Preparing to buy your first home? This can be such a stressful endeavor, but it doesn’t have to be with the right plan in place. There are plenty of resources out there that can help you prepare for this step in your life.
Guest post from Alita Hall, Accountant, here are 3 tips to managing your personal finances so you can purchase the home of your dreams.
A whopping THREE cities in North Carolina were named in the top 20 best places to live in 2020!
Each year, Livability.com ranks the 100 best places to live in America based on an analysis of more than 1,000 small to midsized cities on characteristics such as affordability, safety, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility, and community engagement. This year’s survey also weighed an “opportunity score,” reflecting the city’s job offerings, economic resilience, and growth.
The following are Livability's top 20 places to live in 2020:
Fort Collins, CO (median home list price: $470,000)
Ann Arbor, MI (median home list price: $473,000)
Madison, WI (median home list price: $330,000)
Portland, ME (median home list price: $508,000)
Rochester, NY (median home list price: $147,000)
Asheville, NC (median home list price: $508,000)
Overland Park, KS (median home list price: $550,000)
Fargo, ND (median home list price: $268,000)
Durham, NC (median home list price: $369,000)
Sioux Falls, SD (median home list price: $250,000)
Columbus, OH (median home list price: $205,000)
Lincoln, NE (median home list price: $219,500)
Charlotte, NC (median home list price: $320,000)
Bismarck, ND ((median home list price: $250,000)
Ames, IA (median home list price: $260,000)
Albany, NY (median home list price: $200,000)
Lawrence, KS (median home list price: $239,000)
Salt Lake City, UT (median home list price: $420,000)
Corvallis, OR (median home list price: $420,000)
Iowa City, IA (median home list price: $250,000)
View the full list of top cities to live in 2020.
A passionate and trusted real estate professional, Sharetha Holman Cooper, is a licensed NC and SC real estate broker with Apex Realty of the Carolinas, Inc, primarily serving the Charlotte NC and surrounding areas.
With a love for people, business, finance, and home ownership, Sharetha has served her clients in real estate since 2006. Contact Sharetha anytime—and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! It would be a pleasure to get to know you better.
To start your home search today, visit Apex Realty of the Carolinas.com.
School has already started in many districts and the summer is winding down. That means cooler weather and fall festivals are on the way!
The Charlotte area is well-known for having a variety of fun and family-friendly events available throughout the city and throughout the year, but fall is especially a fun time for the city and surrounding areas. Here are a few activities scheduled for this upcoming fall that will keep you and the whole family entertained from September to November. Mark your calendars!
Think you can't afford to buy a home? The truth is...you can't afford NOT to.
Join us for a FREE home buyer's event on Saturday, August 17th, to learn how to navigate the home buying journey. Hosting the event will be a REALTOR (Sharetha M. Holman) and Mortgage Loan Officer (Eleazer Graham). Bring your questions and bring a friend!
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has been administering its annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers survey since 1981. The survey gives us great insight into the trends, wants and needs associated with the most significant financial decision of most people’s lives: purchasing a primary residence for themselves and their families.
This post focuses on the findings from the 2018 version of the survey from a seller perspective.
Sellers are staying in homes longer. From 1987 to 2008, sellers stayed in their homes for a median of six years. By 2011, the median tenure reached nine years, and by 2016, the median tenure increased to 10 years.
Seller Relationship With Agent Is Steady and Strong. 89% of home sellers worked with a real estate agent to sell their home. In addition, 90% of sellers listed their homes on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which is the No. 1 source for sellers to list their homes. Only 4% opted not to list on an MLS.
Sellers Want These Key Skills in Their Agents. Sellers place high priority on the following five tasks: market the home to potential buyers (21%); sell the home within a specific timeframe (20%); price the home competitively (18%); find a buyer for home (15%); and help fix the home to sell better (15%).
FSBOs Are Decreasing. In 1981, FSBO home sales accounted for 15 percent of all sales, and agent-assisted sales accounted for 85 percent. FSBO sales have declined over time and in 2017, FSBOs accounted for only 8 percent of total home sales. FSBOs typically sell for less than the selling price of other homes.
If you are interested in selling your home in North Carolina, I’d love to chat with you. Contact me today to schedule a time to talk!
Source: “What Today’s Sellers Want” - RIS Media
Sharetha M. Holman is a licensed NC real estate broker with Apex Realty of the Carolinas, Inc, primarily serving the Charlotte NC and surrounding areas. Connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
To start your home search today, visit Apex Realty of the Carolinas.com.
Home prices were consistently up again in most markets in 2018 but at reduced levels compared to recent years. High demand for few homes for sale fueled price increases, but evidence is mounting that inventory will finally improve in 2019. This may apply some downward pressure on prices for beleaguered home buyers. A fourth interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in 2018 spooked the stock market to close out the year. The Fed has indicated that the number of rate increases in 2019 will be halved, which may be of little comfort to an already compressed consumer.
In the month of December 2018*, the Charlotte, North Carolina market had:
3,176 homes sold
Homes priced from $41,000 to $3.5 million
Average sales price per home was $282,894
Average home going under contract in 50 days
Average home closing in 101 days.
If you would like a free market analysis to determine the value of your home, please inbox me or give me a call at (980) 297-8161.
*All data from CarolinaMLS.
Sharetha M. Holman is a licensed NC real estate broker with Apex Realty of the Carolinas, Inc, primarily serving the Charlotte NC and surrounding areas. Connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
To start your home search today, visit Apex Realty of the Carolinas.com.
