Above is a summary of  Tega Cay single family homes sales for 2011. The information was prepared using data from Carolina (Charlotte metro) MLS. Homes.

According to CMLS data, 25 more homes sold in Tega Cay in 2011 compared to 2010. The number of days on the market reduced 15%. Average homes sold prices were down 2% from last year but the list price to sold price ratio was flat holding near 96%.

Overall , selling more homes than the year before is a positive trend.   One thing to watch in the coming months is the trend that there are  less homes for sale now than last year. The reduced inventory trend during early fall 2011 was down almost 40% from last year and ended closer to 20% down in December. If the reduced inventory trend continues, this may signal better news for home sellers if the home buyer demand increases.

A note about the numbers – Tega Cay is on the border of NC and SC and included in the Charlotte Metro. We have two overlapping Multiple Listing Services that serve our area. The services are the Piedmont MLS and Carolina MLS. Not all homes for sale in our area are added to both MLS services. So homes sold reports can vary depending upon which service is used. I choose to use CMLS data for this report but I am a member of both services and would be happy to share your neighborhood results with you. Just give me a call or send me an email.

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

Call me for questions or showings.

Pictured are Tega Cay homes recently sold or pending by Century 21 First Choice Realtor Carmen Miller. Over 100+ homes have sold in Tega Cay this year. Our area home market is seeing approximately a 40+% decrease in inventory of homes listed for sale compared to last year at the same time.

Tega Cay homes priced under $300,000 are selling in under 90 days on the market and averging 95% list to sales price ratio.

Thinking of selling but need more information? I would be happy to meet with you and give you specific market information as it applies to your home!

Fort Mill School District Central Office is moving next Spring 2012. A new construction notice sign was installed Wednesday signalling the start of the interior construction process for the new Fort Mill School District Central Office.

The new offices will be located at 2229 Deerfield Drive in the same development area (Gold Hill Commons) as the current Knights baseball stadium.

View Larger Map

The are two exiting “shell” office buildings with a combine square footage of  34,000 on 2.92 acres. The FMSD purchased the buildings May 2011 for approx 3.380 million (per York County online tax info). The construction work will be primarily focused on the interior of the office buildings with a hope to move in during the Spring break period next spring.

From York County SC Online GIS

Next to the new central office, work should begin in about a month on a new school bus transportation facility to house and maintain approx 150 school buses.  Read the Jan 2011 FMSD press release with information on these 2 land acquisition projects and a new  Middle School next to Pleasant Knoll Elementary School.  FMSD-News-Release-January-2011-Land-Acquisition

A certified letter was mailed by DHEC to all 3 Fort Mill hospital applicants today. The letter said,

“It is the decision of this Department that a Certificate of Need be issued to Carolinas Medical Center –Fort Mill for the construction of a 64 bed general acute care hospital to be located in York County SC.”

The letter went on to say CMC has best met all of the criteria in the community need documentation.

My question is, is this their final answer?

If you remember, DHEC awarded the Fort Mill Hospital need to Piedmont Medical Center in 2006. See my Jan 2008 post about the hospital war.  Two-New-Hospitals-In-Fort-Mill?  Both CMC and Presbyterian Hospital appealed the decision and last year DHEC reopened the Certificate of Need process for a second time with a different decision announced today.

The DHEC decision becomes final 15 days after the notice period. If the decision is not appealed again, CMS will begin plans to build new 64 bed hospital on 20 acres in the southwest corner of 1-77 and Sutton road exit 83.

More details at the DHEC site

Sports fans are you ready for a new sporting goods store in Rock Hill? Development company Warren Norman Co, Inc, announced it has signed a lease for a new 71,829 sq ft Academy Sports + Outdoors. The new sporting goods store will be located at a new shopping center called High Point Crossings at the corner of Dave Lyle Blvd and Red River Road.

The talks and negotiations between the Developer and Academy began over 4 years ago. The lease singing secures a major anchor tenant for the new 40 acre, 225,000 retail square footage development with a projected real estate value when the center is completed at over 35 million dollars.

Academy Sports + Outdoors is a sports, outdoor and lifestyle retailer with a huge assortment of  hunting, fishing and camping equipment and gear along with sports and leisure products, footwear, apparel and more. The Texas-based company operates over 135 stores throughout Southeast and lower Midwest including;

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

The Rock Hill Academy store will be their first store in the greater Charlotte region. The projected construction completion of the Academy store is estimated to be February 2012.

I am excited for 2 reasons. One, it’s nice to hear about a development project moving forward during this stale economy. Two, I have shopped Academy’s in their home city of Houston and think the stores are great and items are priced to be very competitive in the market.

A job posting for a Manager’s position for this location was posted on the Academy website in early July.

Good news for the Fort Mill Township, Red Ventures plans to hire 500 people before the end of 2011. The Fort Mill SC based Red Ventures is holding a Sales Job Fair  Thursday, August 18th, 10am – 1pm & 6pm – 7pm at thier headquarters at 1101 521 Corporate Center Drive Fort Mill, SC 29707.

Red Ventures is anticipating a large turn out so time slots have been set up in which you can register for via their website at www.redventures.com/events.Although The August 18th Job Fair is centered on filling sales positions, Red Ventures plans to hire across all areas of the company in the next several months.See open positions in Fort Mill at www.redventures.com/careers-corp

Red Ventures is a direct marketing company who specialize in marrying online marketing, telephone sales, and designing technology infrastructure to support their marketing efforts for clients.

York County will begin mailing “Notice of Assessment” letters to York County SC property owners this month. Your property is reassessed every 5 years or sooner if you make improvements or transfer (buy) property. The last County 5 year reassessment was in 2006. There is a good chance your home value in Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie, Clover, etc will show an increase this year.

What? My property re-assessment notice from York County may show an increase this year? I thought homes have decreased in value in the last couple years! So why the higher property assessment values this year?

Since the last reassessment was done in 2006, property values were based on market and sales activity in 2003 and 2004. The market continued to experience property value increases in years 2006 – 2008. Your reassessment will most likely be higher if not adjusted since 2006. In fact, Herald reporter Jamie Self stated in an article, 77% of York County property values are worth more than they were in the 2006 assessment.

Some relief comes from a 2006 “Real Property Tax Reform Bill” Act 388. There are some guidelines in the bill that may help limit your reassessment increase or tax impact

The bill caps the increase in value on a property at 15% over a five year period unless there is an “Assessable Transfer of Interest” (meaning the home was sold, bought, or transferred) or additions and improvements.

Because of the increase in values during reassessment, state law requires that local government reduce the millage rate to what is called a “rollback millage.”

Here are some tips from the York County Assessor’s office in reviewing your Notice of Assessment

• Is the information correct on your notice?
• If this is you primary residence, is it taxed at an assessment rate of 4% instead of 6%?
• Is it showing the correct number of buildings and acreage?
• Does the value of the land and buildings reflect the properties true market value? (The price that your property would sell for on a fair and open market, with a willing buyer and willing seller.)

When you receive your “Notice of Reassessment” and you disagree with the reassessment, you will have 90 days to file a written notice of objection to the County Assessor’s Office. I provided a copy of the County’s form here. York County Notice Of objection

If you have more questions about your assessment or the reassessment process, I added a handy link to 2 York County help documents:

YC ReAssessment FAQ

York County SC Reassessnent

Or visit the York County Assessor’s Office website.

Do credit inquiries hurt my score?

This is a great question and a common one!  Many potential home buyers are afraid to let a lender pull their credit report because they think it will drop their score.  This is actually a very harmful MYTH and let me explain why.

Mortgage lenders use a scoring formula developed by Fair Isaac called FICO score.  FICO ignores mortgage inquiries for the most recent 30 days prior to scoring!  In fact, even when looking more than 30 days back all inquiries made for a mortgage within a 45 day window are only counted as one inquiry.  This means that having your credit checked out for a mortgage is not harmful to your score immediately and have little to no long term impact.

This is important because when home buyers wait until they find a house to have their credit pulled, there are often surprises that hurt their chances of obtaining a loan or getting the best rate.

I just met with a couple a few weeks ago that wanted to buy a new home in the Tega Cay area.  They are very credit worthy but didn’t realize that there was an error on their credit report.  By coming to me early we identified the problem and within a few weeks they were able to clear it up… before needing to lock in a rate or close on a loan!

If you are thinking about buying or refinancing the FIRST THING you should do is have a lender pull your credit!  Most lenders will do this for free and you might save yourself a lot of time and money.

Olan Carder
Loan Officer
NMLS# 97565

8600 Sam Furr Road, Ste 250
Huntersville, NC 28078
Phone: 980-721-7478
Fax: 704-247-2601
ocarder@1asmc.com
www.charlottemortgageonline.com

Post From Loan Officer Olan Carder

This is always the million dollar question. I get asked more than anything else, “Where are rates? Where are rates going? What are rates about to do?”

This is a tough question for the average loan officer because although we deal with rates all day everyday, many loan officers don’t understand the economic factors that drive rates or frankly don’t have time to pay attention to it.

Fortunately I subscribe to a wonderful service that keeps me informed on these factors and world economic events. Although no one can predict for certain what the future may hold, I do get great predictions from well informed experts, and they are typically very accurate.

Right now they are advising folks to FLOAT their interest rate if they are closing within the next 30-60 days. Rates have been on a downward trend for the last month and until we see something major change in the economy or see a strong change in the trend the smart money is floating.

This means rates should stay the same or slightly improve over the next couple months. If you are in the process of buying a home or refinancing, please consult your lender directly for lock advise. Many lenders offer some kind of float down or rate protection which makes locking a no-brainer, so if you would like more info on that shoot me an email. I am always happy to help!

Olan Carder
Loan Officer
NMLS# 97565
Phone: 980-721-7478
ocarder@1asmc.com
www.charlottemortgageonline.com

Mortgage rates have increased slightly in the last couple months but overall, today’s rates are still affordable.

Here’s a brief  history of 30 year mortgage rates for the last 20 years.

In 1990, rates averaged 10.5%. Rates showed a steady decline year to year until 2004. Rates in 2003 where around 5.6% then jumped to6.4% in 2004. Rates declined again to 5.8% 2005. The roller coaster ride continued in 2006 when rates were up to 6.7%. Rates then began a slow decline through 2010. 

Recently rates dipped into the mid 4% range and are now back in the 5% range. Its hard to predict what rates will do in the coming year but rates are still low.

Call me for questions, market trends,  etc.

Carmen S Miller
Century 21 First Choice
Fort Mill, SC
803.322.3479
carmen@carmensmiller.com
homesfortmill.com
seetegacay.com
aboutfortmill.com
tegacaywaterfronthomes.com

Fort Mill continues to see more new growth with another recent construction start near Highway 160 and Dave Gibson Blvd. The land that is in the process of being cleared behind the South Carolina Bank and Trust is for a preschool called Ivybrook Academy.

The new Ivybrook Academy in Fort Mill will be the 2nd campus for Ivybrook Academy, also found on the internet as LearningLinksAcademy.com. The first location is in Weddington NC and has been operation since August 2007. The Academy’s spokesperson Drew McWilliams said they picked Fort Mill for their new location

because of the highly regarded public schools in the area which matches that of our current early childhood education programs”.

Ivybrook Academy is a half-day preschool offering 6 different programs:

Mother’s Morning Out, Explorer, Investigator, Inventor, PreKindergarten, and Transitional Kindergarten. The Academy promotes their facilities are “Eco Healthy ” and  “expertly designed to provide the optimal learning environment for your child”.

The Fort Mill Ivybrook Academy facility is estimated to be completed by August 1, 2011. Just in time for the 2011-2012 school year. Read more about Ivybrook Academy at their website.

If you drive by the intersection of Gold Hill Road and Hwy 160 near Tega Cay, you can’t help but notice the construction taken place on the north east corner. Lake Wylie Lutheran Church is adding a 5,800 sq foot Fellowship Hall, meeting space, and expanded parking lot primarily for the expansion of their ministries and outreach possibilities for the community.

Lake Wylie Lutheran was established in 1981 and has a slogan of “Come As You Are”. The church has seen a 70% increase in congregation from 2002 to 2009. Currently the church has approx 325 members with average worship of 170 in two Sunday services.

Church Council President Dottie France said the Fellowship Hall construction should be completed in Mid March. The Church has a 3 phase growth vision which includes the expansion of the sanctuary and small chapel near the columbarium (Phase II) estimated in 2015 and a ministry building (phase III) in 2022.

Lake Wylie Lutheran Church welcomes all people to worship. They offer two worship services each Sunday; the 8:30 uses the traditional Lutheran liturgy and the 11:00 service uses the best of current contemporary Christian music. A professionally staffed nursery is provided each Sunday. See more info at www.lakewylielutheran.org.

Mortgage Update  Tuesday December 14th 2010

Rates are on the move AGAIN! The MBS Market is down over 100 basis points again and rates are headed for or are already at 5%. I will keep you posted through the week.

Why are rate going up? The risk of inflation has increased which creates risk on the yield of the mortgage backed securities. This has caused the mortgage bond prices to fall.

There are two main factors in the global economy driving this fear of inflation. One is the extension of the US tax cuts which will keep the national debt high and China announcing they are taking measures to slow their economy to head of inflation. See my video for a detailed explanation.

If you want to be added to my distribution list, Register Now

Olan Carder

The Blood Bath Continues!

Ok guys, we have lost another 100 Basis Points today so in the last 48 hours we have lost 234 basis points int he mortgage bond market! I am not sure how to put that into perspective but HUGE is not nearly a big enough to describe it.

Most lenders are going to be quoting around 4.75% now on 30 year fixed. 5% isn’t far off…

I will keep you posted if anything changes.

If you have received this indirectly and would like to be added to my distribution list, Register Now!

Olan Carder

Loan officer Olan Carder with American Security Mortgage sent out a video today to real estate agents with a couple mortgage tips or recommendations. Here is recap of Olan’s message…

Olan’s first message is about potential home buyers. If you are waiting for the new year to make a home purchase decision or closing, you may want to know mortgage rates are inching up slightly. Olan sees momentum in the bond market to move rates up in the future. So you may want to consider locking in a rate now in case there a chance rates go higher the first of the year.

Another mortgage tip is about mortgage tax deduction if you closed on a home this year. Most know you can use your mortgage interest payment as a deduction at tax time. What you may miss is some or all of the upfront insurance premium costs or funding fee for government type loans, FHA, VA, USDA, are also tax deductible. Check with your tax consultant to see if you qualify for this type of deduction.

For more tips or questions, contact Olan Carder

Olan Carder

ALDI, a more than 1000 store grocery chain, posted a banner this week their new store location on Hwy 160 and Vandora Springs rd in Fort Mill will open January 13, 2011. The new store has been under construction for several months and appears to be completed but is sitting idle until January.

ALDI opened their first store in southeastern Iowa back in 1976 and now has more than 1,000 grocery store locations in 31 central and east coast states. Their slogan is “honest to goodness savings” on the items you buy the most. If you have not been to an ADLI, the first thing you’ll find different is you’ll have to pay 25 cents to use a shopping cart. ADLI claims they save money by not having extra employees fetching carts so they encourage you to return the cart and get your quarter back. By the way, bring your own eco-friendly shopping bags to shop.

I have seen local online comments glad to see ADLI in our area to other comments stating we don’t need another grocery store. I am sure the negative comments come from the fact that another grocery chain Publix is attempting to build a store in Fort Mill within a couple miles of the new ALDI. More stores or choices should breed competition and in theory lower prices. Who’s not for lower grocery prices? For those of you that have shopped at an ALDI elsewhere, please share your ADLI shopping experience with us.

FHA has reduced the UFMIP and increased the annual MIP… what does this mean for your buyers? Is conventional the king again or is FHA still the best way to go for most first time buyers? See my Fort Mill Mortgage video update for Oct 2010.

http://youtu.be/c-JRCg4Ymtg

Tega Cay Real Estate | Lake Shore Subdivision

New Price: $385,000

Address: 1939 Newberry LN Tega Cay, SC 29708

Bedrooms: 5, Bathrooms: 4

4,407 sq ft, Acres: 0.469

York County

Schools: Riverview (Elem), Fort Mill (High), Gold Hill (Junior)

Truly a value! Great home with room for all, including formals, gourmet kitchen, hardwood flooring, guest suite with full bath on main level, large master suite, generous secondary bedrooms, four full baths, huge third story bonus room perfect for a home office, rec room, media room etc. Home is located on a cul-de-sac street within walking distance to parks and lake. Wooded lot backs onto park.

Additional Features:

• Common Area: Club House, Golf Course, Lake, Playground, Pool, Tennis Courts, Walking Trails, Recreation Area
• Doors/Windows: Insulated Windows
• Equipment: Cable Prewire, Ceiling Fan(s), Central Vacuum, Cooktop Electric, Dishwasher, Disposal, Ice Maker Connection, Intercom, Microwave, Refrigerator, Security System, Smoke Detector
• Exterior: Deck, Porch, In-Ground Irrigation
• Fireplace Description: Gas Logs, Great Room
• Fireplace: Yes
• Flooring: Ceramic Tile, Prefinished Wood, Wall-to wall Carpet
• Foundation: Crawl Space
• Mail Level Full Baths: 1
• Upper Level Full Baths: 3
• Full Baths: 4
• HVAC: Central Air, Gas Hot Air, MultiZone Heat, Multizone A/C
• Interior: Whirlpool
• Laundry Location: 2nd Floor
• Main Level Rooms: BED5,DNING,FOYER,GREAT,KITCH,LIVNG,PNTRY
• Upper Level Rooms: BEDR2,BEDR3,BED4,LNDRY,MSTBR
• Siding: Fiber Cement
• Water Heater: Gas
• Water: City Sewer, City Water
• Year Built: 2006

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

Call me for questions or showings.

How about some good news for our area? Manpower released their Manpower Employment Outlook Survey Results this week. Their report for the Charlotte metro (MSA) which includes York County SC (Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie, Rock Hill), shows of the metro employers surveyed, 16% plan to hire between October and December. Among the national employers surveyed, the Charlotte Metro is ranked fifth best in the nation.

The Q 4 hiring news is good news since the same survey results for 2009 Q 4 was -6%. The rest of the survey indicated 76% of local employers surveyed were planning to maintain staff levels while 5% plan to decrease staff levels.

Manpower’s report also indicated the best job sectors for positive growth are Construction, Durable and Non-durable Goods Manufacturing, Financial Activities, Professional & Business Services, Leisure & Hospitality.

To see more survey results go to press.manpower.com

National home sale contracts off 30 percent in May 2010 compared to April 2010 as reported by the National Realtor Association. Not a big surprise based on the fact that the home buyer tax credit deadline was April 30th. So how did Tega Cay home sales do for the first half of 2010?

I broke home sales out by two periods. The first period is January thru April 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. The number of Tega Cay SC homes sold was up 27% or 19 homes sold compared to 15 in 2009. The sales price to list price was up one point from 95% to 96%.

The second period comparisons are Tega Cay homes sales May to June 2010 compared to 2009. The period experienced a nice increase compared to last year at 47% or 25 homes sold compared to 17 in 2009.

This is not a surprise and primarily driven by the home buyers tax credit that ended in April. The numbers are actual closings so the increase in home sale closing volume was expected since the closing deadline was June 30th for the home buyers credit.

Tega Cay’s July home sales forecast? Charlotte MLS reports 15 pending contracts for June in Tega Cay. There are 4 pending contracts for the first week for July. Based on this pace, home sales in Tega Cay seem to be similar to the May and June home sales results. Economist say IF job starts increase the later part of this year, homes sales will follow even without incentives.

Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed.

Call me with your home sales questions.