Charlotte Information - Living in North Carolina

With the housing market in the midst of a turnaround, home buyers who want a bargain may want to act now. Home prices and mortgage rates are both at record lows, pushing home affordability for the average buyer to record highs. At the same time, rents have been on the rise, making owning a home cheaper than renting in most areas of the country, including Charlotte metro areas like Ballantyne, SouthPark, Cotswold, Midwood, Myers Park, Dilworth, Matthews, Mint Hill, Weddington and Harrisburg. 

Looking forward to earning some quick cash? Converting your home into a bed and breakfast would be good option for it. Convert your own Austin homes for sale home mortgage into a bed and breakfast and get paid to receive guests to your home. You can start with a few simple steps.

First and foremost, do a self assessment on whether you have the personality and interest to host guests in your house. Decide upon your client base and the look of your bed and breakfast. Choose the appropriate rates for your tariff. Settle upon what kind of deals you will offer your clients and will be your nightly rates that would include complimentary breakfast. Choose a nice name for your business.

Decide upon which rooms you want to let out to your guests. You can always make the rooms more attractive by furnishing them properly using a theme that would appeal to the guests. It is very important to have a separate bathroom for your guests. Keep in mind the fact that people choose bed and breakfast over hotels because it gives them a feeling of home away from home and an informal and friendly ambience.

Make sure you have a lounge area for your guests to sit in. Make this area more appealing by placing good books and music for their recreation. You can make their all the more memorable by offering them a complimentary drink or snack.

The kitchen should be set up in such a way so that it can serve 4 to 8 guests at a time. Make it a point to have a big table for your kitchen and make it cozy for your guests. Serve a homemade breakfast to give your guests a homely feeling. Provide your guests with chairs on the front porch for them to relax after a meal, watch the sunset or read a book.

All said and done, make an attractive signboard for your very own bed and breakfast and set it up, preferably high, in your front porch. Your very own Austin home for sale is now ready to serve guests.

By Andrew Hill @ http://newhomes.move.com/

Looking for a way to really make your home stand out? Have you given thought to the variety of green features you can easily incorporate into your home? More and more consumers are becoming green conscious and adding certain green features can improve your home’s value by as much as 10%! Green solutions also help save you money by cutting back on consumption and using more renewable energy sources. So whether you are making this investment for savings in the long run, or to improve your home’s marketability, you’ll be coming out on top.

The most obvious of the green solutions are those most visible to the neighbors- solar panels and wind turbines. Thanks to photovoltaic technology, you can actually capture the light received from the sun and then use it to heat your water and produce your own electricity. These are both great ways to produce your own electricity, but depending on your finances and home location, they may not be very practical. If this is the case, but you’d still like to give back to the environment, think about opting for a switch to green power. All it takes is contacting your energy provider and requesting to pay a premium on your electricity bull, which will then go towards the production and usage of cleaner, renewable energy.

Another great option is to invest in Energy Star appliances. Such appliances are specifically manufactured to save you money, by meeting a standard that will reduce energy consumption. Energy star provides a variety of products including microwaves, washers, dryers, and everything in between! But before you decide to throw out the old refrigerator, be sure to have an energy audit done. By having a professional inspect your home, you may discover more affordable ways to go green rather than buying new appliances (such as weather-stripping and caulking).

Some of the easier replacements that you may have overlooked include switching to LED/CFL bulbs and installing low flow faucet heads. By using less electricity and limiting excess water usage, both of these options will help improve your energy efficiency. And to improve your overall air quality, try using low/no VOC (volatile organic compounds) paint and cleaning products. By guarding your home against these compounds, you will be taking that extra step to guard your family's health.

No matter the reason behind your decision to go green, you can rest assured that it is a smart investment for the future. Talk to John Walker, today, to find out more about the importance of going green in real estate!

As part of ongoing efforts to encourage the return of private capital in the residential mortgage market and strengthen the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, the agency announced a new premium structure for FHA-insured single family mortgage loans.

FHA will increase its annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP) by 0.10% for loans in the Charlotte area.  Upfront premiums (UFMIP) will also increase by 0.75%. These premium changes will impact new loans insured by FHA beginning in April and June of 2012. The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 requires FHA to increase the annual MIP.

The UFMIP will be increased from 1% to 1.75% of the base loan amount.  This increase applies regardless of the amortization term or LTV ratio.  FHA will continue to permit financing of this charge into the mortgage.

Taken together, these premium changes will enable FHA to increase revenues at a time that is critical to the ongoing stability of its Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund, contributing more than $1 billion to the Fund, based on current volume projections through Fiscal Year 2013.

Bottom line, starting in April it is going to cost you more to FHA financing to buy a home. Get out in front of this change and call us today for homes in Ballantyne, SouthPark, Matthews and throughout the Charlotte metro area.

Several recent indicators for the real estate industry are suggesting a market that is entering recovery mode. Predictions for 2012 tend to center around a market stabilizing before entering a gradual recovery... the tone is more upbeat than it has been in years for housing. Recent indicators include:

Home sales: Existing home sales are expected to rise 12% in 2012, following a 2% rise in 2011, Moody’s Analytics predicts. The signs are already showing: In November, pending home sales reached its highest level in 19 months, the National Association of REALTORS® reported.

New-home market: Coming off of what could be considered the worst year for new-home building ever recorded, the sector is expected to bounce back in 2012. New-home sales and starts were already showing a rebound in the last few months of 2011. Moody’s is predicting that single-family housing starts will increase 37% in 2012, and new-home sales will soar 74%.

Consumer confidence: With mortgage rates at record lows and housing affordability high, about 71% of Americans say now is a good time to purchase a home. Also, more Americans are optimistic that home prices will rise over the next year... about 26% feel prices will rise in 2012, an increase of 4% over the last survey, according to Fannie Mae’s December National Housing Survey. Also, recently-reported consumer confidence numbers in the economy as a whole have spiked upward.

Whether you are looking to buy in Ballantyne, SouthPark, Cotswold, Midwood, Matthews, Mint Hill or Weddington,   now is a good time to give us a call and talk about your plans. We are here to help!

John C. Walker, Realtor has been named a Five Star Real Estate Agent^SM for 2011 by Charlotte Magazine and Crescendo Business Services. This program is designed to identify and showcase real estate agents in a local market that score highest in overall satisfaction.

Charlotte home sales rose in August 2011 according to new data from the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association show. The new report showed 2,290 houses, townhouses and condos sold in the Charlotte region in August, up 5% from July and up 26% from August 2010.

Pending sales, or signed contracts that have not yet closed, a good measure of current housing activity, climbed 8% from July 2011 and 25% from August 2010. The data come from the Realtor association's Carolina Multiple Listing Services, which accounts for nearly all sales in the Charlotte area.

The improvement is due in part to Charlotte foreclosures and short sales being absorbed buy buyers. The Charlotte market's distressed housing inventory continued to decrease in August, with the number of foreclosures for sale at its lowest level in more than three years. Distressed sales represented nearly 23% of all closings in August, down from 35% in August 2010.

The average Charlotte home price in August was $205,915, down 4% from the month before and down 9% from August 2010.

While national home prices fell in more than three-quarters of cities across the country in the first three months of 2011, Charlotte metro bucked the trend and led the way with a 12% advance. Charlotte was followed closely by Buffalo, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, with increases of 11%.

The median price of a single-family home dropped in 118 metropolitan areas out of 153 measured, the National Association of Realtors said. The largest declines were in Biloxi, Mississippi, and Akron, Ohio. Foreclosures that sell at cut-rate prices are at the heart of the devalued real estate trend nationally.

Separately, the Realtors Association noted U.S. existing-home sales fell 0.8% in the first three months of 2011 compared to the same period a year earlier to an annual pace of 5.14 million. The biggest decline was in Tennessee, where transactions decreased about 15%. The largest advance was in South Dakota, with an 86% gain.

To find out what is happening in your neighborhood or one that you are interested in, call us or drop us a note. Happy housing!