Fall -in love with NC

Change of Seasons

Much lament the Northerners

who move to warmer climes

"I'll miss the change of seasons,

when there's only palms and pines"

 But travel south I implore,

From Maine to Holly Springs

to marvel at the palette

that a southern autumn brings

 

Vermillion of the sourwood

The scarlet of Black Gum 

 The russet of the Oak and
Poplar yellow as the sun                         

Lakes reflect the golden bronze

of Hickorys near by

The ever changing Cherry

against a temperate azure sky

 

From the ocean to the Blue Ridge
Carolina is ablaze
So, come enjoy the beauty
of our changing season days

    

Words and photos- BJ Barratt

Lets Talk Taxes and Such

I just recently read an article in the  Long Island newspaper Newsday,  March 15^th 2013, titled

“Tax burden shifts to homeowners in Nassau”

My heart sank and I got a lump in my throat knowing that for so many friends, this would be another nail in their already buried financial coffins.  This is nothing new for Long Island.

 In 2011 CNN MONEY reported that Nassau County had the 2^nd highest property tax in the entire country.

 

 

 In 2008 The New York Times reported taxes on Long Island were a ‘serious problem’ and that between 1997 and 2005, Long Island property taxes increased 14 percentage points above the rate of inflation     

How much more of these tax burdens can families endure? 

The answer for me and my family came in 2010 when we could no longer endure a $13,000 tax on our 2,400 square foot home, a major factor in our decision to move to North Carolina.

Clearly, we are not alone.  In another article out this week,

FORBES hails Raleigh, NC as THE fastest growing city in America, saying:

 “The population of the Raleigh, N.C., metropolitan statistical area has expanded a remarkable 47.8% since 2000, tops among the nation’s 52 metro areas with over 1 million residents. That is more than three times the overall 12.7% growth of those 52 metro areas.”

Why Raleigh?

For us it was job opportunities, EXTREMELY low cost/high quality colleges for residents, lower cost of living, and residential tax relief…oh, and the weather is great too.

I imagine those are the main reasons why most people are flocking here. For Long Islanders, these reasons are magnified.

Think about it. Long Island:  You’re a captive audience adjacent to the most expensive city in North America. You have to take a boat, bridge or tunnel to escape. Thus, no matter how high the gas, rent, taxes, or price of a gallon of milk….you’re stuck paying it. What are you going to do? Go to Jersey?  It will cost you $26 and a half a tank of gas to get there. Oh, and the weather is terrible!

Out here in the real world there are choices.

Cost of Living Gas, for example can vary as much as 8 cents a gallon from place to place…and if you shop at the right supermarket….you can get as much as five cents per gallon per $100 of groceries off by using your rewards card at the pump! Just today Regular Gas was $3.44/gallon I got it for $3.14!

 

Jobs – Let’s talk about what’s happening here.  What we have here in Raleigh at the moment is a self-propelled economy driven by a well-run State.  The State keeps costs low, which attracts more and more people to the area… the more people that come, the more homes, schools, shopping centers you need to build…the more of those you build…the more jobs there are….the more jobs there are….the more people move here…the more people move here…the more we build, and so on.

  On Long Island, this cycle played out just after World War II when Levittown was the model for post war suburbia, but it stagnated when Nassau County reached its capacity around 1980.

Taxes – Remember that 2,400 Sq Ft house we were paying $13,000/year taxes on? 

We now own a 3,200 Sq Ft home here, and pay $2,700/year

Now, the question is….. Why are you still in New York?

 

                                                                                     ~

 

Credits:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/03/18/americas-fastest-and-slowest-growing-cities/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/realestate/16lizo.html?_r=0

http://www.newsday.com/

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/tax-burden-shifts-to-homeowners-in-nassau-1.4823722

http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/19/real_estate/highest_property_taxes/index.htm

http://careerproinc.com/front-blog/the-macro-and-micro-economics-of-the-job-search-north-carolina-edition

 

Water, water everywhere

My morning office, for the past several days, has been my laptop perched outside on the patio table, coffee to my right, a bowl of berries or local apples to my left.  The past 4 days, while technically autumn, have been more spring-like in their disposition.

This lingering sun and moderate temperature has urged a great number of locals to enjoy the outdoors more than ever. Miraculously, I have even managed to tear my teenage son away from his new World of Warcraft  online expansion and join us on family walks, bike rides, Frisbee golf…

As I write these blogs and wax lyrical about this beautiful area, I must admit there is something I dearly miss about Long Island: The proximity to the shore…any shore, be it the sound, the bays or the ocean.  I miss the gulls, even their incessant squawking.  I miss the sand, even the grit and chaffing of it. I miss the lapping waves and the changing tides, even the sometimes rancid wafts of a low tide.

The argument of the Raleigh triangle locals, which I have taken up as well, is that our unique location gives us a 2 hour proximity to all of the following:  The Atlantic shore and famous locations including the Outer Banks (and Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers first took flight),

 

 

  

 and......

The Mountains

including Blue Ridge, Smokey and parts of the Appalachian trail, which also includes the beautiful town  of Ashville, where you can find

The Biltmore Estate, America's Largest Home.

 

While these 2 hour trips are lovely mini vacations, it clearly isn't the same as being able to walk to a beach on Long Island. LUCKILY, my island roots acted as a kind of divining rod finding one beautiful lake after another to satisfy my need for recreational water.  Right here in the Raleigh triangle we have the following major lakes: FALLS LAKE,  JORDAN LAKE, LAKE WHEELER, SHELLEY LAKE, LAKE CRABTREE, LAKE JOHNSON, BASS LAKE, LAKE BENSON and BOND LAKE. In addition there are numerous  smaller lakes.

Many of these gorgeous lakes include sailing, fishing, paddleboats, row boats, canoes......

 

 

 

.......some of them even have sea gulls.


Find all our beautiful lakes here:  http://findlakes.com/lake_raleigh_north-carolina~nc00863.htm

 

 

Holly Springs: A real life Sim City Experience

Up until now, these blogs have been predominantly about Cary, but Cary is not the only popular suburb of Raleigh.  There is Apex, Morrisville, Wake Forest, Garner….and Holly Springs where my husband and I just bought our new home - we got an amazing deal: 3169 Square Ft of dream house for only $215,000

As a Realtor® I am fascinated with what makes real estate valuable, and since moving to NC I have also become interested in how towns/areas grow. On Long Island space is finite and growth is pretty much done, with the exception of the eastern most points.

 I used to love playing the Sim City computer game.  It gave the player a pretty good idea what had to happen to make a city successful, like the timely building of roads, electricity, sewers, housing, industry, schools, recreation, public transportation, etc. If you did a good job, your community ‘loved you’, if not, they would demand things: “your citizens demand a fire department”.  

 Living here is like watching that game come to life.  Little by little you can see towns like Holly Springs growing right before your eyes.

 You don’t have to travel far outside any of these towns to see what the countryside looked like around Raleigh before the “boom”.  Tiny 2 bedroom shacks, trailer homes, small farm ranches, many with the now decaying remnants of Tobacco Barns  (or drying sheds) as a reminder that much of this area was built on the Tobacco industry.

Now, as the area continues to attract more people and businesses,  the ‘Sim City’ model continues to expand towns to the south and west of Raleigh.  New roads are being built, including an ongoing major outer loop, NC-540 connecting the newly expanding suburbs with the city. New housing developments are being built continuously to keep up with the demand and replacing the little shacks with 4 bedroom dream homes.  With that comes the need for more schools. Since 2005 Wake county has added over 30 public schools to try to lessen overcrowding, and several more are in the works for the next 2 years alone.

And, just like in Sim City, the citizens demand cultural and Liesure facilities.  Holly Springs has met that challange beautifully with a gorgeous Library/Cultural Center and Theater, as well as with The W. E. Hunt Recreation Center with it's recent million dollar renovation which boasts

Fitness center

Elevated track that is 1/12 of a mile around

Gymnasium

Game room

Playground

Classrooms

Two multi-purpose spaces designed for aerobics

 

Holly Springs is scheduled for another one of my favorite necessities for a rapidly expanding area….the MAJOR shopping center.  Ground has been broken and leases entered into for the New Hill Place Shopping center which is expected to include bowling, movie theaters, major retailers and national restaurants, and is scheduled to open in less than 2 years. 

This means a couple of important things: MORE JOBS = positive economy which equals an increase property value for the new house we just purchased.  Win/Win

Come on down to Holly Springs! Get your property now while prices are still great, and watch the real Sim City play out!

Yeah, We've Got That!!

As a Yankee, I know we have this blind spot when it comes to ‘the south’….or anywhere else for that matter. We are convinced that no where else in the world has all that we have.  A New Yorker really does kind of see the world much like that great Saul Steinberg New Yorker Cover where everything in the world is rather insignificant from our New York perspective. It is a fault stemming from the belief that NYC is the center of the cultural universe and that everything else pales in comparison.

I am just as guilty of these Yankee prejudices.  The very idea of moving south of Ellis Island conjured up images of banjos, moonshine stills and a swampy wasteland void of modern conveniences...like strip malls. 

Though there are plenty of places here that hearken to the days of 'Green Acres':

There is much more here than the average Yankee might think.....


The lure of property taxes that were one tenth of Long Island's, and a significantly lower cost of living eventually got the better of me, and I pulled up 6 generations of family roots to search for a better life in what was being hailed as one of the BEST TOWNS IN AMERICA.

To my surprise and delight, I found Raleigh and it's surrounding suburbs are not only adequately up to date with current needs, but in many ways far above Long Island standards. Here is why:

Most of metropolitan NY/LI was built and populated on a finite area (being islands) in the early 20th century.  The buildings and infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, electricity,schools etc.) were constructed 100 years ago and, despite attempts to fix them, are never going to be good as new.  The Raleigh area, however, has room to grow, and grow it does!  This means NEW roads, New neighborhoods, New schools, New shopping areas.  It is a modern and thriving area that makes NY look like the old world dinosaur that it is.


A pharmacy/bank/Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts on nearly every corner? Yeah, we've got that

Shopping centers with Home Depots, Staples, Pet Smarts, Targets, Walmarts, Home Goods, Old Navys, Toys R Us, Bed Bath and Beyond....Yeah we've got that.

Shopping Malls with Macy's, Pennys, Shoe stores, Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, Coach, Brooks Brothers, Lacoste, Pottery Barn, Brookstone, William-Sanoma, Victoria's Secret.....Yeah, we've got that

Well known Restaurants like Ruth Chris Steakouse, Cheese Cake Factory, PF Chang, Panera, Applebees, Chillis, Carrabbas, Boston Market....not to mention southern chains like my personal favorite....Cracker Barrel....Yeah we've got that and more...better yet...most of them have outdoor eating areas that can be used pretty much YEAR ROUND because of the lovely weather!


Culture? Like The RBC center for world touring concerts, or the Progress Energy Center for Performing Arts where you can see Broadway productions as well as The North Carolina Symphony (who will be performing with Ben Folds in March) ,Carolina Ballet and the National Opera Company   or the North Carolina Museum of Art where we had the largest collection of Rembrandts for the past 6 months.....Yeah, we've got that.

So, my fellow Yanks....don't be afraid.... we've got it all.

Anyone for Tennis?

When you think of tennis, you might immediately think of NY.  After all, the US Open is played right there at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens. That relationship spawned numerous pro-training centers as well. John McEnroe had his own private facility just down the street from his family's estate in Oyster Bay Cove on Long Island.

I would have never thought a jaded New Yorker like myself could be blown away by some tennis facility in North Carolina.......

I was wrong...

Right here in Cary we have one of the finest year-round outdoor Tennis Parks in the country
boasting 29 Championship courts including a stadium tournament court,

as well as practice walls and 4 junior sized quick start courts for kids.

The facility, which is situated on a gorgeous park like setting surrounded by picturesque walkways and bridges, has been selected as one of only 2
Development Training Centers by the U S Tennis Association.



The town of Cary consistently exceeds at developing recreational "Quality of Life" areas, which is clearly yet another reason why so many people are drawn to the area.  People who desire an active lifestyle feel right at home on the walking trails, the designated bike roads, and at the Tennis Park where, even now in mid-November, the courts are......in full swing!

Parade of Homes...and amazing mansions

We New Yorkers, with our resident Rockafellers, Morgans, Vanderbuilts, Roosevelts and the historic homes on the 'Gold Coast' of Long Island, think we've cornered the market on mansions, but I have found many rivals here in North Carolina. Our most famous mansion is the spectacular Biltmore Estate in Ashville, but this year's Parade of homes boasts one development just 20 minutes outdise of Raleigh that has 15 executive mansions open for viewing, many of which are listed between $1 and $2 million.

The Parade of Homes is an annual event that pits the triangle area's new home builders against each other in a friendly compitition. They open up their very best model homes to the public for three weekends in October.  Some people go to buy, some to get decorating ideas and some...to see how the other half lives. To get information on all of the beautiful homes on tour folow this link: http://shopping.newsobserver.com/SS/Page.aspx?secid=108006

It is impossible to see all 200 houses that are entered in the parade (especially since Oct 14,15 & 16 are the final days) so in the interest of time I will tell you that in my opinion, this year the best of the best clearly resides in one particular new home community in Wake Forest.

From the moment you pull up to the security guard at the Hasentree golf community it's clear you've entered a world most of us can only dream of.  Then you pass a curious sign engraved with an Audubon International Signuiture Santuary Gold Certification, which means that the entire development was designed with environmental sustainability at the forefront. Then... there on your left, is the stunning Welcome Center/ Model Home.

The homes are built by TOLL BROTHERS who are kind of like the Rolls Royce of home builders. Their list of awards is endless including "World's Most Admired Home Builder of 2010" in Forbes Magazine. Once you step inside any Toll Brothers Model it is easy to see why.

The grandure and attention to detail, the professional decor and clever ideas are well worth the trip, and if you happen to be fortunate enough to be able to afford one of these gems, there are some great deals I can get for you.   If not, well at least you can feel like a Rockafeller for a day!!!                                                  

          

So, get the family together, fill up the car and head up to

Hasentree

7328 Hasentree Way

Wake Forest, NC