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Steve's Soundbytes

Recession, Real Estate, & the 3 Jewels of our Alamance County

December 7th, 2008 11:48 PM

Good News! "They" have announced that the recession has begun! In my opinion that's a pretty good thing because now that it is declared to have started we can look for the end of it. Since we were never informed that "it" hadn't started all we could do was wonder when things were going to get better or if they were going to get worse. But now that "it" has started sooner or later it will end. I have attended a couple of economic summits lately, one held at Elon University and sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and the other one sponsored by Carolina Bank. The speaker at Elon was of the opinion that while it's not comfortable for us here in North Carolina things are worse in other areas and they will probably not get as bad here as it has or will get in places like Florida, California and Nevada. Additionally, he offered the opinion that because the Carolinas were the last one in they will probably be the first one out.

The speaker at the Carolina Bank meeting said that he felt that this recession will probably not be a deep recession however will probably a long one. That's not particularly good news but at least we finally got it started. They both stated that there are so many indicators that have to be looked at over such a long period of time that by the time "they" get the info analyzed, we have already been in a recession for a while and that by the time the indicators say "it" is over, we've been out of it for a while.

What about real estate, since that is what I've got the most and closest experience with? Well, it's actually doing OK. I have noticed a distinct up turn in showings, people listing their property and in serious buyers across the board. Let me say this, CASH IS KING. If you have some money that you were thinking about putting into stocks but are now reconsidering, now is the time to look at rental property. I was discussing this with a lady that I met at a luncheon today. She is a small time investor in RE. She has about 14 units and for the first time in a long time all of the units are rented and have been for a while. She also said that one of her tenants said that they wanted to buy a house but were told that they needed a down payment, which they don't have. So, they were going to rent until they could save up enough to put some money down. In times like these when you need 3-5% or more down and a credit score of 740 or so, a lot of people will be renting, for a while , until they can get their rating up. Likewise, with the supply of rental type properties available right now due to the well publicized foreclosures and forced sales, now is the time to build your portfolio in rentals, or even start your portfolio. I can tell you first hand that a lot of investors are rethinking their positions in the stock market and are looking for under priced real estate instead of under valued stock that may or may not lose even more value.

A couple of personal notes here. We are fully moved into our new offices in Mebane with the Keller Williams group. It's a good place with lots of activity and good people. One of the reasons for moving was to expand our market and we are doing that. Another was to make better and more resources available to my team in terms of educational and networking possibilities. That's a real strong point with KW also. So, it's working according to plan. Our move back to Burlington is coming along also. We are looking to be back in the Church St. area near the action in West Burlington soon.

There are a couple of things that I have been meaning to talk about in this space. If you are reading this and you live locally you probably are fully aware of the 3 "jewels" that we a blessed with here in Alamance county. I'm referring to Elon University, Alamance Community College and Alamance Regional Medical Center. Nancy and I are pretty involved with all three of those institution for a lot of reasons, but the main reason is that all three of them do so much for our community. Elon University is outstanding both from the stand point of being a large employer which brings in so many quality people, it also is a source of so many fine recreational and cultural opportunities. If you have not been to a Saturday afternoon football game complete with the tailgating, the big school atmosphere and the quality competition that is displayed weekly, you are missing out! The speakers, concerts and theater events are outstanding and many things they do are free to the public. They have had famous speakers from around the world here to speak to and meet with the students. What a terrific resource.

The Alamance Community College is celebrating it's 50th year this year. It is so much more than the typical "technical" college that a lot of community colleges are thought of as being. In addition to being based in that fine mission it is doing an incredible job of preparing young people to complete a 4 year degree, retraining laid off workers for new careers and offering hope and help to over 17000 full and part-time students annually. Dr. Nadleman is doing a great job in spelling out and accomplishing the mission of that school.

ARMC, the hospital, is unbelievable! For a community the size of Alamance County, this medical center is absolutely fantastic! We have top medical experts coming here from all over the country because of the facility and because of the quality of life here in this part of the state. They have a top notch cancer center, caring personnel and state of the art facilities that serves all of our citizens well. It is affiliated with and has working relationships with UNC,Duke and Wake Forest hospitals. We are perfectly positioned as a community to attract quality companies looking for a place to relocate and for folks who just want a quality of life that they can enjoy and bring up their kids in.

I'm running long here, and I'm sure I will talk about these three institutions much more in the future, so I'll knock it off. But, I cannot say enough about what Dr. Leo Lambert and his people are doing at Elon, Dr. Martin Nadleman and his dedicated staff at Alamance Community College and John Currin and his wonderfully caring staff at ARMC are accomplishing every day to make our life here in central NC a great place to live. Talk to you later. Oh yeah, my son,Butch, who lives and works in real estate in the Atlanta area, just got a new dog. Thought you might like to know.

Steve

Posted by Steve and Nancy Whitfield on December 7th, 2008 11:48 PMPost a Comment (0)