The Week in Review
….your Wilmington Connection
October 11, 2008
Currently in Wilmington there are 2771 homes on the market. There are 323 which are currently under contract and 1489 homes have sold in the last 6 months. Thats about 12%. The price range $250,000 and under are fairing the best with 8 months of inventory on the market. Whereas the higher priced homes are suffering with almost a year and a half and upwards. Homes are selling but patience is needed.
Federal Dollars to fund Holden Beach Sand
The estimated damage to Holden’s beach also constituted the biggest chunk of the $14 million in statewide damage to public infrastructure attributed to the storm and helped push the state over the threshold to seek federal help.
Gov. Mike Easley is seeking a federal disaster declaration that would enable federal grants to be used to repair the damage, including to Holden’s beach.
But the damage to the town’s beach has raised some eyebrows, both for the amount of sand Holden officials claim was washed away and the estimated cost to replace it.
Hanna wasn’t a particularly big or strong tropical systems, bringing rain but not much else to Southeastern North Carolina.
Pending Home Sales Up Strongly
Pending home sales activity surged as buyers took advantage of low home prices and affordable interest rates, according to the National Association of Realtors
The Pending Home Sales Index,1 a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in August, jumped 7.4 percent to 93.4 from an upwardly revised reading of 87.0 in July, and is 8.8 percent higher than August 2007 when it stood at 85.8. The index is at the highest level since June 2007 when it stood at 101.4.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home buyers were responding to improved affordability. “What we’re seeing is the momentum of people taking advantage of low home prices, with pending home sales up strongly in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Rhode Island and the Washington, D.C., region,” he said. “It’s unclear how much contract activity may be impacted by the credit disruptions on Wall Street, but we’re hopeful most of the increase will translate into closed existing-home sales.”The PHSI in the West surged 18.4 percent to 109.5 in August and remains 37.8 percent above a year ago. In the Northeast the index jumped 8.4 percent to 79.8 and is 2.0 percent higher than August 2007. The index in the Midwest rose 3.6 percent to 84.5 in August and is 6.6 percent above a year ago. In the South, the index increased 2.3 percent to 96.0 but is 2.1 percent below August 2007.
Yun notes the unusual timing of contract activity in August. “Home buyers in July were hampered by overly stringent lending criteria in the months before the government takeover of Fannie and Freddie,” he said. “August shows some unleashing of pent-up demand before the credit crisis accelerated in September.”He cautioned that the sampling size for pending home sales is smaller than the track on existing-home sales, so there is more volatility in the forward-looking series. “We need to see just how much of this gain holds up.
….until next week in The Week in Review
Tina
