There was a great article in the New York Times about this being the opportune time of a lifetime for folks to buy their first house. This article reinforces what I’ve been blogging about and telling my prospective first-time homebuyers over the past few months. Read the article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/business/yourmoney/06money.html?_r=2 and find out why not moving forward with a home purchase in the Raleigh, Wake County North Carolina market in the next few months might be something that you’ll regret for years to come - Tina.
KB Homes slashed prices in it’s Wynbrook neighborhood in North Raleigh as much as $70K off of base model prices end of last week. For a client of mine who had begun building following a $50K price reduction in September, this couldn’t have been better news. KB offers a price protection plan so that if prices drop on your model within 30 days of closing your base price is lowered to match the new lower price. Call or email me for all the details - Tina
The time it takes to sell a home in the overall market of Cary, Morrisville and Apex for 2008 YTD has been 88 days. The average in Cary has been 93 days, the average in Apex has been 103 days and the average in Morrisville has been 94 days. All of these averages are up from the same period of time in 2007. Inventory is up in these markets as well. The good news is that most sellers are still making money in this market. Call me for more details, or if you have a particular need in this market - Tina
Consider the following when thinking about the question of whether to rent or buy. Let’s say that you are paying $1,500 in rent each month and your landlord increases the rent by 5% each year. Over a 5-year period you would have paid just over $100,000 in rent and have nothing to show for it. Now lets consider home ownership where the benefits are considerable. Over the same 5-year period a $300,000 mortgage would have been reduced to $279,000, adding $21,000 to your net worth. Home appreciation will add an even bigger chunk to your worth over that same period of time. Let’s say that your home appreciated at an average of 5% per year, which is typical for the Triangle area. Your 300,000 home is now worth a whopping $383,000 adding an additional $83,000 or a total of $104,000 in net worth to your portfolio. Home ownership is a big move, but almost always the right move! Call or email with questions and let’s take a look at your individual circumstances - Tina
In this market I’m often being asked questions regarding how much foreclosure activity we’re seeing in Wake County. I thought this would be a good time to try to answer many of those questions that I’ve been asked.
There are currently +/- 8,700 active listings in Wake County. +/-250 of these listings were either listed as a foreclosure or had a seller name that indicated a foreclosure. Those listings make up approximately 3% of the total inventory. A search of Wake
County deed transfers indicated that roughly 4% of all grantee names were associated with foreclosure activity. During
2007, approximately 2% of the 26,456 deed transfers were related to foreclosure activity. So while the amount of foreclosures
are up, the total amount represents a small segment of our residential market.
East Raleigh, Knightdale, Wendell, Zebulon and Garner have the highest number of foreclosures in the Wake County market. The average sales price of houses bought by lenders in these areas is $132,000. The average percentage loss on these transactions is 3.4% per year compared to the last recorded transaction price. This average does not factor into account the amount of money lent on the property, so the actual percentage loss could be significantly higher. For comparative purposes, the average seller in a non-foreclosure re-sale has gained 4.58% per year.
The average age of the foreclosed houses has been 14 years and the average years of ownership for the foreclosed individuals has been 4.
Please call or email with questions- Tina