Friday, February 12, 2010
Ichiros - Great Place for a Quick Bite
Have you ever wanted to enjoy the pleasure of a professional chef cooking right in front of you, with the best quality food. Would this experience make you feel like that inner Queen or King thats been dying to come out. Well wait no longer, Ichiros has the best hibachi food in the city. Enjoy the chefs prepare food for you, while entertaining you with great tricks. How bout catching a juicy shrimp in your mouth, or making symbols and signs made with your rice. Even enjoying a sip of smooth wine. Get all of this at Ichiros in Myrtle Beach, SC. For more blogs go to Watermark Real Estate Group's Website.
Friday, February 5, 2010
BROADWAY AT THE BEACH
Want to be able to enjoy high quality food while being able to shop at boutiques, be entertained, and enjoy attractions. Well there is a perfect place where all of those things can be accomplished, right here at Myrtle Beach. Visit Broadway at the Beach, where you can eat, shop and party, and if you get exhausted while doing all that, they have hotels available as well. Now you can enjoy it all at one stop, BROADWAY AT THE BEACH.
Visit our Blog for other News and Stories and Blogs.
www.watermarkagents.com
Visit our Blog for other News and Stories and Blogs.
www.watermarkagents.com
Extreme Makeover
On January 18 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to Horry County to remake a house in Loris. There were close to 5,000 people that showed up for the Suggs' family to see their new home. One of the people to show up in particular was Jeff Gordon to sign autographs while the finishing touches could be put on the house.
Food Network Channel in Myrtle Beach
If you enjoy cooking or watching the Food Network Channel, then the perfect event is coming to Myrtle Beach. Fabio Viviani, from Las Angeles, is coming to the Taste! Trade Show & Expo. The trade show will be held at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center May 14-16. You can go to tasteshows.tix.com to purchase tickets for the show. Fabio Viviani will cook at a Celebrity Chef Dinner Party and will conduct a children's cooking seminar.
For our other blogs, please visit Watermark Real Estate News and Blog
For our other blogs, please visit Watermark Real Estate News and Blog
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Is the Sun Setting Over Florida?
Just read some very interesting statistics from the January 2010 issue of the Grand Strander. The Myrtle Beach Chamber does a great job tracking relocation inquiries for our area. In November 2009, the top five states for relocation inquiries were as follows: (1) New Jersey (2) North Carolina (3) New York (4) Ohio (5) Florida.
Yes, Florida!! Our company's real estate sales this past year included clients from the top four states and in 2010 we will will welcome the Floridans. With the long drive to Florida, higher hurricane potential, and the higher real estate prices, Floridians are considering the Grand Strand. This is a great complement to our area, our beaches, our people and the Myrtle Beach Chamber.
Yes, Florida!! Our company's real estate sales this past year included clients from the top four states and in 2010 we will will welcome the Floridans. With the long drive to Florida, higher hurricane potential, and the higher real estate prices, Floridians are considering the Grand Strand. This is a great complement to our area, our beaches, our people and the Myrtle Beach Chamber.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
US Airways Magazine Features Myrtle Beach
In case you were not able to make it to the beach on the holidays, we wanted to share with you a feature story on Myrtle Beach from the December issue of USAirways Magazine. This was the second time that Myrtle Beach has been selected in the past five years. Lots of exciting things coming in the New Year. It is a great time to be in Myrtle Beach and look forward to seeing you in 2010!
US Airways Magazine Features Myrtle Beach In the beginning, there was the beach. Not just a juncture of ocean and sand, but more than 60 miles of wide, pristine shoreline bordered with sand dunes and sea oats. Add the balmy rays of a Carolina sun, seagulls and egrets leisurely dining in tide pools, and palmetto trees swaying in the gentle sea breeze, and you’ve got the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, area circa 1940. While much has changed since then, the natural beauty of the beach has not, and it remains the star attraction. However, the scope and depth of leisure activities have transformed the area known as the Grand Strand from a seasonal beach town to a world-class vacation destination. From golf and amusements to live entertainment and holiday celebrations, the Myrtle Beach area continues to add new dimensions to its spirit of fun. It has truly become America’s family beach.
(See Full Article) Source: US Airways Magazine
US Airways Magazine Features Myrtle Beach In the beginning, there was the beach. Not just a juncture of ocean and sand, but more than 60 miles of wide, pristine shoreline bordered with sand dunes and sea oats. Add the balmy rays of a Carolina sun, seagulls and egrets leisurely dining in tide pools, and palmetto trees swaying in the gentle sea breeze, and you’ve got the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, area circa 1940. While much has changed since then, the natural beauty of the beach has not, and it remains the star attraction. However, the scope and depth of leisure activities have transformed the area known as the Grand Strand from a seasonal beach town to a world-class vacation destination. From golf and amusements to live entertainment and holiday celebrations, the Myrtle Beach area continues to add new dimensions to its spirit of fun. It has truly become America’s family beach.
(See Full Article) Source: US Airways Magazine
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Myrtle Beach Area Real Estate Revives
November real estate sales shot up more than 60 percent from last year and marked a three-month trend of increased sales in the Grand Strand market.
In November, single-family home sales were up 65 percent, and condominium sales were up 69 percent, when compared with the same month last year, according to statistics compiled Thursday from the Multiple Listing Service.
"We've got a trend here," said Tom Maeser, a real estate analyst for the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. "It's very encouraging ... certainly a definite improvement. Last year was just such a terrible year, it's good to see some rebound."
The real estate market has seen some positive growth in sales in part of the market since June, but until November sales, increases hadn't been consistent for three consecutive months in more than two years.
"We've been looking for some uptick for a long time, and we've seen it in the last few months," said Rod Smith of Coldwell Banker Chicora. Business has slowly and steadily been picking up since June, he said. There are a number offactors driving up sales, Smith said, including pent-up demand, the first-time home buyer tax credit and increasing consumer confidence.
The first-time home buyer tax credit, which was originally set to expire at the end of November, was extended through April 30 and expanded to add a $6,500 credit for most people who buy a new primary residence. People who have owned a home for at least five consecutive years in the past eight years are eligible for the $6,500 credit, and people who have not owned a home in the past three years are considered first-time buyers.
As first-time home buyers started buying, other people who had been waiting to purchase a home decided to buy as well, he said.
Smith said that the looming expiration date of the tax credit likely did push some buyers who wanted to take advantage of the benefit.
Some critics say that the tax credit is propping up the weak housing market, but Smith disagrees. He said it merely encourages people who may have wanted to buy but were reticent.
"I really do believe we're at the bottom now, and we're stomping along in the mud," Smith said. "I don't think you're out of the bottom until values start increasing, and I think the values are going to remain constant for a while."
The median home price dropped 12 percent to $170,000, and the median condo price dropped 19 percent to $121,450 in November, when compared with the same month last year.
Maeser said a several-months trend of price increases would signal that the market is coming out of the strong buyer's market the downturn has created.
"The prices are just so good, and because we're such a heavy investor market, we're getting people to commit their cash to buying houses ... and that's what's driving the market," he said.
Radha Herring, of the Watermark Real Estate Group, said that she is mainly selling condos priced at less than $150,000 to cash buyers.
"We've continued to see the investors come into Myrtle Beach looking for these kinds of opportunities," she said.
With prices so low, investors who had been sitting on the sidelines are taking advantage of the good values, Herring said, adding that she thought business would be slow in November and December but has been surprised to find that it isn't. She is also seeing properties sell faster than they have in at least a year, with desirable properties moving quickly. Herring is telling buyers that there will still be the opportunity to buy in 2010 but that the deals and features they are looking for may start to dwindle. "There will still be tons of inventory into 2010, just maybe not at the price you want," she said.
Inventories are starting to draw down from last year, and as properties sell, the market will eventually see home values rise, said Penny Boling of Century 21 Boling and Associates.
Foreclosures and short sales - a sale when a seller negotiates with the lender to sell a house for less than what is owed on the mortgage - continue to drive prices down, and until most of those properties have been sold, prices will not start to gain value. Foreclosures and short sales made up about 25 percent of total sales last month on the Grand Strand.
"We are cleaning up the market that needs to be cleaned up," Boling said.
Sales at her business have been good, and she is seeing increased consumer confidence, with buyers making decisions more quickly. "People have got cash, they want to put it in something, so they put it in real estate," she said. Boling said she thinks sales increases will continue through December and into next year. "I'll be happy to say goodbye to 2009," she said, "and look for a continuation of an increasing in sales and getting our market where we'll see appreciation again."
Contact ADVA SALDINGER at 626-0317.
In November, single-family home sales were up 65 percent, and condominium sales were up 69 percent, when compared with the same month last year, according to statistics compiled Thursday from the Multiple Listing Service.
"We've got a trend here," said Tom Maeser, a real estate analyst for the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. "It's very encouraging ... certainly a definite improvement. Last year was just such a terrible year, it's good to see some rebound."
The real estate market has seen some positive growth in sales in part of the market since June, but until November sales, increases hadn't been consistent for three consecutive months in more than two years.
"We've been looking for some uptick for a long time, and we've seen it in the last few months," said Rod Smith of Coldwell Banker Chicora. Business has slowly and steadily been picking up since June, he said. There are a number offactors driving up sales, Smith said, including pent-up demand, the first-time home buyer tax credit and increasing consumer confidence.
The first-time home buyer tax credit, which was originally set to expire at the end of November, was extended through April 30 and expanded to add a $6,500 credit for most people who buy a new primary residence. People who have owned a home for at least five consecutive years in the past eight years are eligible for the $6,500 credit, and people who have not owned a home in the past three years are considered first-time buyers.
As first-time home buyers started buying, other people who had been waiting to purchase a home decided to buy as well, he said.
Smith said that the looming expiration date of the tax credit likely did push some buyers who wanted to take advantage of the benefit.
Some critics say that the tax credit is propping up the weak housing market, but Smith disagrees. He said it merely encourages people who may have wanted to buy but were reticent.
"I really do believe we're at the bottom now, and we're stomping along in the mud," Smith said. "I don't think you're out of the bottom until values start increasing, and I think the values are going to remain constant for a while."
The median home price dropped 12 percent to $170,000, and the median condo price dropped 19 percent to $121,450 in November, when compared with the same month last year.
Maeser said a several-months trend of price increases would signal that the market is coming out of the strong buyer's market the downturn has created.
"The prices are just so good, and because we're such a heavy investor market, we're getting people to commit their cash to buying houses ... and that's what's driving the market," he said.
Radha Herring, of the Watermark Real Estate Group, said that she is mainly selling condos priced at less than $150,000 to cash buyers.
"We've continued to see the investors come into Myrtle Beach looking for these kinds of opportunities," she said.
With prices so low, investors who had been sitting on the sidelines are taking advantage of the good values, Herring said, adding that she thought business would be slow in November and December but has been surprised to find that it isn't. She is also seeing properties sell faster than they have in at least a year, with desirable properties moving quickly. Herring is telling buyers that there will still be the opportunity to buy in 2010 but that the deals and features they are looking for may start to dwindle. "There will still be tons of inventory into 2010, just maybe not at the price you want," she said.
Inventories are starting to draw down from last year, and as properties sell, the market will eventually see home values rise, said Penny Boling of Century 21 Boling and Associates.
Foreclosures and short sales - a sale when a seller negotiates with the lender to sell a house for less than what is owed on the mortgage - continue to drive prices down, and until most of those properties have been sold, prices will not start to gain value. Foreclosures and short sales made up about 25 percent of total sales last month on the Grand Strand.
"We are cleaning up the market that needs to be cleaned up," Boling said.
Sales at her business have been good, and she is seeing increased consumer confidence, with buyers making decisions more quickly. "People have got cash, they want to put it in something, so they put it in real estate," she said. Boling said she thinks sales increases will continue through December and into next year. "I'll be happy to say goodbye to 2009," she said, "and look for a continuation of an increasing in sales and getting our market where we'll see appreciation again."
Contact ADVA SALDINGER at 626-0317.
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