Things are back to normal, and they couldn’t be better after the close call we had with Florence!  The sun has been shining non-stop, and the temperatures are still very summer-like.  With that being said, the beaches are still packed with out of town guests, homeowners,  and locals enjoying the best time of the year here!   The surfing and fishing have been some of the best we’ve seen in long time!   Oh how the fall is like a warm embrace after a long day!

In local news the towns and tourism board have been hosting several events to draw in more visitors to the Outer Banks.  The Duck Jazz Festival, the OBX Bluegrass Festival, the Parade of Homes, and the Outer Banks Seafood Festival have been very successful for bringing in more tourism dollars for our area.  This is always something positive to note when discussing local happenings and real estate.   More tourism equals more prospective home buyers!

In real estate news, things seem to be picking back up after that slight hiccup called Florence.  The OBX Homes Team had numerous request to show properties over the past few weeks and several owners asking about possible sales prices for their properties.   With interest rates steadily climbing and projected to continue we have noticed some more buyers trying to lock down properties before there is another increase.  Overall we are a bit slower than our normal fall season, but we are hoping to rebound and end the year on a better note.

We’ve included the September OBAR statistics report for your review, but if you would like a more tailored report with specific figures for your neighborhood, please let us know.  If you’ve been thinking about selling, we are happy to assist you with a free market analysis of your property.  If you or anyone you know is interested in buying a property, we would love to help find the perfect home on the Outer Banks.  

The OBX Homes Team is making an effort to help the environment and decrease our paper output, so if you’d like to help with reducing our paper use, please send us a current email. We will send you a notification each month to look on our website for the updated owner note and statistics report.  We appreciate your effort to help with this and thank you. We will continue with owner mailings to those who wish to receive them by mail.

Please stop by our office in Duck to say hello if you’re in the area, and as always, please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions, or if you need anything. 

The OBX Homes Team

As soon as Labor Day was upon us and the local businesses were ready to enjoy their favorite part of the year,  Hurricane Florence started knocking on our door.    Everyone living or owning homes along the entire North Carolina coast watched the news, trying to figure out the path of this storm.  One day it was  aiming right at us, and the next it was heading south!   The media had made it clear the storm was moving slower than most hurricanes do, and this could cause catastrophic damage by floods and storm surges.  Luckily, Hurricane Florence’s strength weakened and did not impact the northern parts of the Outer Banks like some had predicted.  Our thoughts go out to all our neighbors south of us who were affected.

In real estate news, the last couple of weeks were on pause while everyone waited to see what was happening with the storm.  However, the OBX Homes Team has been answering many emails and phone calls from potential buyers asking to see homes right after the storm.  So we feel confident we will see activity pick up, as usual, as we go into the fall season.

We’ve included the August OBAR statistics report for your review, but if you would like a tailored report with specific figures for your neighborhood, please let us know.  If you’ve been thinking about selling, we are happy to assist you with a free market analysis of your property.  If you or anyone you know is interested in buying a property, we would love to help find the perfect home on the Outer Banks.  

The OBX Homes Team is making an effort to help the environment by decreasing our paper output, so if you’d like to help with this, please send us a current email. We will send you a notification each month to look on our website for the updated owner note and statistics report.  We will continue with owner mailings to those who wish to receive them by mail.

Please stop by our office in Duck to say hello if you’re in the area, and as always, please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions, or if you need anything. 

The OBX Homes Team

We hope you all had a great 4th of July and are enjoying the summer!   The weather has been consistently sunny and hot, and the tourists are happy to have perfect beach days!   Everything is showing signs for a great summer season.

In real estate news, things have slowed down quite a bit for July.   The OBX Homes Team did have an above average number of closings for the month of June which we are excited to announce.  On the other hand, the number of request to show or view properties has declined to almost nothing since of the start of this month.  This is typical for the summer months, since it is harder to show houses with renters, and unpleasant to navigate through heavy traffic.   Some good news to repeat is the National Flood Insurance Program has been extended from July 31 for another half of year, which will help homeowners with keeping or obtaining flood insurance at a lower than previously proposed rate.    Another positive settlement occurred between the insurance and state of NC concerning dwelling insurance.  This type of insurance is specifically for homeowners who rent their properties or use them as second homes.  The initial increase in rates was estimated to add almost 19% to the current rates.   The NC Commissioner was successful in lowering the proposed increase to just under 5%  which will start in the beginning of 2019.   This is exceptional news for any and all of our homeowners here along the Outer Banks.

We’ve included the June OBAR statistics report for your review, but if you would like a tailored report with specific figures for your neighborhood, please let us know.  If you’ve been thinking about selling, we are happy to assist you with a free market analysis of your property.  If you or anyone you know is interested in buying a property, we would love to help find the perfect home on the Outer Banks.  

The OBX Homes Team is making an effort to help the environment and decrease our paper output, so if you’d like to help with reducing our paper use, please send us a current email. We will send you a notification each month to look on our website for the updated owner note and statistics report.  We appreciate your effort to help with this and thank you. We will continue with owner mailings to those who wish to receive them by mail.

Please stop by our office in Duck to say hello if you’re in the area, and as always, please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions, or if you need anything. 

We hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!  The weather was about as perfect as it could be to kick off the summer season.  We hope the sunny days and sunshine continue throughout the summer for everyone who visits and lives here.

In local news, the Board of Commissioners is set to vote on June 18 about keeping the Currituck County property tax rate the same for the upcoming fiscal year.  No hikes on property taxes is always good news for us.  The current tax rate for property owners in Currituck County has remained the same for almost a half a decade.   Another important item to note is that since late spring , Corolla has been working on having paid staff around the clock for the Whalehead and Pine Island fire departments.  In the past few years the number of fire calls has increased significantly.   This has prompted the town to address the situation by adding full time paid staff.

In the world of real estate, things have started to flatten out for the summer.  There was a spike later than normal in the spring, and now that has leveled off.  The requests to show properties have diminished, and the number of properties going under contract are much fewer.   We remain positive that after the summer season the market will pick back up and continue producing strong sales in the fall.