The last 12 hours have provided news stories that are dismal and dismal-er in regard to national home sales last month. So as not to  make the rest of the country feel bad about its poor numbers, Greensboro is right there with everyone else.

Sheesh.

A decline in sales was expected. The Federal Tax Rebate for home buyers has about expired (there’s an extension to close on contacts that were in place by April 30th) but for the most part, people who hurried up to find a house by the end of April also hurried to close by the original cut-off date of June 30th.

That left poor old July out in the cold. Or the extreme heat, as it turned out. Most hellish temperatures EVER. Too hot too think. Too hot to trot. And perhaps too hot to buy houses.

All in all, it’s been a fairly wretched time for anyone other than sno-cone vendors.

To be specific, there were 188 closed properties in the nine Greensboro residential zip codes in July*, compared to 244 in July 2009 and 348 in in June and . That’s a decline of 23% and a gut-flipping drop of 45%, respectively.

(I’ll see your ‘Sheesh‘ and raise you a ‘Yowzer‘).

Sale prices are a different story. The average closed price in July was $167,565. That’s only about 2% down from both July of 2009 ($171.484) and June 2010 ($172,051). What this says to me is that prices really have about bottomed out. Sellers have been squeezed as much as there is to squeeze. They’re all squozed out.

Another rather startling stat is that 28% of the closed properties in Greensboro were foreclosures. Not the highest percentage ever, but certainly the highest in last several months.

Alright, enough palaver. Here are the rest of the numbers (and purty charts):

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email. I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of August 24, 2010, and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

The most important element of buying a home – even more than deciding what style, size and school district – is determining how much you can afford. Unless you pay cash (my name is Casey, please call me immediately) you will need to find out how much of a mortgage you qualify for and are willing to pay.

Calculating this is not like figuring the trajectory needed for the Hubble Telescope to take that money shot of Jupiter, but it isn’t as easy as 2+2=4, either.

There are plenty of online mortgage calculators which are accurate. But they don’t necessarily give the complete picture. Most of these calculators do a simple equation based on a given set of variables:

“loan amount”   x   “interest rate factor”  = “mortgage payment (principal & interest ONLY)

There’s simply more to a payment than that. Also, these sites are not equipped to advise you whether you’ll qualify for a mortgage or not. (More on that in an upcoming post.) But for now let’s look at what else is included in mortgage payments.

First, in addition to the principal & interest (P&I) figure one gets using the formula above, most buyers will need to include taxes & insurance (T&I) with their monthly payment. These four components together are commonly referred to as “PITI“.

The T&I are called ‘escrow items’ and equal 1/12th of the annual tax and insurance bills. The lender holds this money in an escrow account. When the tax and insurance bills come due, they’re paid by the lender from the escrow account.

The ‘taxes’ portion refers to the property taxes due on that particular piece of real estate. Since each house will have a unique property tax bill, that cannot be calculated by the online sites. One needs to find out the annual property tax amount, divide by 12 and add that number to the P & I. (In Guilford County, property taxes can be found here. To understand how property taxes are determined in Guilford, read this post)

The ‘insurance’ component is homeowner’s insurance, a figure determined by your insurance agent. Again, take the annual insurance premium, divide by 12 and add to the P & I & T.

Voila! PITI.

But wait. There’s more.

Depending on the type of loan (conventional, FHA or VA) there may or not be mortgage insurance, known as PMI or MPI. This is not homeowner’s insurance but is mortgage insurance, paid as a premium to cover the lender in case of the loan not paid back.

These premiums are really hairy to calculate as they are based on how much down-payment is made, the amount financed and other variables. Here is when speaking with a good, knowledgable lender is absolutely a must. And, not for nothing, but a lender on the other end of a 800 number is almost certainly NOT going to know about the property tax and insurance situation for your particular locale. Call someone who knows your market.

To illustrate what I mean, here’s a recent communication from my favorite lender, explaining yet another change in FHA loans:

Huh?

Fear not. Getting all this figured out doesn’t have to fall on you alone. Or on me, thank goodness. Asking qualified professionals for help just makes good sense.

Now, where’s my Advil?

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Well, it’s actually Winston-Salem. But as it’s just down I-40 a ways, jobs in Winston impact Greensboro.

The News & Record and other outlets are reporting that Caterpillar will be opening a plant in Winston, bringing hundreds of jobs. This is another “get” for the area, along with HondaJet and an American Express data center is good news.

One step at a time, right?

_____________________________________________________________
The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Greensboro was recently named a “hot” housing market by Money Magazine. That’s nice and all, but what really matters is how many times pen is put to paper and properties close. By that measure, June was indeed hot for Greensboro real estate.

There were 348* closed properties in the nine residential zip codes in Greensboro. That’s up about 34% from June 2009 when there were 259 closed properties. (This is only slightly lower than June 2008, which had 388 closings, but down 19% from June 2007, when there were 428 properties closed….>meh<…)

This was the 5th straight month of improving numbers.

The average closed price is up as well, at $172,052 which is 5% higher than last June ($163,663).

The sales data by zip codes shows that almost all had year-over-year increase in sales. Only 27406 was flat. Two zips, 27401 and 27455 actually had more closings in June 2010 than in the previous two years.

The sales numbers for July will be a test, since the effects of the federal home buyer tax credit will have passed for the most part. But for now, let’s celebrate this hot, hot June.

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

If they only knew! June was the hottest month we’ve had around here.

Of course, Money Magazine is referring to things economical, not climatological. In this case, it seems our city has a hot housing market, and they provide a map of the country with comparisons:

Click to view larger image (PDF)

This may come as something of a shock to the owners of the 3200+ properties currently on the market in Greensboro, but it indicates that, as rough as things may feel now, we’re better off than many other places in the country.

And we take good news however we can get it.

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

I am working with a couple who are looking for a larger home to accommodate their growing family. During a recent showing appointment where we had been to about half a dozen properties looking for a “possible maybe” candidate for their next home, we were making final plans to get their existing home on the market. They, like most folks, need to sell before they can buy. We discussed what finishing touches they need to make to their place and what they can expect once officially on the market.

The wife was getting visibly more tense as talked about her home being shown, having open houses, photos being taken and posted online. She then asked, “Which do you think is more stressful: buying or selling”?

“Selling”, I replied, without hesitation.

While the home buying process can seem scary and intimidating, selling is downright nerve-wracking.

To have the best result when trying to sell your home, you need to put its best foot forward. You are inviting total strangers to come inside where you eat, sleep, bathe and unwind. You set yourself up for criticism and rejection. Let’s face it, unless you are fortunate enough to have the first person who comes through your home make and offer, you are by definition being rejected by every person who looks and takes a pass.

It’s like not being in grade and not being picked for kickball all over again.

And you need to remain in a constant state of readiness. No dishes in the sink, no carpets left un-vacuumed, dust-bunnies constantly being corralled. And you need to leave for a couple of hours at a time, whether you have somewhere to go or not. And for most sellers you can’t buy your next house until somebody decides to buy yours so your life is on hold waiting for some stranger to step up to the plate.

All in all, its a dreadful experience.

But its one where, when completed, you get to move to the next part of your life.

Just be prepared to be stressed. And excited. And disappointed. And gratified.

And whenever in doubt, vacuum.

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

While the current supply of listings is not the highest it’s been in Greensboro, it isn’t far from it. And the average list price is nearer the bottom of the range rather than the top.

What does all this mean to buyers, sellers and to those interested in their own property values?

It means things are pretty cruddy for you if are trying to sell your house and things are pretty good for you if you’re looking to buy.

This has been the case for some time now. (I would like to compare inventory and prices for this week compared to the same time last year, but I was so demoralized after months of bad news in 2009 that I took I hiatus from stats for several weeks. Now my pity party is over and comparative data will be the name of the game from now on – no matter how gross.)

This is not to say nothing is moving Properties are selling. In the next day or so I’ll post about the June sales numbers, which were higher than May as well as higher than last June. A large part of that is undoubtedly due to the late, great federal home buyers tax credit. But, still.

The long and the short of it is, if you want to sell your house, clean it, de-clutter it, make it smell nice and price it properly.

That last thing is key. The whole issue with so much inventory is that, if you have a house to sell, there are that many more people who have one to sell at about the same size, location, school district, etc.,  You have to make your home the one that buyers can most easily see themselves purchasing and moving into with the fewest hassles.

Getting back to the numbers, the 27410 zip code continues to have the lion’s share of listings: 674.

27405, 27406 and 27406 are neck and neck and neck with 443, 446 and 445. (27405 & 27406 also have the greatest number and greatest percentage of foreclosures.

The average list price for the week, including all property types, is about $222K. What will spending about that amount buy you? Here’s an example. (Click on the photo for more information):

2209 W. Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC $214,900 (MLS#572063)

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If you have questions, comments or a good joke to share shoot me an email.  I’m a full time Realtor®, I love what I do and would be thrilled to hear from you.

* All data from Triad Multiple Listing Service (MLS) as of June 29, 2010,  and is only as good as the information entered, which is done by humans, who make errors. The information is only for those residential zip codes for Greensboro and does not include the surrounding communities.

One of the nifty feature of our local newspaper, The News & Record, is an online map of yard sales. (There’s also an online map of break-ins, but let’s keep happy thoughts for a minute).

Here is a view of it, with thanks to Mike Fuchs at The Bargain Blog. (Click on it to go to an interactive version on the News & Record site.)

Map of Greensboro Yard Sales for July 17, 2010

Happy bargain hunting!

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

The new tax rates have been set for Guilford County. You can see them here (PDF).

To figure what your tax bill is going to be when it is mailed out later this month, find your municipality – for example, Greensboro – and multiply that total rate (1.3699) by the tax value of your property, in hundreds. That is, a tax value of $100,000 would mean you multiply the tax rate by 1000. (If you don’t know the tax value of your property, go to the Guilford County Tax website and pull up your address)

This rate is slightly lower than the 2009 rate of 1.3274

The upshot is, if your house has a property tax value of $100,000, your tax bill this years will be $1,369.90. Last year it was $1,327.40.

It’s rare but not unheard of that property tax rates decline one year to the next. In Guilford County, tax movement in the rate is usually fairly small, whatever direction it goes.

It’s when property values are reassessed that things get really exciting. That is done only once every eight years in Guilford County, so there is the chance for wide differences from one valuation to the next. The next revaluation will occur in 2012.

Hmmm. The same year the Mayan calendar says it’s all going to end.

We should be so lucky, right?

[UPDATE: My friend, the very smart Realtor Candice Joyce, commented on this post with the following:

That’s the rate per $100 of assessed tax value so don’t forget to place a decimal point before last two digits…..or divide value by 100 then multiply by tax rate=same result.

Thanks, Candice. (Math. Ick.)

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The thoughts & opinions are mine. The quips that fall flat are someone else’s. Please feel free to shoot me an email with a question or a good joke.

And remember, real estate agents aren’t bad. We’re just drawn that way.

Greensboro is becoming a center for words that didn’t exist recently. FIrst it was “aerotropolis“, with HondaJet, TIMCO, FedEx and the like finding homes here. And now it’s “nanoscience”.

No, it’s not the study of grandmothers.

It’s the study of other tiny things.

Greensboro is where two universities – NC A&T and UNC Greensboro – are joining to create a school offering degrees in nanoscience and nanoengineering. This article in the News & Record explains it all very well.

I’ll just say that this is another milestone in Greensboro’s transition from mills and tobacco fields to industries that are just starting out. We like that.

Maybe the next thing will indeed be a center for the study of grandmothers. They sure can be odd little creatures.