OKC Real Estate Market

[OKCretro]

I just had my house appraised and it went up about 30% over the last one I had done, under 2 years ago.

I live in the nameless neighborhood south of 50th, west of Penn and east of May. Been a bunch of flips in this area and they have all sold in less than a month. Walking my dogs through the area, I can see what look like several more flips: dumpsters on the driveway and near full gut jobs.

Seems to be a real sweet spot in the price range between $200 and $350 or so. Nice, well-located properties in that range seem to be snapped up very quickly, even before we hit the spring and summer.

have you ever looked at google/maps? they have all the neighborhood names. Btw Penn and May and south of NW expressway and north of 44, there are 4 different neighborhoods, Belle Isle View, Suggs Park, Mayfair Heights, Community 200.

[T. Jamison]

The City of OKC's open data portal has google earth files of all platted subdivisions in Oklahoma City with names.

As a real estate professional, it has come in handy a few times. But probably overkill for most.

https://data.okc.gov/portal/page/vie...aries&view=map

[Pete]

have you ever looked at google/maps? they have all the neighborhood names. Btw Penn and May and south of NW expressway and north of 44, there are 4 different neighborhoods, Belle Isle View, Suggs Park, Mayfair Heights, Community 200.

Yes, there is really no cohesive name though. Just a jumble of different names no one ever uses.

My house is actually in a subdivision (according to the official plat) called McKown. One street over it is Robert Penwood; one more street over is Ortners Fairfield.

[BoulderSooner]

The City of OKC's open data portal has google earth files of all platted subdivisions in Oklahoma City with names.

As a real estate professional, it has come in handy a few times. But probably overkill for most.

https://data.okc.gov/portal/page/vie...aries&view=map

thank you for posting this

[T. Jamison]

thank you for posting this

Anytime.

[DenverPoke]

They're about to get even lower- I had a client lock at 2.7% yesterday on a 30 year which is insane. It's a pretty good time to be both a seller and a buyer.

Wow that is insane! Can you send me a DM, I may be looking at a move to OKC later this year and need a realtor.

Thanks!

[OKCRealtor]

Wow that is insane! Can you send me a DM, I may be looking at a move to OKC later this year and need a realtor.

Thanks!

You bet, sent.

[Bits_Of_Real_Panther]

Any "boots on the ground" updates ?

One the one hand, we have very low interest rates.

On the other hand, there is a lot of economic uncertainty and its difficult to obtain financing without a job...

[Richard at Remax]

Stuff is still moving. Slowly. numbers no where near what March usually produces. Between jobs, economic uncertainty, and the virus not a ton of buyers out there. Sellers are wary of letting folks in their homes. Some are even temp taking homes off market for a few weeks.

I put on a listing in the Shepherd district last Wednesday. Following it for the past few months most homes go extremely quickly. It's been a ghost town so far. Pretty disappointed but it is what it is right now.

As for rates, I haven't seen it affect much. It's so backlogged from people refinancing already that I have even talked to lenders saying they post false, higher rates to deter folks right now. They are just overloaded.

Long story short if you are a buyer with funds there are a ton of deals to be had.

[OKC Guy]

Stuff is still moving. Slowly. numbers no where near what March usually produces. Between jobs, economic uncertainty, and the virus not a ton of buyers out there. Sellers are wary of letting folks in their homes. Some are even temp taking homes off market for a few weeks.

I put on a listing in the Shepherd district last Wednesday. Following it for the past few months most homes go extremely quickly. It's been a ghost town so far. Pretty disappointed but it is what it is right now.

As for rates, I haven't seen it affect much. It's so backlogged from people refinancing already that I have even talked to lenders saying they post false, higher rates to deter folks right now. They are just overloaded.

Long story short if you are a buyer with funds there are a ton of deals to be had.

Side note on max refi going on it will put real extra dollars in pockets.

[OKCRealtor]

Any "boots on the ground" updates ?

One the one hand, we have very low interest rates.

On the other hand, there is a lot of economic uncertainty and its difficult to obtain financing without a job...

I would echo what Richard said, things are still moving and its a good time to both buy and sell for different reasons dependent upon circumstances. Rates are great and there is generally more demand than supply on the buying side but inventory is a challenge.

None of my current deals have been affected so far and March as a whole has been very busy for me until this week really. I've noticed a little drop in activity but still picked up a couple active new clients. We'll see what happens as we get further into this but overall I would say things are still moving just a little slower.

[Bits_Of_Real_Panther]

Any more updates or color on what you are seeing in the day-to-day?

I'm looking on zillow and seeing a fair number of price decreases on listed property.

But its harder for me to see how sales are being impacted. Or are we having a surge of new listings by people affected with unemployment, etc.?

[emtefury]

Sales are hot at certain price points. There aren’t many selling in waiting out the virus. I sold my house in a few days (got an offer and under contract) recently. My house was under $250,000.

[OKCRealtor]

Any more updates or color on what you are seeing in the day-to-day?

I'm looking on zillow and seeing a fair number of price decreases on listed property.

But its harder for me to see how sales are being impacted. Or are we having a surge of new listings by people affected with unemployment, etc.?

It really depends on the price point and a number of other factors of course but generally speaking things are still moving well. Inventory is still a little low in general but activity picked up a good bit last week. Demand is strong on the buyer side still with interest rates hovering at historic lows. In all honesty March and April have been better for me this year than last- which I was not expecting. I'm generally hearing realtors say they are staying busy and despite a little pullback over things still moving.

[ChrisHayes]

I bought my house by OCCC for 91,500 in 2018 and it was appraised at 93,500. I'm refinancing into a lower interest rate and it got appraised at 98,000. 4,500 dollar/5% gain in just over a year and a half in this part of town isn't bad.

[Plutonic Panda]

^^^ Nice!

[EBAH]

I bought in a very very good spot back in 2007 and have seen a lot of value added since then. I kind of have an interest rate in mind and if I see it in all of this incentivizing the market, I will totally buy another house in the inner city and kind of rejigger my entire financial structure and living situation. If I can just like maintain my general level of income and credit this could be a decent opportunity. I know that's a little morbid, but times of flux like this can have some pretty interesting outcomes.

[OKCRealtor]

I bought in a very very good spot back in 2007 and have seen a lot of value added since then. I kind of have an interest rate in mind and if I see it in all of this incentivizing the market, I will totally buy another house in the inner city and kind of rejigger my entire financial structure and living situation. If I can just like maintain my general level of income and credit this could be a decent opportunity. I know that's a little morbid, but times of flux like this can have some pretty interesting outcomes.

I don't think we're going to see rates drop much if any more. They've been up a little the last few weeks- we are waiting to pull the trigger on a refi ourselves. I think they'll stay low for some time as it's hard to imagine the fed raising the benchmark rate but doubt we will see much more downward movement from here.

[Teo9969]

I don't think we're going to see rates drop much if any more. They've been up a little the last few weeks- we are waiting to pull the trigger on a refi ourselves. I think they'll stay low for some time as it's hard to imagine the fed raising the benchmark rate but doubt we will see much more downward movement from here.

Some were predicting lower rates in Q3 or Q4.

You can only do so many refinances and I don't think home purchases are going to pick up at all through the end of the year, because nobody knows if we're going to get smacked with another shut down.

I don't think we're going to drop a whole percent or anything, but I'm thinking it will get back down around where it was right before COVID sent rates flying, give our take an 1/8 of a percent.

[Executionist]

Depends. My recently retired neighbor decided to sell his place FSBO on Zillow March 1. Figured if he didn't get any traffic he'd engage a realtor, as he wasn't in a hurry.

Hired the same folks who take the pictures for realtors, did his own comps, priced it realistically, put it on Zillow on a Friday. Had a contract Monday. Cash, close in 45 days. All inspections completed and closed a week ago.

He was actually advised to try this by his financial advisor, who sold his $450k place in Rose Creek FSBO on Zillow/Trulia in two weeks. Wasn't in a hurry, either and had to scramble and rent the place back for a month.

This is the biggest threat to the real estate "industry" which still sells in a 1950's commission-based model with increasingly less value-add in an era of virtual technology, combined with people who have the time, information, and skills to sell themselves.

Price it right and you'll sell quickly. Too many people are too in love with their homes and place some monetary value on their emotional attachment. Bad strategy.

[Richard at Remax]

Problem with some of my peers is that they put their head in the sand when it comes to stuff like this. Mainly all the old school agents. Our MLS gives away way too much information to the Zillows of the world, and then they wonder why more and more people decide to venture out and do it themselves.

I am all for people selling FSBO if they can do it. The biggest concerns I've heard from FSBO is ability to show, safety, and getting price right. I've let a few clients try it first, and both ended up using me cause of these factors.

For ability to show, some underestimate how many times a day you have to show your property. If you work this can be very tough, so your time frame to show could be small, which in turn leads to not being able to accommodate buyers schedules, which leads to sitting on the market.

For safety, you have no idea who is coming to your house. With agents, we have to vet the buyers, so we don't try and waste the sellers time. You want to make sure you have a legit person walking through your home. The digital lockboxes are an added layer of security as well, as only realtors have access to them.

Price is def key, as you mentioned it twice. The biggest mistake FSBO makes is they look at zillow or whatever and get a good idea what it would sell for. Then they ADD the potential realtors commission on to that price to "recapture it". Problem is those prices you see already have that built in. So if you don't have representation on your side, you need to take money off your listing price.

The adams family real estate of the worlds (entry only listings) do a lot of business. However, they also lead in expireds and released listings. The biggest complaint I hear is that they do not adequately explain that A) you have to pay the buyers agent their cut posted on the MLS and B) that they do not owe any duty to you. YOu are on your own. I did a cross sale with an entry only recently and asked me for help with the paperwork. They have a signed listing agreement with the entry only brokerage, and I cannot "cross signs" so therefore I cannot help them.

in 2018, 7% of sales were FSBO, only 4% of that we using services like entry only according the the National Asso of Reatlors in 2018. https://www.nar.realtor/research-and...ate-statistics So still a small, yet growing, market share.

The classic Realtor model isn't for everyone, but it's not going away any time soon. However, we (more the older agents) need to adapt better or we are going to wonder what happened. Taxis and the blockbusters of the world thought they were invincible, now look at them.

I give it up to Remax though, they have spent a TON of money acquiring technology companies that have really separated us from other companies. I'm using First right now and its ridiculous what it can do: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...300977132.html . The booj platform is impressive too https://news.remax.com/the-booj-plat...ology-solution

[LocoAko]

So I nerded out over the weekend and, owing to our current process of house shopping and trying to predict the trajectory of the neighborhood we buy into, I decided to analyze the counter assessor data for home sales within the core since 2010. I was specifically interested in "flips"/renovations/remodeling/etc. (pick your terminology of choice) as a proxy for surging interest and newfound investment in a neighborhood (albeit imperfect).

To examine this, I downloaded the last ten years of sales data from central OKC, matched addresses, and conservatively identified "flips"/renovations/remodelings as homes/apartment buildings (sans condos) that sold again within 3 years at >=50% of their previous sale value as that seemed to be sufficiently beyond the background appreciation rate. The below animation shows the evolution of the pattern of these sales, with the dots scaled by the absolute increase in dollar amount associated with the sales (rather than a ratio, so that a 50K-->100K transition isn't weighted the same as a 200K-400K one). I think the result is plenty of fun to stare at.

While there aren't any massive surprises, a number of things are apparent from the animation. There is a bit of spin-up at play for the first few years given the 3-year window used. Things start to take off in the 2013-2014 timeframe, with booming beginning in the Paseo/Jefferson Park area, Shepherd Historic District, and Gatewood, with more minor attention in Crestwood and Las Vegas. By 2015 into 2016, there is explosive development happening, particularly in Mesta Park and Gatewood, and the nascent "SoSA" district west of Midtown begins to take off. Development also continues in Las Vegas and begins to blossom in the eastern portions of Military Park (closest to Classen Ave) and north of Putnam Heights.

From 2017 onward, the axis of massive investment (e.g., >$400,000 increases in sale price) is clearly delineated along the 16th Street corridor from about Penn Ave, eastward through the Plaza District, and extending continuously into Mesta Park, with an epicenter in the eastern half of Gatewood and with development rapidly expanding southward into Classen Ten-Penn. A second corridor of slightly less-big turnarounds is clear from eastern Military Park eastward into Central Park and extending north along the west side of Classen and McKinley Ave, with small but plentiful renovations in Cleveland UCD and Crestwood. While 2020 (shown in yellow) is obviously incomplete and slower than expected due to the coronavirus pandemic, the continued focus in Classen Ten-Penn/Gatewood and the Paseo/Jefferson Park is clear. Some clustering along particular streets is visible here: Virginia and Indiana Avenues in Gatewood, McKinley Ave and Classen Ave north of NW 30th Street, between Walker and Dewey Avenues in the Paseo/Jefferson Park, and Barnes Avenue in the Shepherd Historic District.

Obviously there are many caveats with this analysis, and the use of "flips" as a proxy for desirability is imperfect -- the process of flipping homes requires housing stock to be in disrepair in the first place. There are noticeable gaps on this map in some of OKC's most upscale and desirable neighborhoods (Heritage Hills, Crown Heights, Edgemere Park, and Putnam Heights) since presumably the housing stock has remained in good shape and/or the Historic Preservation designation of these neighborhoods may prevent the types of large-scale renovations surging in other inner city neighborhoods. I could also be reading into this too much, but beyond the obvious factors like walkability, proximity to downtown, etc., the number of renovations seems to also be correlated with age of the housing stock, with neighborhoods with older housing stock (from 1900-1920 or so) in the neighborhoods along Classen, following the former streetcar corridor, receiving "bigger" (not necessarily less) attention than well-established but slightly younger neighborhoods like Crestwood (1920-1940).

I'd be curious to know how this analysis agree or disagrees with people's anecdotal experiences with real estate in the core over the past decade. I had a lot of fun (in a nerdy way) doing this analysis and figured people here may be interested.

[Pete]

^

Holy cow, that's a lot of work and interesting info.

Wanted to quickly point out that in my neighborhood (which unfortunately does not have a cohesive, recognizable name but is bounded on the south by 39th, north by NW Expressway, west by May and east by Penn) has had a bunch of expensive flips in just the last 1 or 2 years.

Most are 60's ranch houses and the renovated homes are generally going for about $150-$170/SF. As a consequence, my renovated home was just appraised at $155/SF, up from $120/SF just a couple of years ago.

And these flips have been generally going under contract within a couple of weeks of hitting the market.

A big part of that is most these homes are around 2,000 SF which means you can buy a gorgeous home with a converted open floor plan (as opposed to older homes with small rooms and a big staircase right in the middle) for around $250-$350K and while not in the core, you are darn close.

I'm thrilled with my decision to buy here, not only due to appreciation (which I anticipated) but because it's just a great location and I have a house with a modern floorplan and virtually everything is new. Also have a ton of mature trees.

The same thing has been happening in The Village and Lakeview and Rollingwood. Not as centrally located but the houses lend themselves to the same treatment and you are still far closer in than the tract homes in outlying areas.

[LocoAko]

^

Holy cow, that's a lot of work and interesting info.

Wanted to quickly point out that in my neighborhood (which unfortunately does not have a cohesive, recognizable name but is bounded on the south by 39th, north by NW Expressway, west by May and east by Penn) has had a bunch of expensive flips in just the last 1 or 2 years.

Most are 60's ranch houses and the renovated homes are generally going for about $150-$170/SF. As a consequence, my renovated home was just appraised at $155/SF, up from $120/SF just a couple of years ago.

And these flips have been generally going under contract within a couple of weeks of hitting the market.

A big part of that is most these homes are around 2,000 SF which means you can buy a gorgeous home with a converted open floor plan (as opposed to older homes with small rooms and a big staircase right in the middle) for around $250-$350K and while not in the core, you are darn close.

I'm thrilled with my decision to buy here, not only due to appreciation (which I anticipated) but because it's just a great location and I have a house with a modern floorplan and virtually everything is new. Also have a ton of mature trees.

The same thing has been happening in The Village and Lakeview and Rollingwood. Not as centrally located but the houses lend themselves to the same treatment and you are still far closer in than the tract homes in outlying areas.

I've noticed that in the listings too (we are house shopping as I mentioned in another thread, which is what spurred this whole thing in the first place). We are currently just a bit west of you in Coronado with a home that was renovated relatively recently, so hopefully it moves quickly. We really wanted to be closer to the core to help shorten my commute to Norman and have put in an offer on a house in the Military Park vicinity, so the results of this analysis were encouraging to me since the area is still somewhat, for lack of a better word, transitional. I should also note that I focused only on the core but by happenstance grabbed some data from outside the core, so the relative lack of points there shouldn't be taken as representative or accurate.

I'm also curious about looking at just number of sales per neighborhood (regardless of flipping), median sale price over time, etc. and have the data to do it if I find the time. Not sure what people would find useful or interesting. But the trends that popped out here for flips were plenty interesting. I knew they were popular, but I didn't realize just how much of an epicenter eastern Gatewood/western Mesta Park/eastern Classen Ten-Penn were in this regard. Seeing the individual streets highlighted was cool, too.

[AP]

It looks like the animation you posted is no longer working. Can you post again?