Lake Gaston Real Estate Market Update: August is here, vacationers
and homeowners are taking full advantage of the summer activities Lake Gaston has
to offer. The Crossing, sponsored by O’Sail,
was a great success again this year. The
annual event is a charitable fund-raiser for them. O’Sail provides arts, infrastructure and
learning opportunities for Lake Gaston residents and visitors. You can read
more about O’Sail on their website at http://osail.org.
Through July Lake Gaston,
real estate sales and listings remain steady. In the July, we had closings on 10 waterfront
homes and 13 offshore homes totaling $4,731,150. In July last year, we closed 23 transactions
totaling $7,069,675. In the first seven
months of 2013 we have closed 182 transactions equaling $46,686,955 total. In
the first seven months of 2012 there were 160 transactions equaling $42,289,675
total. When compared we see an increase of 10.5% in sales dollars this year.
The real estate market at
Lake Gaston is recovering. I looked at
our 2007 figures for the same seven months period and found we are 50.1% of the
unit sales and 59.2% of the dollar sales. Our local market has room for
improvement, but it is fair to say, “We have come a long way already.”
I find our Country’s economic
news varied. CoreLogic, a real estate
data provider, stated last week that home prices climbed on annual basis in
forty-eight states. Prices surged nearly 12 percent nationwide in June from a
year earlier. The Commerce Department
reported that growth in the economy has slowed in the April - June quarter to a
seasonally adjusted rate of just 1 percent.
This is below the sluggish pace of 1.8 percent in the January – March
quarter. The Conference Board, an NY
based private research group reports its consumer confidence index dipped to
80.3 in July, which is down from 82.1 in June.
Unemployment remains high at 7.5 percent but has improved throughout the
year.
Most economists say the
economy already shows signs of improvement. They forecast growth rates of
between 2 and 3 percent for the third and fourth quarters of the year. Recent data seems hopeful, overall hiring has sped
up, home construction sales and prices show improvement. Manufacturing is
benefiting from strong auto sales and business spending is increasing slightly.
It is hard to estimate how
the recent increase in interest rates will affect our property sales at Lake
Gaston. The rates remain at historically
low levels. I feel an increase in consumer
confidence and improvement in employment numbers will boost our property sales and
values. Like me, local Realtors® are optimistic about Lake Gaston’s economy.
