All Blog Entries by Stephanie Gasparovic

If you are considering buying a home today, you are probably getting a ton of advice. Some of that advice is through news mediums, which will bring you a mixed bag of positive and negative feedback: foreclosure and short sale nightmares, low interest rates, and mortgage guideline changes. Another array of opinions are coming from your family and friends, which are more than likely based on their own real estate experiences, whether good or bad. You need to take a deep breath, stop the background noise, and answer the following three questions for yourself to determine whether or not you should purchase a home:

1.  What exactly are the experts saying?
I encourage you to conduct your own research choosing qualified experts, but in the last 150 days many…

NAR released its latest pending home sales index figure last week and for the second month in a row the index is up. But more than that, the index has broken 100. This is significant because the only time since the housing boom collapsed that the index has broken 100 is when the home owner tax credit was in effect. The fact that the index has returned to that level a year since the credit has been in effect means the housing market is strengthening completely on its own, without any stimulus.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun is upbeat about 2012 because in a number of areas indicators are pointing upward. Not only are home sales up but housing starts are up and home prices are…

As of Tuesday, 13th December, 2011* rates have inched up just a bit since last week.

Flotilla festivities offered something for all generations. On Friday, tykes and toddlers attended the official tree lighting and the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus. Saturday's Festival in the Park featured a shopping emporium of fine handcrafts, outdoor children's games--a climbing wall and The Arab Choo Choo--and an antique car show for the 'happy days' car enthusiasts.

This year featured a $5,000 cash prize for the Best in Show. Winners were announced today…

 

Wrightsville Beach, N.C. .... It ends with a bang! A grand finale of fireworks illuminates the seacoast harbor at the conclusion of a three-day Thanksgiving Weekend tradition as the North Carolina Holiday Flotilla returns into homeport, Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

From the arrival of Santa and a quaint town tree lighting ceremony to a magical floating boat parade, the 28th Annual NC Holiday Flotilla offers something for all generations.

Tykes and toddlers will want to be beneath the Town Hall tree for the official lighting and the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus at 5:45 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 25.

Boat captains, crew members, sponsors and partygoers will gather later for the official Anchors Away launch party at the…

Saw this article in my RSS feed reader from Inman News on the state of real estate nationally. It certainly is GOOD to hear something like this. Our local market continues to rebound, albeit slowly. Nonetheless, as more positive news makes it out into the media the more comfortable buyers will be which is a good thing for everyone.

Enjoy!

Stephanie

By Inman News™

At a glance: Existing-home sales (September 2011):

Lumina News / Allison Potter

Wrightsville Beach NC . . . Elite standup paddlers will perform a Le Mans style beach start, brave the open Atlantic Ocean, battle through Masonboro Inlet straits, and navigate the channel currents behind Masonboro Island, before reaching the finish line for the North Carolina Surf to Sound Challenge, Saturday, November 19 (alternate weather date: November 20).

Joshua McClure

For the intermediate paddler, a flat water competition will embark from the sound side beach and traverse canals and deepwater channels for approximately four miles encircling Wrightsville's picturesque Harbor Island.

Both races promise to be great spectator events, surf and…

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. ... Making waves, a record 1,875 triathletes will stroke the waters of Wrightsville Beach during the first leg of the internationally acclaimed Beach2Battleship Iron Distance Triathlon.

From its starting point at Wrightsville's south end Coast Guard Station on the eastern shore of BanksChannel to the finish line at the USS Battleship North Carolina on the west bank of the Cape Fear River, thousands of spectators are expected to crowd waterway beaches, channel banks, docks and bridges to cheer for and witness extraordinary feats of athletic endurance along the 140.6-mile route. The 2.4-mile swim through Banks Channel and Motts Channel begins at 7 a.m. and is expected to continue for…

"While a 5.0 to 5.2 million SAAR unit existing home sales for April 2011, which is the expected range among economists, would represent a 10% to 14% decline from 2010 activity, the April and May unit home sales trend would continue the monthly sequential average gain we have seen since the end of the 2010 tax credit impact," said Realogy president and CEO Richard A. Smith. "Because the impact of the Homebuyer Tax Credit peaked in the second quarter of 2010, we expected to see a year-over-year decline in home sale transactions in the second quarter of 2011 both at Realogy and in the housing market in general. We believe the fact that our average sales prices are holding steady compared to last year is a strong positive."

Smith continued, "We…