Is The Timing Right for a Tax Free Exchange?

If you own investment property, now may be the perfect time to sell it and do a tax free exchange. You might say, prices are low and why should I sell now? The fact is you might take advantage of the prices being low by selling a property that is not appreciating or cash flowing and purchase one or more properties that are distressed and have great potential for appreciation. We have many homes for sale in Wilmington NC that would qualify for a tax free exchange. We even have Wilmington NC real estate priced under $100 a ft! Read the rest of this entry

Waiting on the side lines for home prices to fall?

Consider this. Let’s assume that home prices do fall another 15% and interest rates go up.

Current Scenario                                                         Down the Road Scenario

Sales price       $250,000                                             Sales price       $212,500

5% down           $12,500 5% down           $10,625

Loan Amt        $237,500                                             Loan Amt        $201,875

30 yr fixed @ 4.75%                                                       30 yr fixed @ 6%

P & I = $1,238.91                                      P & I = $1,274.04 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

Waiting on the side lines for home prices to fall?

Consider this. Let’s assume that home prices do fall another 15% and interest rates go up.

Current Scenario                                                         Down the Road Scenario

Sales price       $250,000                                             Sales price       $212,500

5% down           $12,500                                             5% down           $10,625

Loan Amt        $237,500                                             Loan Amt        $201,875

30 yr fixed @ 6%                                                       30 yr fixed @ 8%

P & I = $1,423.93                                      P & I = $1,481.29

Total cost for 30 years                                              Total cost for 30 years

$512,617                                                                     $533,264

If we are going to assume prices fall another 15%, we also have to assume interest rates will be higher. Nobody can predict interest rates and nobody can predict the bottom of this real estate market. What we do know is that rates are favorable and real estate is ON SALE. Waiting could cost you money!

The time is now to buy Wilmington NC real estate. There are many homes for sale in Wilmington that are priced below $100 a ft! Unheard of prices! We can send you a detailed list of those homes. There are also some foreclosures and short sales. Fortunately, we do not have the amount of foreclosures that have been experienced nationwide. We were somewhat protected from the mortgage meltdown. North Carolina mortgage laws are some of the toughest in the Nation.

For a detailed list of  our Best Buy Home List in Wilmington, NC., please contact me at kaybaker@seacoastrealty.com or go to my website and search all homes in Wilmington, NC.

Many thanks to Alan Efting at Bradford Mortgage for these valuable stats. You may contact him at www.alanefting.com.

Wilmington NC & New Hanover County School Report for 2008

There was significant improvement in New Hanover County Schools’ student’s performance on the State’s ABC of Public Education for the 2007/2008 academic school year. There were only four elementary schools that did not meet their ABC goals and all of the middle schools met the ABC goals. The public elementary schools that did not were Alderman, Freeman, Gregory, and Murrayville. The only high school that met its ABC goal was Isaac Bear Early College High School. Read the rest of this entry

Buyers Search online versus print ads for homes in Wilmington NC

Buyers looking for homes in Wilmington NC are finding them online more often these days than not. According to NAR, consumers are five times more likely to buy a home found online versus in a newspaper, and 24 times more likely to buy a home found online than in a home book or magazine. Read the rest of this entry

Wilmington NC real estate market report

The Wilmington NC real estate market report for 2008 is available for you to view some of the most active neighborhoods with average list price, number of homes available, number of homes sold this year and the average days on market.

Search by Neighborhood

Most home buyers do prefer to define their search criteria by neighborhoods such as affordable , move up , luxury , waterfront , golf or new homes . This will enable them to search a specific neighborhood within their price range or size.

Sold data is also available for each neighborhood listed.

For further detailed information, contact Kay Baker at kaybaker@seacoastrealty.com or www.cbbaker.com .

*01/01/08-07/20/08 statistics per Wilmington Board of Realtors Rappatonni website