Blue Ridge Parkway Fall Colors

This Fall has been primed for a great vista of colors. With a vast amount of early Fall rain, October and early November are going to present the High Country with plenty of hues. Red, Orange, Brown, Yellow, and Green will present the perfect backdrop for beautiful Blue skies all across the Mountain Region.

So where should you go? Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, relax at some of the gorgeous parks, fly fish up and down several of our rivers and creeks, or take a back road and discover new trails and waterfalls as you drive through the countryside.

For more information, post a question or comment below.

Thank you,

Marc White
Marketing Specialist
828-406-2134
Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Changes in local Unemployment Levels

In North Carolina's 100 counties, unemployment rates fell in 90 of the counties (according to a recent report by the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. The High Country dropped in each of our counties, Ashe fell to 10.7 percent, Avery County dropped to 8.2 percent, and Watauga County's rate reduced to 7.6 percent. Watauga County is tied for fifth across our state with one of the lowest unemployment rates.

Neighboring areas, like Hickory and Lenoir are still struggling mightily with an unemployment rate that has dropped to 14.6 percent.

Marc White

Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro

Broker/REALTOR

Direct 828-406-2134

Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

Leadership Workshop

Tonight I had the pleasure to meet Vaughn Grisham, the Director of the McLean Institue for Community Development and Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi. After 40 years of studying and developing leadership philosophies and techniques, our workshop tonight was very beneficial. If you have not had the oppertunity to learn from Mr. Grisham, or read one of his books, you have missed out on a great educational experience.

Why do I mention my meeting Mr. Grisham tonight? If you, or anyone you know, is working to develop yourself as a better leader or you wish to learn more leadership techniques (whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the committee chair for your organization) Mr. Grisham has knowledge you need to obtain.

He titled our Workshop tonight, How to obtain Extraordniary Results from Ordniary Places. Over my lifetime, I have had the pleasure of learning from some of the greatest minds in leadership. But it is amazing to learn so much in such a short time period. Call me nieve, but I always believed that in a large group, the leader was always the person(s) that were being followed (or leading the charge). But tonight, Mr. Grisham shed light on a lofty level of leadership that takes everyones assests into account when you are trying to achieve extraordniary results.

His life is a testiment to this great work. I suggest you read further about his work (or rather read his work), or contact me, I am always ready to talk more about leadership.

Moving Forward,

Marc White
Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro
Broker/REALTOR
Direct 828-406-2134
Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

Current Market Conditions

The market continues to make strides to improve itself. Over the last few weeks the number of listings overall, has dropped. This means the competition is a little (very small) less, and going into the Fall then the Winter, this is a good thing for many of the homes in our area that have been on the market for a while.

 

The number of sold properties has increased over the last few weeks, and because of that we have seen more great changes to our Absorption Rates (inventory numbers). With just over three years of inventory for our Residential Market, our numbers have declined from a high of almost four years of inventory. As for the Land Market, we have seen a decline of our Absorption Rate by almost 15 months. Currently our land market is at a fifteen year inventory rate. These numbers do not look good for someone trying to sell raw land at this time.

 

With about two months left in the Fall season, we are working hard to expose our market (buyers) to a vast amount of marketing for your property. If you have any questions about the marketing of your property, just call me, I am always ready to talk about real estate and the market in our area.

 

*If you would like more information about our current market conditions, please feel free to contact me at anytime.

 

Regards,

 

 

Marc White

Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro

Broker/REALTOR

Direct 828-406-2134

Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

To see property listed on our website, PLEASE CLICK HERE Thank You for allowing me the opportunity to serve you.

 

Finally, the Goshen Creek Bridge, on the Blue Ridge Parkway is open again.

After 17 months of construction, the bridge reopened in the last few days. Local residents and weekend drivers have already graced the new bridge with their traffic.

Currently the only closing recorded by the National Park Service is the stretch between Milepost 269.8 - 280.9 – which is between Highway 16 to the North and Highway 421 to the South. Below is a link to the NPS website.
http://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/roadclosures.htm

Marc White
Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro
Broker/REALTOR
Direct 828-406-2134
Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

Warren Buffet on real estate

Last but never least, Warren Buffett says that the economy "hasn't gotten worse" but also hasn't "gotten much better" over the past three months.  Nonetheless, he doesn't expect a 'double-dip' recession and sees significant improvement in residential real estate.  Buffett says that based on a number of indicators, including data from Berkshire Hathaway companies, "we have not bounced - but we've quit going down."  He also sees "important" signs of life for housing: "I think we're certainly-we're through the worst of it in residential real estate in all probability.  And- and- and the reason is we're building a lot fewer houses and we're- and we're forming households, so that solves itself over time.  Doesn't do it in a day or a week, but it solves itself.  So we're further on that."

I received this information from a friend on Twitter, he had posted the information on his Blog http://shortsalesriches.com/blog/

Marc White

Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro

Broker/REALTOR

Direct 828-406-2134

Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

Slow Week

After a crazy week in the High Country, things have been relatively relaxed for the last two days. Last week the High Country experienced a lot of traffic, a bank robbery, several wrecks on the major highways, and a major loss to the 3-time National Championship Appalachian State Football Team.

So for this week, we are celebrating the quiet first two days of the week. As the real estate market continues to get better, we anticipate more traffic as people seek to join us all in the High Country.

Please respond with any comments,

Marc White

Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro

Broker/REALTOR

Direct 828-406-2134

Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

First Monday Market Updates

Many people (from around the country) continue to make claims about what their market is doing. What we know is that the numbers that show us our current sales and current active listings, along with properties under contract, indicate the most accurate information for our real estate market. With over a year of providing clients with this information, we stay ahead of the curve and prepare ourselves for buyers.

 

We head fast into the Fall with a great start. Our number of active listings continue to stay about the same, while are sales figures drive our inventory numbers down. With a dramatic drop in the entire market and specifically our residential numbers, we have high hopes for 2010. Why do I refer to 2010, instead of the fall for this year?

 

Our market has begun the recovery process, some areas are doing much better than others, but we are beginning to enter our winter market, which sees a decrease in the number of sales. We are expecting our inventory numbers (Absorption Rate) to decrease through much of the Fall and some of the Winter, but we all know that Winter sales can only sustain the market to a certain point over the winter months. That means that we can anticipate a great start to the Spring, as well as a great Summer in 2010. Until that time, I promise you I will continue to use the most active marketing techniques to drive “buyers eyes” to your property. I expect a great Fall and a growing market this Winter as we move forward.

 

**For more information regarding our current Absorption Rate, please feel free to email me or call me.

 

Regards,

 

 

Marc White

Marketing Specialist, ABR, GRI, ePro

Broker/REALTOR

Direct 828-406-2134

Marc@CedarFallsRealty.com

To see property listed on our website, PLEASE CLICK HERE Thank You for allowing me the opportunity to serve you.

 

Absorption Rate: Again, I want to emphasize the use of the Absorption Rate versus the “normal” Days on Market approach. The days on market approach (especially for our area) changes so randomly that there are no actual predictors to show whether the market is getting better or worse. The days on market approach at the end of the year (December 31, 2009) will be at a high, while on January 15, 2010 it will be at a very small number. The reason; our days on market is for each specific listing, not each property. If you change your listing price and sign a NEW agreement, in most cases the agent has the opportunity to create a new listing, rather than keeping the listing as “older”; meaning your days on market has now started over. Absorption rate erases most of the errors that are caused by this fluctuation in time and listings. It is not exact and it requires much more work on an agent’s part to provide you with this information, but at the end of the day, the effort is truly worth the expense.

*Another way to think of Absorption Rate is “Inventory”. In the automobile industry, dealerships try to keep a 75-90 day supply on-site. There are many reasons they use these numbers, which we don’t need to get into, but the information helps us to understand the Absorption Rate for our real estate industry.