Deals and Steals

The real estate market continues to stay ahead of last year overall with a few bumps and twists along the way.  The historical trend of a dip in sales during the summer months occurred as predicted.  It’s more than challenging to sell investment and second homes in the summer months.  Buyers can only see the properties on check-in days between 10:00am and 4:00pm and if that’s not enough to detract a buyer, the weekend traffic will.  Anyone who has ever hit Route 12 on a check-in day at the wrong time will attest to that.  Even with all the deterrents, there were quite a few transactions - 142 total.  However, we are eagerly awaiting the availability of homes and congestion-free roads that will occur shortly after the Labor Day weekend. 

Our total units sold declined 14% from last month (June) but our July 2010 sales increased 16% from the number of sales recorded in July of 2009.  So, we saw our predicted slip in sales but still continue to be up comfortably from last year.  More good news is the decline in distressed property sales.  33% of residential property sales were distressed properties this month and that's a statistic we haven’t seen since November of 2009.  Arguably, this decline could be following the historical summer dip.  Only time will tell if this is the beginning of a tapering off of the bank-owned properties and short sale transactions.

We can't say it enough - Now is the time to buy. Interest rates are insane, there are plenty of listings to choose from, and we are seeing more and more motivated sellers. If you've ever considered buying property on the Outer Banks, this is the perfect storm.