238 sales were reported for the month of September 2009 in the South Bend Area MLS, for a total sales volume of $24.97 million.

Prices

The high price sale was $420,000 for 51385 Amesbury Way in Granger’s Covington Shores neighborhood. The owner had been trying to sell since 6/2007 and started with an asking price of $549,000. The home was listed for $450,000 at the time of sale.

The low price sale was $4,000 for 919 Sherman in South Bend, a 4 bedroom, 2 bath 1,632 square foot house. The bank selling it started at $10,500 in 11/2008 and it was listed at $6,500 at the time of sale.

All reported sales prices are represented on the scatter graph below

If you break sales prices down to the $ per square foot level, the sales topped out at $149.09 per square foot, for the above mentioned sale at 51385 Amesbury. The low priced sale works out to be $2.45 per square foot. This is not encouraging news for the 129 homes listed for sale at $150 per square foot or higher.

Financing

FHA loans continue to become more common. In September they accounted for 40% of all sales. If you only consider the 71 sales between $50k and $100k, the FHA financed percentage rises to 75% or 3 out of every 4 sales.

Condos and Townhomes

The condo market continues to be slow. There are two reported sales for the month of September.

11 Responses

  1. “a market for buyers who planned on using their ND homes a few times a year no longer exists with much if any depth”

    – Wow, I am surprised at the absence of sales in the ND market. No resales in Oak Hill, Dublin Village, Jamison Residences, etc. too. Both the North Shore Club Sale and Stonebridge Villas don’t appear to be ND related at all. The real estate depression continues in the South Bend area.

    – Any word on the non-mls sales of ND related real estate? Such as Eddy Street Commons, Ivy Quad (which reportedly isn’t on the mls and won’t self-report sales prices).

    By the way, these monthly reports are very very helpful. MUCH THANKS!!!

    1. Ivy Quad has listed one condo in the South Bend Area MLS: details / photos. No word on the prices of any units they’ve sold.

      Eddy Commons is building their “Champions Way city homes” which start at $370k, but has not started on the “Legends Row” condos that were to wrap the parking garage and start in the low $200,000s for an 800 sq ft space. The rental apartments, “The Foundry” are reportedly renting well despite top of the market prices and a 25+ age requirement for tenants.

  2. Interesting that Eddy Street Commons would go forward with MORE townhomes…or as they are calling them “city homes”. Just what the area needs 62 more high end, expensive townhomes. Isn’t Dublin Village, Keenan Court, Stadium Village, Ivy Quad, Irish Crossings, Wexford Place, etc. enough already? I would guess Ivy Quad will be hurt the most by Champions Way since the majority of the Ivy Quad product is price much higher starting at $395K.

    Maybe later Ivy Quad nixes the current design and competes with all flats making the buildings 3 stories instead of 4. Especially with Triumph Court Townhomes at Eddy Street Commons. If I were Ivy Quad I’d go all flats at lower price points and price under $250K for a nice place to get the sales velocity and sell it out…or they will be looking at a ten year build out schedule from start to finish. Not all the townhomes need to be 4 bedroom with 4.5 baths…. Right now there is very little in the sub $250K that is nice with great location. Just a thought. It really depends on what is selling in Ivy Quad.

    I also wonder if the Legends Row should just be made as more apartments?

  3. Just curious about Ivy Quad since the developer has been so tight lipped. Just saw their updated website and it stated special pre-construction pricing offers for phase one, although no price given…again hadn’t disclosed the previous sales prices either so suspect.

    It says in phase one that there are 9 Clares, 7 Ardeens, and 2 Laraghs (composed of 2 Ardeens essentially) available in phase one. Apparently from the site plan that would make 24 units in phase one. 2 units are models leaving leaving 22 units for sale of which a total of 12 are Clares, 8 are Ardeens, and 2 are Laraghs. Doing the math, that means 3 Clares have sold/reserved and 1 Ardeen has sold/reserved (3:1 ratio albeit small sample). That means, as previously predicted, that the smaller Clare flats are the floorplans that are selling….the least expensive. It makes sense in this real estate market since they would be the cheapest purchase for student use or just football season use. All the other options, absent Jamison Residences or Oak Hill cost quite a bit more.

    If to date only 4 units have been committed too, then Ivy Quad has a very very long ways to go to be built out. I personally think they are building the buildings in the wrong order….logistically they may be forced to complete the middle units first (or at least the foundations) for drainage and major excavating purposes, but the next phase should be along Twyckenham, not Burdette. Just my 2¢ for what it is worth. I also encourage full sales disclosures too.

  4. Irish Eyes…. Here is a question. Is the ND second home fad dead? Any word on closing rates in Eddy Street Commons? The ND second home fad was a more recent phenomenon in the SB area. From what I can tell, professors and upper staff still buy in Granger, not next to ND. Almost no South Bend residents live in these new developments. The only market I can tell is for the very rich to own a “second” home for their casual use or if they have a kid at ND/SMC. Or the non-very rich buy a lessor priced one for their kids to use while students. I am floored at how poorly Oak Hill has been reselling….yes, they are overpriced but you’d think there would be a few negotiated price closings.

    I looked up online some info recently regarding several developments and although the govt info is not in real time it is fairly up to date. Stadium Village Townhomes showed the developer LLC still owned 2 of the 6 units in the first building (south building) and the developer with a second party owns another one. Hence, at most, it would appear that 3 of the 6 sold to outside parties. Don’t have any info on the north building yet. I am just trying to get a better understanding of this ND second home market.

    Overall, South Bend and Mishawaka are on a decade (or multi-decade) economic decline. Sorta like a mini-Detroit. Before people go all crazy hating on that comment, what is the growth areas of SB/Mish? Seriously, even ND won’d be growing in a decade or so as location based learning wanes. When the paradigm shift hits higher education what will be left for the area?

  5. You need to look at the big picture and not just South Bend. The USA is in a state of standard of living decline that began in 2000/2001 and was masked by the availability of credit. This can and will turn around eventually for a number of reasons. One key will be for Americans to finally understand the correlation between desired high wages and the price of goods/services. You cannot demand high wages and then only buy the cheapest products because USA goods/services are not the cheapest.

    How many towns can you name with a top 25 university, REITS investing in the community with new developments, two hospitals, over 8 colleges, many banks and a new nanotechnology park underway? The expectation is that the nano park will have the same impact on South Bend that it had on Albany, NY : http://cnse.albany.edu/. With the possiblity of high speed rail stopping in South Bend between Cleveland and Chicago, this would also be a benefit. I am bullish on the futre of South Bend because of the affordable cost of living and lower operating costs for business in Indiana.

  6. Outside the box – You forgot one word…. WINTER. Not very many people want to endure the long gray skies of a South Bend winter. South Bend has to compete with places that have far more positives and less crime. Within the South Bend city limits crime is high, vast wastelands of properties in ruin, downtown is dead (Eddy Street Commons is the final nail), the College Football Hall of Fame and the list goes on of negatives (yes, including the CFHF in the list of negatives was a joke). On balance, SB can’t compete and will be a mini-Detroit. It is what it is. And this is from someone who loves the midwest and northern Indiana…but I am a realist.

  7. SB Res: It is attitudes like yours that are UNrealistic. I have lived in a number of metro areas, and they ALL are having the exact same problems we are having here. Mini-Detroit? Really?!?! I lived in metro Detroit. We aren’t even CLOSE!! People here are way too negative about what the area has to offer. I’m guessing you are a “lifer” who has not had to experience the economic up and down turns and crime that the rest of the country has had to endure. (at some point in their history) The truth is, we are now experiencing what has been going on in the US for the last few decades. It has just caught up to us. In reality, we are not ranked too highly on the FBI’s crime statistic list. There are many communities about the same size as SB or smaller that ranked much higher than us for crime. Some of them (Kalamazoo, for example: ranked 58th) really surprised me. Others did not. Yes, winter here can be brutal. It can be the same in most of the US. Are things here perfect? NO! Are they anywhere? NO!!! (Incidentally, I moved here from the Nashville area. I never felt unsafe, though the news was filled with reports of crime. Their crime ranking according to the FBI? 9th in the nation. Ours? 101st.) Things could be MUCH worse than they are here. People around here need to quit complaining about things and realize that this IS a good area to live in. I lived in one of the higher ranking school systems in Florida at one time. They were not as good as South Bend schools. (Florida’s schools are an absolute JOKE.) Indiana has high standards for education. Trust me. I know. My job took me to 6 different states before I landed a new, local job here. Kids that don’t pass the ISTEP+ could EASILY pass the standardized test in other states. Tennessee has an average 92% passing rate. Are their schools that much better? NO! They DUMBED DOWN the test to make sure all students could pass. I’d rather be here where my kids are going to have a lot more expected of them. The economic downturn is affecting the entire country. Crime is going up EVERYWHERE as a result. Quit being so hard on our area. If you don’t like what you see, then try to do something about it. If you don’t, then quit complaining.

  8. K – Wow, talk about judgmental, perhaps you need to get out of SB and get some sun or something (it isn’t even winter yet). Seriously, I generally run into nice people in SB but you’re a bit hyper. I have lived in 9 states and have a second home in a nice warm place to survive the winters. Indiana schools, especially, South Bend are simply NOT good, period. I would never send my kids to a SB public school, no way. Out of a scale of 1-10 I would rank SB about a 5… If SB was so attractive then why isn’t population going up, up, up like some other communities? Eventually people vote with their feet and they go to Granger of which SB would be a complete dump. Go drive on the west side and get a clue.

  9. SB Res: A couple quick things. You forgot one word about Florida: Summer. Few find the high temps, humidity and huge bugs enjoyable. When people speak of South Bend, the term typically includes South Bend, Mishawaka and Granger. Downtown South Bend suffers from people moving further from work like the remainder of the country. It is a cycle though and people will eventually start to move back into the city centers again. Higher fuel prices and higher water rates for outdoor irrigation would help to expedite this process.

  10. Outside the Box – Well, this “cycle” of leaving downtown has been going on for three decades. Fuel prices are simply not a factor driving from Mish or Grange into SB, it is close enough unlike places likfe Chicago and LA compared to the burbs. Florida is great and the summers are fantastic if especially if you live on the beach. I stand by my analysis that SB is a mini-Detroit and will continue to decline for decades. It is what it is, but you get some pretty leaves in the fall.

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