Wow! I got my weekly report from Realtor.com today and the number of hits on my Charlotte listings has doubled since mid December. That is a great sign that the buyers are starting to come out and look at the great deals to be had. We've seen a slight increase in actual showings on houses, but the internet searches are telling me that we may see much more activity in the coming months. Online showings went from 1000 total last week to 1500 this week, December showings ranged around 700/week.
The rates creeped up a bit this week but we expect them to get back down in the 4s soon. Inventory is increasing as expected, many sellers waited until January to put their homes on the market. Prices are still at 2005-2006 levels, if I had some extra money I'd be investing like crazy right now.
If you know of anyone wanting to invest in this great Charlotte market, please pass Beth Smith Shuey's name along!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Living with my head in the sand
Too often I find myself thinking that life is always so good, and although it really is despite the economy, etc., I still need to keep my eyes open and my head out of the sand. First example was last year, when our booming real estate market that was still strong when the rest of the country was tanking. I had all the confidence that we were not going to be affected, we had the strong banking centers and were the second largest financial center in the company. Suddenly our market shifted drastically, and it honestly took most of our community by surprise. I'm still hoping that we won't be as dramatically affected for as long as other parts of the country, but you just don't know.
But that's not what I wanted to write about. My rude awakening came the Monday after New Years when I got a text from my husband while I was in a listing appointment. Our house had been robbed in the middle of the day. Our house is in a modest neighborhood close to town, a neighborhood that has appreciated 200% in the past 5 years, except of course the past year when the market tanked. I've been in the house for 15 years, my new husband for almost two. We are on a slight hill on a street that is often used as a cut-through, so our front door is fairly exposed. We have two large dogs in the backyard with access to the back porch, so I never was concerned about anyone breaking into our house because the dogs wouldn't let them in the back door. Therefore we never turned on our alarm! So you can imagine how stupid I felt when I found out that these burglars kicked in our front door and took out our 42" TV as well as cameras, laptops, IPod, and my jewelry, right out the front door. Yep, head in the sand. So now I call our house "Fort Knox", and encourage all of my friends and clients to get a security system and turn it on, just because you never know who's going to be wandering in your neighborhood! It doesn't make my neighborhood nor our city an unsafe place to live, break-ins are becoming more common in all areas of the country with more people out of work and homes. I equate it to my advice to sellers..."Think ahead of the market and price accordingly, don't chase the market". We have to think ahead of the economy and plan accordingly, whether that is getting an alarm system, pricing homes ahead of the market, or cutting our projected expenses in 2009, just in case!
There is some comic relief to the burglary that I'd like to share....I had a jewelry box on my dresser that had most of my necklaces, mostly Lia Sophia jewelry I've collected at parties the past two years, nothing too valuable or sentimental, but things that I wore a lot and loved. The same night my neighbor across the street was taking out his trash, and found the box and the jewelry all in his garbage can! So the adage is true in many forms, "one person's treasure is another person's trash"! Fine with me that they didn't have my taste in accessories!
But that's not what I wanted to write about. My rude awakening came the Monday after New Years when I got a text from my husband while I was in a listing appointment. Our house had been robbed in the middle of the day. Our house is in a modest neighborhood close to town, a neighborhood that has appreciated 200% in the past 5 years, except of course the past year when the market tanked. I've been in the house for 15 years, my new husband for almost two. We are on a slight hill on a street that is often used as a cut-through, so our front door is fairly exposed. We have two large dogs in the backyard with access to the back porch, so I never was concerned about anyone breaking into our house because the dogs wouldn't let them in the back door. Therefore we never turned on our alarm! So you can imagine how stupid I felt when I found out that these burglars kicked in our front door and took out our 42" TV as well as cameras, laptops, IPod, and my jewelry, right out the front door. Yep, head in the sand. So now I call our house "Fort Knox", and encourage all of my friends and clients to get a security system and turn it on, just because you never know who's going to be wandering in your neighborhood! It doesn't make my neighborhood nor our city an unsafe place to live, break-ins are becoming more common in all areas of the country with more people out of work and homes. I equate it to my advice to sellers..."Think ahead of the market and price accordingly, don't chase the market". We have to think ahead of the economy and plan accordingly, whether that is getting an alarm system, pricing homes ahead of the market, or cutting our projected expenses in 2009, just in case!
There is some comic relief to the burglary that I'd like to share....I had a jewelry box on my dresser that had most of my necklaces, mostly Lia Sophia jewelry I've collected at parties the past two years, nothing too valuable or sentimental, but things that I wore a lot and loved. The same night my neighbor across the street was taking out his trash, and found the box and the jewelry all in his garbage can! So the adage is true in many forms, "one person's treasure is another person's trash"! Fine with me that they didn't have my taste in accessories!
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