You are currently browsing the Asheville 4 Seasons Realty blog archives for July, 2010.

Hey – It’s July Out There.

July 15th, 2010

Greetings,

Thankfully we have finally been getting some rain!  Hopefully everyone enjoyed their 4th and is staying cool.

As usual I did the comparison between last years sales to this years sales and I must say- I’m excited. For the first time, not only are the units sold up, but also the average sales price is up and so is volume. You may remember over the past 4 months units sold have been up, but average sales prices have been down and in some cases- total dollar volume was down.

This month- everything is up! And as far as I’m concerned- that’s a very good barometer of our LOCAL real estate market. The real test will be if all the categories stay up for the month of July.

SOLD in June ’09-Total units-218, Average price $254,690, DOM-129, Volume-$55,522,424

SOLD in June ’10-Total units-264, Average price $264,209, DOM 141, Volume-$69,751,092

This is almost a 20% increase in units sold & Volume! We are constantly asked if we have gotten as low as we’re going to go. I have felt that was the case for the past 4 months. I’d say these figures, with the caveat that July remains in an upward mode, indicate my optimism is justified and we have seen what many would call, the bottom.

There are, however, still a limited number of buyers, so while these are encouraging figures, we need to not get discouraged that there are so few showing. Quite frankly June was not a good month in terms of number of showings, nor was the first part of July. That’s not unusual with school graduation, and family vacations. But this past week we have seen an increase in showings. Again, another good sign

http://rismedia.com/homeownercentral/

This link is sponsored by Lowes and I thought you might find it interesting. It has all different ideas and perspective on home ownership and the real estate market…not just about spending money at Lowes!

We’d like to introduce our newest broker, Ruthann Hoffman. She has been a Realtor since 2005 and lives in Fletcher. Her past careers include nursing and teaching and she is currently working towards a certification in Healing Touch. She is an Accredited Buyers Representative, ABR. Be sure to check out our website to learn more about Ruthann. Also, her daughter & son-in-law own The Underground Baking Co. on Main Street in Hendersonville and if you find yourself down there….you will definitely want to buy a loaf of their bread!

Please let us know if you have any concerns or would like to meet with us in person. Our doors are always open and we are very much aware of how frustrating this market is…we’re here to help.

Take care

Suzanne, Susan, Colleen, Ruthann – The ladies of A4SR

Posted in Asheville, Buyers, Selling, Showings, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Bad Economic News = Mortgage Opportunities For You

July 7th, 2010

Despite the fact that mortgage rates have been relatively low over the last few months, the clearly love being in the lime light.  With the release of the economic reports of last week, indicating a continued bleak outlook, have spurred the mortgage rates and industry leaders that determine them into action.  So, last week in an attempt recapture lost headline glory, with bad economic news in hand and already at low numbers, Mortgages Rates got into the news again by falling to a new all time historical low.

The 30 year rate fell from 4.75 to 4.69 last week.  Three weeks ago the 30 year rate was sitting at 4.72. What’s interesting is that over the last month, when a lot of people have been talking about how rates are about to start rising,  instead they are breaking records with mortgage rate lows.  We mostly concentrate on the 30 year rate because it is the most widely used mortgage product.  Additionally, with the 30 year rate hitting an all time low the 3 other major mortgage products all reached new all time lows as well. The 15 year dropped from 4.20 to 4.13.  As well as, the 5 and 1 year arms dropped from 3.89 to 3.84 (5 year arm) and 3.82 to 3.77 (1 year arm). Below are rates from the weeks from May 27, 2010 to Jun 24, 2010

Jun 24, 2010
30-fixed 4.69 15-fixed 4.13 5 ARM 3.84 1 ARM 3.77
Jun 17, 2010
30-fixed 4.75 15-fixed 4.20 5 ARM 3.89 1 ARM 3.82
Jun 10, 2010
30-fixed 4.72 15-fixed 4.17 5 ARM 3.92 1 ARM 3.91
Jun 03, 2010
30-fixed 4.79 15-fixed 4.20 5 ARM 3.94 1 ARM 3.95
May 13, 2010
30-fixed 4.93 15-fixed 4.30 5 ARM 3.95 1 ARM 4.02

So in addition to looking at mortgage rates it’s also helpful to look at mortgage payments. We took today’s rates and translated them into a mortgage payment for a 200k loan. We also did the same things with rates from May 13th.

Jun 24
30-year $1036.07
15-year $1492.43
5-year ARM $936.47
1-year ARM $928.5

May 13
30-year $1065.1
15-year $1509.62
5-year ARM $949.07
1-year ARM $957.13

So although rates were already pretty low on May 13th today a payment on a 200k loan is about $30 less a month for a drop of a little less than 3 percent.

So what is going to happen over the next few months? If we knew that we might be working for living.  However,  its certainly possible rates could fall a little more and we could break some new records with mortgage rates.   Regardless of what happens – please feel free to contact us here at Asheville 4 Seasons Realty – with all your questions and concerns regarding real estate.

Posted in Buyers, North Carolina, Real Estate, Uncategorized | No Comments »


2 Sulphur Springs Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Office: 828-225-6911
Toll-free: 877-303-6911
Fax: 828-225-6922
info@asheville4seasonsrealty.com