Baby Boomers Thriving on Real Estate

America's first "baby boomer" filed for Social Security benefits last week, and 80 million more are expected to follow over the next two decades. As they begin to reach retirement age, new research shows that the majority of boomers are financially stable due in part to high rates of real estate ownership.The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the overall rate of home ownership among Americans is 69 percent, but nearly eight in ten boomers own their own home. What's more, over 25 percent own at least one other piece of property, according to a study commissioned by the National Association of Realtors, "Baby Boomers and Real Estate: Today and Tomorrow."These investments are helping give baby boomers unprecedented financial stability. Their median household net worth is $149,500, two thirds of which can be attributed to home equity. Boomers say real estate is a key to securing their futures, with 96 percent of respondents touting home ownership as a good financial investment.The majority of baby boomers surveyed rely on Realtors to help with the home buying process, especially to represent their interests and explain the closing process from beginning to end. Take heed from "the greatest real estate generation"

Homeownership Down 1 Percent From It’s Peak In United States

Here is an interesting stat that came from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Homeownership rose from 64% in 1994 to 69% in 2004. Since 2004 the rate of homeownership has declined nearly a point to 68.2%.
The combination of upward mobility and easier credit opened many doors to owning ones own home. However, back in 2004 the focus was on greater opportunity for new homebuyers, now with tighter credit many are caught in a crunch.
Many analysts have pointed to easy lending as a contributor to the housing boom, but the Atlanta Fed paper may be the first to quantify its effect in a rigorous way. Using math-heavy macroeconomic analysis, the authors conclude that the availability of new mortgage options accounted for 56% to 70% of the decade-long increase in the U.S. homeownership rate, while demographic changes accounted for only 16% to 31%. Although the paper cites lowered downpayment requirements as the biggest factor in raising ownership, co-author Carlos Garriga of the St. Louis Fed says a forthcoming paper will attribute more of the effect to “teaser” loans with low introductory payments that appeal to young and lower-income buyers. via Business Week
The homeowners on the bottom end of the rung, those that comprise the homeowners in the 64% to 68% range, are obviously the ones that have the greatest risk in homeownership. What will be interesting to see is since loose credit was a primary reason for them to become homeowners and now we are facing tighter credit again, what will the downside be to the national housing market?
And with fewer potential buyers and the speculators gone, what will the larger market use to find the bottom since there is pressure with both high inventory and more foreclosures on the horizon?

Wilmington Named A Best Performing City

Most Wilmington residents can easily explain why they choose to call the Port City home: pristine beaches, the historic downtown and that distinctive Southern charm. Now, Wilmington is winning applause for its bottom line: an outstanding job market and economic growth.Wilmington jumped from 59th to No. 2 on the Milken Institute's 2007 Best Performing Cities Index, compiled by the independent economic think tank that ranks U.S. cities based on their ability to create and sustain jobs. Local experts are touting the growth as well. Dr. William Hall Jr., senior economist for UNCW's Center for Business and Economic Services, predicts the Cape Fear region will end the year with a growth rate of about 5 percent " more than double the forecasted growth rate for North Carolina and the nation. This above-average growth is expected to continue into 2008. Hall expects a flourishing job market, increased consumer spending and an upswing in the real estate market to drive Wilmington's economic growth in the coming year. There's no doubt Wilmington-area residents enjoy an unparalleled quality of life. The time has never been better to relocate to the up-and-coming Cape Fear region

Raising Commission Paid To Buyers Agent May Sell Your Home

If I were to sell my home tomorrow I think I know how to do so. Instead of going on the cheap on the commission with a discount broker trying to save some of the difference in housing prices from the peak, I would go the other direction and prey on human nature. I would offer a higher commission to the buyers agent.
Now there are some nay sayers that will say, “Tom, you are such a homer for the real estate agents, of course you will say raise the commissions.” And you would be completely off base.
When the real estate market was rocking I was calling for lower commissions. Selling a home was like shooting fish in a barrel and thus commissions should be lower. But the real estate world is not rocking, it is hurting. Hurting bad as they say in the south. There are real estate agents waiting tables like actors it is hurting so bad.
So sellers should prey on human nature. If a real estate agent is having a bad year but has a buyer, don’t you think their is the slightest chance they may look in the MLS and sort homes for sale by buyers commission? And if your home has an extra incentive in it for them that they may just happen to show your house even if it is not the perfect fit in a down market? I have never seen a home sell without a buyer, have you?
I am not glorifying the real estate agents with this post, but I am recognizing they are human. And if it takes a little motivation to get your home shown in a down market, then good for you. Here is an example of this from an article in the St. Petersburg Times.
With home sales less than half of what they were during the 2005 peak, you would think commissions would shrink. Underemployed agents are chasing a dwindling number of sales. But just because you can bargain hard on commissions doesn’t mean you always should. Think of it this way: A commission is prize money. All things being equal, a buyer’s agent will show a home paying a 6.5 percent commission to one paying 4 percent.That’s why I sweetened the pot by offering an extra 0.5 percent for the buyer’s agent. Compared with other homes for sale in my neighborhood, my commission was the highest. Less than two weeks after my agent and I signed the contract for 6.5 percent, we had a deal on my house. An acquaintance living nearby who offered 4 percent hasn’t sold his house in a year.via SF Gate
Now for a little math to help you decide this may be the right way to go. Let’s say you are selling a $250,000 dollar home. The commission at 6 percent is $15,000. If you added a 1% bonus to the buyers agent the commission would be $17,500, a difference of $2,500. But it would also put you at the top of the chart on buyers commission paid in your community and odds are you house would be shown a great deal more than others in your price range.
If you sold the home a month quicker you would be very close to breaking even at a 6.35 percent mortgage and typical utility and tax costs added in. And you would have a home sold in a down market which in itself is no mean feat.
So my advice to motivated sellers. Sweeten the buyers agent commission. Prey on the greed of the real estate agents. You are not being taken by the real estate cartel by offering a better commission. Instead you will be putting yourself ahead of the other homesellers and may have a better chance in selling your home in a down market.

Booming Leland-area growth crowds Belville Elementary

As Shaunita Wallace teaches her Belville Elementary School class geology, earth moves outside.Bulldozers bellow.New housing construction literally surrounds the school, and several other developments have broken ground nearby along N.C. 133.That means more families, and more students for the already crowded Belville Elementary. School officials are worried that Wallace's modular classroom and the seven others at the school will be inadequate to handle spillover after the spike in enrollment expected for next school year.So they will be taken away, and a building with eight classrooms will go where the school playground is now. In turn, the playground will be moved to where the modular classrooms are, said Stephen Miley, the schools' executive director of operations.The Brunswick County Board of Education recently approved the fixed classroom additions, which are designed to hold a total of 192 students, with 24 per classroom. That's 32 more students than the modular classrooms can hold altogether, Miley said."I'll miss it," Wallace said of her classroom. "But I'm glad we're getting the additions."She calls her modular classroom her "home away from home.""I love being out here, and it being so new," said Wallace, a fourth-grade teacher.Belville Elementary is the county's most crowded school, with a population of 826 students. That brings the school 42 students over its capacity of 784, including the modular classrooms, school system data show.Miley expects the new classrooms to be completed by August, in time for the next school year. He projects enrollment at the school to climb to 913 then.And that's just for starters. Finding additions alone will not be enough to serve the area's soaring population, the school system plans to open another elementary school in the northern part of the county in August 2009.6,775 new homes comingWrapping around Belville Elementary is Hawkeswater at the River, known better, perhaps, for the graves recently unearthed there than for the 455 homes to be built within the next several years. This and another five developments already approved along the northern section of N.C. 133 will have a combined 6,775 units by the time they are finished, according to data from Leland and the county government.All those homes will emerge along a stretch of road about five miles long, most of them in Leland. That does not include the town's Brunswick Forest, which, with a planned 10,000 or so units, has its entrance nearby on U.S. 17."They're being proactive," Joyce Beatty, principal at Belville Elementary, said about the school system.Regarding the additions in the works for her school, Beatty said parents prefer classrooms inside a building because of "inclement weather." She and Miley prefer them, too; Miley said "the learning environment is much better" in them.For Wallace and most of her students, letting go of the modular classroom might prove bittersweet."I was the first person to use the modular, so it's got my own feel to it," Wallace said. "Kids helped me decorate it."In a show of hands, 17 out of 20 students in Wallace's class indicated that they'd rather be in a modular than a fixed classroom.Some said they like that the teacher can change the temperature herself when it gets hot in the modular classroom. They also like being close to the nature outside and isolated from the noise people make in the main building. But one girl said she'd rather be in a classroom inside a building because it would keep her safer from possible floods and terrorist attacks.Addition, new site plannedThe new building will have a total of 13,000 square feet and cost between $2.1 million and $2.2 million to build, according to a recent presentation by MHAworks, the architects designing it. The Durham-based firm designed similar additions for Jessie Mae Monroe and Supply elementary schools, and each of those took about a year to finish, Superintendent Katie McGee said.Right now, only one fourth-grade and one fifth-grade class are in internal classrooms at Belville Elementary; the modular classrooms hold four classes for each of those two grades, Beatty said.The school has seven kindergarten and first-grade classes, six second-grade classes and five third-grade classes, the principal said, emphasizing the school ought to be ready as that student population moves up into fourth and fifth grades.Belville Elementary is one of two elementary schools serving the northern part of the county. The other one is Leland's Lincoln Elementary, which is also crowded.The newly christened Town Creek Elementary, to be built on a 22-acre site by Town Creek Township park at Winnabow, is expected to be ready to share the burden of the county's northern population boom by the 2009-10 school year.It will have capacity for 650 students and cost more than $15 million to build.

SCHUMACHER HOMES WILMINGTON NC LOCATION GRAND OPENING

SCHUMACHER HOMES WILMINGTON NC LOCATION GRAND OPENING
WILMINGTON, NC – February 21, 2007 – Schumacher Homes, an on-your-lot custom homebuilder, is pleased to announce the GRAND OPENING of their Custom Home Design Center in Wilmington, NC. They build custom homes on their customers’ home sites in Bladen, Columbus, Brunswick, Pender, Onslow and New Hanover Counties from 1350 sq. ft. to 7000+ sq. ft. at prices ranging from $120,000 to $750,000+.
“We know that buying a home is a really big decision. That’s why we work harder to make sure our customers have all the support and information they need to make the very best choice every step of the way,” states Paul T. Schumacher, CEO and founder of Schumacher Homes. “Our commitment has been unwavering to provide An Unbeatable Price, Value and Experience in Custom Homebuilding.”
Schumacher Homes is committed to a straightforward custom homebuilding process and is the first homebuilder in the country to use Smart Board™ technology in the design and pricing of their custom homes. They have developed Front Door™, a state-of-the-art price quote program that presents more than 200 standard and optional features available, showing all pricing, descriptions, and images of the selections made. They have also developed Front Door At Home™, which provides exclusive access for customers to make their selections on-line.
By providing customers with quality, value, selection and service, Schumacher Homes has earned various industry awards including the Owens Corning National Master Builder of the Year and #1 Design Center in America presented by National Association of Home Builders. Most recently, Schumacher Homes was awarded the coveted Diamond Builder status by 2-10 Home Buyer’s Warranty. Only 46 builders nationwide hold the Diamond Builder status. This designation is awarded to builders who have demonstrated building superiority and excellence in customer service.

The GRAND OPENING of the Wilmington Design Center will be held Tuesday, April 10, 2007. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be at 11:30 by Paul T. Schumacher, and the Mayor of Wilmington, the Honorable Bill Saffo. For more information, visit their Design Center, open daily M-F 10-6, Sa 10-5 and Su 1-5, at 6801 Parker Farm Drive, Wilmington, NC in Mayfair Community Center. You may also call 910-256-6390 or 866-690-6390 or visit their website, www.schumacherhomes.com.

Wilmington buyers enjoys the great weather

Well looks to be another great weekend for fro the Wilmington NC real estate area. The weather will be perfect for Wrightsville Beaches annual triathlon, with temperatures reaching the upper 70’s and not a cloud in the sky the athletes can not ask for mother nature to cooperate any better. Simultaneously the area schools green team are having there beach cleaning program going on. All the children and some parents will be walking the beach cleaning it up to help out our environment. What a better day can we ask for, so grab the wife and go check out some open houses in the Wilmington real estate arena.

Wilmington water ban brings out tattletales

The historic Latimer House turned on its sprinklers Wednesday, and heads turned with them.Neighbors called, a board member stopped by, then came an inquiry from the city and questions from a reporter.“There has been a lot of reaction to that 20 minutes,” said Candace McGreevy, executive director of the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, which runs the museum.It’s a sign of the times. In the week since the city of Wilmington implemented water restrictions, more than 200 people have called the city’s conservation hot line with complaints about water use, including calls about the Latimer House, whose perch on Third Street makes it highly visible.Looks can be deceiving, though. The Latimer House runs its own well, McGreevy said, putting it outside the city’s ban on irrigation. Still, McGreevy said they were doing all they could to conserve water. The front sprinklers were turned on Wednesday only because of a plumbing emergency that required turning on that part of the system, she said.“I am glad they’re paying attention,” McGreevy said. “We certainly don’t want to waste water.”Such public vigilance seems to be paying off in the city’s water conservation efforts as the state deals with a prolonged drought. On Oct. 16, the day before the city council adopted the restrictions, Wilmington gulped down 19.7 million gallons of water. A week later, use had dropped more than 20 percent to 15.2 million gallons.Much of the savings has come through cuts in irrigation. The University of North Carolina Wilmington, by far the city’s biggest consumer of water, has turned off its sprinklers with exemptions for new landscaping paid for by a state bond, said Jacqueline Major, who leads the city’s water conservation effort.“We are hoping that between now and the real cold weather, we get enough rain to get through winter,” said Robert Warren, superintendent of landscape services at UNCW.From July 2005 to June 2006, UNCW used 92 million gallons of water, more than double the city’s next thirstiest client, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, which downed 42 million gallons.With only herself and another worker taking calls, Major said response to the city’s hot line has been inundating. She estimated they had received several hundred complaints and more than 70 questions from people wanting clarification on such things as whether they can powerwash (no), wash their cars (only at a car wash) or use sprinklers on freshly laid sod (with tight limits).“It’s got to be kept to a minimum and only on brand new sod,” she said.So far, city workers have been following up complaints with phone calls, provided the caller leaves an address that allows them to look up the number. Some alleged offenders are startled by the call, but usually come around once they hear the reason, Major said.“The majority of people we have been calling or have been calling us are extremely cooperative,” she said. Until Nov. 5, violators face only a warning, Major said. Then they risk $500 fines.To speed the process, callers leaving complaints will not receive return calls, although their messages will be followed up, Major said.The Star-News is among the potential violators identified by the hot line, although callers might have been responding to sprinklers running before the ban. Terrie Millard, the newspaper’s financial services manager, said the company turned off its irrigation system on Oct. 17, the day the city council adopted the limits.

Housing Slowdown Good For Wall Street? For Now Folks, For Now

The fortunes of the national housing market and Wall Street have had an inverse relationship over the past decade. When the tech boom was occurring at the end of the 1990’s, investment in housing was stagnant. Then the combination of 9/11, the ending of the internet boom and subsequent stock market created the recent surge in housing that lasted through 2005.
Sales of existing homes plunged 8 percent in September to the slowest annual pace in nearly a decade. The report did not bode well for the overall economy, and at first stocks dropped on the news.But the data also bolstered hopes that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates again when it meets next week, making it easier to borrow money. Just the possibility of a cut was enough to erase the morning’s declines and send the Dow Jones industrials to a flat close.It is still far from certain what actions the Fed will take at its meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. A resilient job market, a narrowing trade deficit and strong retail sales all point to an economy that is weathering the subprime mortgage crisis and may not need federal intervention. via New York Times.
The stock market broke out of it’s slump in 2004 and has been tracking upward since, just as investors we running from the housing market and interest rates started to climb. Now Wall Street has been seeing historic highs as the housing market is in the depths of depression. Where will the investors go?
My bet, they will stay in the stock market till housing hits it’s bottom. Then, as interest rates and housing prices have declined, they will return to the housing market and stabilize the inventory. You have to remember that the overhang of inventory in the housing market was built for the investor class to trade, not for the demand in housing units to be lived in.
The investor class in the United States has grown tremendously over the past few decades. Instead of a small part of the population able to make investment bets, a large part of the population now has cash and assets that can be invested in their 401k’s and other saving plans. This money moves quickly and is not reliant on a few fat cats making big moves.
So when the trend is to get out of the stock market and into housing as everyone was saying in 2001, the masses did. Then conventional wisdom said to get out of real estate and back into stocks. The housing market slumped as Wall Street roared.
One of these days the word will go out, Wall Street is dangerous and housing is where the deals are. Then the tide will turn and the new investor class will buy up all the REO properties, pricing will go up pulling those on the edge in bad loans out of their troubles, and every real estate agent will be proclaiming their genius as homes will be selling like hotcakes.
Real estate is not just for living in now, it is part of the economic market for the American investor. That means we will see greater swings in valuation for both the homeowner and investor. We are just living in a new paradigm and yet to recognize it.

Residents say traffic relief long overdue

If you build it, they will come.Residents of the Windemere neighborhood off Eastwood Road knew this years ago, before crews ever broke ground on Mayfaire. They even formed their own group, the Windemere Residents Association, to push the city of Wilmington for relief from the extra vehicles they anticipated the development would bring to their neighborhood.Mayfaire Town Center has been open for more than three years and construction on Military Cutoff Road has been a fact of life almost since day one. Residents of the nearby streets say the city might as well have fired a starting gun when the shops began operating, and they're upset officials haven't done more to help them."Traffic increased 20-fold when Mayfaire opened," said Richard Veit, who has lived on Tanbridge Road for 20 years and was co-chairman of the residents group before it became inactive. "You no longer see children playing in the street. I think more parents are driving their children, even to the school bus stops, because it's unsafe. You see fewer people walking their dogs because there are no sidewalks."The neighborhood was outside city limits when it was planned, built and later annexed, so sidewalks were never required.Almost three years ago, city officials proposed a speed-limit reduction and several traffic-calming measures for the neighborhood, including mini-circles and speed humps. Since then, the only actions taken were in 2005, when the city lowered the speed limit to 25 mph and implemented pavement markings to help define the travel path for motorists, a city official said.But Jim Flechtner, transportation manager for the city of Wilmington's Development Services, said Friday that relief for Windemere is immiment. The proposed traffic-calming measures for the neighborhood were considered long-term solutions when they were developed in March 2005, he said. After Charlotte-based LPA Group designed them, they went to the state to be reviewed for permits, including storm water, Flechtner said. The city received the necessary permits within the past month, and in the next two weeks the project will enter the bidding process, he added.He said it will take 60 to 90 days to award a bid and sign a contract, allowing construction to begin. Construction should be complete within 120 days, Flechtner said."We've worked with the residents," he said. "We had two public meetings to find out what their comments were to come up with the solutions. It's something we do collaboratively with the neighborhoods."Veit said Wednesday that Wilmington officials should have acted more quickly in finding relief for him and his neighbors. He said he's been unable to get answers about when the traffic-calming measures would be implemented and why they have taken so long to complete."The city has abandoned us," he said. "All of the traffic-calming measures they promised us, not one of them has been installed. We've been seduced, ignored, abandoned. We were promised by both the city staff and Mayfaire that they would prevent Windemere from being used as a route for non-neighborhood traffic. It was a lie all the way around."As the Military Cutoff Road project enters its final, most labor-intensive stages, traffic through Windemere has gotten even worse, Veit said."It's picked up since summer started," he said. "I thought it was just a tourist thing, but as the fall comes on it really hasn't died down much."Veit said he expects the completion of the road, slated for next month, will alleviate some of the volume, but he still thinks traffic-calming measures will be necessary for Windemere's safety.Last month, a Star-News reporter clocked speeders using a hand-held radar gun along several Wilmington streets, including Tanbridge Road.There, 96 percent of vehicles checked were speeding and 36 percent were going 10 mph or more over the limit. It was the worst street for both measures out of all 10 neighborhoods visited.Speeding citations on Windemere and Tanbridge roads peaked in 2005 at 17, up from 2 in 2003 and 10 in 2004, according to statistics compiled by the Wilmington Police Department. There were 5 each in 2006 and for 2007 through the first three weeks of October, statistics show.Lt. Jeff Allsbrook of the police department's Patrol Services Division said he gets more traffic-related complaints from Windemere than any other neighborhood in the two districts he oversees."It's a big task," he said of enforcement efforts. "It takes a lot of man hours and a lot of personnel, and we do the best we can. They're trying to find measures other than traffic enforcement."Flechtner said Windemere's traffic problems were similar to many others in the growing city. "I don't think it stands out any more than any other neighborhood," he said.But Sue Bulluck, who has lived on Tanbridge Road for 31 years, said Windemere has yet to see the worst, citing plans for Autumn Hall, a 236-acre mixed-use project on Eastwood Road."Will any calming device ever be sufficient to control the increase in traffic based on adjacencies to two commercial areas? Probably not," she said. "I'm certainly hopeful that the changes will improve things, but I don't have a lot of confidence at this point."