Tips For Buyers

The ability to search homes by Street Name has been available on lakeandcityhomes.com for some time, however it's been missing from the Quick Search on our home page. Until today, that is! Lake & City Homes Realty is happy to announce that we have added "Street name" (see arrow on screenshot) to the "Start Your Home Search" field in the quick search on our home page. So now, in addition to searching by City, Subdivision, Zip, or MLS number from the Quick Search, you can also type in a street name to quickly reference all the homes currently for sale on that street, regardless of city. 

In addition, we added a "By Address" tab to our advanced search form here. :) And, happily, we did not eliminate the ability to drill down and search by street name

Ever wondered if there's an app for searching for Madison WI real estate? Well, you're in luck! Lake & City Homes Realty is proud to announce the launch of iLakeandCityhomes.com, the mobile edition of our flagship Madison WI real estate site LakeandCityhomes.com. The mobile addition of our site has some really cool features that our desktop version does not have that we think you're really going to love.

For starters, scroll down and click on a community that interests you. The app loads all the listings for that community in chronological order. That means the latest listings always appear at the top of your screen. That way you can stay on top of which listings are the newest to the market in that community. This is doubly helpful for quickly checking

Living by the lake is one of those things that a lot of Americans dream about. Who wouldn’t want such a tranquil life? A clear view of the placid lake greeting you from your breakfast table every morning. Spending the entire day fishing or reading by the lake shore—yes, lake living seems like a paradise. Unfortunately, high property prices often put this dream out of reach for many ordinary citizens. That is, until now.

Given current trends, buying real estate has never been more affordable, and new homes on the lake are no exception. Lake home buying, however, does have its share of special considerations, and it’s important to go through them in order to make the best choice in buying your own property. Here are just a few things to consider

A small but critical omission has been corrected on the Property Details pages of LakeandCityHomes.com. First, some background info to put things into context:

Recently I added Lot Size to the search criteria for all the available searches on the site, however when a site visitor looked at the Property Details page for any given property, Lot Size/Acreage was nowhere to be found in the information displayed. But thanks to a very observant visitor to the site, this was pointed out to me and I corrected the issue as quickly as I could. My heartfelt thanks to Jessica for her valuable feedback!

Below are screen shots showing where you can specify one or more Lot Sizes to your property searches, as well as where you can now see Lot Size/Acreage displayed

Great news for anyone searching for Madison area homes and condos online! Due to popular demand we've just added four new search criteria to our advanced search screens. The new search options, which apply to any type of search be it City, Subdivision, School Waterfront, or Zip Code are...drumroll, please...Basement, New Construction, REO/Foreclosure, and Short Sale. Now you can set up searches that will narrow down your results even further by utilizing these additional criteria.

To get started, simplly choose one of the advanced search options from the Listings menu located on the home page (or click the big button marked Advanced Search). Select the city, subdivision, etc that you're interested in, type of property (home or condo), number of

In case you missed it, this week we announced on Lake & City Homes Facebook Fan Page our new Market Snapshot reports. What's a market snapshot? It's a personalized report that charts current up-to-the-minute market activity about homes in your neighborhood (or any area you specify within a 3-5 mile radius of a given property address). The report includes data such as sold homes and condos, homes and condos currently for sale, inventory counts and even days-on-market. These reports are a fantastic resource if you've been asking yourself any of these burning questions:

• How do my neighborhood's home values stack up?
• What are homes worth in my target area?
• What's my current home worth?
• Is now a good time to sell?
• Has the market stabilized?

To get

Is your heart set on a classic Cape Cod, a cool Contemporary, or a character-filled Victorian?  The beauty and diversity of architecture is one of the most enjoyable aspects of real estate. But when buying a home it can also be confusing if you're unfamiliar what's available or unsure which styles you'll like best. If you do have your mind made up, how do you access just your favorite style homes for sale?

Whether or not you've decided what style's for you, it's easy to find the Madison home of your dreams with our new Guide to Madison homes. Here you'll find brief descriptions of the most popular housing styles found in Madison along with one-click access to all the homes currently for sale in each category of architecture.

What style home do you

Madison was just ranked the most secure place to live in the United States among large metropolitan areas (500,000 residents or more), according to the seventh annual Farmers Insurance study. The Wisconsin state capital was ranked 3rd last year. This is the 5th time out of 7 years that Madison has placed in the top 20. The rankings were compiled by BestPlaces. Factors used to determine how secure any given metro area is included the following:

1. crime
2. extreme weather
3. risk of natural disaster
4. housing depreciation
5. foreclosures
6. terrorist threats
7. environmental hazards
8. air quality
9. life expectancy
10. job losses

According to the news release from Farmers Insurance, Madison moved up to No. 1 due to a low unemployment rate, low

 According to the SCWMLS (South Central Wisconsin Multiple Listing Service), in October 2010 the average sale price for single family homes sold in Madison Wisconsin fell to a new 5-year low of $219,014 for the month of October, just barely above the 2010 low of $217,874 which occurred in April 2010. November average price data will be out shortly and we'll keep you updated on whether this trend continues, slows, or changes direction.

For five year charts showing Madison WI single family home sales, as well as average days on market (average DOM), please visit our New! Madison real estate statistics page.Later in the week we'll also have some updated MLS statistics for the Madison WI condo market.