housing prices in Cedar Rapids & corridor (Iowa City, Coralville: mortgage, environment)

[sjmrun1]

Hi there. We are making an offer on a house just off 380 at the Swisher/Shueyville exit. My husband will be working in CR but we really wanted to be relatively close to IA City/Coralville too. We found a house we like, but don't love, and it seems very pricey so we made a pretty low offer and have been countering back and forth. It sounds like we are not going to get it and are going to keep looking. We really like the College Comm. School District and don't want to go as south as North Liberty.

For those of you who live in the area, what do you think the housing market is like? We are having a hard time selling our house out of state, and I know nationwide things are poor. We are looking anywhere from 275-450k range and would like a large lot, so we are even considering building. Maybe we are wrong to not take the house we are offering on (give them a higher price) but it seems like the market is down so they should be more eager to sell (they've already moved too).

[TVJon]

My first thought - the housing market in the corridor is not as far "down" as the national news would suggest. In fact, demand for housing in certain price ranges is probably up, because of the flood damage to Iowa City, Coralville and Cedar Rapids. Lots and lots of people have been displaced. The good news for you - most of the ruined houses are far less expensive than what you're talking about.

For the kind of money you're talking about, you should be able to get something very nice. If you can't find what you want, build. I will say that North Liberty has been growing very, very quickly. Lots of people from CR and IC are filling the space between the two towns because they want a semi-rural environment. And yes, College Community schools are very good. I like their idea of a central campus for the schools... you can see it just off Interstate 380 on the south side of Cedar Rapids.

[JustAnotherIowan]

I have to agree with TVJon about market conditions in the area. They aren't great but certainly not the worst of the worst. I think North Liberty is very over-built...Coralville too. I don't like new developments, though, so I can't speak for you. I don't live in the area anymore but many friends and family members do (including a few friends that live in Swisher). I can't tell you whether or not to pay more than you want to and just buy the current house in question because obviously that's a personal call. Swisher/Shueyville is a fairly desirable place in the corridor and the people I know that live there enjoy it....but you can obviously only do what you're comfortable with...especially if you might be carrying 2 mortgages to start with.

Also, I'm wondering if you checked out the Ely area at all??? If not, you might want to go to www.rmaxhomes.com and select Ely and check out some properties there. It's still in the College Community school district.

Regardless of what you decide to do, I hope you and your family are very happy wherever you end up living. Good luck!

[JustAnotherIowan]

Let me add that a couple of friends/family members live in the Sunset Court/Prairie View Dr development off of 380 (don't know if that's where the house in question is, but I know there are 3 or 4 houses for sale in your price range in that area) and they've mentioned before that there is quite a bit of air traffic in the area because it's so close to the airport. The entire Swisher/Shueyville area has a fair amount of air traffic so that might be something else to consider when purchasing a house in that particular area. If you're looking in the developments off of Highway 965 (like the Shady Court/Turkey Ridge area then I'm not sure what the air traffic is like there or if it's in a flight path at all or not.)