Todd Baucom

First year Western Carolina University Baseball Coach, Bobby Moranda's "Celebration of Catamount Baseball" was a huge success Saturday night at the Crest Center in Asheville, NC. This was an opportunity for former coaches, players, fans and supporters of WCU baseball to gather, reunite and prepare for the coming season. This was also a chance for the baseball staff and players to be introduced to supporters of the program and the unveiling of the proposed renovations and improvements to Childress Field/Hennon Stadium.

Former coaches, Bill Haywood and Jack Leggett (currently Clemson head coach), were honored and spoke about the rich baseball traditions in the Cullowhee Valley and WCU. While Bobby Moranda , and his staff of Dave Haverstick, Nick Mingione, Grant Achilles and Bruce Johnson, surely usher in a new era in Catamount baseball history, it was great to see them take the time and effort to create this event to recognize where the program has come from and realize where it is headed.

Once the stadium renovations are completed, WCU will have a facility that will enable them to host NCAA Regional tournaments. So, when the Catamounts win another Southern Conference title, WCU and Cullowhee could very likely see the "Road to Omaha" pass along Highway 107 and stop for a few days at Childress Field/Hennon Stadium!

Best of Luck to Coach Moranda and the Catamounts on the 2008 season!

Statistics provided by the Northern Jackson County MLS show that the real estate market in Jackson County, NC remained stable while many other areas of the country saw significant drops in pricing and volume of sales.

The only large drop was the number of total sales, which was down 17.8%. The total sales in 2006 was 521 units and the total sales in 2007 was only 428 units.

The average sale price increased by 3.6% from $155,800.00 in 2006 to $161,713.00 in 2007. The median sale price remained fairly constant with a $1000.00 increase, 2006 median price of $129,000 compared to a 2007 median of $130,000.00

The time on market remained pretty stable as 2006 saw the average days on market at 235 days and median days on market at 156 days. The 2007 average days on market revealed a time of 208 days, an 11.4% decrease in time to sale. In addition, the median days on market decresed by 13 days from 2006 to 2007.

The list to sale price ratios remained above 90% for all property types during both years.

While total units sold decreased significantly, the sale prices showed a slight upward trend with list to sale price ratios and time on market remaining stable.

The largest contributor to the drop in units sold would surely be the reluctance of lenders to finance certain deals that were easily funded in the recent past. My estimate is that if one half of the deals that failed due to lender turndowns, 2007 total units sold would have closely mirrored 2006. The other outside factor to the decreased number of sales was the subdivision morotorium and adoption of the Subdivision and Mountain/Steep Slope Ordinances in Jackson County. These are locals issues that clearly hampered land sales, as that aspect of the market is the only classification that saw significant decreases.

These statistics encompass all types of sales, to include, residential, vacant land, commercial and multi-family.

Comparison of sales data for calendar years 2006 and 2007 for Land sales in and around Cullowhee, NC. Data provided by Northern Jackson County MLS.

TOTAL UNITS SOLD

2006-47

2007-33

**29.28% decrease in units sold**

AVERAGE SALES PRICE

2006-$148,129

2007-$103,215

**30.32% decrease in average sale price**

MEDIAN SALES PRICE

2006-$67,500

2007-$53,350

**20.96% decrease in median sale price**

CASH TRANSACTIONS

2006-26

2007-19

FINANCING TRANSACTIONS

2006-21

2007-14

It is obvious that the various factors affecting real estate markets throughout the country also had some effect on sales during 2007 in Cullowhee and surrounding areas. The slow down of the markets in general, tightening of lenders and investors for financing as well as, the Subdivision Moratorium and Steep Slope Ordinance in Jackson County caused apprximately a 30% drop in sales.

Sales data comparison for years 2006 and 2007 for mountain real estate in Jackson County, NC. Data is derived from the Northern Jackson County MLS.

TOTAL UNITS (Residential and Land)

2006-521 units

2007-426 units

Avg. Sales Price

2006-$155,800

2007-$162,002

Avg. Days on Market

2006-235 days

2007-208 days

RESIDENTIAL UNITS

2006-305 units

2007-237 units

Avg. Sales Price

2006-$191,777

2007-$201,006

Avg. Days on Market

2006-174 days

2007-156 days

LAND UNITS

2006-199 units

2007-174 units

Avg. Sales Price

2006-$41,000

2007-$45,000

Avg. Days on Market

2006-326 days

2007-260 days

The major difference between 2006 and 2007 was the low volume of buyers entering the market, evidenced by the 18.23% decrease in Total Units Sold. Days on Market for total units decreased 11.4%, with Residential prices going up by 4.8%. Land sale prices reduced by 8.97% from 2006 to 2007.

I was helping my two son's summer/fall tournament and wood bat baseball team in a fund raising effort this evening. We were working for Aramark running one of the concession stands at the Davidson/Western Carolina University Men's Basketball game. During our halftime rush we heard a roar from the crowd in the Ramsey Center. It was not until the start of the 2nd half that we learned there was a winner in the Sonic Drive In halftime contest. A student is selected from the stands to go onto the court and he/she has 25 seconds to hit 4 shots. Sounds easy right. The shots have to be in this progression, first a layup, second a free throw, thirdly a three pointer and lastly from half court. You get one ball and must retrieve your own rebounds. Sounds a little tougher now, huh?

At approximately 10 minutes to go in the game, this clean cut All-American type college kid comes to the concession stand. He was having trouble talking and was shaking. He finally gave us his order, then he apologized for being a little shook up as he was the winner of the $10,000.00 prize money from Sonic Drive In. One of the 15 year old boys in our group asked him what he was going to do with the money. I was waiting on the typical, college sophomore response of "party down at Spring Break" or " keg party at my apartment this weekend". But, he said, "Oh, my Dad is a financial adviser and I am going to give it all to him to invest for me until I finish school". Now, get this, he further stated something along the lines of it will sure make a good down payment on my first home. I thought, wow I like this kid and a half dozen 15 and 16 year old boys just stood there slack jawed, staring at what they thought had to be the biggest idiot they had ever met. I told the young man, if he stays in the area after graduation to come see me at the Western Carolina Properties office on Speedwell Road and I would help him with that first acquisition. I just hope that the kid's Dad is as responsible with the money as his son.