Once Again the Triangle Tops Forbes Best Places to Live List

Either way, we are in better shape than most places with regards to employment, real estate and other factors. Sure the North Carolina unemployment is the 4^th highest in the country at just over 10%, but our local area is much lower than the national or state average. Why? Because of the diverse industry that makes up our area. We have a medical community based on the colleges in the area, government jobs as the capital of the state, the tech sector of RTP, among other industries. The problem is not the market here.  People are still coming here for employment and a great quality of life. The problem is that people cannot sell their homes where they are coming from and in turn, they cannot buy here which affects our market.

In most economic down turns, you do not realize they have begun until they are really bad and it is only then when you look back and see when they actually started. The same is true of the recovery. It usually begins to happen when things are at their worst, and people do not realize the recovery is underway until it has already started. Could the recent rebound in the market signal we are almost there?  Who knows – trying to time anything is tough, and I feel that things cannot get much worse, so they have to get better right?

Back to Forbes list.  According to WRAL, Forbes magazine cited the Triangle's strong job growth – both past and projected – low business costs and highly educated work force.

The region's unemployment rate jumped to 7.9 percent in January, losing 12.200 jobs, and IBM laid off several hundred workers in Research Triangle Park on Thursday.

Forbes said the number of jobless will likely continue to grow this year after five years of 4 percent annual job growth. The employment picture is expected to brighten in 2010 and 2011, however, and Moody's Economy.com projects a three-year annual employment gain of 1.4 percent, which would be the 15th-best in the country.

"Raleigh is holding up better than any other place in North Carolina," Matthew Martin, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., told the magazine.

North Carolina placed six metros among the top 20 on Forbes' list. Asheville finished sixth, Wilmington was 13th, Winston-Salem was 18th and Charlotte was 19th.

I am glad I am in the Triangle and I am glad I am selling real estate here!

I have an out of town buyer who recently wrote a contract on a home that they saw when they were in my area looking for homes. They called me and asked to write the contract and email it to them to sign. I did, and then called the listing agent to tell her that I should be sending in the contract withi8n a day or two.

My buyers took longer than expected to sign the contract as they wanted to make sure that they had financing in place and that this was the house for them. In the mean time, the listing agent called to see the status and I assured her that the minute I had the contract I would forward it to her as I wanted to get a deal done as much as she did.

Several days later, she called again to tell me that there was another offer that was possibly coming in and that I should encourage my buyer to sign the deal quickly if they wanted to assure themselves that they would have their contract accepted.

This action perplexed me for several reasons. First; if there was another offer REALLY coming in, why would this realtor care if we got our offer in first?  Second; how did she know what our offer was going to be? It could have been contingent; it could have been fairly low with any other number of unfavorable terms.

My first thought was how long had this person been a realtor. I looked up this person’s information, and was shocked to see that they had been licensed for over 10 years. Certainly not the actions I would expect from someone who had experience. This is the type of behavior that I would expect from either a new realtor, or a desperate one.

Did this person think that telling me there was another offer would make me run back to my buyers and prod them into making one of the biggest decisions of their lives in a hurry? Who am I working for?

I have come across this behavior many times, and each time, it never ceases to amaze me that realtors actually tell me there is another offer in order to move along my offer. If there is another offer coming in, work with that one!

It comes across as extremely unprofessional in my opinion, and sets the tone for the type of person that I will be working with if and when we go to contract.

As it turns out, the contract never came to fruition as my buyers had second thoughts and the home is still on the market over a month later.  That other offer never came is either. Surprise!

Any thoughts? Do you act in this manner? Do you think this is unprofessional? I do – and bush league as well.

In my opinion, Cary North Carolina is the best place on earth to live; then again, I may be prejudice as that is where I live. I relocated to the area from Florida, and in doing research I chose Cary for a number of reasons. Its suburban feel even though it is a larger city, its green spaces, nice subdivisions, great people and schools, and family environment.

Over the years, Cary has gone through growth spurts and slowdowns in growth. These recent slowdowns were as a result of governmental policies that felt that Cary infrastructure could not sustain the 7% growth rate as evidenced by its congestion and lack of school space.

The most recent government is more growth friendly, but at a slower, more sustainable pace, which in my opinion, is healthy for the area.

According to figures released today by the Census bureau, Cary is the 5^th fastest growing largest city in the country.  Town leaders say growth-friendly policies and declining job markets in other parts of the country have helped Cary grow.  Those who have moved to Cary recently from other parts of the country say they were drawn by its suburban feel, its affordable housing and its abundance of pristine parks, golf courses and shopping centers as well as the area's economy and job growth.

With growth comes issues such as traffic, school reassignments, loss of suburban character, among other issues, but unlike previous leadership, the current administration has plans to grow but not as fast as before. But even if Cary continues to swell, most town leaders and residents seem to agree that it remains a great place to live. It has Wake County's lowest tax rate, a plentiful water supply, tidy neighborhoods and amenities such as public pools and greenways

While Cary's growth in comparison with larger cities in the nation is swift, within North Carolina, it is fairly small. Many smaller Wake County cities are growing at much more rapid paces. For example, Rolesville has grown 29% in the same period. Raleigh has placed 13^th on the same list of larger city growth.

Like it or hate it the Triangle area has and continues to be a destination for many across the country and will continue to grow.

Below is a list of the top 10 fastest growing cities in North Carolina as well as a chart of Cary's growth over the past 5 years:

1.   1. Rolesville, pop. 2,242

2. Carolina Shores, pop. 2,312

3. Holly Springs, pop. 19,684

4. Knightdale, pop. 7,397

5. Wake Forest, pop. 25,329

6. Fuquay-Varina, pop. 15,394

7. Fairview, pop. 5,301

8. Mebane, pop. 10,155

9. Stallings, pop. 8,742

10. Huntersville, pop. 42,579

17.  Cary, pop. 121,796

Cary's national rank among fast-growing areas has risen dramatically in the past few years. Here is where it stood among municipalities with more than 100,000 people for the past five years:

2007: 5 (7.3 percent growth)
2006: 8 (5.1 percent growth)
2005: 22 (3.3 percent growth)
2004: 63 (1.4 percent growth)
2003: 43 (1.7 percent growth)

If you live in Wake County and have been waiting to find out what your new tax bill will be, the wait is over. The News and Observer has a great tool to find out estimate what your taxes will be for this coming year. You can figure out what the county taxes are and if you are inside city limits (Cary, Apex, Raleigh, Holly Springs, and all other cities within Wake County, you can find out your total property tax bill. All you need is the web address and your current assessed value. If you have last year’s assessed value (before the revaluation), you can also find out how much of a tax increase you have been hit with (but it is not necessary in order to calculate this year’s estimated tax bill). Due to the concept of revenue neutral, the rate was not actually that bad (5%, or less than 200$). You can find the tool at:

http://www.newsobserver.com/1181/story/1129367.html

Let me know if you have any questions about how to use the tool.

There are two types of people in this world. Those who back up their data regularly and those who will backup their data regularly once they have a hard drive failure and lose important data (pictures of their kids, client information, etc).

ALL HARD DRIVES WILL FAIL AT SOME POINT! Did you hear that? Every hard drive will fail, go bad, become corrupt and eventually die. Hard Drives spin 7200 times per minute and get very hot – this inevitably causes them to die over time.  Some go after a year, some last much longer, but you just never know when one my die. 

What happens to your data at that point depends on how (or if) you have been backing up your data. Sometimes, only the boot sectors on a hard drive become corrupt and you can remove the hard drive, put it in another computer and recover valuable data.  This obviously takes some expertise. Sometimes the hard drive is unreadable and gone forever. In this case, sometimes data can be recovered by a data recovery company that takes the hard drive apart, puts the internal disks through some technical process and recovers some or all of the data.  This is VERY expensive – in the 1000’s. 

As an agent I have a ton of valuable client data, ad campaigns, and transaction documents on my computer.  As a parent, I have even more valuable data such as my kid’s documents and pictures and videos. If I were to lose any of this data, life would not be the same.

There are many ways to back up data automatically. The best way is to buy an external hard drive and software that will allow you to set your computer to back up specific files and folders automatically daily, weekly, or at some other interval. I recommend backing up to at least two different sources so that if one back up fails, you have another. This way you can be worry free with regard to losing data.

I am a back up freak. Technology is a hobby for me.  I have 5 computers running in my home as well as a server. All of my data resides on my server so that it can be accessed from any computer in the house. Additionally, critical data such as transaction and client information and family pictures and videos are backed up to hard drives on all 5 computers every night. In addition to this, I manually back up to a special hard drive that is kept in a fireproof and water proof safe.  This may be overkill, but I never worry about losing my data.

There are several online services that charge about 50$ per year to back up your data.  The first backup can take a long time, but as you use files, it is constantly backing them up via the internet. Data is encrypted and the companies claim it can only be read by you, but I am always skeptical when someone else has access to my data.

However you chose to back up your data, BACK IT UP.  Please do not be the type of person who only backs up your data once you lose important data. IF you have any questions, or need to see if you can have data recovered, let me know – I own a company that attempts to recover data at a low level (not expensive).

Well I have written about property taxes in Wake County North Carolina several times this past two months. It seems to be a hot topic.  Because North Carolina revalues property every eight years, and their property taxes are than based on that value, the city and county governments must make sure that they adjust the tax rate so that residents do not get a huge tax increase in a single year. This concept is called revenue neutral.

I am originally from Florida, and there, the tax rate (in South Florida) is roughly 2% of the house value.  They have a strange system that is capped at 3% gain each year if it is your primary resident, but if you move, you start over. My old home doubled in price over a relatively short period of time. So did many houses. For example, a home that was purchased for 260,000 would have yearly taxes of approximately 4500$.  The person who then bout the same house for 400,000 would pay about 8000$ in taxes while a neighbor in the same exact model, who built the home 20 years ago and never moved may only be paying 1200$ in taxes - can you say unfair.

Back to North Carolina, Wake County, and Cary in particular.  Cary determined that they need to reduce their old tax rate of .42 to .33 to be revenue neutral. they then decided that due to growth, then need more money (don't we all), and decided that even though they agreed that .33 was revenue neutral, they were going to change their rate to .37 to make up the shortfall in their proposed budget.  Well several days later, several commissioners decided they had changed their minds about the rate and the town then decided that .33 would be the rate, but would go up over the next several years to account for the growth.  I am all for taxes paying for the growth within a reasonable amount. I would even agree that Cary should go a few cents above the revenue neutral rate to help pay for infrastructure for the growth. One thing that the town does not mention, although I am sure that they must realize it is:  Much of this growth is due to new construction. The land that the new homes are being constructed on was not producing the tax receipts in the same amount that it will be once the homes are constructed, so some of this growth is paying for itself.  What about the revenue from impact fees from this new development?  I won’t even go there, but needless to say, kudos to Cary for doing the right thing.

If you have any questions about the tax rates throughout Wake County, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I do not normally reprint articles from other sources, but I felt that this one hit the subject of frustrated sellers and realtors in a down market right on the head.  It talks about pricing your home right to sell without regard to what has happened in the past, as well as the sellers mindset and frustrations that realtors feel when sellers are not realistic or do not understand pricing and their market.

 Whether you are a seller reading this, or a realtor, this article can help you see the other side of the discussion that is taking place between sellers and realtors. This article was originally printed in the Sun Sentinel which is a South Florida newspaper. The article was written by Paul Owers on June 16^th.  Although I am a Realtor in the Triangle Area of North Carolina,  this article is written with the South Florida audience in mind, and while this is one of the harder hit markets in the country, it can be useful anywhere that there is a declining market and/or a market with glut of homes, which is just about everywhere these days. I have bolded some phrases and ideas that hopefully will resonate with sellers.

Setting the right price for a home sounds simple, but too many sellers aren't doing it.

They insist that their properties are special and holding value, even though the median prices for existing homes have plummeted 26 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in Palm Beach and Broward counties since late 2005.

These stubborn sellers ask for too much money, ignoring the list prices of nearby homes, not to mention their real estate agents' advice. It's a short-sighted strategy, one that ultimately costs tens of thousands of dollars in a depressed housing market like South Florida, agents say.

"The worst thing to be in this market is one of those homes that's been listed for six, eight, 10 months with no consummated deals," said Beverly Rothstein, an agent in Broward and Palm Beach counties. "That's when the vultures come out, and you have to sell the house at a deep discount that you wouldn't have had to take if you had priced it right from the beginning."

Olga and Manuel Delacruz listed their three-bedroom Greenacres home in central Palm Beach County for $199,000 about four months ago. When it didn't sell, they dropped the price twice. Now they're asking $169,999, which is where they probably should have started, their agent, Douglas Rill, said.

The Delacruzes and other owners of lower-priced homes are likely competing with an increasing number of foreclosures. Lenders don't want to hold these properties, so they're slashing prices. Individual sellers must do the same if they have any hope of finding buyers.

"It's a little frustrating," said Olga Delacruz, 47, a security guard. "If we have to lower it one more time, we will."

Many sellers asking too much for their homes now are doing so because they paid inflated prices during the housing boom of 2000 to 2005. Agents cringe when they hear clients say they have to get a certain amount of money out of their properties.

"Your need doesn't change the market value of the house," said Rill of Century 21 America's Choice Realty in West Palm Beach. "Sellers will say, 'Can you at least try it at this price?' I'm happy to try, but it's not going to work."

Because of the glut of properties for sale, even beautiful homes won't attract interest unless buyers perceive value, said television commentator Gerri Willis.

"There's no bigger issue for sellers right now than pricing," said Willis, host of CNN's Open House and author of Home Rich: Increasing the Value of the Biggest Investment of Your Life.

In the book, Willis writes about price break points, which are psychological limits that buyers often set for themselves. She said a buyer may be willing to spend up to $499,000 on a home but will balk at $500,000, even though the $1,000 difference is barely noticeable on a 30-year mortgage.

Buyers prefer to spend at the top end of their price ranges, but they probably won't even visit properties if they're priced above the psychological break points, Willis said.

So a home valued at $310,000 would attract plenty of interest if listed at $299,000, she said. Asking for more than that would exclude buyers whose limit is $300,000.

And while that same home theoretically would draw people willing to spend up to $400,000, they're probably more interested in properties at the top end of the price range.

"The big question I always get from sellers is, 'At what point should I be willing to cut my price?'" Willis said. "But that's the wrong mindset. You've got to go into the market at the right price."

Terry Story can relate. The agent in Palm Beach and Broward counties wanted to list a Boca Raton home last summer for $575,000, but her client held firm at $625,000. Story knew that was too high, even though there weren't a lot of comparable sales in the area to go by.

Meanwhile, a similar house across the street was priced more competitively from the start and sold quickly for $482,500. Story's seller could do nothing but cut his price, finally finding a buyer to pay $460,000 after six frustrating months.

Instead of getting ahead of the price curve and establishing market value in the neighborhood, he was left to react to it. "He chased down the market," said Story of Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate.

Other sellers are more realistic and realize that being able to move quickly is more important than trying to get the highest price.

Virginia Goss first tried to sell her Boca Raton house on her own, but had no luck. So she listed it with Story, who suggested she put it on the market in the low $300,000 range. Although that was much lower than she preferred, Goss listened and immediately sold the home, albeit at a loss.

"It's hard to swallow a loss, but we're moving on," Goss said. "There's value in that."

Is your property overpriced?

Ssellers can use the following guide to determine whether their properties are overpriced:

Buyers don't perceive value if the home gets no showings. The price must come down substantially.

The price is in the ballpark if the home gets a few showings but no second looks. Sellers should still lower the price.

The home is priced right if it's getting steady showings and repeat visitors. Expect an offer.

Have you ever heard of Google Ad Sense? If not, look to the right of this page, underneath where it says Triangle Realtor – Raleigh Durham Real Estate Blog.  That is Google Ad Sense. You sign up with Google, and they give you code to place in any type of website, including this blog that places targeted ads relevant to your website content. When people click, you earn money. You can also place Google Search boxes on your website and earn when people use the search box.

How do you sign up? Just below the ad box to the right on this page is a smaller box that says Get Targeted ads on your site with Google AdSense. Click that and it will take you to a Google sign up page.

There are tons of different type of ads. Links, banners, boxes, text only, image only, text and images in all shapes and sizes. Even ads with embedded videos and you tube video links. The possibilities are endless. They can be as unobtrusive or prevalent as you would like. You can add them to your personal web page, or to this blog. Visit my website – yourtrianglerealtor.com to see how I am using the ads. Currently I only have a search box at the top of each page, but tonight, and over the next several days, as I explore AD Sense, I will be adding more ads, trying to strike a delicate balance of not having my page look like an advertising site. Check back to see what I have done, and make sure to click on the links on the right as each page may have different uses of Ad Sense. Also, if you happen to click on my web page, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I created it myself and it is still a work in progress.  Happy earning!

UPDATE:  As I see people commenting that they plan to use it, keep in mind that you will sign up today, and it may take a few days for Google to approve your account and then they will email you that your account has been approved. Once that happens, you can literally have your ads up within minutes. If you have any questions on how to create or post and ad on this site or your own, please do not hesitate to contact me.  And if you are signing up for Google Adsense, please use the box to the right below the main Google Ads and just above my listings as I will get credit.  Thanks for reading.

The Triangle Area – Wake County in particular always ranks high in lists showing the best places to live and work in the United States.  2008 is no exception.  Below is a list of places where the Raleigh area ranked close to number one:

Kiplinger ranked Raleigh as the number 2 city to work and live in its list of best places to live, work and play.  Kiplinger bases its rankings on things such as affordability, crime, employment, types of industry, income growth, median growth, education and economic opportunities, Creative -class workers -- scientists, engineers, educators, writers, artists, entertainers and others – which inject both economic and cultural vitality into a city and help make it a vibrant place to live.  They also use data to account for suburbs that match the metropolitan area. The Town of Cary is mentioned by name.

 Money magazine also ranked Raleigh high on their list. They ranked Raleigh at number 4 on their top ten big cities to live based on similar criteria as Kiplinger, but they only included larger cities.

Forbes Magazine ranked Raleigh number 2 for business and careers.  They used ranking criteria such as industry, business costs, taxes, office space costs, low property taxes, affordable housing for employees and more.

There are many more lists where Raleigh makes the top ten. As a resident of the area and a realtor, what I see living and working here mirrors what the lists claim.  There are tons of people moving into the area and very few moving out.  The ones I work with tell me they are moving here for mild weather, good business and economic opportunities, the educated population, the friendly people, the fact that you can be both at the beach or in the mountains in under four hours.

I am glad to be living in the area. Can I help you find a home here?  

Hidden in the south part of the Town of Cary, North Carolina is an incredible nature adventure for both kids and adults.  The Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve and Stevens Nature Center are located at 2616 Kildaire Farm Road, between Tryon and Penny Road (closer to Penny).

Hemlock Bluffs is part of the Town of Cary Parks and Recreation.  This site offers the feeling of being in the mountains, on a long hiking trail. It is the ideal place to get away from everyday life and feel like you are a million miles away, without spending money on the gas necessary to go to the mountains.

Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve is a 150 acre oasis in Cary, protecting a series of north-facing bluffs along Swift Creek. The orientation of the bluffs creates a microclimate that is cooler and wetter than the surrounding area. This microclimate has allowed a population of Eastern Hemlock trees, and other vegetation uncommon in the piedmont, to thrive.

The bluffs separate the Preserve into two areas, a low-lying floodplain along the creek, and a forested upland of mixed deciduous and pine trees. Several elevated platforms along the crest of the bluffs allow the visitor to look down on the crowns of trees along Swift Creek. This is especially convenient during spring migration when warblers, vireos, and tanagers can be viewed among the emerging leaves.

Viewing becomes more difficult once the trees completely leaf out. The floodplain is accessed by the 0.63 mile Swift Creek Trail. The trail is good for resident birds, migrants, and summer visitors. Waterthrushes, kingfishers and herons can be seen along the creek; you may be lucky enough to spot a Least or Pectoral Sandpiper, both species have been sighted in the park.

The floodplain's mature trees harbor tanagers, warblers, and vireos in the summer. Residents and winter visitors make other seasons entertaining as well. Access to this trail is via a staircase that descends the bluffs, so this portion of the park is not handicapped accessible.

The upland area can be accessed by the 1.1 mile Chestnut Oak Loop Trail. This area is also good for resident birds with woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatches locally common. The oaks along the trail are especially good for migrating warblers, tanagers and vireos. Look and listen for resident owls in the Beech Cove area. The upland area was formerly more difficult to bird due to a fairly closed canopy, but recent storms have created open areas more conducive to viewing.

The many downed trees have provided habitat for a thriving population of wrens. One can usually count on hearing the "Tea-kettle" call of the Carolina Wren at almost any time. Much of the Chestnut Oak Trail is graded and mulched, and is handicapped accessible.

Hemlock Bluffs offers the following:

·         Unique stand of Eastern Hemlock Trees

·        Approximately 3 miles of trails

·         Scenic Observation Platforms

·        Excellent bird and wildlife watching opportunities

·         FREE ADMISSION!!!

Operating Hours: Daily - 9 a.m. to Sunset

Stevens Nature Center was designed to complement the natural surroundings of Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve. The Stevens Nature Center provides information about the natural history of the area and the plants and animals that live in the Nature Preserve.  The nature center also offers a variety of nature programs for participants of all ages on a year-round basis.

The Stevens Nature Center offers the following:

·        Nature's Niche Gift Shop

·         Hands-on educational exhibit hall

·         Classroom

·         Outdoor education shelter

·         Native wildflower garden

Here is a link to the programs offered http://townofcary.org/depts/prdept/bro01/prnatureed.pdf
my kids go weekly and learn about nature. As we approach firefly season, my kids will attend their firefly sessions to learn and view these insects.

Operating Hours:
May-September: Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday 1-7 p.m.
October - April: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday 1-5 p.m
Closed on all official town holidays.