We Fergus Falls Noon Rotarian's assembled for our weekly meeting on a miserably cold Wed. Dave J was at the desk pleading for the correct currency and Scot S welcomed everyone. Your scribe provided the invocation introducing the notion that we are each concerned about the welfare of others and challenging us to demonstrate that we in fact are so concerned.
Bob R introduced Jacob Hexum, a civil engineer employed by the engineering firm Black and Veatch. He has been an acquaintance of Bob’s for some time and has recently returned with his family to the area. Hal L introduced student guest Isaiah Fronning, a sophomore at M-State. He is the son of Dennis and Melissa of rural Battle Lake and one of 14 siblings. Isaiah is studying equine science and plans to continue his education at the U of M Crookston following graduation from M-State.
Hal L led us in “Sing a Song to Rotary”, “Little Liza Jane” and “Smile”. The Feb Rotarian was the source of Rotary Minute questions. We learned some nasty things about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, that the best way to judge correctness of news is with a gut check and that Rotary has an alliance with Toastmasters to provide leadership training.
Brags and Fines: Steve L presented Greg D’s scooter buck, Randy K was in St. Paul doing a little lobbying and had a cold ride home after vandals broke some of his car windows, Tim H fined himself for not wearing his badge and Pete W remember a friend and fellow employee who had recently passed away.
Program: Mary P introduced her business associate Tom Verhelst, Principal Broker at Keller Williams Realty. He has been in the business for 44 years, acquiring his license at 19, and has completed over 2000 transaction making him the number one producing agent in the Lake Region Association of Realtors. He has also earned several professional designations and a host of awards.
Tom began his presentation with comments about residential property with a Fergus Falls address and referencing sheets of statistics he distributed covering market activity from 2013 through 2019. The number of annual transactions was fairly consistent ranging from 268 to 312, with a slight upward trend in both number of sales and property values. The rest of the county was similar in property values and sales increasing a bit faster, ranging from 383 to 515. Waterfront homes varied from 208 to 301 with transactions above $400,000. increasing from 27 to 99 over the seven year period.
The current inventory of single family homes for sale in Fergus is low at 35; usually there are over 50 on the market. He sighted several contributing factors: low interest rates have encouraged purchases, there are fewer spec homes being built meaning less property to move up to, a shortage of building sites and housing costs. The demand is good and with inventory low it is a sellers market.
Property values are high and new home prices are above the range of many prospective buyers. Tom indicated the price of a new high quality 1500 sq ft 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home is about $325,000 and a 1500 sq ft 2 bedroom 2 bathroom home on a slab is about $250,000. Efforts to reduce cost were mentioned, Land Trusts offering long term lot leases can soften the cost of a lot by $60,000. The efforts of Habitat for Humanity were also discussed. There are a number of government programs aimed at making home ownership possible for more people but the consensus is that it is a growing challenge in search of a cure.
In response to a question about upgrading older homes, Tom’s sense was that there might be some cost advantages but they are still older homes in older neighborhoods and buyers are not attracted to them. There was also some discussion on regulations applying to realtors. Lois J-R complemented Tom on his ability to work with first time home buyers.
Thanks Mary for bring an excellent informative program. Tom left us with this thought, claimed it was from the last realtors convention he attended. “If a couple purchase a home, ten years later they will likely have accumulated around $250,000 equity in the home; had they rented for ten years, no equity would have been acquired. “
