Tim Devinney

I am sitting downtown outside my favorite coffee shop as I type this. Today I want to talk about the new ampitheatre that is going to open in two weeks just a couple of blocks away. This is the newest outdoor venue in the triangle and it promises to be one of the neatest. The ampitheater is part of the Raleigh Convention Center complex which includes the fabulous shimmer wall. It is so fun for me to see Raleigh become a real urban center. Having been here since 1980 the changes that have taken place are nothing short of sensational. You can now live, work and play downtown and never have to crank an automobile. From viewing movies at the IMAX theater in the Marbles Kid Museum, to fine dining at Cafe Luna, The Mint or Duck and Dumpling to visiting art galleries like Artspace, Adam Cave Fine Art, Beehive Studios, Nicoles Gallery and Flanders Fine Art, to seeing live theartre or opera at one of the many live performance venues there are dozens of options for stuff to do. Raleigh Downtown is a happening place but even more than that it is developing a personality, a sense of community. I am very lucky to live where I do. To learn more about Raleigh Downtown or any part of the Triangle visit our website http://www.MissionPossibleAgents.com

Thanks and have a great week!

Where is that groundhog fellow. We need to talk. It is about 30 degrees with 40 to 50mph winds today in the triangle. I am pretty sure I just saw a pine tree go flying by my office window. Thats okay, I dont like my neighbor that much anyway. Just kidding Jim. I actually like them alot. They are kinda new to the hood. Only been there 39 years so I dont want to upset them. At least they're not rookies like my neighbor on the other corner. They just got settled in 20 years ago. I think they were worried about the neighborhood getting old in the tooth so they just had another baby. Brings the average down. Oh yea, did I mention we can walk to a terrific park right in our neighborhood. My stepkids helped paint the blue bird houses the town just installed. My neighbor down the street is a sculptor and she took it upon herself to paint one of the big rocks in the park. The town liked it so much they asked her to do several more. I live in one of those places that have intrinsic value. Our homes arent 4000 square feet but the lots are large and wooded and we can walk to the greenway in 2 minutes. We can be in downtown Raleigh in ten minutes. I ride my scooter there all the time. We have artists, writers, engineers, organic gardeners, college professors and just plain folk like me. Its a pretty cool place to live and I dont care how hard the wind blows. I aint budgin. A good home is not about the size of the rooms or the latest gadgetry but more about how you feel when you are there. I feel goooooooood!

Fear is a powerful thing. It can make otherwise rational human beings act in very irrational ways. There are many types of fear but one of the greatest is fear of the unknown. We often tend to ostracize what we do not know or understand for fear that knowledge will change us. It will! That is a good thing. I am writing in reference to the recent school board elections in Wake County North Carolina of which Raleigh/Cary are the core cities. The new board members have stated that they want to reverse the years of progressive planning that have made the Triangle one of the most desirable areas to live in all of America. Their rallying cry of "neighborhood schools" screams of isolationalism and segregation. Neither has any future in a progressive world. We strengthen ourselves when we welcome what we are not comfortable with. We grow in understanding when we accept the knowledge of others. I hope that the new board members are speaking from a lack of knowledge of the complexity of this process and will have a different opinion once they get all the facts. This does not mean that the current system is not without issues. Certainly improvements can be made but reverting to "seperate but equal" will bring great harm to our fair city. Raleigh and to an even greater extent Cary, has blossomed over the last twenty years from the foresight of forward thinkers. Lets not take the bloom off the rose for fear of its thorns!

The rain has finally stopped and the fog has cleared. This should be a great day for homes to show. Temperatures in the 70s, very little wind. Had an opportunity to visit friends last night at a party in Midtown in Raleigh. Very nice home with excellent use of open living space and lighting. As a recent graduate of the National Association of Realtors Green course I am intrigued by the use of natural daylighting in a home and this one had an entire wall of windows along the south wall. Southern exposures are best for light and warmth in our part of the country. The floor plan had a good balance of openness and yet seperation. By that I mean it was easy to tell what parts of the home were intended for what purpose but did not feel closed off at all. The kitchen was very contemporary as well but with good quality fixtures and cabinets. This is important. If you are going to remodel contemporary style take some time and speak with a designer to make sure you achieve that contemporary classical look. What that means to me is that while it looks very modern it does not look trendy. Get it? Great house! Did I mention that the food was terrific and the wine was excellent. That's all for now but stay tuned. More info on Green living in the Cary/Raleigh area to come.

Ciao!

The Raleigh Market is showing signs of recovery. Sales are up. Inventory is shrinking. More people are looking at our listings. Perhaps the dark clouds that have brought the torrential downpours of short sales, foreclosures, and updside down sellers are starting to move out. I certainly hope so. In my former life as a pharmaceutical professional I didnt realize how important the housing market is to a local economy. The past 6 years have opened my eyes. When our market was hot, jobs were plentiful, retail was sailing along, and people had a great attitude about things in general. Once the housing bust hit the Raleigh market we began to experience the same symptoms of this recession that the remainder of the country had been feeling for several years. Our employment picture has been particularly bleak. I attribute alot of that to the fact that so many people were employed in the residential construction field due to the large number of new homes being built. At our peak over 6,000 students were being added to our local public school system every year. That's alot of homes to be built. When people couldnt sell their homes in other areas they quit buying here and the residential construction industry took a huge hit. Now, we are starting to see a little more activity in the new construction sector and homes are starting to sell at a faster pace. I am hopeful that we have weathered the worst of this mess and can now begin to focus on learning from our mistakes and moving on.