The National Association of Realtors recently released the 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. NAR mailed an eight-page questionnaire in July 2009 to a national sample of 120,038 home buyers and sellers who purchased their homes between July 2008 and June 2009 and were based on deed transfers and other public records. The report compiles the results of 9,138 surveys returned by buyers and sellers who sold or purchased a home between July 2008 and June 2009. Here are some stats that I found interesting: (my comments in italics)
• 47% of all buyers were first time buyers, an all time high. Their median age was 30 and median income was $61,600. 83% of them were under the age of 44. Expect these numbers to continue because of the extension of the first time home buyer’s tax credit.
• 62% of first time buyers and 35% of all buyers sited their #1 reason for buying was the desire to be a
homeowner. 12% said financing their first home was more difficult than expected, 13% of successful buyers said they had previously experienced a purchase agreement that fell through; and 8% had been rejected by a lender. Be sure you are pre-qualified before you begin your property search. I haven’t had a deal fall through this year…allow extra time.
• The average age of all buyers was 39, same as last year. We are higher here in Brunswick County.
• 63% of all buyers were empty-nesters. Again I suspect our numbers are higher than that.
• 90% of all buyers used the internet to search. This is the highest number I’ve seen yet.
• The average buyer searched for 12 weeks and viewed 12 homes. Among buyers who used an agent, 63 percent selected a buyer’s agent. Wow! You know I like seeing this. I don’t think we have reached that number in Brunswick County but it is heartening to know that buyers are beginning to understand the advantages of buyer agency. All of my clients this year have come from folks seeking representation. Yay!
• Home buyers thought the most important services agents offer are helping find the right house, and negotiating sales terms and price. The most commonly cited benefits of using an agent are helping buyers understand the process, pointing out unnoticed features or faults, negotiating better contract terms, and providing a better list of service providers.
• 84% of buyers reported the photos to be the most useful information. Always so important.
• The number one action taken after viewing a home online was to drive by or visit the home. Me too!
• Less than 3% of buyers surveyed found the home they purchased in a print ad. I love to read the paper with my morning coffee as much as anyone but those days are numbered I feel … print media headed towards oblivion. Glossies might hang around a bit longer.
• Environmentally friendly features remain a significant factor: 88% of buyers said that heating and cooling costs were important, 72% desired energy efficient appliances, and 69% wanted energy efficient lighting. No surprise here. The Green movement is much more than a trend … it is here to stay.
• 87% of buyers viewed real estate as a good investment … more than stocks. The typical home sold for 95 percent of the listing price, with a median increase over the seller’s original purchase price of $36,000. “Even with price declines in recent years, the typical home seller saw their equity increase 27 percent,” McMillan said.
**** Look for my upcoming year-end report sometime in early January and we’ll see how our Southport area and Brunswick County numbers stack up against some of the stats offered by the NAR.
I am LATE posting my Christmas blog … I will get on that. I have some new pictures to share!
As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the current market or are looking for insight into where the best values are right now.
© southportsoundings 2009
Angela Eastering








Southport, Brunswick County, North Carolina, and all across the nation. There are so many great buys here in Southport right now, it makes my head swim. I know that market recovery will come, however slow it may be. There is a tremendous amount of inventory right now, in both land and housing. Buyers are watching on the sidelines waiting for a sign. Certainly the woes of the mortgage industry, which stuck a knife in an already weak real estate market, will have to reach a level of stability before we can turn around. I had planned to insert a Brunswick County Market Report here, and if anyone would like one, just
it might just be too big for the light tackle I was using but I loosened my drag and let it run out a few times before finally pulling in my mystery fish. I'm not an expert by any means but I know most of the fish that are caught inshore. There's flounder, whiting, spots, grey trout, speckled trout, puppy drum, croakers, bluefish, pompano, spanish mackerel, and sheepshead. Well the latter is what I thought I had, as it kept surfacing as I was bringing it in. The black stripes looked like a sheepshead but as I looked more closely, the body shape wasn't quite right and it didn't have a forked tail. As I was studying it, it let out the deep tell-tale sound of a common croaker. Then my friend came out and I yelled, "I think I've just caught a world-class croaker!" He said, "that looks like a sheepshead. "But
know it's not I sheepshead cause the body and tail aren't right." Well THANK GOODNESS for the internet. It didn't take long searching Google images to make the proper identification. It was a BLACK DRUM. I'd never seen one. Once I figured it out, I should have looked at his little chin whiskers, and his little round fins underneath and seen it was a drum of some kind. Anyway, I'd brought it home, so I had to clean it. I got two nice fillets out of her. Then I put them in a bowl of milk with a little salt and hot sauce added. After letting it sit for about an hour, I took the filets and lightly breaded them with cornmeal and Old Bay Garlic and Herb. Then I just fried

What has been my biggest obstacle in the picture-taking mode I've been in lately? Well here in 








But Southport is no stranger to big-time events, as it hosts the largest and longest running 4th of July Festival in North Carolina, welcoming 50,000+ visitors every year. The event is sponsored by the Southport-Oak Island Area Chamber of Commerce. One of the unique aspects of this tournament is the fact that most of the winning fish are caught within 15 miles of shore, with some caught much closer inshore. This allows the guy (or gal) in a 16’ skiff to compete with the big rigs of a 40’ offshore monster. And to make the whole thing family friendly, there’s the 
booths, and a children’s carnival. Don’t miss the big-time fireworks display on Saturday night. If you love theatre, there’s the musical biography Hank Williams: Lost Highway playing at
Back at home, 



