We heard some exciting news yesterday and The Island Packet is reporting on it today; The Mall at Shelter Cove has been purchased by Kroger and there are plans to reconfigure the mall into an open air market with shops and some residential condos that will take advantage of the beautiful views in that area.

Stores have been slowly leaving the mall over the past several years; stores that have recently closed include Banana Republic and Williams-Sonoma (just to name a few).

We will keep you posted of the redevelopment of this property!

Kroger announces purchase, redevelopment of Shelter Cove mall | islandpacket.com.

I love to hear when new businesses are coming to Hilton Head Island and the surrounding areas.

I was excited to read that a Bluffton hot spot will be opening on the south end of the island for tourists and locals alike.

Five Guys restaurant slated for Hilton Head Island | islandpacket.com.

What businesses would you love to see open on Hilton Head Island?

Reports yesterday stated that mortgage rates have fallen again with the average 30-year fixed loan at 4.39% and a 15-year fixed rate at 3.54%.

These rates are UNHEARD of!

So not only can you take advantage of the large amount of inventory of property for sale on Hilton Head, you can get a great price on a home, lot or villa and now you can get locked into an even lower mortgage interest rate.

Check out the best of the best Hilton Head Island real estate buys here and watch for my deal of the day later today.

Chip had an early morning flight out of Savannah this morning and as I was driving back to Hilton Head I was listening to Fox Radio.  One their show this morning they were grading the government on all different sectors – one of the worst grades was in housing in which they got an “F”. 

The radio show host was saying that housing has depreciated approximately 30% – this is a national number – some areas it is higher and in some areas it is lower.  Overall, most people have lost approximately 30% of their equity meaning that most don’t have the nest egg they once had.  Most people aren’t losing their homes to foreclosure, but everyone has lost equity. 

Normally, a home is someone’s #1 asset and if the equity in their home has decreased it has a detrimental effect on other areas of the market including consumer confidence.  When people lose equity in their property it affects all purchasing decisions.

I think until everyone realizes that the housing market is an extremely important part of the market and has a direct effect on the overall economy. 

Hopefully soon we can get this grade improved from an “F”.

I called a client yesterday to let them know that I would be showing their property the following afternoon.  I told them that in addition to their home that they buyer would be looking at several other homes. 

The seller said that he did not care what else they were looking at – just about his. 

Unfortunately, you might not care about what else is on the market, but it is important to remember that competition drives price – especially in a market with an overabundance of inventory.

It reminds me of the time that Jane and I were driving home from Florida and we stopped to get gas.  Two gas stations sat directly across the street from one another – one with gas priced .25 cents below the other. 

The higher priced gas station might say that they don’t care about what other gas stations are selling their gas for, but in the end, if they don’t get customers while the other station stays busy – it affects their bottom line. 

Real Estate works like any commodity – gas, oil, soy beans, corn, etc.  Supply and demand affect the market.

Unless you walk everywhere, you have noticed the increase in gas prices over the last several weeks.  I have had several people ask me how this affects the real estate market.

If you trace the recession back you can go back to when gas cost $4.50 per gallon.  When this happened, people had less dispensable income and in turn, affects buyers – especially first time homebuyers.  This causes the domino effect with all buyers and sellers.

When this happens there is a degree of uncertainty in the market and people don’t want to spend money. 

Maybe the Middle East situation will calm down and things will soon be back to normal.

I recently listed a villa for a client of mine who had purchased back in 1980. When I was talking to him about what his gain would be he mentioned that he owed on the villa.

I couldn’t believe it – I didn’t understand how that was even possible! He said he kept taking out a line of credit on the property and now he is in a catch 22.

He is going to have a large capital gain, but he owes what the property is currently worth. He is going to sell the villa and walk away with nothing and on top of that will owe a lot in capital gains tax.

My father always taught me to live within my means and not accumulate debt. I think there are a lot of people in today’s world who wish they had a father like mine teach them that lesson.

With all the talk of snow the last few days (even Hilton Head schools were on a delay this morning) I thought this was a great topic for a blog this morning.

Some might be confused by the title of this blog, but I started thinking about some of the similarities between skiing and the real estate world. 

Over Christmas my family went skiing for 7 days.  The first two days we had great conditions; good visibility and the lines weren’t too long.  This scenario reminds me of the real estate market in 2004 and 2005.  The third day a storm came in and conditions deteriorated; I couldn’t see anything.  This reminded me of the market in 2008 when we started the year off ok and then the market slowly deteriorated.  I spoke to some locals and they said that they don’t ski when the conditions were like that – they wait until the conditions improve.  I think this is what some sellers were choosing to do that in the market; waiting to sell their property until the conditions improve. 

The fourth day was worse than the third day; my daughter, Brandi Jane, and I were skiing down a slope and we had to stop because we couldn’t see the runs.  We ended up following some people down what we found to be a double diamond.  It took me forever to get down the mountain and it made me lose a lot of my confidence.  It made me think how a lot of my sellers must feel – they have lot confidence in the market and it scares them to get back in the market if they are buying.

So if you have some snow outside this morning, enjoy!

As we roll in the new year, I think there are more people in the market looking at real estate.  I received two of the worst offers I have ever gotten today; but hey, it’s a step in the right direction – at least someone is making an offer!  A month ago people were not making offers at all. 

I think people are entering the market; we saw an increase in sales from 2009 to 2010, despite the fact that the market has been dismal over the last 2 months. 

I think there are some good signs out there pointing in the right direction – I’ll keep you posted.