I would love to buy a home! But can I afford it?

It is no secret that the housing market is in a slump from coast to coast. Even here, in Raleigh, we are seeing a slowdown in sales and some motivated sellers are dropping their prices. Professionals all across the nation agree on one course of action to bring about recovery: making homeownership available to those who have never owned a home before. Once the hesitant renters enter the market, homes will again begin to sell and the sellers will be freed up to move up, move down, or move out into other areas.



In order to persuade potential first-time homebuyers to take the plunge and buy a house, Congress is considering sweetening the existing tax benefits of home ownership by adding a $7,500 tax credit to those who buy their first home. This money would help pay for closing costs and fees, and would undoubtedly help many people afford their first homes. However, the measure is only a small part of a much larger bill that has become subject to serious political wrangling. It has yet to work its way through Congress and even faces a potential veto by the President in its current form.



The good news is that the state of North Carolina has already implemented a program that can work for you -- right now! The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) authorizes loans with mortgage interest rates below the market rate and a down payment of only 3%. Now, I know that 3% of the purchase price might sound overwhelming to you but listen to this - the NCHFA also offers a 30-year no-interest $7,000 loan to pay for the closing costs and that down payment.



With tools like these, along with the discounted home prices and low mortgage interest rates, you are living in the best time EVER to buy your first home. I tell my clients that it's like the "Day After Thanksgiving Sale" - slashed prices, low interest rates, and now you know that there is even free money to help you buy! I would be happy to help you compare what you are now paying for rent with what you would pay for a mortgage payment. You will probably be surprised at how close your rent and your mortgage payments will be.



While you might not personally be looking to buy your first home, I'm sure you know several people who are - or who should be! Please pass on this article to them. They deserve to know that they can own their own home. Send them to my website to read the FREE report "How to Stop Paying Rent and Own Your Own Home".

Home Values Going Up in the Triangle

We can all be very grateful we live in the Triangle for lots of reasons. With the official release of the Triangle Area Residential Realty report, we have another reason to celebrate our good fortune. Wake County and the surrounding areas have shown a strong appreciation rate this first quarter of 2008.

Wake County 4.81%
Durham County 4.22%
Orange County 7.25%
Chatham County 4.82%

North Carolina as a state is also appreciating nicely (4.85%) compared to the first quarter of 2007. Despite the current national real estate market news, as a nation we still had an appreciation rate (0.84%)! As I said, we can count our blessings that we live in the Raleigh area.

Not all the news is good, however. While the average sales price was up 1.27% to $251,185 this quarter, the monthly sales were DOWN -30.21%. There is no question we have more homes on the market and less sales than in the past few years. In Cary, the number of sellers who reduced their prices in the first quarter rose from 172 in 2007 to 371 in 2008 -- making this an excellent time to buy! It’s like the day after Thanksgiving sale in the real estate market.

I currently have several investors actively looking to purchase investment properties. If you, or someone you know, has ever considered building wealth through real estate investing, please pass my information on to them. Now is a good time.

Of course, several specific neighborhoods continue to have a strong market. I took a listing last month and within 12 hours had 7 offers! The seller ended up getting thousands of dollars more than our asking price. There is no question that pricing strategies are the key to get homes sold right now. You can be confident that you will receive the best advice to get your home sold when you allow me to partner with you to sell your home for top market dollar.

The three top appreciating neighborhoods in Cary were Brier Creek, MacGregor Downs and Park Village. Five subdivisions in the Triangle topped the list in the number of sales this first quarter: Brier Creek, Hedingham, Cary Park, Wakefield and Kildaire Farms.

When you need someone with all the right tools and skills to buy, sell or invest in Triangle real estate, call me – your trusted real estate partner!

How's The Real Estate Market?

It's windy in Chicago, rainy in San Fransisco and snowing in New York. That weather report means nothing to us in Raleigh, North Carolina. However, when the media "reports" on the state of the real estate industry, that is exactly how they give you information - on a national level.

Here are the facts... locally:

The average appreciation rate in Wake County overall was 6.44% by November 2007. In 2006, the average appreciation rate was 6.34%. Compare that to 2005 with 4.66% and we look pretty rosy. No gloom and doom there.

Just for fun, try to guess the two towns that had the greatest appreciation rate. Go ahead and guess... Nope!

Fuquay Varina now 5.75% (1.58% change from 2006 to 2007). Knightdale now 6.60% (1.42% change from 2006 to 2007).

Now, let's look at the number of homes on the market ("inventory" in Realtor speak) and the specific price ranges that inventory increased in Raleigh and the surrounding area.

Cary/Apex/Morrisville: Biggest inventory increase was in Condo/Townhome inventory and $300,000-$399,999 single family homes. Just an interesting note here - Inventory of homes under $150,000 decreased by 60%!!

Inside the Beltline/Garner/East Wake: While there was also an increase of Condo/Townhome inventory here, the biggest gains were in single family homes priced between $300,000-$399,999 and $700,000-$799,999.

Wake Forest: Biggest increases in inventory was in homes priced between $500,000-$699,999 and $700,000-$799,999. There was also a significant increase in mid-range homes priced between $150,000-$299,999.

North Raleigh: No surprise here, North Raleigh's biggest increase in inventory was for homes priced from $700,000-$799,999.

Southwest Wake/South Cary/Fuquay/Holly Springs: Biggest increase, by far, was in the $700,000-$7999,999 price range.

Tivia Question: "Which town had the greatest overall increase in inventory?" I'd better tell you, because you will never guess - Garner wins the prize!! 511% increase in inventory!! Yes, you read that right.

Bottom line is this, the average number of deed transfers per month in 2006 was 2852. The average for 2007? Only a slight decrease to 2743. That means we had only a very small decrease in the number of homes sold each month.

So, it is sunny and warm in Raleigh, North Carolina. You won't rely on the weatherman in Chicago to give you the local Raleigh weather - don't rely on the national media to give you the real estate climate here.

I have a ton of other data that I won't bore you with. But I want to end on a very positive note here. While our market did have a softening towards the end of 2007 - due to the inability of people relocating to sell their homes in other markets; the national media hysteria; the mortgage shakedown; AND the holidays - every Realtor I've talked to in the past two weeks is seeing
a lot of activity start up again.

If you are looking to buy, now is a great time! There is a lot of inventory to choose from and interest rates are remaining low. And now is a great time to sell because the buyers who were "waiting for the market to settle" are now becoming active again. Who do you know that needs to buy or sell right now? Give me a call! I promise to give them such good service that you will look like a hero for introducing us.