About New Hanover County, NC

The Week in Review

....your Wilmington Connection

November 8, 2009

Wilmington saw some lovely weather this weekend. Nice temperatures up to 75. Maybe we didnt miss fall after all! This week in Wilmington was the Beach to Battleship Iron Man race. Those athletes started at 7am and some were still going at 10pm. Hands up to you all who competed and completed!

Wilmington NC Real Estate

Contracts are still coming in. This is normal when you are with the Number one real esate company in Wilmington. Currently in Wilmington there is 12 months worth of inventory that is a far cry compared to 8 months ago. When we were looking at some price ranges having 36 months worth of inventory out there. Prices are still correcting themselves. Mainly due to the shortsales and foreclosures out there. My hunch is in the coming months we will start seeing more confidence with consumer spending.

There are 2293 homes on the market, with 316 currently under contract two thirds of those homes are priced at under $250,000. Over the last 3 months there have been 346 homes sold in the last 3 months....since August thats more than 10%.

until next week in The Week in Review

Tina

The Week in Review

....your Wilmington Connection

November 1, 2009

Whew! a warm wet week in Wilmington...quite unusual for Wilmington this time of year. Today was the half marathon at the Battleship, we were all looking forward to the 13.1 mile run...until we saw how hot it was going to be...we then knew. It would be a race to remember. November 1st.....if you are thinking of buying a home before the tax cedit finishes you better jump on board quick 29 days left. Some lenders may sitll be able to make it happen.

Wilmington NC Real Estate

This week in Wilmingon its that price range $250,000 and under that is still seeing the majority of the activity. Currentlly there are 2310 homes on the market. There are 345 homes that are currently under contract. Just to confirm homes are still selling there were 501 homes sold, and 325 of those homes sold at $250,000 and under.

Status of the Extention of the Tax Credit

Although the Senate was not able to reach a procedural agreement to schedule a vote on the Unemployment Insurance extension, the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson Amendment to extend and expand the Tax Credit is contained in the bill.

The Senate is expected to vote Monday evening for a "Motion to Invoke Cloture". If 60 Senators vote yes on the cloture motion, the Senate will then be able to schedule a vote on the bill that contains the Dodd-Lieberman-Isakson Amendment.

Once the Senate acts, the tax credit must still go to the House of Representatives for action. NAR will continue to provide us with updates on the tax credit as events warrant.

National Housing Inventory

A change in the inventory. The Total housing inventory at the end of September was down7.5 percent to 3.63 million existing homes available for sale, which shows an 7.8-month supply at the current sales time frame, down from an 9.3-month supply in August. Unsold inventory totals are 15.0 percent below a year ago.

"The current housing supply is the lowest we've seen in two and a half years," Yun said. "If we could continue to absorb inventory at this pace, home prices would return to normal, modest appreciation patterns next year.

2009 National Association of Realtors® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, shows that first-time home buyers accounted for more than 45 percent of home sales during the past year. This does not come as a shocking surprise with the first time home buyer tax credit out there. A separate practitioner survey shows that distressed (short sales, foreclosures) homes accounted for 29 percent of transactions in September. Movement in the first time buyer range allows for tmore opportunites for those sellers who want to move up to their next home. All in favor to continue the housing tax credit say Ay!

....until next week in The Week in Review Tina

Cucalorus Film Festival This Week in Wilmington NC

Cucalorus Film Festival starts tommorow in venues all over Wilmington, NC. Over 1000 films were submitted for the 15 year old festival. However 150 made it in the festival. You can buy tickets at the door for most films however the season passes to all films are sold out. Many new movies are featured here including international films. A full schedule of events is available on Cuculorus Film Festival website http://www.cuculorus.org/. Some of these good films are only $ 10.00. One hugely anticipated movie Precious will be shown during the festival. It will be a good opportunity to see some good indie flicks...

Lots happening here in Wilmington and its Beaches weekend...

Beach to Battleship Triathalon - all day Saturday - will cut off traffic starts at Wrightsville Beach and then heads downtown to Battleship. They expect city traffic to be backed up all day. Watch out for runners and bikers.

11th Annual Festival Latino will take place Saturday at Hugh McRae Park from 11-8. Food, fun and entertainment. Sports Resale at Legion Stadium - all day 9-8pm. $1.00 to attend.

WineTasting at the Cape Fear Museum Benefit - $ 65.00. See www.capefearmuseum.org.

Soup for the Troops will take place at Mayfaire Town Center from 11 - 3 pm. $2.00 to attend.

Kite Festival at Wrightsville Beach all day Saturday and Sunday. Great event - huge kites of all kinds of things....

By The Chris Baynes Team

Although some details are yet to be worked out, key senators reached an agreement to extend and expand the tax credit available to those purchasing a home for 7 months. Not only does the plan extend the current credit to first time home buyers, it will also be available to those "move up" buyers that have owned thier current home for at least 5 years. The amount of credit for existing homeowners will be up to $6500.00.

Income limitations will rise with both credits to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for couples. Contracts will have to be signed by April 30, 2010 and closed by June 30, 2010.

This extension is expected to help new and existing home sales as well as to soak up some of the foreclosures which have been diluting home values.

Final revisions should be completed by next week and it should see a fairly smooth completion and enactment could come as early as next week.