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The real estate market is heating up here in Kansas City, and a recent report by Zillow shows that the home value in the Kansas City metropolitan area reached $144,000 at the end of the first quarter of 2014—with predictions continuing to raise that number. Some areas of the Kansas City metro are projected to grow even higher in value than pre-recession prices, such as home values in Overland Park, Olathe, and Shawnee, which are already at or expected to reach pre-recession levels by early 2015.

Interested in moving to Kansas City? Now is the time. Despite initial 2014 growth, the market is expected to grow slower than the national average over the next 12 months. Home values nationally are projected to increase 3.3 percent over the next year, based on Zillow’s survey of more than 300 metropolitan areas. In the Kansas City area, Zillow said home values remained 7.3 percent below their November 2004 peaks.

A new high end apartment complex called Mission 106 is currently under construction in Kansas City, with an ultimate plan of 132 apartments and seven townhomes located at the complex’s site at 106^th Street and Mission Road in Leawood. The Leawood apartment complex is within a mixed use project called Mission Farms. The 206,000 square-feet of buildings — including the four-story tall apartment buildings, the town homes, 6,000 square feet of speculative office space, a 16,000 square-foot podium deck and a 206 stall, four-story parking garage should be completed by in the summer of 2015, according to the developers.

Mission 106 was designed by Prairie Village firm NSPJ Architects. The goal of the Mission Hills complex is to provide a place where people can live, play, and work all within walking distance. The luxury apartment market in Kansas City is a significant one, and the area Class A occupancy above 95 percent, the luxury apartment market generated a flurry of local projects last year. According to a recent report from CBRE Group Inc.’s Kansas City office, those projects have filled the apartment construction pipeline with 6,926 units to be delivered by 2015.

According to a recent blog by The Huffington Post, Kansas City is ranked among the top 15 foodie towns in the US for retirees. Described as a place for those who love blues, arts, and barbecue, Kansas City is the place for you to retire if this means you! The city is growing and the food scene is definitely thriving, thanks to supper clubs, farm-to-table eateries, and saucy barbecue.

Housing values are extremely affordable, so if you are thinking of moving to Kansas City, plan on a home in the $124k price range. Property taxes are also very affordable, which is an important consideration for retirees on a fixed budget.

 A building data company, Emporis, has recently released a list of the 15 most spectacular buildings in the world. Kansas City’s own Kauffman Center was one of two United States structures to make the list, alongside the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Emporis manages a worldwide database on construction data and commercial real estate information about projects in thousands of cities worldwide. Spain was the only other country to have two halls mentioned.

Kauffman Center opened in September 2011, and it is located in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA, at 16th and Broadway, near the Power & Light District, the Sprint Center and the Crossroads Arts District. The 285,000-square-foot Kauffman Center, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, is home to three performing arts organizations: The Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. The Kansas City movers are always thrilled to see our city mentioned on global lists such as this one.

A new development is under discussion that will provide 12 stories of office space totaling 188,000 square feet. The 12-story building is being pursued by Block Real Estate Services for a 1.5-acre location where the firm had proposed a hotel project last year. The land is now occupied by a 1950s apartment complex and is immediately north of the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist. The project will be the first new office project pitched for the Country Club Plaza area since a controversial plan fell through three years ago.

The estimated cost for the Kansas City commercial real estate project is $78 million. The proposal is scheduled to be considered by the City Development Review Committee on March 19. Block Real Estate plans to seek a 25-year property tax abatement from the city to assist with the development because of the additional cost involved developing the site.

While the winter storms are inconvenient and seemingly endless, the effects of the storms run far beyond the need to shovel your driveway. The icicles hanging from Kansas City homes across the metro might be pretty to look at, but they can cause serious problems to your roof. Experts say one way these icicles form is if you have leaves in your gutters. If you have poor insulation or air leaks in the attic, it can warm the roof, melting the ice and pushing it to the edge of your roof, where it refreezes and forms an ice dam. From there, ice can get under the shingles and cause serious water damage.

What can you do to stop this from happening? Right now, it’s too late. But once the snow melts, you can get remove leaves from your gutter. And don’t forget the attic. You’ll want to seal any holes with silicone caulk and add extra insulation to prevent it from happening again. Protecting your Kansas City home from icicle damage is probably something you haven’t thought about, but it is an important step to preserving your real estate investment.

In Kansas City, the real estate market seems to be hot in all aspects of the market, especially in new construction. Single-family home building continued to accelerate in the region last year, resulting in the highest number of housing starts since 2007. Kansas City home builders pulled permits for 6,385 single-family homes in 2007, before the ensuing recession pushed permit volume off a cliff — to 3,232 in 2008 and 2,155 in 2009. Since falling to that mark, the lowest volume in recent history, the market has been gradually recovering. 4,087 single-family permits were issued throughout the eight-county metro area in 2013 — a 24 percent increase from the 3,299 permits issued in 2012, according to the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City.

Building a home and moving to Kansas City has been a popular trend for many Americans in recent years. Overland Park led the area with a total of with 1,562 total units permitted in 2013, including 422 single-family homes and 1,140 multifamily units. Kansas City followed with 1,502 residential units, including 675 single-family homes and 827 multifamily units. Next was Olathe, with 560 total units, including 528 single-family and 32 multifamily.

Renting is a popular choice for many residents in Kansas City, prompting the need for apartment construction to keep up with the constantly growing demand. Most of us know downtown Kansas City is a hot spot for apartment development, but would you believe 40 percent of the residences in Overland Park are now multifamily? The apartment, once considered the main option for young adults getting their first place or people who couldn’t afford a house, has increasingly become home to what’s called the renter by choice market. Many people who can afford to buy a home are choosing to rent instead, and the builders are keeping up with 2,900 units built in 2013, up 62 percent from the previous year. But that’s only the beginning—7,000 new units are predicted to be available over the next few years in Kansas City.

Many buyers, of course, still covet the traditional single-family house. The apartment boom is coming at the same time the local housing industry is coming off a robust year, with more than 4,000 permits issued for single-family homes and average sales prices up for new and existing homes. Renting an apartment in Kansas City is still appealing for large demographics of residents, from young professionals to empty nesters looking for smaller digs.

Good news for the Kansas City area, according to recent data from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. The metro Kansas City housing market started the year with a solid seller’s market for existing homes with average prices up 16 percent and the supply of existing homes down 10 percent from a year ago. The average sales price of an existing home last month was $156,833, up 16 percent from January 2013, according to the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. There were 9,114 existing homes listed on the market, down 10 percent from the previous year.

As the real estate market strengthens in Kansas City, the current state of the local industry is a seller’s market as supply continues to dwindle. Looking forward, there were 1,504 pending contracts for existing homes in January, down 4 percent from a year ago. There were 192 pending contracts for new homes, 12 percent less than January 2013.

In Kansas City, home prices rose again in December, bringing the average sales price for new and existing homes during the month was $190,179 — 7 percent higher than in December 2012. In November, the average price of new and existing homes was $187,830. The average existing home sale price in December was $172,976, while the average new home price was $357,330.

A total of 2,064 new and existing homes were sold in December in the nine-county region. That’s 1 percent higher than the 2,041 homes sold in December 2012. The 1,858 existing home sales this December was 2 percent higher than the 1,822 sold in December 2012. New homes sales were six percent lower in December, falling to 206 from 219 in December 2012. Total home inventory in December stood at 10,407, including 9,106 existing homes and 1,301 new homes on the market. That represented a 4 percent decline from the last year’s December inventory, when 10,796 were available.

Currently, the inventory for Kansas City homes is a 4.3 month supply available for interested buyers. That level shows that the local market is in favor of the seller over the buyer.