Fantastic positive news was released from the National Association of Realtors today.  The news release stated that the historically low interest rates combined with the $8,000 credit for first-time ( or homeowners who have not purchased a home in 3 years) helped raise the pending home sales contracts, for the third consective month.

The Pending Home Sales Index a “pending prediction” indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent to 90.3 from 84.6 in March,
which is even above the April 2008 index of 87.5.

To get the first time home buyer credit of $8,000, contracts must be firmed up by November 30, 2009 to receive the credit, so we look forward to an increase in home sales.

The Wilmington NC real estate market has also enjoyed an increase in pending sales contract and still is in a a strong postion to continue this trend.

To search all Wilmington NC real estate and find out about the $8,000 tax credit please read more about the Wilmington NC real estate market here.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency released their HPI (House Price Index) for the last quarter and year to date. Read the rest of this entry

Top 6 Cities Named for Housing Values Increase

When you hear all the gloom and doom on the news media, we get some very positive news for Wilmington, NC real estate. A government report released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency states that Wilmington NC ranks in the top six cities nationwide where house values have increased the most over the last five years. Wilmington has experienced a substantial 62.1 percent increase. Others named were Honolulu at 78.7%; Virginia Beach at 72.6%; Flagstaff at 66.5%; Bellingham, WA at 65.6% and Baltimore at 60.6%. Read the rest of this entry

The Economy and Bailouts

The last couple of months have had our world spinning and we have learned that while one industry hurts it affects other industries. Everyone wants a bailout these days, while it may take a while for all these different plans to work, it seems to be moving the markets in the right direction. With the Fed announcing just before Thanksgiving that it would purchase up to $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities, we saw mortgage rates drop from 6.06% to 5.5%. Read the rest of this entry

Wilmington NC Real Estate Market Conditions

“The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind. The answer is blowin in the wind” Bob Dylan. Where is the answer? While the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department think they have the answer. Congress thinks they have the answer and Wall Street has a bailout, now the Auto Industry is looking for help. With so many plans and paths the consumer is confused and has no confidence in our economic system right now. So they sit and wait and hold on to what they have. What is the answer for the consumer? Read the rest of this entry

Has the Housing Market Bottomed?

National existing home sales increased in September by the largest amount seen in several years. Are we actually seeing signs that the real estate market has bottomed out? Home sales increased but prices are down 9% from a year ago, nationwide. Some analysts are predicting home prices could fall another 10% as the inventory of foreclosures increases. 35 to 40% percent of recent sales are either foreclosures or short sales according to the National Associaton of Realtors. Read the rest of this entry

Listing Inventory

Our current listing inventory has a 78 unit decrease from last month and we are about 238 units down from October 2007. We have 5,741 single family homes for sale in our MLS. The average list price of $424,201 is up by $57.00 from last month. Our average list price last October was $427,354. If our charts prove correct we will continue to see a small decrease in listing through December 2008.

Monthly Average Sold Price

Our monthly average sold price is down 13.5% from last month and down 14.0% from September 2007.  September average sold price ($235,068) shows a decline of just 14.1% from year end 2007. When we look at a rolling 12 months our current average sales price remains behind year over year comparisons. Our current year over year (10/01/07 – 09/30/08) average sold price of $261,887 is 3.0% behind $269,905 of this time last year.

Monthly Sold Units

The number of sold homes in September is down 12.7% from last month. When we look at a rolling 12 months our number of sold unit’s year over year is 5,059 units compared to 6,942 last year this time, a decrease of 27.1%. Our monthly sold units continue to lag behind the last couple of years.

Average Sold Price Year to Date

Year over year our year to date numbers have dipped a little.

2003 year end average sale price $ 186,137

2004 year end average sale price $ 210,048

2005 year end average sale price $ 254,080

2006 year end average sale price $ 264,520

2007 year end average sale price $ 273,701

2008 year to date average sale price $ 256,871

Our 12 month (10/1/07 – 9/30/08) rolling average ($261,887) continues to show us that we are in line with last year.

It really is a great time to buy a home right now. Search for your new home.

My thanks to David Flory with Cunningham and Brokers for this valuable information.

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Wilmington NC is ranked 6th in the lastest Milkin Institute of top performing cities list.  The index ranks these cities based on its ability to create jobs and economic growth. Read the rest of this entry

Wilmington NC real estate sales report

The Wilmington NC neighborhood sales report for the first half of 2008 is available for your review. Read the rest of this entry

Wilmington NC Real Estate

It looks as though move up buyers have been sitting on the sidelines and contributing to lower sale prices in the second quarter in Wilmington NC. If you compare the second quarter to 2007 second quarter, sales prices have decreased by 6.1%. The list to sell ratio has also decreased to 95.5% compared to 97.4% second quarter 2007. Read the rest of this entry