Home sale prices continue slow climb
Charlotte steady as other markets decline

ALLEN NORWOOD

The National Association of Realtors says home sale prices in the Charlotte area rose 4.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, continuing the slow but steady climb despite some steep declines in other markets.
The median price of existing single-family homes sold here was $198,300 during the quarter, up from to $189,800 for the same three months in 2005.
The national median was $224,900 in the third quarter, the NAR said in a release this week, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier. The median is the price at which half of homes sold for more and half for less.
There was good news for the state, too. Home sale prices continue slow climb
Across the country, existing home sales were down more than 12 percent during the three-month period. But 10 states showed increases -- including North Carolina. In fact, this state led the nation, with existing home sales rising 9.7 percent from the third quarter of 2005.

Selling Your Home During the Holiday Season

Winter may be the most wonderful time of the year, but the holiday months can be anything but miraculous for sellers with property on the market. Traditionally the real estate world slows down significantly from early November through the beginning of January, and often sellers are the ones left in the lurch.
Winter Sellers: Disadvantages
Bad weather: Potential homebuyers are only human, so naturally winter’s stormier conditions can convince many consumers to stay indoors.
Shorter days: Most buyers prefer to view homes in the full light of day, even when casually looking at houses and neighborhoods by car. With fewer daylight hours in the winter, homebuyers are usually limited to weekends for in-person showings.
Busy schedules: Time is at an absolute premium during a season of shopping for presents, attending holiday parties and traveling to visit relatives. Most people don’t feel they can spare time during these months to shop for homes or plan the move to a new home.
Winter Sellers: Advantages
Smaller Housing Inventory: Because the holidays are traditionally slower selling season and sellers are just as busy as buyers at this time of year, few homes are put on the market towards the end of the year. In addition, many previously listed properties are taken off the market as a temporary measure. While the number of active buyers is lower during the winter, sellers also face less competition.
Serious Buyers: People who are willing to rearrange their holiday schedule and brave the elements to shop for a home in general tend to be motivated, serious buyers. In many cases buyers at this time of year are invigorated by the promise of impending year-end bonuses. The demands of the season in large part also eliminate false alarms from casual buyers who are “just looking”.
Tips
Target Those Rare Winter Buyers: When buyers are harder to come by, you have to work harder to attract their attention and do more to meet their needs:
Make sure your home is well marketed on the Internet with plenty of photos and virtual tours, as buyers will spend more time browsing properties from the comfort of their own home.
Hold open houses on weekends whenever possible. Consider an evening open house event, providing coffee and light fare to those who attend.
Be flexible with your scheduling and requirements for showing the home to interested buyers
Improve Visibility: Make sure your home is well lit in the evenings and is not obscured by low hanging branches or foliage.
Update your Comparative Market Analysis: Even if you’ve previously obtained a market analysis, you may want updated information that factors in the seasonal slowing of real estate sales.
Presentation: Because it is holiday season, homebuyers may look at your home and try to imagine it as the setting for their own holiday celebrations. Make sure your home is warm and inviting without going overboard (no need to buy the biggest tree and the most lavish decorations available).

Have you bought or sold during this time of the year? Any stories you want to share??

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO MODERNIZE FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION

Legislation Will Increase Access to FHA for Potential Homebuyers
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives today passed "The Expanding American Homeownership Act,” which will increase homeownership opportunities for millions of Americans by modernizing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and returning it to its traditional role as an important financing option in today’s housing market.
"I applaud the House for passing this far-reaching legislation and express appreciation for the leadership provided by Representatives Bob Ney, Maxine Waters, Gary Miller, and Patrick Tiberi,” said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. "I expect the Senate to take similar action thanks to the efforts of Senator Jim Talent and the support of Senators Mel Martinez, Johnny Isakson, and Saxby Chambliss.”
"When FHA was formed in 1934, it was an historic event that made homeownership possible for people who had nowhere else to turn,” said Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery. "We are now closer to another landmark - a modernized, flexible FHA that can respond to the needs of today’s low and moderate-income homebuyers who need a helping hand.”
The Expanding American Homeownership Act (H.R. 5121) will enable FHA to reach more prospective borrowers and allow millions more low- and moderate-income families to achieve the American dream of homeownership. Many of these borrowers currently have little choice but to pay subprime rates because FHA lacks the ability to offer an affordable financing option.
FHA was created in 1934 to give homebuyers access to reasonably priced mortgages under fair terms. Over the years, it has been able to help more than 34 million families become homeowners and now it needs to be able to adapt to today’s marketplace. This legislation will bring FHA into the 21st Century and offer hard-working Americans a variety of safe homeownership options at a fair price.
The Expanding American Homeownership Act will:
1) Eliminate the current statutory three percent minimum down payment, reducing a significant barrier to homeownership. FHA’s existing down payment requirement does not meet the demands of today’s marketplace, where most first-time homebuyers put down two percent or less. The "new” FHA would offer a variety of down payment options.
2) Create a new, risk-based insurance premium structure for FHA that would match the premium amount with the credit profile of the borrower. It would replace the current structure, in which there is standard premium amount for all borrowers, while still protecting the soundness of its Insurance Fund. FHA would have the flexibility to charge a lower premium for low-risk borrowers, and to charge higher-risk borrowers a slightly higher premium.
3) Increase and simplify FHA’s loan limits. FHA’s loan limit in high-cost areas would rise from 87 to 100 percent of the GSE conforming loan limit and in lower-cost areas from 48 to 65 percent of the conforming loan limit. This change is crucial in today’s housing market. In many areas of the country, the existing FHA limits are lower than the cost of new construction, eliminating FHA financing as an option for buyers of new homes in those markets. FHA has simply been priced out of the market in other areas, such as California, where FHA insured only about 5,000 home mortgages in all of 2005, down 95 percent from 109,000 in 2000.
HUD is the nation's housing agency committed to increasing homeownership, particularly among minorities; creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans; and, supporting the homeless, elderly, people with disabilities and people living with AIDS. The Department also promotes economic and community development, and enforces the nation's fair housing laws. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and espanol.hud.gov.

80,000 Newcomers To Our Region in a Year

Influx influences all, from demographics to restaurant menus
LEIGH DYER
Ldyer@charlotteobserver.com
There's a new number in town: 80,000.
That's how many newcomers from outside the Carolinas move to the Charlotte region in a year, an Observer analysis of new data from the American Community Survey shows. It's more than the population of Asheville.
It dwarfs the commonly cited annual population growth estimate of 50,000 per year for Mecklenburg and surrounding counties, based on census data. That figure, the net growth, subtracts those who move away.
And the 80,000 figure doesn't include those who move within the Carolinas, so the actual number of newcomers each year is much higher.
The data give new perspective on the influences of newcomers who are transforming everything from the roads we drive to the languages we hear and the food we eat.
The 2005 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau offers an opportunity to see who they are and why they moved here.
"It's a big number," said Wachovia economist Mark Vitner, who tracks the region's population trends. "The influx of newcomers validates the things that Charlotte has been doing right. People have a high quality of life in Charlotte."
That's one of the reasons Jim and Teri Consol moved from Endicott, N.Y., to south Charlotte in 2004. They're from the No. 1 state of origin for newcomers outside the Carolinas, according to the survey.
Last December, they opened Zio Italian Restaurant in Charlotte's Eastover neighborhood and introduced dishes including chicken sofia, bracciole and "hot pie" -- another name for pizza.
But eventually they took the chicken dish, served with a roasted garlic cream sauce and vegetables, and bracciole, a rolled steak braised in tomato sauce, off the menu. They weren't selling as well here as they do at their other restaurant, Consol's, back in New York.
"We were told, you'd better serve sweet tea no matter what," Jim Consol said.
The Consols and their 6-year-old daughter love the city's climate, beauty and people, they said. They've met so many people from their hometown that they're forming a club for Endicott transplants.
They're aware they're part of a transforming wave.
"The diversity is nice," Jim Consol said. "You have some of that Southern hospitality mixed with the influences from different areas."
Higher education
Newcomers are more likely to have a higher education than non-newcomers, the survey statistics show. The percentage of newcomers with Ph.D.s is about twice as high as that of non-newcomers."The best and brightest and most highly motivated folks are the ones most likely to move where the best opportunities are," said Wachovia's Vitner.
Sharon Portwood, 45, moved with her husband and two sons to Charlotte last year from Kansas City, Mo., where she had been an associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri. She was lured by a newly created job at UNC Charlotte: executive director of the Institute for Social Capital, which works to connect the university with social service agencies in the community.
"I fell in love with it," she said of the city. "There are an amazing number of people who are very prominent nationally in what they do who have moved to Charlotte."
She cited Janet Singerman, who heads Child Care Resources, and Peggy Eagan, who heads the Children & Family Services Center, as national leaders in their fields who work in Charlotte.
She's had to make an adjustment, though: "Coming from Kansas City, things move at a much faster pace in Charlotte."
Young and single
A slightly higher proportion of newcomers are African American than non-movers -- 20 percent versus 18 percent. Movers are more likely to be single than non-movers. They're also likely to be younger -- the median age for newcomers is 29, while the median age of non-movers is 38, the survey found.
Eric Bailey represents all of those trends. Bailey, 29, moved to Charlotte from Denver last October. "I wanted to go to a city that's small, but not sleepy, and it doesn't have the chaotic nature of New York," he said.
His first job was with Denver-based Pulte Mortgage, which opened its first East Coast outpost in Charlotte. In February, he switched to Duke Energy, where he works in information technology. In that respect, he represents another trend -- newcomers are more than twice as likely to work in the IT field than non-movers.
Newcomers are also more likely to work in construction, professional fields and the entertainment/restaurant industries than long-timers.
"A lot of companies are moving (to Charlotte) and I thought, `Hey, it's a great place to start out,' " Bailey said.
Bailey has been a bit confounded by Southern accents and words with unfamiliar meanings -- such as "cut it off" instead of "power it down" for turning off a computer. He has gotten a kick out of learning the meaning of the expression "bless your heart."
He's also aware of the powerful forces changing Charlotte. "You've got a lot of people from the North moving here to spice things up," he said. "(Charlotte) has a large, diverse culture. It's a traditional culture, but it's very diverse."