By Jan Landon
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

All real estate is local.

When national reports come out about slumps in the housing market, they typically don’t apply to Kansas City. Even if houses aren’t selling well on the coasts or in larger metropolitan areas, sales may still be brisk here.

One local Realtor described the Kansas City market as experiencing speed bumps and potholes compared with peaks and valleys in other places.

“The good news about Kansas and Missouri is we have never seen the types of dips they see on the West and East coasts,” says Kathy Copeland, president of the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors (KCRAR) and broker owner of Kansas City Prudential Realty.

Houses are selling
“Every market is unique,” says real estate columnist Lew Sichelman, in a November article for the Los Angeles Times. “Like every living cell, each place has its own DNA.”

The trend Sichelman sees in the nation’s interior is that housing is doing well.  Kansas City, he says, is one of the markets where average home prices have increased.  Statistics reveal that the average sales price of a home in Johnson County was higher for the year through the end of October 2007 than it was through the end of October 2006.

“We’re not stagnant, and we’re still selling homes,” Copeland says. “We have been very insulated from the rest of the world.”

According to the KCRAR, more than 2,550 homes sold in the Kansas City metropolitan area in October 2007.

Success stories
Two couples who recently moved to Tallgrass Creek are house-selling success stories.

Jim and Elizabeth Belwood sold their house in just 11 days. They owned a ranch-style, Overland Park home with two bedrooms and a large basement.

The key to the quick sale? It was nothing too complicated, says Elizabeth  Belwood.