Columbus Indiana Real Estate Homes for Sale, Community News & Photos
Columbus Indiana Real Estate, Community News and Architectural Photo Galleries
We invite you to stop by our office where you can get your FREE copy of the Welcome Guide. We would also be happy to send a copy of this great publication. Just call, e-mail or text our Century 21 Breeden team.
Our office is located at 700 Washington at the corner of 7th and Washington Streets in downtown Columbus. Our office hours are 8:30 – 5:30 pm Monday – Friday and 9:00 – 1:00 pm on Saturday.
We are very proud of these Real Estate Agents! We congratulate these Century 21 Breeden Residential Real Estate Agents on their outstanding achievement in closed Listings and Sales for the month of April, 2012. We are proud of their success and the professionalism with which they conduct their business. These agents as well as the entire Century 21 Breeden Residential Team demonstrate the best in their work ethic, knowledge of real estate and people skills they utilize to make every transaction a successful experience for their clients. They represent this company well and continue to enhance the reputation that this company has enjoyed for sixty years. Established in 1951, we celebrate our 60th Year in Real Estate.
As you, your friends or associates are considering buying a home or selling your present home, we invite you to contact the Real Estate Agents at Century 21 Breeden Realtors. They will work tirelessly to exceed your expectations and meet your goals. Their contact information is available here:
There are new ways to get real estate information using your smart phone! One of the ways involves a FREE “barcode” app which can be downloaded from the app store for your particular phone to read “QR” codes – as shown in the illustration above. Our Century 21 Breeden mobile website is the destination opening from the barcode scan and it is scaled to be legible on the small screen of a smart phone. This gives good information when you are away from a computer, iPad or other electronic device.
Our mobile site includes virtual tours of homes currently for sale as well as current interest rates (updated daily) and mortgage payment calculators. Other information 
includes ways to contact our agents, information on our community and our company.
Another FREE app you might consider loading is the Century 21 app which shows all homes for sale – again updated daily. It only takes a minute to load and another minute to accept the terms (as is frequently required by these apps) and then you are ready to search. This app would allow you to find homes for sale in a specific location, your present location and even, with permission, homes for sale close to where you are at the moment you connect to the app. If you search for locations around the nation, you will have the opportunity to find agents in that destination city.
For more information on Homes for Sale or obtaining a Mortgage, please contact one of our Residential Agents or a mortgage lending institution, three of those are linked below:
Columbus has been recognized as a beautiful city and a lovely place to live and recognized for the splendid architecture Columbus residents and visitors enjoy. Now, yet another honor has been bestowed upon this city.
According to Forbes.com:
“Located just 45 miles from Indianapolis, the 44,000 residents of Columbus benefit from a concentrated bounty of world-class architecture and sculpture. Fueled by the civic-minded largesse of J. Irwin Miller, a local industrialist and a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, the world-class architectural explosion began in 1957. That year Cummins established a foundation that would pay the town to attract some of the world’s most notable architects, including I.M. Pei, Gunnar Birkets, and Eero Saarinen. In 2005, Smithsonian Magazine called Columbus a “veritable museum of modern architecture,” and with more than sixty notable buildings within the town – six of which are National Historic Landmarks – it’s hard to argue with that assessment.”
One of the best sources of information about Columbus, Indiana is the Columbus Visitors Center website: extremely well done and full of current information and many pictures, resources of all types and links to even more information!
the Basics
Columbus, Indiana (population 44,000) is ranked sixth in the nation for architectural innovation and
design by the American Institute of Architects, right behind Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Boston
and Washington, D.C.
Columbus has hundreds of acres in a city park system ranked number one in the country by the
National Recreation and Park Association for cities the size of Columbus. Parks feature such unusual
facilities as an ice skating rink, a skateboard park, an observation tower, and an ivy-covered tunnel, as
well as the more typical– yet fun –activities such as fishing, walking, hiking and biking.
Most of the downtown is listed with the National Register of Historic Places. In a highly unusual
move, the even more exclusive National Historic Landmarks program honored the city by accepting
six locations simultaneously.
The Columbus Visitors Center Architecture Tour was selected as one of Rand McNally’s Best of the
Road in 2003. The tour is part of the “Indiana: Hills and Architecture” trip of approximately 260 miles.
Columbus is also home to NASCAR racing champion Tony Stewart and Chuck Taylor, the man behind
the phenomenon of Converse All-Stars.
columBus in the news
Forbes magazine put Columbus near the top of its list of “America’s Prettiest Towns” in April 2012.
Midwest Living put Columbus on its list of “Top 25 New Places to Stay, Eat and Play” in April 2012.
In their Sept./Oct. 2011 magazine article “10 Affordable Cities for Retirement,” AARP chose Columbus
as one of its top ten cities to retire in, saying, “Never heard of Columbus? That’s fine – residents
love this little city’s under-the-radar charm. Less than an hour south of Indianapolis and east of
Bloomington, Columbus has it all: design cognoscenti say the city’s innovative architecture ranks
right up there with Chicago’s and San Francisco’s.”
In November 2010, Forbes magazine selected Columbus as one of the top ten best small cities to
raise a family, saying Columbus is one of the cities that “sweep our ranking of quiet, prosperous, and
family-friendly places . . . these places boast solid average incomes, good educational prospects, low
costs, short commute times, and high rates of home ownership.”
As you visit the website for the Columbus Visitors Center, you will discover many more of the honors Columbus has received.
We are very proud of the City of Columbus and all of the things that make it so very special. It is our pleasure to be a part of this community and we feel fortunate to be surrounded by the beautyof this area.
This is a great times for Home Buyers: It is a great time to Buy a Home! Interest rates are between 3% and 4% at the present time and that means you can afford to buy “more house” for the same payment as “less house” at a higher interest rate. We would like to show you the Homes for Sale that are available through our Multiple Listing Services and we can show you any of these homes, listed with all of the MLS member real estate companies in Columbus, South Central Indiana and Central Indiana.
In computing the cost of a mortgage, there is more than just the monthly payment to consider. While the payment is a huge consideration, the interest rate, length of the loan and deductible interest each year are all very important.
For more information on Homes for Sale or obtaining a Mortgage, please contact one of our Residential Agents or a mortgage lending institution, three of those are linked below:
We have some tools for you to use when you are thinking about Homes for Sale or just thinking about mortgages, interest rates, monthly payments and total money paid. We also have a few links to websites where you can get information from local mortgage lenders. And then, the old standby, you can always Google mortgage lending and get thousands of links to informative websites.
The Indiana Mortgage Rate Chart appears on the Home Page of this website in the far right column, toward the bottom. The Mortgage Calculator shown above appears just below it. By filling in loan amounts, interest rates and term of loan, you are able to see for yourself exactly what a Home for Sale might cost, long term. In fact, by hitting the “Calculate” button, you can view information on the monthly payment, total costs paid during the life of the loan as well as other information.
As you consider either buying a home or refinancing the home you now own, there are many free resources available to you without cost or obligation. The choices are many! You can start by contacting a real estate agent or go online for mortgage information or contact a loan officer to find out more about a particular type of loan. These are some links to our real estate agents and several mortgage websites:
And by the way, the interest rates remain great!
Warren Buffett speaks out:
Is it time to buy real estate? “If I had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single-family homes I would load up on them.”
Why invest in real estate now? “It’s a way, in effect, to short the dollar because you can take a 30-year mortgage and if it turns out your interest rate’s too high, next week you refinance lower. And if it turns out it’s too low, the other guy’s stuck with it for 30 years. So it’s a very attractive asset class now.”
Is buying your own home better than investing in stocks right now? “If I knew where I was going to want to live the next five or 10 years I would buy a home and I’d finance it with a 30-year mortgage… It’s a terrific deal.”
Should we buy multiple houses? “If I was an investor that was a handy type and I could buy a couple of them at distressed prices and find renters, I think it’s a leveraged way of owning a very cheap asset now and I think that’s probably as an attractive an investment as you can make now.”
Projection 2012: Frank Nothaft. Freddie Mac VP and chief economist
“The US economy continues to build on the momentum from the end of last year. Our outlook anticipates gradual, but steady, improvement in the economy and the housing market, supported by low interest rates and brightening job market prospects.”
MSNBC.com – 2/6/12: Home Rents Will Keep Rising
“Paying rent is getting more painful for renters across the country in the face of rising demand and tight supply…
It’s bad timing for people who have been spooked by, or pushed out of, the residential housing market and have decided to rent instead of buy. Home ownership in the United States is at historic lows, but at the same time rental prices are on the rise.”
Why do you need a real estate agent? There are so many steps between choosing the house and closing on the house, places where without proper guidance and care, the transaction can falter. From the perspective of the home owner, the same circumstances exist. Unforeseen issues that occur can create havoc with the purchase, mortgage, appraisal, inspection, title search process.
One of those items looming large on the real estate horizon currently is the appraisal. The appraisal is based on historical data from generally the last six to twelve months, depending upon the area. If this period was depressed with no demand, high unemployment, etc., those six months of sales could appear very bleak and compromise the appraisal value of the home. Because the number of sales during the past few years has been reduced, very often suitable comparison do not exist and without those comparisons, price cannot be justified.
Another problem has to do with banks who through the management system now in place select out of town appraisers who might be hungry for work/income, but are totally unfamiliar with the real estate market in this area. For, as we have certain shared with anyone who will listen, Columbus and Barthlomew County are not in a declining or depressed real estate market, as are some areas within the State of Indiana.
This is a problem that will correct itself as the housing market is improving, the number of properties selling increasing and demand greater than we have witnessed for a while.
Our Real Estate market is improving in Columbus, Indiana, Bartholomew County and South Central Indiana. Homes are Selling! The number of Homes for Sale has been reduced and many price ranges are experiencing a shortage of Homes for Sale.
Consequently, the same conditions which make our local market favorable to the Sale of your Home also make it an exceptional time for your to purchase another home with the outstanding interest rates now available.
We would like to share information on Selling Your Home – Information you may find of value as you begin the process.
If you would like to have more information, we invite you to stop by our office at 700 Washington Street at the corner of 7th & Washington Street in downtown Columbus, Indiana (Parking in front of our building with more parking behind our building):
We also invite you to contact our Residential Real Estate Agents – they are helpful, friendly and knowledgeable – willing to furnish the information to help you make a decision about whether to Sell Your Home or show you Homes for Sale to help you decide if moving is right for you. You can call or text these agents:
We wish to thank Ricky Berkey for his wonderful photograph of our building.
The American Dream continues with an improving Real Estate Market, Great Interest Rates and Homes for Sale in a variety of styles, prices and locations!
We invite you to view this guide for Buyers as you consider the Purchase of your First Home or the Purchase of a New Home. Please click on this link to view this booklet:
Buying a Home – How to Get Started
If you would like to have more information, we invite you to stop by our office at 700 Washington Street at the corner of 7th & Washington Street in downtown Columbus, Indiana (Parking in front of our building with more parking behind our building):
We also invite you to contact our Residential Real Estate Agents – they are helpful, friendly and knowledgeable – willing to furnish the information to help you make a decision about whether to Buy a Home or show you Homes for Sale and help you Purchase the Home. You can call or text these agents:
We wish to thank Ricky Berkey for his wonderful photograph of our building.
Jan Brinkman was the Recipient of the 2012 International Hall of Fame Award. The honor was announced at the Century 21 International Convention held in New Orleans this year.
This award is presented to the most elite members of the CENTURY 21 sales force. These associates are selected because of their dedication and commitment to the CENTURY 21 System, consistent high levels of production over a period of years, and extensive community involvement.
The award is bestowed upon the Century 21 agent selected from the approximately 112,000 agents worldwide from 7,600 offices in 71 countries and territories.
Jan Brinkman’s community involvement through the years was recognized and most importantly the establishment of Abby’s House in Belize by Roger and Janet Brinkman in honor of their daughter Abby whom they lost in a tragic accident in Belize. The Brinkman’s raised the funds necessary to erect a dormitory in Abby’s honor for medical students working in Belize.
According to WTIU, this one hour documentary tells the story of Columbus and how this truly surprising city rose from its origins as a small agricultural community to a multicultural city, home to one of the world’s most impressive collections of modern buildings, and one of the country’s most dynamic corporations. “Our Town: Columbus” captures the spirit and tell the remarkable story of this truly unexpected, unforgettable gem of a town.
“Our Town: Columbus” will air on WTIU on:
Saturday, March 10 at 10;30 am
Sunday, March 11 at 6:00 pm
Tuesday, March 13 at 1:00 pm
Wednesday, March 14 at 9:30 pm
We want to share our latest report with you on investments and the national economy according to KCM. While economists analyze the national economy from many different perspectives, most agree that real estate continues to be a really outstanding investment – as the chart indicates, the best rate of return as compared with the Dow, Standard & Poor and Nasdaq. We have included the full February report for you and would encourage you to further investigate some of the references through the links provided.
Congratulations to the Century 21 Breeden Residential Agents on their outstanding performance in 2011. Leading Columbus and Bartholomew County as well as South Central Indiana in Home Sales , these Agents have achieved a level of professionalism that sets them apart from others in the real estate industry.
Should you find yourself in need of real estate services, please contact one of our Century 21 Breeden team.
This chart represents the average price of homes sold in Columbus, Indiana and Bartholomew County since 1985. It includes information on average price for 2011 thru 11-30-11. It should be noted that this information is based on data compiled from Crossroads Association of Realtors for Residential Properties and includes only those properties sold through the Multiple Listing Service.
This chart represents the number of Residential Properties sold through the Multiple Listing Service of the Crossroads Association of Realtors.
If you would like more information on the local real estate market, our Residential Agents would be happy to share information with you about the Number of Homes for Sale, Currently Listed Homes by Price Range, Median Price of Homes for Sale as well as Median Price of Sold Homes. This information as well as other market data is available by contacting any of our agents. Their contact information is available below:
We applaud the decision by Congress to reinstate the loan limit formula for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured loans. This decision will benefit the real estate industry as the loan limits are restored to 125% of the median value.
The National Association of Realtors have supplied a video which may provide information and clarification about the decision made by Congress.
Creating opportunities for exposure of Homes for Sale to Home Buyers in Columbus, Indiana and South Central Indiana is one of the ways we choose to market real estate. In fact, the Online Marketing we do to create this additional exposure is extremely effective. Actually, with every year that passes, the effectiveness of this type of marketing is increasing by “leaps and bounds”. So great is this exposure that actually 90% of Home Buyers begin their search online. The amazing part of all of this is that these homes we market are actually exposed across the entire nation, as well as globally!
To demonstrate and explain this valuable online marketing, you can view the slides shown below that illustrate the multifaceted ways this is accomplished.
Should we wait to buy a home is the question on the minds of many who contemplate the number of homes on the market vs. declining/increasing home values vs. interest rates vs. the stability of the market. The slides which follow demonstrate some of the views by “people in the know” and economists who study the market. The information presented in these slides represent the economy on a national level.
An annual event held every Autumn in downtown Columbus, Indiana, this special festival is enjoyed by thousand of local residents and visitors. Featuring both international entertainment, foods and a bazaar, the two-day Ethnic Expo also includes a parade and concludes with a fireworks display.
More information on the Ethnic Expo experience is available on the website: double click HERE
Gallup Poll