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.

It is safe to say the warmer weather might be here to stay for awhile.  The pollen is turning the cars yellow, and the birds can’t stop singing!  The tourist season is rapidly approaching, and we are expecting another season with high numbers of visitors and newcomers to the beach.   Every year it is amazing how many people come here for the first time, and end up making this a new permanent destination for future vacations.

In local news, the Wright Memorial Bridge eastbound bridge will be back up and running around May 14.  The bridge has been closed since October, and despite the unfavorable weather this winter they will be able to open as scheduled.  Another important item to note is the new traffic patterns concerning anyone who uses Dogwood Trail as a “bypass” to the northern beaches.  The town of Southern Shores voted for no left turns at the U.S. 158/South Dogwood intersection to take place for just a single weekend (Saturday, June 23 and Sunday, June 24 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) as an experiment to decide if this  prevents unnecessary traffic through that part of the town.

On the real estate front, we are still seeing fairly low initial offers.  The good news is there has been an increase in the percentage of sales price to the listing price.  With that being said, most properties are selling just above 90% of asking price.  New construction has been gaining momentum in the real estate market for this year.  According to the OBAR statistics “building permits in Dare County have increased 15% since 2017.”  Concerns about flood maps, increasing insurance, and rising interest rates don’t seem to be affecting too much of the market as we had originally thought in the early spring.  Activity levels for last month have shown signs for a favorable market, and we hope that continues to be a trend.

As always, please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions, or if you need anything.   We’ve included the April 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.  Please feel free to stop by our office in Duck to say hello if you’re in the area.

Mother nature is definitely still confused.  We saw snow flurries in March, and only a few days of spring-like weather.  Let’s hope the latter part of spring brings warmer weather and flowers!  

In local area news, the Town of Duck has been working all winter long on completing the sidewalk project.   If you’ve been through Duck recently you might have noticed all of the orange cones and even slower traffic.  The good news is this project should be done by the beginning of the summer season and allow more room for our walking tourists.   

The last weekend in March and beginning of April had high numbers of tourists and homeowners in town for the holiday.  Twiddy had a great turnout at their annual “Owner’s Weekend.”  Many came to talk with the rental side of the company and to see all of the great things Twiddy has to offer their owners.   We thank you again for being a part of the Twiddy experience. 

In real estate news,  the market seems to have stalled a bit.  To quote the OBAR MLS statistics report “So far, 2018 has not been a banner year.”  This is not exactly encouraging news, but we have noticed a significant number of inquiries regarding listings and requests to show properties  come our way in the last week. We are optimistic that April and May will be stronger months for sales.  We believe the weather was a considerable factor in why the market was slow.  The first week of April was somewhat mild, and in that same week the OBX Homes Team was able to get eight properties under contract!   With that being said, we feel the next few weeks could dramatically change the numbers for our local market in a good way.

As always, please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions, or if you need anything.   We’ve included the March 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. Please feel free to stop by our office in Duck to say hello if you’re in the area.