Check out this article in Business Week on Sea Island and how it’s drowning in debt…

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_02/b4162044100276.htm

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To Send or Not to Send…

by Midi on December 12, 2009

in Just for Fun, Random Rants

xmasFBDo people even like receiving Christmas cards? At 44 cents a pop for a stamp, are they even worth sending in this digital age when I can wish one and all a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hannukah with one status update on Facebook?

Now, for business purposes, I send out one of those magnetic calendars  to the folks in my farming area, the ones whom I regularly send real estate updates throughout the year.  I considered passing on the calendars this year but I ran into several people who specifically asked me if they were going to get my calendars this year and how much they liked them.  How could I say no?

xmascardsBut in regards to the standard personal Christmas cards we send to friends and family: I have to ask myself how I feel about the Christmas cards I receive.  I mean, do we even like getting them? Each year,  we dutifully line our fireplace mantle and shelves with them… and every year, we collect them all and pitch them in the garbage once the holidays have passed.

Then, we started receiving the photo cards, you know the ones… line up the kiddies in matching sweaters and take a picture and send them to everyone you know. Now, I used to like these as they were the only time in the year I would see pictures of my friends’ progeny.  Once again, social media has made that obsolete.  I now routinely see pictures of my friend’s kids in real time.  No longer the kids lined up against a phoney baloney Olin Mills backdrop with a forced smile.  These photos on Facebook are varied and ‘real’ – like Camille at an annual corn maze/fall festival,  Alex playing Xbox in the basement, Grant as a triumphant blur on a soccer field, etc.

Yet, each year, after Christmas, Hubby and I ride up to Target and pick up wrapping paper, Christmas cards and other assorted holiday junk for next year at 50% off. Well, last year, I couldn’t find the cards I’d stashed away the year before… so we didn’t send any out.  Well, this year, we found them PLUS the ones we bought last year so I’m up to my eyeballs in two season’s worth of Christmas cards. Therefore, it seems only fitting I write some greeting inside, sign them, stamp them and send them out.

But it still begs the question: why?

  • Facebook,  Twitter, LinkedIn: Free.
  • US Postal Service: 44 cents a pop.
  • Saving money to put towards a new pair of  boots: Priceless.

Perhaps the fiscal soundness of the digital thing will make the decision for me.

p.s. Since I began this post a few days ago, I’ve noticed something.  By this point in the season, I would normally have received a lot Christmas cards by now… to date, I’ve received 2.  So perhaps I am not alone in my contemplation of withholding business from the US Postal Service… and relying solely on social media to pass on my Christmas Greetings.

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Looking back over 2009 so far, you can see some interesting trends in what is selling in the Golden Isles. I took a peek at mainland Brunswick and broke the sales figures down to seller controlled sales and other entity controlled sale (such as banks, asset management co, relocation) and the trend sort of tells a story…

Take a look at this graph:
Sales Analysis

Over this past year, the mainland areas of Glynn County has closed anywhere from 21 to 52 homes.  Yes, that’s way down from 2008, but such is the market.  Of those sales, as you can see, the year started almost neck in neck with regular (that is to say, Seller controlled) to Corporate controlled sales (meaning banks, relocation companies etc.).

You might notice, however, that as the year wore on, the number of corporate controlled sales dropped from running about 48% to levels more in the 30% range of overall sales.  What does this mean?  It probably means that the Federal First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit impacted general sales, improving regular seller controlled sales.   I also think that the drop in seller controlled sales in November so far may be indicative of the holiday season’s approach and the extension of the Tax Credit into next year. The pressure is off for now, leaving the bargain hunting investors to pick up the foreclosure deals where they can find them.

The other thing to note here is that there is a directly proportional relationship to price points.  All the national statistics have reported that re-sale home prices have gone up steadily over the last three quarters.  Well, this sort of goes hand in hand with my graph.  I noticed in my analysis of the Brunswick market that the lower the home price range I was looking in, the better the odds that they would be mostly foreclosures.  As I moved into homes in the $200+ range, foreclosure rates dropped and then $400+ were very rare (although there were some out there!).  So as first timers bought regular homes, they stayed in the higher ranges of home prices… if this is the case, this might explain increases elsewhere.

Based on that, I can see how the foreclosure sale dominated market would make it seem as if home prices in general are down – but what I noticed around here in the Golden Isles is that a good chunk of the homes under foreclosure and owned by the banks are already in a lower price range to begin with.  It’s not as if $250K homes are selling for $70K… it’s more like a proliferation of $90K homes selling for $70K bringing overall housing sales figures down.  There are just more of those foreclosures than there are of the $400K foreclosures, so the numbers will be skewed that way.  Get it?

It’s amazing what the numbers can tell you…  Stay tuned for more as I delve into the Island side of things!

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So That’s How it Works!

30 October 2009

Watching the Atlanta local news and there was a story that caught my attention. But before I get to that… a little background: Recently, an agent told me that a home her company manages for rental showed up on Craigslist for rent at a really low price.  Their own contract with the owner required them [...]

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October’s Economic Indicators, Broken Down…

26 October 2009

Just got an interesting email from Steve Nimmer, our local Coldwell Banker Mortgage Rep and in reviewing it, I really appreciated the breakdown and explanation of when these various reports came out and what they meant.  So, since Steve sent this to us to share with our clients – I thought share them with anyone [...]

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There’s Nothing Short About It

14 October 2009

|

Short Sales. I think the name is what fascinates people. In a society based more and more on immediate gratification, the term ’short sale’ is completely deceiving.    I continually get folks asking about short sales as an option for them, people whose homes are not even on the market or in distress! [...]

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St Simons Island Sales Trend

5 October 2009

Looking at some stats since we’re now officially into 4th Quarter of 2009.  Here’s a quick glance at the list price/actual sold trend for St Simons Island going back to the beginning of 2008.

Obviously, home prices are dropping but they seem to have leveled off to a certain extent, the largest drop being experienced between [...]

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Nothing Says Welcome Like a Gas Station…

28 September 2009

Just found out that the construction going on the wedge of land between Demere and Hamilton right near the on-going construction of the new ‘traffic circle’ at the entrance to the Island is going to be a gas station.
First of all, I put ‘traffic circle’ in quotes because it is using the term loosely to [...]

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The Big TurnOff Event

26 September 2009

Sounds odd, right? The Big TurnOff Event…  Well, the St. Simons Island Lighthouse is going to be turned-off (hence the name) on Sunday, Sept. 27th and apparently, it’s going to get a big send-off!
Why? Because our 150 year old lighthouse is undergoing renovations and this will be the first time since World War II that [...]

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Progessing & Evolving…

24 September 2009

Welcome to my latest version of MidiShaw.com.  I took my old FrontPage designed site down at the beginning of summer thinking I’d have it redesigned and up again in no time.  Well, after months of monkeying around with Joomla and finding myself drawn more to the functionality of the Wordpress blog I had been toying [...]

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