February 2013 Recap

Posted Heather McLayPosted in News Letter

We are beginning to see the subtle signs of spring’s approach along the Outer Banks. The daffodils are in full bloom and the ospreys have returned to their long vacant nest. Overall, winter has remained mild. We’ve had just a dusting of snow on one occasion and only a couple of days that saw temperatures dip below freezing.

The big news this month concerns the National Flood Insurance Program. Homeowners who had insurance for 2nd homes and investments homes will no longer be able to enjoy the benefits of subsidized flood insurance. The program is calling for drastic rate increases over the next 4 years of 25% per year for these properties. Unfortunately, this will impact most of our clients in the area. We are enclosing a more detailed article concerning these changes for your review.

If you are a Dare County property owner you have already gotten your new tax assessed values in the mail. Currituck County is also in the process of mailing them out, and many of you may already have them. The average decrease in values is 29%. Dare County has already released the new tax rate of .41 per $100 of assessed values. Currituck Counties’ rate will likely be comparable to Dare’s. The good news is that if your assessed value decreased by 25% or more, there is a very good chance that your taxes are actually going to go down! The tax assessments are not normally an accurate reflection of true market value, but if you don’t feel like your assessed value has been reduced enough you can contest the new value by using the form enclosed with your assessment. If you feel like the value is too low and you’d like to verify how close to true market value the assessment is we will be happy to provide a tax value market analysis for you.

In real estate news we have seen a slight increase in inventory to begin 2013. We do not believe the 15% increase in inventory is anything to worry about, as inventory is normally a bit higher early in the year and thins out as summer approaches. The number of properties placed under contract is holding steady. Residential sales are down by 5% year-to-date, while land sales are up by 116%. Dare County foreclosure fillings are 66% fewer than this time last year. And the number of distressed property sales is stable for both Dare and Currituck Counties for 5 months running. Interest rates have increased about a ¼ point, so this remains an outstanding time to buy Outer Banks real estate.

As always, if you have any real estate related concerns, we’d love to hear from you.

January 2013 Recap

Posted Heather McLayPosted in News Letter

We’ve been lucky thus far, and old man winter has been fairly kind to us.  Despite a minimal snow fall towards the end of the month, most of January was pleasant.  We even spent some days at the park in short sleeves, and our greens are still thriving in the backyard garden. Martin Luther King weekend brought a hearty crowd to the Outer Banks too.  We continue to notice an increasing number of winter visitors to our area, therefore decreasing our “off season” each year.  We expect Presidents’ Day weekend to be almost summer-like with the weekend influx.

We are finally beginning to see sales picking up after a long, but typical, holiday respite.  The number of properties placed under contract is once again on the upswing, and our listings are being shown regularly again.  We expect things to pick up with haste as spring and summer approach.  Spring remains our busiest time of year for sales, as the lure of beach property attracts even the most conservative of investors this time of year.  With summer rental income on the books, and interest rates at their lowest since the early 70’s, the timing simply couldn’t be better.  Inventory has steadily declined since 2010, but there are still plenty of attractive properties available.  The decline in foreclosure filings is helping to stabilize our market.  Distressed property sales also continue to decline.  The market is making a slow and steady comeback, as we predicted it would.

 

We appreciate your business and take seriously your trust and confidence in our ability to get the job done.