Outer Banks Real Estate

Feds raise rates again - more possible increases on the way

The Central Bank has increased the fed rate to 4.75% and Bernanke indicated there may be more increases in the comming months.  This was not the good news we were all hoping for a few months ago.  Everyone expected the current increase - they were just hoping that the message would include an end in sight for future increases. 

Most banks lend money at the fed rate plus 3% as their prime rate.  Prime is what many Home Equity Lines of Credit and credit card rates are based on. 

Second Home Swap Site

There is a new online service for second home owners called SwapandStay that allows you to trade weeks for other vacation homes across the world. 

Here are some details from their web site:

If you own a holiday home you can Swapandstay in thousands of locations all over the world and never have to pay for accommodation again!

Swapandstay.com is a members only site that enables holiday home owners to swap weeks in each others holiday homes. All Swapandstay.com members own a holiday home and wish to swap their holiday homes in order to visit other holiday destinations.

Swapandstay.com was created for holiday homeowners who don't want to spend every holiday in their own holiday home.

• Own a holiday home but want to experience other destinations?
  
• Swapandstay your holiday home when it isn't occupied.
  
• It can be the key to thousands of holiday homes worldwide.
  
• Empty weeks? Last minute cancellations? - Just Swapandstay

Cool Program for Word Processing

For those that don't have MS Word, there is a new online program called Ajaxwrite.  You can write documents and save them in pdf, doc, rtf and text formats.  The program is written with the AJAX web based platform.  Another web 2.0 tool for free.

New Home Sales drop in February

The number of new home sales dropped more than expected in February.  CNN / Money published an article with all of the details.  The news had a good effect on the mortgage bonds - they are up for the day which helps lower the mortgage rates. 

New Email Subscription Tool for Blogs

There is a new product available for email subscription of blogs.  Squeet allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and you can even customize when the messages are delivered. 

Corolla Water Quality Questioned

The Daily Advance published an article about the poor quality of drinking water in northern Currituck County.  The areas affected are the Corolla Light and Monteray Shores subdivisions. 

Outer Banks Polar Plunge

The 9th Annual Outer Banks Polar Plunge will be held on March 18, 2006.  This is a great event that was started by Greg Honeycutt from Ocean Atlantic Rentals to benefit the Outer Banks Family YMCA .  If you or your team is interested in taking the plunge this weekend, please contact obxpolarplunge@yahoo.com

There will be hot tubs available before and after the plunge for those that can't take a little cold water. 

Realty Blogging

Realty Blogging defines itself as "A Network of Blogging Evangalist writing on effective Real Estate Blogging".  This is a great resource for anyone interested in starting a blog for their business. 

Vacation and Second Home Market forecast

The Motley Fool published an interesting article about the hot vacation and second home markets.  They believe the market will stay strong through the end of the decade. 

The Outer Banks Real Estate market is starting to heat up.  With spring around the corner, buyers are starting to make the treck to the Outer Banks.   

Outer Banks Marathon - November 12, 2006

The first Outer Banks Marathon is scheduled for Sunday November 12, 2006.  The field is limited to 4,000 participants.  There will also be a half marathon on the 12th also.  For those of us that are distance challenged, there will be a fun run on November 11th.