At ZERO growth, the ugly term "recession" became non-applicable to Eurozonation (what are the odds of that moniker sticking?). How long will Greece remain a member of the zero growth club? Depending upon their olive oil and oregano exports, not long. How does this affect us here on beautiful Lake Keowee? Confidence being a reality, it does somewhat. Currently confidence is on the upswing. More and more buyers are feeling that elusive sense of urgency to purchase. We've actually seen a few offers thwarted by better offers just in the past week which means that there are quite a few more of you buyers than recently suspected out there and that some really terrific deals are being put together.
50 years together! Wow. I haven't done 50 of almost anything. My wonderful in-laws are celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss together and I couldn't be more inspired, impressed or delighted! Congratulations (mom and dad in-law)!
Consumers are spending more, consumers are spending less. The debt crises in Europe is looming, the debt crisis in Europe is waning. The planet is turning against us drought and famine are imminent, clean coal is the way to go, wind energy, solar, et. al., all very confusing stuff. What's not confusing? It's summer and it's beyond cool to own a Lake Keowee waterfront property. We've got some fantastic deals on properties. Keep in mind, they're not quite so fantastic that people are letting you steal the pennies off of their eyes, but compared to recent sales history, really great deals.
What a great week for Lake Keowee Real Estate! 3 listing appointments and 4 contracts written, 3 of which were accepted! All of which is the direct result of the increases alluded to over the last few Lake Keowee Real Estate blog entries: higher internet searches including an average of over 150 unique website visitors with over 90 video views daily. We're also receiving more emails and phone calls. Folks, the season is upon us...it's the 2012 Lake Keowee Selling Season!
People do. Raise your hand if you've never lied. Ok, put it down because that's a lie. But I digress yet again...fresh earnings reports out yesterday boosted the Dow Jones back above 13,000 and US homebuilders permit requests are higher now than they've been in 3.5 years. More importantly (to us anyway) our web site views, blog readership and video views continue to soar. 2012 is poised to be a very good year. Here are the numbers and projections for the upcoming season in comparison to last year:
The indicators: web traffic, up! Houses sold in comparison to last year, up! Spring Break, up (as in over)! Inventory, up! The economy, um, well...up(ish)! As far as we can tell, the flood gates are bowed in the middle and about to burst open unleashing a torrent of buying and selling the likes we haven't witnessed around Lake Keowee in quite a few years, maybe. The deals are there, the buyers are there, we've just got to put more of them together and with weather like this it's bound to happen!
Azaleas, one of the landmarks of the big golf tournament being held in nearby Augusta, Georgia this week, are a funny bit of foliage. For about 11 months and 2 weeks out of the year, they're a nondescript green leafy lumpy bush. But in early spring, they bloom with a myriad of bright pastel flowers that makes the wait more than worth it. This year's hilariously early spring, coupled with the almost nonexistent winter, has brought out the azaleas almost too soon, at least as far as The Masters and possibly the Pickens County Azalea Festival (April 21st) are concerned. Maybe they can just take a few polaroids.
A relatively unknown Beatle anecdote talks about the extreme differences in the personalities of the super-group's two primary song writers' John and Paul. John was a "take running jump into the deep end of the pool" type of guy while Paul would circle the pool a couple of times to discern the best possible location to ease his way into the water making as few ripples as possible. This was brought to mind when I finally relented to taking my kids to the lake for the first swim of the season. My kids are "Johns".
The weather is crazy, the foliage is insane, the basketball is (fill in synonym for "mad" here)...March on Lake Keowee is awesome! The temperatures are in the 80's at the moment but be mindful - the last few ice storms we've had were during March so don't go storing away that winter jacket for at least 72 hours (confused? You can call me for a flow chart). Just don't think to hard about it, you'll go crazy, and start carrying your "THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH!" sign and digging a fallout shelter. Save your energy, recycle and start taking advantage of
...or the Good News! The Fed (whoever that really is) in their most recent and punctiliously worded statement, offered "labor market conditions have improved further; the unemployment rate declined notably in recent months but remains elevated." Stock purchases soared and buyers bought the likes we haven't seen throughout both markets in years!