Iowa City Real Estate Blog: Coralville and North Liberty IA Real Estate Market Update

Coralville and North Liberty IA Real Estate Market

In Part One I looked at Home Sales for July in Iowa City and mentioned that for a true picture of how the housing market in the Iowa City area is doing we need to look at the Coralville and North Liberty Real Estate Market too.

Coralville forms a contiguous area with its neighbor Iowa City. It's just a couple of miles west of the UI Campus and even closer to the UI Hospitals and Dental Schools.

This will tell you how close we are as neighbors - the Wig and Pen Pub on the Coralville Strip has an Iowa City address, while their neighbor The Vine has a Coralville address...Cool fact, but not exactly need to know...

Anyway, I digress, let's get back to the housing market statistics for Coralville: There were 58 homes sold in Coralville in July 2009 compared to 67 in July 2008. The median price has risen to $171,500 from $157,000 last year.

I've lived in Coralville for the last ten years and love the fact that it's so close to downtown Iowa City and has a straight shot to North Liberty too. What it doesn't have right now is as many options for the first time homebuyer who is actually driving the housing market, so it's no surprise that the numbers are down a bit.

North Liberty on the other hand just grows and grows...Its great location between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids is part of the reason why, plus prices are a little more affordable than Iowa City or Coralville.

Sticker shock is not unusual for people relocating to the Iowa City area. North Liberty is close enough to be an excellent alternative when it comes to a more affordable alternative.

So now to the stats: There were 139 homes sold in the North Liberty area in July 2009 in comparison to 95 homes sold last year. The median price is down slightly from $147,900 to $144,900.

As you can see, North Liberty is flavor of the month with a whopping 46% increase in home sales since last year.

North Liberty offers lots of options for New Construction Homes and is particularly popular with the younger first time buyer looking for affordable town house style condos.

This is probably a good time to point out that if you're relocating to Iowa City and you're okay with a short commute, then you should definitely take a closer look at homes in North Liberty.

That completes my Coralville and North Liberty Real Estate Market Update for the month of July. Together with the Iowa City Real Estate Market Update you're on your way to getting a true picture of what's going on around here in my neck of the woods.

I intend to post monthly market updates for home sales in Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty Iowa. Check back next month to see how we're doing!