Sandy McAlpine - Lake Norman Blog: September 2007

The market still appears pretty strong in our area, however, there will be lots of houses on the market for the winter. The homes that are priced the lowest in their respective categories will accomplish the act of selling. (DOM is Days on Market) (SP is selling price) (LP is listed price)

I just pulled the stats for August 2007 for Iredell county and Lake Norman area 13, which encompasses all the city areas that border the lake as well.

Our average days on market for Iredell county is a little higher than usual, but I think that as long as we are below 90 days, then we are ok. This used to be 71 last fall!

I also happen to know the average days on market for the associates at my office, RE/MAX AT THE LAKE, is 77 days. How great!! We are #2 in the areas of Mooresville, Terrell, Sherrill's Ford, and Troutman for the least average days on market. Our market share is over 6%, as we are the #2 office in listings.

Go RE/MAX AT THE LAKE!

Look down below at 581 NEW LISTINGS!!! Boy, I hope my sellers understand that this is a really BIG number. That will make the competition fierce because we DON'T have as many buyers but the same amount of inventory! Sold homes are down 30%!

According to recent reports from my office. It will take this market over 10 months to deplete the inventory that we have, if the iredell county agents took no more listings.

The other thing to notice is that the average list price is higher by almost 100K.

Area	New	Avg LP	Under Contract	Avg LP	Sold	Avg SP	%SP/LP	Avg DOM
12	282	$210,685	138	$180,119	157	$198,982	98.16%	87
13	299	$670,710	122	$464,219	135	$472,973	96.28%	105
	581	$440,697	260	$322,169	292	$335,977	97.22%	96

Information is Believed To Be Accurate But Not Guaranteed

Carolina Multiple Listing Service, Inc.

Lake Norman has a wealth of fun things to do. I will write about more things to do in other parts of lake norman but I started with Mooresville first, since I live here!

Here are a couple things to do in Mooresville:

QUEEN'S LANDING - 1459 River Hwy, (704) 664-2628

LAKE NORMAN'S Fun, Waterfront entertainment center. Located about 30 minutes north of Charlotte and you can tie up by boat or drive up by car! There is a Floating Dock Bar and Jack's Lakeside Grill offers a variety of lunch specials. If it's done being remodeled, you can play mini golf or bumper boats. Casual lunch cruises on The Catawba Queen,a replica Mississippi River Boat. The cruises are about 1 and 1/2 and there is a full bar. There is also a romantic 2 ½ hour dinner cruise on the "Lady of the Lake", a 90 ft luxury yacht, is fully air-conditioned and heated, with 2 full service bars. I'd make a reservation if I were you!

Nightlife? JOKERS, a Dueling Piano Bar.  Wednesday thru Saturdays. It's located downstairs at Queen's Landing.

LAZY 5 RANCH- 15100 Hwy 150 East, (704) 663-5100

The Lazy 5 Ranch is a privately owned exotic animal drive thru park that offers a 3.5 mile safari that you can drive your own car through in  North Carolina! Lazy 5 ranch offers a view over 750 animals from six different continents. They also have wagon rides. According to their website, There is no other collection of animals like this in the Southeast. The Lazy 5 Ranch has additional petting areas, a black smith shop, gift store, horse barn, play ground and picnic areas. I personally like seeing all the baby, pot belly pigs running around!

D.E.Turner Hardware Store - 111 N. Main St, (704) 664-5145
travel back in time when you visit this historic store, which has been serving the community for over 100 years.The historic building and the interior fixtures remain unchanged, and the owners have kept many examples of 19th & 20th century hardware.

Carolina Beer & Beverage - 110 Barley Park Lane, (704) 799-BEER
For an adult excursion, be sure to visit Carolina Beer & Beverage, the 2nd largest brewery in North Carolina. Take a brewery tour and sample their eight different beers, including Carolina Blonde.
http://www.carolinablonde.com/

Mooresville Golf Course - West Wilson Avenue , (704) 663-2539
This Donald Ross/Porter Gibson course is open to the public year round. The 18-hole, Par 72, 6603 yard course is managed by a PGA Professional. You can book tee times online at their website.
http://www.golfmooresville.com/

Mallard Head Country Club - 185 Mallard Way , (704) 664-7031
Mallard Head Country Club golf course is conveniently located on the shores of Lake Norman in southern Iredell County. The 6900 yard championship golf course offers a challenging game to any player. Novices and experienced players alike agree that playing the Mallard Head course is a unique experience. Tee times required - please call.
http://www.mallardheadcc.com/

NASCAR RELATED: (THESE ARE LOCATED NEAR MY OFFICE!)

Memory Lane Motorsports & Historical Automotive Museum
769 River Hwy (Hwy 150), (704) 662-FORD

NC Auto Racing Hall of Fame & Visitor Center
119 Knob Hill Rd, (704) 663-5331
http://www.ncarhof.com/

 

I heard on the news the other night that folks need to use caution when boating on lake norman these days!! don't run aground! Also, some of my clients have their expensive docks sitting on the ground!

I was looking for some information about the lake levels on lake norman and came across Duke Managements Website. the lake is currently down 5.8 feet from full pond. You can see beaches on islands that have not been exposed for years! I have been in the lake area for at least 4 years and I have never seen it this low. I had heard that several boaters this weekend were stranded on "sand bars". It seems like a dangerous time to be boating. Here were the results from the Duke Power website for the reading from this morning, September 7, 2007 at 9:01:

Levels recorded at 9:01 AM on Friday, September 7, 2007.

A reading of 100 is equivalent to "full pond", which means the lake is full. Lake levels are measured on the lake side of hydro station dams. Areas directly below the dam will see higher lake or river elevations due to water flow from the dam.

Lake	Current Level	Difference	Annual Range Link	Lake Message Link
Lake Norman	94.2	-5.8 feet	Annual Range	Lake Message

The Lake message is basically a warning that says to use extreme caution and "Without widespread, significant rainfall in the near term, lake levels will continue to decline."

this is a picture I took off a client's dock last spring. Look how full it was!!! I hope to get another picture today of the lower level.

We are really proud of the Bandolero car that the office is sponsoring this year! I am posting this week's result below. We have awesome croud turn-out and I have heard that the fans are going wild!!! Doesn't it look super cool??? :-) We are finishing in the top 5 almost every week!!! If you are interested in watching all the races. They were almost every Tuesday night at Lowe's Motor speedway this summer. here is a link to an article about the races and a schedule. http://www.nascarallstar.com/news_photos/news/431523.html

 Here is a Youtube of the racing too!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmQ_-hYbfQ4

These results were posted by Eric Taylor:

RE/MAX car finished 3^rd at Concord Motorsport Park this past Friday.

Car went to Sparta Kentucky on Saturday for the Nationals on Sunday and

finished 5^th.

Will be back in action this weekend at Concord.

Thanks for the support!

Eric Taylor

Interested in Art or Human form? I have heard so much about this Discovery Place Exhibit called "BodyWorlds" that I did some checking! 

I have not been to this new Discovery place exhibit yet, but I heard from the friends that the tickets were very inexpensive and the show is quite interesting!! I think I am going to try to go this week! I did a little internet research and talked to a couple current clients and thought it would be a nice closing gift for them. Neat show for singles, couples, or families alike!

The website explains the process of how the "bodies" were transformed and what you can expect from the exhibit. Very interesting stuff!!! The show is here through october. The most expensive ticket is $22 and you can get group discounts, as well as senior citizen or children's tickets.

Here is the link to the website: http://www.discoveryplace.org/bodyworlds/home/body_worlds-home.php

Do you like Tennis?? Want to meet new people? New to the area?

Play tennis!!!!!! I didn't know how to play and had never played about 1 and 1/2 years ago and now I am hooked!!!

I recently joined a tennis group called T2Tennis. There are several groups around the country. I joined the Charlotte group and have played 4 matches with my tennis partner, Debbie Thrap. We have had an amazing time!!! We have been able to meet other ladies and have a lot of fun at the same time!

What is T2Tennis?

T2Tennis is America's premier flexible tennis league for women, men, and juniors. It's designed to meet the needs of todays player's busy lifestyle.

T2Tennis combines structured organized league play and flexible scheduling to provide a convenient, fun tennis experience.

Go to http://www.t2tennis.com/ to sign up and learn more information about it.

You can also meet people at MatchMaker Tennis!!!  Go to http://www.matchmakertennis.com/

MatchMaker Tennis provides many different tennis formats to meet the various needs of our members. We offer men's & women's team tennis, men's and women's doubles, men's and women's singles and mixed doubles leagues. If you have never played "organized" tennis, our formats are designed to get you into the swing quickly and easily

If you live near the Lake Norman area, you may want to try the Lake Norman Compass Draw or tennis ladder. This will give you a couple weeks to schedule each match at your convenience (singles) and then you can meet different people in a round robin style fashion. With the compass draw, you get to play quite a bit and you get seeded out in compass style fashion whether you win or lose. http://www.lakenormantennis.org/