Working Together (Gung Ho) to Fulfill Your Real Estate Needs!
Notes, Videos, Photos of Jacksonville NC and Topsail Homes and Neighborhoods
Alvin and Marilyn just walked out of Frank Erwin's office after closing on their home in Sterling Farms. They are looking forward to moving in and enjoying all that Sterling Farms, Jacksonville, and eastern NC has to offer. Congratulations to this happy couple!
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New Savvy Home being built in Carolina Forest - Listed by Re/Max Home Connections. Click Here for Full Listing of Homes for Sale in the Jacksonville NC community of Carolina Forest.
The Absorption Rate Rate Report for February- March Homes Sales shows an improvement in all areas of Onslow County Real Estate Market based on number of listings and the number sold the last 2 months. There was a slight increase in supply in 2 areas: Piney Green Area and Southwest Area. The whole county's supply figures decreased from 9.9 to 7.9 months, though still a buyer'smarket, it is definitely an improvement for sellers.
The Absorption Rate Rate Report for February- March Homes Sales shows an improvement in all areas of Onslow County Real Estate Market based on number of listings and the number sold the last 2 months. There was a slight increase in supply in 2 areas: Piney Green Area and Southwest Area. The whole county's supply figures decreased from 9.9 to 7.9 months, though still a buyer'smarket, it is definitely an improvement for sellers.
There are many tastefully decorated home in the desirable Commons Area. All the conveniences of city living but with a close net home town community feel. All schools in walking distance, tennis courts, sports complex, playgrounds, recreation center/gym, walking and bike trail.
Here you will feel at home in many of these 2-story homes with 4 large bedrooms plus sitting room and 2.5 large bathrooms and spilt vanity sinks in master bath. Shower and tub is separate includes garden tub withrelaxing jets. Large walk-in closets in every room. Of course everyone wants a large kitchen and these homes have it too. Gorgeous sunroom off living room,custom window treatments, absolutely bright and airy.
Ready for relaxing get-togethers or needed family time. Custom tile in foyer, living room, sunroom andkitchen for that clean and fresh look. Outside will WOW you! Professionally landscaped and soooo beautiful in the summer. Sit on the wooden back deckwith designer tile and perfectly manicured lawn. I could go on and on, but you must see this house for your self. It is a must see and on the top of your list!
Click Here for Complete Listing of Homes for Sale in the Jacksonville Commons
When reading the chart - remember:
Click on chart to view larger size
Your Weekly Jacksonville NC Real Estate E-Zine
March 3, 2010
In this Issue:
Walter’s World – Keller Williams is Jacksonville’s #1 Real Estate Office
Special Report: Existing home sales down in January
Featured Article: Lessons from the Forbes 400
Recommendations & Resources: Could you wait to file your tax return?
Walter’s World
Keller Williams Realty is Jacksonville NC #1 Real Estate Office
Keller Williams Realty officially arrived in Jacksonville NC as a market center the middle of December 2009 and moved into our permanent location, 3840 Henderson Drive, on February 8th, 2010.
Even with the moving and growing pains of a new office and Market Center, we have bolted to the top of the real estate office rankings as the #1 office in Jacksonville NC market. As we move into the month of March, we have closed 66.5 units with sales volume of $10,553,260, which is #1 in both categories.
We will also be participating in the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce’s Business Expo this Saturday, March 6. Come by and meet us at our booth. The Business Expo starts at 10am and lasts until 4pm. Visit my website and find your Dream Home – take advantage of the Federal Tax Credits for 1st Time Homebuyers – either $8,000 or $6,500 depending on what you qualify for, but you must have a contract on a home by April 30, 2010. For details, call (910) 340-5524.
Special Report
Existing Home Sales Down in January
The National Association of Realtors last week released sales figures for January, revealing that the number of existing homes sold dropped 7.2 percent from December but were still up more than 11 percent from January of 2008.
Lawrence Yun, the NAR’s chief economist, offered that buyers who started shopping after the tax credit was extended in November are still in the market, having probably not closed transactions they’re expected to close.
That, combined with a shrinking inventory of homes on the market and stability caused by more distressed properties coming off the market, has led to a stabilizing of prices in many areas of the country.
With the tax credit expiring and mortgage rates expected to rise, it could be a brisk spring for house sales, Yun said.
“Activity should be picking up strongly in late spring as buyers take advantage of the tax credit, which is critical to absorb distressed properties reaching the market and to continually chip away at inventory,” Yun said in an NAR news release. “With a downtrend in the number of homes on the market, especially in the lower price ranges, values are beginning to firm but with great variance around the country.”
That makes now a good time to be in the market to buy, and will likely help sellers as spring rolls around.
Featured Article
Lessons from the Forbes 400
If you’ve spent any time studying wealthy people, perhaps you pay attention to the Forbes magazine list of the 400 wealthiest Americans when it comes out.
In 2009, the 400 were a bit lighter in the wallet than they were the year before. In 2008, it took a net worth of $1.3 billion to make the famous list. A year later, it took "only" $950 million. The recession has affected the wealthy, too. An interesting piece on Forbes.com that went with the list when it was released in the fall says that the best way to eventually make the list is to own your own business. Of the wealthiest 400 Americans, 274 were self-made entrepreneurial types. Of the top 10 on the list, six of them made their own fortune (as opposed to having family money). The lesson to me seems clear: Own your own business.
The Forbes online article also features answers to questions on 22 different topics by eight of the self-made billionaires on the list. The topics range from their take on national health care, the state of the stock market, where they'd invest in real estate right now, their biggest investment blunder and even how much vacation is the right amount each year. The answers are interesting.
Particularly striking was R.J. Kirk's answer to the question "Describe your life in five words." Kirk, who made his way to billionaire in pharmaceuticals and investment management, answered:
"I decided to be happy."
Powerful stuff. A lot of people pay attention to what we think will MAKE us happy -- winning the lottery, getting a better job, living an easier life. But a look inside the thinking of a self-made billionaire shows us his different mindset. "I decided to be happy."
Doesn't this seem like the first step toward financial freedom, taking control of the process? And couldn't all of us make this decision, regardless of what endeavor we're pursuing? It's something we should think about.
Recommendations & Resources
Could You Wait to File Your Tax Return?
This year’s tax season has been made a bit more complicated for some by the new rules for converting traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs as well as two tax credits for home buyers. A recent Wall Street Journal article says that 11 million people file their returns AFTER April 15. Here’s an informative look at whether you could benefit by filing for a tax deadline extension.
Have a great week!
Walter Whitehurst, Broker
Keller Williams Realty Jacksonville NC Home Search
Your Weekly Jacksonville Real Estate E-Zine
February 22, 2010
In this Issue:
Walter’s World: Doing Home Searches on Your Smartphone
Special Report: “Deed in lieu on steroids”
Featured Article: Presidential wisdom…two centuries later
Recommendations & Resources: More Money Blog
Walter’s World
Jacksonville NC Home Searches on Your Smartphone
Have you ever tried to do a home search in the Jacksonville area on your Smartphone? Either the application is slow loading, the image is too small to read, or the data is old and out of date. When you are driving around looking at homes, this can be frustrating.
Even with i-Phones and Android phones, you still get a lot of mobile applications where you only receive a partial list of the home listings available (like Realtor.com, Trulia or Zillow.com) or the listings have not been updated since they sold or expired ( like Zillow.com, Google Base, Trulia)
No More! There is a new mobile application for i-Phone users (with Android and Blackberry users coming later this year) that provides all the listings in the Jacksonville NC Market with up-to-date information. It is myAgent by IDX. You can download it FREE from i-Tunes app store or through this link.
To use it on your i-Phone, just download it and use the Access Code 5522 – this code gives you free access to all Jacksonville NC MLS Listings courtesy of Walter Whitehurst of Keller Williams Realty.
You will love the interactive map, the search features, the quick loading full-size photos of homes for sale. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a showing, my Cell number (910-340-5524) is right there at your fingertips.
Special Report
Deed in Lieu on Steroids
CitiMortgage last week launched a new program designed to help struggling homeowners stay in their homes…at least for a bit longer anyway.
The mortgage servicer, one of the nation’s largest, has implemented a program that will allow delinquent homeowners to stay in their home for six months, provided they agree to hand over the deed at the end of the six months and walk away.
Rather than let the foreclosure process go all the way to auction, evict the home owner and pay all the associated costs, Citi will take deed at the end of six months and forgive any difference between what the house is worth and what is owed. In addition, it will help some owners with relocation costs.
Taking deed back instead of going through with a foreclosure is nothing new – it’s often referred to as “deed in lieu of foreclosure.” In a CNNMoney.com article, Citi CEO Sanjiv Das called his company’s new program “deed in lieu on steroids.”
Hopefully, Das said, allowing homeowners who can’t afford to pay to remain in the house for six months will help them plan their next move.
To be eligible for the program, home owners must have a first mortgage with Citi; no second mortgage; actually live in the home; and be at least 90 days behind.
Citi launched a pilot version of the program in six states – Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and Michigan. If successful, the program would be expanded to other states.
Featured Article
Presidential Wisdom…Two Centuries Later
"Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty." -- John Adams
There is a lot of discussion going on right now about the role government should or should not play in helping citizens of a country achieve home ownership.
Government's role as an advocate for home ownership, for example, has been criticized and labeled one of the reasons for the subprime mortgage mess -- a mess, critics say, that was created by pushing something on people who couldn't afford it.
Even now, as the government, through tax credits and the purchase of bad mortgage-backed securities helps to prop up the housing market, the wisdom of those things is questioned.
Even the notion of "home ownership" has come under attack, with "experts" saying "rent, don't buy" and "It's not worth owning a home."
The thing is, even though President's Day 2010 finds us in quite a different position than we were two centuries ago, one of the foundations of this country is the ownership of property.
Look at the quote above by John Adams, the second president of the United States and one of the country's Founding Fathers. He believed liberty, freedom, is a basic human right. Obviously to him, that included the right to own property.
Of course, things were different then. Adams was president in a young America, during a time not long after its citizens had relatively recently won independence from England. Those early Americans who fought for their freedom did so in part because of how strongly they felt it was their right to own property -- not an easy thing for a "commoner" to do under a king's reign in the country they left.
Back then, the founding fathers recognized it was the government's role to protect the freedom of property ownership, and as the frontier of the New World expanded west, so did the government's support of property ownership. It was encouraged, subsidized. After all, the ownership of property by its citizens was one of the basic beliefs on which the United States of America was founded.
Somewhere along the course of the 225 years or so between the colonists' independence from England and today, however, that fundamental idea has gotten lost. Why? Because of a few bumps along the way?
Sure, there has been profiteering by some on the American Dream. Greedy bankers have been pegged as the enemy, with the U.S. government believed by some to be complicit, if not directly by action then by inaction when it comes to regulations. There have been instances of fraud and predatory tactics have been used on those who badly wanted the home ownership part of the American Dream.
But does that make the dream itself bad? Does that mean the government, despite the wishes of its Founding Fathers two centuries ago, should no longer back the dream?
Two-thirds of American adults are home owners, enjoying the freedoms, the pride of ownership and even some financial advantages that ownership of property provides. Owning a home is obviously important enough for 2 out of every 3 American citizens to work for that part of the dream. Many of them will probably tell you it's the best investment they've ever made.
Believe what you will about how big a role the government should play in helping its citizens achieve home ownership. Love or hate the fact that the government is propping up the housing industry right now with taxpayer dollars. But don't be so quick to attack the notion that a government should encourage home ownership.
It's what they had in mind more than 200 years ago.
Recommendations & Resources
More Money Blog
Do you ever read CNNMoney.com online? If you have, maybe you’ve checked out the site’s “More Money Blog.” If you haven’t, you should. It’s a pretty wide range of topics covered, mostly personal finance. And it runs the gamut from what Exchange Traded Funds to avoid all the way to what coupons to clip. It’s usually pretty interesting, and it’s often entertaining. You can check it out at: http://moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com/
Have a great week!
Walter Whitehurst, Broker
Keller Williams Realty Jacksonville NC Home Search
Well-kept 3-bedroom home only a couple minutes from Camp Lejeune Main Gate.
Call 910-340-5524 for more details.
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Realtor with Wilkinson & Associates Real Estates helping young families find their new home in the Jacksonville NC area, home of Camp Lejeune Marine Base and New River Air Station
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