue to soften (although it must be pointed out that, overall, they have held up quite well), from a buying perspective there may never be a better time to buy a house in Madison and here's why:


But before I launch into an explanation of why now is such a good time to buy, please know that I am not trying to “talk you into” buying a home in Madison; on the contrary I'm assuming you're already…

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Lake & City Homes is proud to announce our newest tool for buyers: our Dane County Zip Codes page. This new page features a map of Dane County with one-click access to every home for sale in every Dane County zip code, a kind of zip code quicksearch. Why is this a great tool? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, if you already know which Dane County zip code you want to live in, this tool gives you one-click access to all the homes for sale in that zip code. For example, with just a single click you can instantly see all the homes for sale in the popular 53705 zip code or 53562 zip code or any other zip code you're interested in. Second, this tool is useful for anyone who isn't tied to Madison and wants to research homes for sale in different parts of…

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