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"Nobody's borrowing right now, Steve," a bank CFO told me over breakfast on Friday.
I wish I had a prettier picture to report. But that is part of the view from the trenches. ### Wilmington NC Real Estate, Carolina Beach Real Estate, Kure Beach Real Estate, Wrightsville Beach Homes for Sale. If you want to buy a home, contact Cosatwalk Real Estate ay 910-458-9119. |
There are a handful of great communities in Kure Beach, including Kure Beach Village, Beachwalk, Kure Dunes and Kure Estates and Seawatch. Each offers there own features, while sharing a common theme...very nice homes, very nice neighbors, and all just seps to the beach!
You are minutes to Carolina Beach, Ft Fisher and Wilmington NC.
Here is a link to homes for sale in Kure Beach Village!
Here is a link to homes for sale in Seawatch
if you are interested in Carolina Beach Real Estate, Kure Beach Real Estate, Wilmington Real Estate please contact Coastwalk Real Estate at 910-458-9119.
We can’t predict what will happen with the real estate market, but it’s helpful to keep up with the trends. This report includes Carolina, Kure, Oak Island and Wrightsville Beach area real estate news for the last week of February. On a good note before we take a look at this week’s statistics I wanted to share some positive news. Warren Buffett said in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders Saturday that he still believes America's best days are ahead. He also went on to say in a CNN report that he predicts this year the Real Estate market will pick up. Good news coming from one of the most week respected investors in the world.
First let’s start with the average prices per square foot on the coastal area beaches according to Trulia. On Carolina Beach NC the square fool price was $177, a decrease of 4.8% compared to the same period last year. Kure Beach’s average price per square foot was $183, a decrease of 21.5% compared to the same period last year. Oak Island average price per square foot was $180, a decrease of 5.8% compared to the same period last year. The good news is that the average price per square foot for Wrightsville Beach NC was $396, an increase of 8.2% compared to the same period last year. Wrightsville Beach also increased the median home sale price compared to the same period one year ago, Home sales price increased 77.5%, or $310,000, and the number of home sales increased 84.6%.
Now we’ll look at listings for this past week starting with Carolina Beach NC. There was 419 resale and new homes in Carolina Beach including 63 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. On Kure Beach there was 152 resale and new homes including 9 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. Moving on to Oak Island there was 556 resale and new homes including 24 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process. Lastly, Wrightsville Beach had 194 resale and new homes including 5 homes in the pre-foreclosure, auction, or bank-owned stages of the foreclosure process.
Even if we can’t predict what will happen in the future the facts help us stay in the know. Knowing and seeing these facts we are assured one thing. It’s still a buyer’s market! Pushing the housing market is low mortgage rates, high housing affordability and some economic growth. To end as Warren Buffet said, “Don’t Count out America. Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful”. Don’t look at the doom and gloom look at facts and Real Estate is still the best sound long term investment you can make.
UNCW is a great place to see a college baseball game. They have a great team, and its a lot of fun to go check them out! Did you know a handful of UNCW baseball players have gone pro? Go see the future stars in action.
Here is a link to the UNCW baseball schedule.
The 64th Annual North Carolina Azalea Festival will be held April 6-10, 2011 in the greater Wilmington area. The Festival is a celebration of Wilmington’s exceptional artwork, gardens, rich history and culture during its five days of entertainment that includes: a parade, street fair, circus, concerts, pageantry, and all that is Southern.
Since its inception in 1948, the Festival has blossomed into an extended weekend celebration that attracts more than 300,000 people. The Festival is a non-profit civic organization and this year is sponsored in substantial part by its four (4) major sponsors: Progress Energy, Wachovia Bank, the Hilton Wilmington Riverside, and Coastal Beverage.
Festival highlights include the opening ceremony and Queen's coronation, a three-hour parade, two-day street fair, the Superheroes of the Circus, home and garden tours and of course, concerts!
The Festival opens with the Queen's Coronation, welcoming the Queen Azalea and celebrity guests. Held on the Wednesday of the Festival.
This fun-filled, three-hour extravaganza winds through downtown Wilmington Saturday morning. With floats, celebrities, marching bands, and clowns, it's a spectacle of sight and sound not to be missed.
There's fun and entertainment everywhere you look! Arts & crafts vendors, concert stages, international foods, displays and exhibits await you Saturday and Sunday in historic downtown Wilmington. Awesome local and regional musical acts start Friday night and continue through Sunday afternoon! Don't miss the Fireworks Saturday night at 9 pm along the riverfront!
There's always a party when the circus comes to town! The Cole Bros. Circus comes to town Thursday - Sunday of the Festival. Located at the Wilmington International Airport.
The Azalea Festival has a proud history of bringing top-notch, national entertainers to Wilmington. Past entertainers include Frank Sinatra, Carrie Underwood, the Beach Boys, Alabama, the Judds, Sugarland, Jessica Simpson, and Natalie Cole to name a few.
Take a leisurely stroll in one of the many gardens in full bloom. Soak up some fun facts about art, architecture and history in Wilmington's many historic homes and museums. Visit one of the varied military attractions or special ships in port. It's the Azalea Festival "on tour!"
Carolina Beach NC Homes for Sale
Wrightsville Beach NC Homes for Sale
Landfall Wilmington NC Homes for Sale
Great homes in Wilmington and the beach. If you want to look call Coastwalk Real Estate
910-458-9119
When Is a Real Estate Agent a REALTOR®?
A real estate agent is a REALTOR® when he or she becomes a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, The Voice for Real Estate®, the world's largest professional association. The term "REALTOR®" is a registered collective membership mark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and abides by its strict Code of Ethics.
Founded in 1908, NAR has grown from its original nucleus of 120 members to more than 1 million today. NAR is composed of REALTORS® who are involved in residential and commercial real estate as brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, counselors, and others who are engaged in all aspects of the real estate industry.
Members belong to one or more of 1,700 local associations/boards and 54 state and territory associations of REALTORS® and can join one of our many institutes, societies, and councils. Additionally, NAR offers members the opportunity to be active in our appraisal and international real estate specialty sections. REALTORS® are pledged to a strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
Working for America's property owners, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® provides a facility for professional development, research, and exchange of information among its members.
Check out the Public Awareness Campaign television and radio spots that encourage consumers to rely on the expertise and integrity of REALTORS®.
The NAR advertising campaign runs February through November on network and cable television and network and satellite radio, helping consumers understand the real value of working with REALTORS®. From their voluntary adherence to a Code of Ethics to their incomparable knowledge of real estate processes, REALTORS® are the experts of residential and commercial property transactions.
Need a REALTOR in Wilmington NC, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Leland, Wrightsville Beach -- Call Coastwalk Real Estate 910-458-9119
STARTING April 1, under a new compensation rule from the Federal Reserve, borrowers who get their mortgages through brokers will most likely pay less for their services and must be offered the lowest possible interest rate and fees for which they qualify.through brokers will most likely pay less for their services and must be offered the lowest possible interest rate and fees for which they qualify.
The new rule also affects those dealing with small banks and credit unions, which typically do not fund loans from their own resources. But most banks and other direct lenders, including the few mortgage companies that function like banks, are exempt.
The new rule is known as the Loan Originator Compensation amendment to Regulation Z, part of a strengthened Truth in Lending Act passed by Congress in 2008. Designed to prevent consumers from being steered into high-cost, risky loans, it covers how a loan originator — or any person or company that arranges, obtains and/or negotiates a mortgage for a client — is paid.
Under the new rule, a lender can no longer pay a loan originator a lucrative rebate known as a yield-spread premium, which is tied to the rate or terms of the mortgage. Banks and other lenders can continue to pay commissions to brokers, but these payments must now be based solely on the loan amount.
In the past, the higher the interest rate and points, the more money a broker stood to earn.
Brokerage firms typically earn a yield-spread premium of 1.5 to 2.5 percent of the loan amount, with higher-rate loans paying closer to 2.5 percent. The brokerage and its broker, or loan officer, typically split the rebate. On a $400,000 loan at 5.25 percent, that might total $8,000, based on two points paid, with a point being 1 percent of the loan amount.
In the new system, the brokerage can earn a fixed commission from the lender, but the amount is not tied to the loan terms. Also, the brokerage cannot pass on a part of the commission to the broker, who must now be paid an hourly wage or salary. The exception is for loans where the lender pays the borrower’s points to the brokerage, typically for higher-rate loans. (The commission range is expected to be 1.5 to 2.5 points.)
It is also forbidden for a loan originator to collect payments from both the consumer and the lender in a single transaction. If a broker is paid a commission by a lender (based on the loan amount), he or she cannot also charge the consumer points, or fees for application or processing. The consumer will still, however, need to pay the broker for third-party services like appraisals.
An exception to the new rule involves lenders who finance mortgages in their own names from their own resources, a practice known as warehouse-lending, and then sell the loans to investors like Fannie Mae. The exception also applies to other companies that fund mortgages from their own resources.
Some mortgage companies originate and close mortgages in their own names through funds from third parties, typically other banks — a practice known in the industry as table funding. The new rule applies to them as well.
Thomas Martin, the president of America’s Watchdog, called the rebates “a rip-off” and said the Fed rule was “very welcome.”
Brokers who match consumers with lenders argue the rule undercuts the value they offer consumers. “It unfairly makes these brokers less competitive” against the big banks, said Mark Yecies, an owner of SunQuest Funding, a mortgage broker and lender in Cranford, N.J. “I will now get paid the same amount to process a plain-vanilla loan as I will a complex loan of equal size that requires more work.”
He added that “bigger banks will capture a bigger percentage of the origination market, and they will raise rates.”
Mike Anderson, a director at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers, said that the rule would “likely put a lot of independent brokers out of business.”
But the Mortgage Bankers Association says brokers would still be competitive with banks because many consumers like to work with brokers, and banks cannot handle all of the business.
Below is another great article by Tara Nelson, a broker in San Francisco.....posetd on Trulia.com
We've talked about surprising home features buyers LOVE, and about why buyers aren't biting on today's market, despite it being highly affordable. But we haven't talked much about the characteristics of sellers, listings and homes that turn buyers all the way off. Well, not until now!
Here are 6 big-time homebuyer turn-offs that make buyers cringe at the thought of your home, and action steps you can take to prevent your home from being an offender:
1. Stalker-ish sellers. I know you think you’re being helpful, walking the buyer through your home and pointing out the wagon-wheel light fixture you made with your own two hands, the custom mural of a stingray you paid top dollar to have painted across your living room wall and the way the sounds of happy schoolchildren running across the front yard of your corner lot to get to the school in the next block lifts your spirits. However, the buyers might be trying really hard to ignore, minimize or figure out how to undo the very features of your home you hold dear. They also may want or need to have personal space and conversations with their mate or their agent while they’re viewing your home - you being there, especially walking right alongside them while they’re in your home, prevents them from being comfortable about doing this, or discussing all the things they would change if the home were theirs. In my experience, the more nitpicky a buyer gets about a house and the more detailed their list of things they would change, the more serious they are about considering making an offer on this place.
What’s a Seller to do? Back off. Let your home be shown vacant, or leave the house when people come to see it. If you need to be there, at least walk outside or go sit at the coffee shop down the way while prospective buyers view your home. If the buyers have questions, their people will contact your people.
2. Shabby, dirty, crowded and/or smelly houses. You already know this one. Yet, buyers constantly marvel. The buyers who come to see your home are making the decision whether to choose your home for the biggest purchase they’ve ever made during the worst economic conditions most of them have ever experienced. Your job is to get your home noticed – favorably – above the sea of other homes on the market, many of which are priced very, very low.
What’s a Seller to do? Other than listing your home at a competitive price, the only tool within your control for differentiating your home from all the foreclosures and short sales is to show it in tip-top shape. Pre-pack your place up, getting rid of as many of your personal effects as possible. Do not show it without it being completely cleaned up: no laundry or dishes piled up, countertops freshly washed, smelly dogs (I have a couple who smell on occasion – no judgment – but don’t show your house with pet odors) or litter boxes cleaned and/or out of the house.
3. Irrational seller expectations (i.e., overpricing). Buying a house on today’s market is hard work! On top of all the research and analysis about the market and situating their own lives to be sure they’ll be able to afford the place for 5, 7, 10 years - or longer, buyers have to work overtime to separate the real estate wheat from the chaff, get educated about short sales and foreclosures and often put in many, many offers before they get even a single one accepted. The last thing they want to add to their task lists is trying to argue a seller out of unreasonable expectations or pricing. And, in fact, there are so many other homes on the market, buyers don’t have to do this. When they see a home whose seller is clearly clueless about their home’s value and has priced it sky-high, most often they won’t bother even looking at it. If they love it, they’ll wait for it to sit on the market for awhile, hoping the market will “educate you” into desperation, priming the pump for a later, lowball offer.
What’s a Seller to do? Get real. Get out there and look at the other properties that are for sale in your area and price range. Get multiple agents’ take on what your home should be listed at, and don’t take it personally if their recommendation is low. If your home has much less curb appeal or space or is much less upgraded than the house across the way, don’t list it at the same price and expect it to sell. If you owe more than your home is realistically worth, you may need to reexamine whether you really want or need to sell, or consider a short sale, if you simply have to sell. Don’t be tempted into testing your market with an obviously too-high price, unless you’re prepared to have your home lag on the market and get lowball offers.
4. Feeling misled. Here’s the deal. You will never trick someone into buying your home. If the listing pics are photo-edited within an inch of their lives, or your home is described as an “approved” short sale when, in fact, the bank approved another offer, now withdrawn, but will require a new offer to go through any sort of approval process (even a truncated one), buyers will learn this information at some point. If your neighborhood is described as funky and vibrant, as code for the fact that your house is under the train tracks and you live in between a wrecking yard and a biker bar, prospects will figure this out. If the detailed information about your home, neighborhood or even transactional position (e.g., short sale status, seller financing, etc.) is misrepresented, the sheer misrepresentation will turn otherwise interested buyers off. If you authorize your agent to “verbally approve” the buyer’s offer, don’t go back the next day demanding an extra $5,000. In cases where the buyer feels misled, whether or not that was your intention, running through the buyer’s mind is this question: If they can’t trust you to be honest about this, how can they trust you to be honest about everything else?
What’s a Seller to do? Buyers rely on sellers to be upfront and honest – so be both. If your home has features or aspects that are often perceived negatively, your home’s listing probably shouldn’t lead with them (like the ad I recently saw with the intro line: “this place is a mess!”), but neither should you go out of your way to slant or skew or spin the facts which will be obvious to anyone who visits your home. Make sure you know what the listing of your home reads like, before it’s published to the web, and that a prospective buyer will not feel misled by it.
5. New, ugly home improvements. Many a buyer has walked into a house that has clearly been remodeled and upgraded in anticipation of the sale, only to have their heart sink with the further realization that the brand-spanking-new kitchen features a countertop made, not of Carerra marble, but brand-new, pink tiles with a kitty cat in the middle of each one (I saw this once, people – no joke). Or the pristine, just-installed floors feature carpet in a creamy shade of blue – the buyer’s least favorite color. New home improvements that run totally counter to a buyer’s aesthetics are a big turn-off, because in today’s era of Conspicuous Frugality, buyers just can’t cotton to ripping out expensive, brand new, perfectly functioning things just on the basis of style – especially since they’ll feel like they paid for these things in the price of the home.
What’s a Seller to do? Check in with a local broker or agent before you make a big investment in a pre-sale remodel. They can give you a reality check about the likely return on your investment, and help you prioritize about which projects to do (or not). Instead of spending $40,000 on a new, less-than-attractive kitchen, they might encourage you to update appliances, have the cabinets painted and spend a few grand on your curb appeal. Many times, they will also help you do the work of selecting neutral finishes that will work for the largest possible range of buyer tastes.
6. CRAZY listing photos (or no photos at all). Here at Trulia, we’ve seen listing photos that have dumpsters parked in front of the house, piles of laundry all over the “hardwood” floors touted in the listing description, and once, even the family dog doing his or her business in the lovely green front yard. Listing pictures that have put your home in anything but its best, accurate light are a very quick way to ensure that you turn off a huge number of buyers from even coming to see your house! The only bigger buyer turn-off than these bizarre listing pics are listings that have no photos at all; most buyers on today’s market see a listing with no pictures and click right on past it, without giving the place a second glance.
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Want to buy or sell in Wilmington NC? Interest in Carolina Beach Real Estate, Kure Beach Real Estate, WIlmington Real Estate? Call Coastwalk Real Estate at 910-458-9119
Market Update for Wilmington NC
The real estate market seems to be bouncing back this week in Wilmington NC. We had 90 Contracts placed as Pending with over 17 Million in Contract volume according to the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors. According to WRAR there are currently 2023 homes on the market in Wilmington and 168 under contract. Since the beginning of 2011 there have been 154 homes sold. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, is encouraged by the trend. "Home sales clearly recovered in the latter part of 2010 and are helping to absorb the inventory, including many distressed properties. Even with foreclosures continuing to enter the inventory pipeline, they've been selling well and housing supplies have trended down," he said. "A recovery to normalcy requires steady trimming of the inventories."
Here are more facts for Wilmington NC the week ending February 21st 2011, according to Trulia. The median sales price for homes in Wilmington NC for Nov 10 to Jan 11 was $179,072. This represents a decline of 0.8%, or $1,428, compared to the prior quarter and a decrease of 4.4% compared to the prior year. Sales prices have depreciated 0.2% over the last 5 years in Wilmington. The average listing price for Wilmington homes for sale was $343,789 for the week ending Feb 16, which represents a decline of 0.2%, or $742, compared to the prior week and an increase of 0.9%, or $3,216, compared to the week ending Jan 26. Average price per square foot for Wilmington NC was $283, an increase of 111.2% compared to the same period last year. Popular neighborhoods in Wilmington include Landfall, Echo Farms, Mayfaire, Breezewood Condos, Pine Valley Estates, and Sunset Park.
The trend thus far for the year of 2011 is certainly a lot healthier than last year, which hopefully means a healthier year to come. With the added bonus of interest rates bouncing above and below 5% (for a 30-year fixed), this continues to be a great time to move up or buy a first home. Good news to sellers that price their house right and for buyers looking for affordable home prices. The bottom line is simple. The bidding wars of 2005 won’t be seen any time in the near future. But take heart because real estate is still the best long-term investment someone can make.