Monday Coffee - Market Shifting In these areas

WILMINGTON NC - Hi, this is Buddy Blake here with Waypost Realty, which we're actually now brokered by eXp Realty, which is really awesome because we get to use their systems and everything else for our Waypost Realty team. So anyway, I wanted to reach out to you, happy Monday to you. It's obviously not Monday morning. It's been a crazy day, but I wanted to let you know some stuff that's going on in the Wilmington area. I don't know if we're seeing a trend, but I'm going to show you my screen and kind of go over with you in just a few minutes what I went over with my agents this morning on our team. We're seeing something, I don't know if this is a sign that we've crossed over kind of the tip-top and things are changing, but there's been one reference point that for over 20 years that I've watched.

And I'm going to show you in just a second, but first I want to give you a little tip. If you're buying a house, I don't care if it's resale, used, new, whatever it is, doesn't matter where in the country now, if you're buying something and you're a buyer, I highly recommend you have your agent, preferably one of our agents, if it's in our area. And our area is much broader now, by the way, with the eXp, we're able to cover a much larger landscape here. I mean, pretty much all up and down the east coast of North Carolina now, most of it. But anyway, here's the deal. If you're buying something and you're on the buyer side and you've got a buyer mentality, you want to make sure that you are asking for the appliance, the washer, dryer, and refrigerator. In North Carolina, the washer, dryer, and refrigerator are not fixtures of the house.

Yes, the dishwasher is. Yes, the microwave is if it's built-in. Garbage disposal, things like that, if they're built-in. But here's the deal, the reason why is, everybody just assumes, because we've always been able to that you can just lollygag right on down to your Lowe's or go online to Lowe's or Home Depot. Or in our area, Atlantic Appliance or Island Appliance, and just buy appliances and have them delivered in the next 30 days or however long you're closing is. Well, that's not always the case now. Due to the supply chains that are going on, still from the COVID and then the housing boom, a lot of folks aren't getting them. So you very well could move in without a refrigerator or a washer and dryer, if you haven't figured that out. So I highly recommend, and we're suggesting this with our buyers now, moving forward, make sure you ask for them.

Typically, you're not going to be able to not buy a house because the seller won't sell you the washer and dryer and refrigerator. That's not usually a stopping point. Yes, it's negotiable. People work through it, but it's not usually what happens. Just factor that in. Now, if you're on the seller side and you're moving somewhere else, which most sellers are moving somewhere else, the same applies for you. You need to not sell your washer, dryer, and refrigerator. The worst case is, let's say you're able to find something, or you're buying new construction, or you buy something with it. You can always sell them online on Facebook Marketplace. We don't recommend Craigslist any longer, but Facebook marketplace or whatever, or give them to Habitat for Humanity or do something. Or you could always give them to the buyer or negotiate after the fact on it. But just remember that if you're buying, try to get the washer and dryer and refrigerator. If you're selling, try not to sell the washer, dryer, and refrigerator.

So just depends on which hat you're wearing. Anyway. I wanted to give you that tip because that is an issue that's going on. We're running into it every day now. All right, guys, this is the same exact update and agenda actually that I do on Monday mornings with our folks here and our team. And I'm just going to kind of go through it with you. Right here is our market update segment. I won't go through the rest of it. Oh, I will bounce back and show you our mortgage update. If you're thinking about borrowing money or getting a refinance, Paul works right in our office. He is with Waypost Mortgage. He is phenomenal and he's partnering with us. He's fantastic. But anyway, market update, okay, this is Wilmington. This is as of late last night, 262 homes available that is flat line for the last two to three weeks now.

It was dropping. We're still month over a month down 26%, but just keep in mind for the first time in a long time, our inventory is flatlining. So we've kind of hit the bottom. And so, Hampstead is still falling. It is still falling. There are only 61 homes available there. And a good bit of that is going to be... You're going to be finding new construction. It has been on fire. A lot of folks moving into Pender County for a lot of different reasons. Be glad to chat with you about that. Here's the one I want to show you, Carolina Beach. And I circled it here. There are 148 properties. Now keep in mind, if you look at the month-over change, that is the only area around us right now that is going up and inventory. So this number has been going up for a number of weeks now, whereas everywhere else has been going down.

And I'm just going to say Carolina Beach, after years ago, after '96 was the first to fall. 2000 was the first to fall. And then the first to rise. 2006 was the first to fall. And then the first to rise. 2010 and on. And then this time it was the first to go crazy. And now it's been the first to slow. Now I don't know if it's going to continue, but we're going to watch this because this is something we need to keep an eye on because all good things come to an end. This has been a crazy run. Interest rates have been crazy low, they're inching up. Stock markets... today record numbers, they're giving away free money and it's going to make the stock market go up. Bond market is going to be shifted around, which means interest rates are going to be going up even more.

So hopefully it'll calm down some, and hopefully, this is a fluke, but this very well could be the indicator that I've been looking out for. So, anyway, just keep in mind if you're selling your house, you don't want to mess around too much longer. You want to get it out there. And if you're buying a house, you need to be thinking long-term. You want to think about those interest rates because one percentage point in interest rate shift can affect your borrowing capacity between 10 and 12%. So that's a lot of money. So all of a sudden you're not going to be able to afford a home in our area or-

Thank you so much for watching this report. And again, I'm going to keep watching the reports in Carolina Beach, because that has been our tip of the spear over the years. And I'll keep giving you the updates on everything else, but we're definitely seeing a leveling off in the major areas now, and we're seeing some increases in inventory in Carolina Beach. It might be a fluke, might be just pre-spring, but it's been going on for a few weeks now. So we're going to stay in touch on that and watch that because that, again, that's been my indicator over the years, first to rise, first to fall, it's just kind of our barometer here. Anyway. Thank you so much. Have a great week. If we can help you in any way, please let us know.

And if you are a real estate agent or you're thinking about becoming a real estate agent, whether you're in our area or any area, please take a look at the link below at the career page that we have. There's some really good information on it, about our team, about selling real estate, and certainly about eXp Realty. I think that every agent out there should take a look at it and we'll be glad to help you walk through that, and we'll just be glad to tell you why we did it. So anyway, thanks a lot. Have a great week, bye bye.