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Real Estate and Geography
The Real Estate micro-market in which I primarily work, as does my office, is the Greater Carlisle Area. This is basically the same area encompassed by the Greater Carlisle Chamber of Commerce and is recognized in the Bright Multiple Listing Service as Area 7.
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First Time Buyer Alert
In several of my previous blogs, I have noted that more and more young Americans are either moving back home or renting. For the most part, I am addressing young adults 25 to 34 years in age. Multi-generational households are also on the rise.
Over the years, I have never encouraged our Buyer clients to be “house poor”. I have always said that there is more to life than making house payments and no one should stretch themselves too thin – – although many choose to do that on their own!
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Cumberland County Facts
The Central Penn Business Journal is an absolute must read for business people and professionals. In addition to its weekly newspaper-like publication, it releases several supplemental publications throughout the year. What follows are facts reported in the Daulphin/Cumberland Business Report for 2014.
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In Buck We Trust
If you know me at all, you know that I am an avid Baltimore Orioles baseball fan. Have been since I attended my first game in 1968. I attend Spring training in Sarasota, Florida, split an Oriole season ticket package, and pretty much plan my evening and weekends around the televised games.
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Alphabet Soup
There is no such thing as a “Licensed Realtor”. I have mentioned this before but it is my pet peeve.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania issues two classifications of Real Estate Licenses. They are Salesperson (the vast majority of practitioners) and Broker.
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Carlisle Area Market Share
With last week’s news that Warren Buffet has acquired the Prudential Home Sale Services Group, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at who is doing business in Carlisle and where are they really from?
Buffett purchased the Prudential Home Sale Services Group which is currently headquartered in Lancaster and is the Mid-State’s largest residential Broker business. The name will change in June to Berkshire Hathaway Home Services and, I suppose, they will maintain a branch office on Walnut Bottom Road here in Carlisle. After June, I suspect you would need to call Warren Buffet if you had a problem with their office or their agents.
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Market Snapshot
According to the US Census Bureau, nearly 36 million Americans moved in 2013. This is approximately 12% of all Americans – – a number similar to the year 2012.
As reported in a prior blog, rentals continue to be a large percentage of all relocations. Nearly 25% of renters relocated in 2013 while only 5.1% of homeowners moved.
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“Boomerang Buyers”
Just what in the world is a “Boomerang Buyer”? I wondered the same thing until I recently read an article provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors.
“Boomerang Buyers” are those who previously allowed their home to fall into foreclosure but are ready to re-enter the housing market. Nearly 80% of consumers who lost their homes during the financial crisis are interested in buying again and 41% say their income say their income is higher than when they first purchased the property. The “Boomerang Buyers” say their debt obligations have lessened and that they are willing to invest more into the purchase of a new property than they were in the past – – over 50% indicating that they would make a down payment of 10% or more as part of their next home purchase.