Chris Thornberg, former UCLA economist and founder of Beacon Economics, once criticized the National Association of Realtors and other housing industry bulls for saying that same thing back.

In 2007, the Realtor association had launched an ad campaign telling Americans that it was a good time to buy or sell a home.  Thornberg disagreed with their stand, telling the Orange County Register that buying a home was folly at that time.

Now, four years later, at the Voit Real Estate Services’ commercial real estate forecast in Newport Beach, Thornberg is saying: “If you’ve been thinking about buying…… buy now.”  But don’t expect prices to bounce back next year, he warned. Or the year after that.  “It is definitely a long-term hold,” he said.

Thornberg’s forecasts have been increasingly optimistic over the past two years ago.  But Thursday, Thornberg said, “I’m probably the most optimistic than I’ve been about the economy in the last eight years.”

Thornberg cited a host of indicators pointing to improvement. Durable goods orders, industrial production, imports, exports, rail car loadings and hotel occupancy rates all are up. Home and consumer delinquency rates are down.

Commercial real estate vacancies have peaked and are starting to come down, he said.  And, the threat from the Euro debt crisis is overblown. At worst, it will cause a mild recession in Europe, which won’t be enough to bring down the world economy,  he maintained.

Inflation? There’s “no sign of inflation at this point in time,” he said.

Thornberg cautioned that the economy isn’t out of the woods. Consumers still are overspending. A solution is needed to the federal deficit. A financial panic could derail the recovery.  The U.S., he said, still is far from full recovery.

But “this is going to be a good year,” he concluded. “You’re going to see pops in all sectors. Yes, there are some bumps out there. … But this is as optimistic as I’ve been in a long time.”

Westside Elementary, 4^th through 6^th grade, was recognized with the VIP Excellence Award.  This honor goes to schools that have met all state and federal accountability benchmarks for at least two consecutive years and have made significant progress toward goals for increased student achievement and expanded educational opportunity.

Carrollton Elementary, Pre-Kindergarten through 3^rd grade, received the Competence to Excellence Award, the third-tier award in the program. The Competence to Excellence Award recognizes schools and districts that have met all state and federal benchmarks for at least two consecutive years and are making progress toward VIP objectives.

YES! In this price-conscious home buying market, everyone involved should also focus on finding the right place to live- that being the location or community. What should you look for in a planned community?

Prospective homebuyers generally decide within 30 seconds of driving into a community as to their potential interest in relocating there. When shopping for a new place to live, the first impression is vitally important. Which is why planned communities like The Riverfront at Harbour View, Gatling Pointe, Eagle Harbor, Liberty Ridge, and Founders Pointe in Virginia spend a lot of attention at the front entrance and streetscape architecture.

• Homebuyers today definitely appreciate a sense of arrival and they notice the meticulous landscaping and the seasonal planting found at the front entry monument.
• Distinctive architectural home styles and quality homebuilders are other important parts of distinguishing a neighborhood.
• Do the builders pay attention to the streetscape?
• Are the homebuilders sensitive to the buyers needs and how long have they been in the business? Do your Featured Builders have a proven track record and have good reputations?
• Are the homes unique enough yet offering a nice blend of architectural styles?
• Variety and pleasing color palettes are also important components in most planned communities.
• If you’re selling an exciting “lifestyle community”, then your amenities better have something worth selling the sizzle over. (Under promise and over deliver is always a good policy)
• The amenities need to appeal to the target market for the community.
• What do people want today? Are walking trails and parks more appealing to today’s buyer than tennis courts? Surveys and focus groups can help you decide.
• Investigate the other communities a developer has done in your area if you’re looking at a new neighborhood in the early stage of development.

• Research and feedback from your present and past customers helps to guide us in our decisions of what to include and what to leave out in our new home communities. Every market is different, but there are trends as to what consumers value today than what they wanted 10-20 years ago.

  Differentiation and an effective overall marketing and sales approach will help a community accomplish its goal- to develop and create a quality neighborhood that appeals to the appropriate target market and blends well within the local community. Developers and builders need to work together to offer the right product types for the buyers the neighborhood attracts. If the neighborhood is appealing to a wide market segment (like Founders Pointe, Eagle Harbor, or The Riverfront), then there needs to be a wide variety of home styles, sizes, floor plans, and price range.

  East West Communities will often work closely with 5 to 10 builders in a single community. This allows an opportunity to offer an interesting diversity of home styles and also have strategic Featured Models for sale to appeal to the relocating buyer. It also helps to shape the “look” of the community and accomplish sense of community early on in the development stage of a neighborhood. The sum of all of the above elements helps to develop a community that will attract many buyers in the future and helps to give current homebuyers confidence in their resale value down the road.

  What are some of the important features that you look for in a new home community?

  Check out www.eastwestcommunities.com for information about our planned communities in Virginia and Florida.

1. Customization: Many homebuilders allow buyers to help design the property, which helps create a living space tailored to the consumer’s tastes. New-home buyers, for example, may decide where their bathroom might go, choose their favorite flooring or pick the exterior paint color. Buyers moving into a new-home community can often even pick the homsite they like best. 

2. Building envelope: Building codes have mandated higher energy-efficiency standards since they began to address the issue in the late 1970s. The most recent International Energy Conservation Code came out in 2009 and required about 17% more efficiency than three years earlier. 

3. Green appliances: The more energy-efficient mechanics of the house also help reduce utility bills for new-home buyers.   New homes often include green systems and appliances — such as high-efficiency stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, furnaces or air conditioning units — that homes built years ago might not.

4. Fewer repairs: The features of new homes should hold up better than those of existing homes, which may have experienced years of wear and tear.

5. Less maintenance:  Today’s new homes are engineered specifically to minimize maintenance requirements, with materials such as composite products for a home’s exterior trim instead of wood, which could rot or need repainting.

6. Warranty:  A new home is generally fully warrantied by the builder for a minimum of a year, and most of all the other components are warrantied for extended periods, so if your roof starts leaking or the heater breaks during the warranty period, your builder will pick up the tab for the repairs.

7. Fire safety: New homes often include fire-safety features that may not be in properties built years ago, such as fire retardant in carpeting and insulation. In addition, all new homes are required to include hard-wired smoke detectors. These devices can provide better protection than battery-operated smoke detectors, which can fail if their battery runs out.

8. Concessions: Buyers can often negotiate  more concessions out of a homebuilding company than an individual seller. That’s because individual sellers often have an emotional attachment to their property that can blind them to its true value.

9. Financing: New-home buyers can take advantage of mortgage-financing perks sometimes available through their builder, or offered through financial institutions on new home purchases exclusively.  

- Excerpts from an article by Luke Mullins of U.S. News & World Report 

For a limited time, choose from one of the five newly completed Graystone Collection showcase homes and receive $10,000 in closing cost assistance on your purchase. Graystone is an intimate neighborhood of finely crafted homes from some of the area’s most respected builders. The unique collection of homes offered here feature distinctive architectural styles – with elegant details like wide front porches, stone accents, and spacious outdoor living spaces. The picturesque setting of these homes is made even more beautiful by the scenic natural surroundings. Large hardwood trees grace the neighborhood, enhanced by preserved open spaces, detailed landscaping, cul-de-sac island parks, and sidewalks connecting it all.

Open from 12 noon to 4 pm on weekends, these homes are the first to be completed in the Graystone Collection – a new portfolio of home plans that highlight timeless architectural design and sought-after new home features. The plans were chosen because of their innovative features, open floor plans, roomy master suites, wide front porches, spacious outdoor living spaces and quality appointments throughout. At Graystone, buyers can choose from seven custom builders who offer dozens of plans and architectural styles. “We’re excited to see granite counter tops, privately wooded backyards, and optional third floor flex space offered in this price range,” says Mark Edwards, vice president of sales for East West Communities.

“It’s unusual to see such high end finishes, the potential of a third floor finished area, and large private, wooded lots with a new home in the $300’s,” reports Edwards. The new homes in the Graystone Collection range in price from the $390’s to the mid $400’s. “People are surprised in the amount of protected woodlands that the resource protection area in Graystone  provides our residents. It adds a natural beauty throughout the 154 homesites in Graystone and adds to the natural landscape of the neighborhood.”

Eagle Harbor’s superior lifestyle, quaint sidewalk-lined streets, traditional architectural details, and all of life’s conveniences are a right at your front door. “ Eagle Harbor’s amenities are an added bonus to the Graystone residents and there’s nothing like the resort-style pool and walking trails that surround Eagle Lake. But our residents really love living in Isle of Wight County,” explains Edwards. “We have excellent schools, low taxes, and it’s easy to get anywhere they want to go in Hampton Roads. They have a lot of convenience shopping at the Eagle Harbor shopping centers, and the new Peninsula Town Center is just about a 15 minutes drive away. The Harbour View area is also nearby, about 12 minutes away on Route 17.”

Celebration Park is where residents gather in Eagle Harbor. With a community clubhouse, junior Olympic swimming pool with a waterpark, five–acre lake stocked for catch and release fishing, grassy field for sports of all kinds, GardenGolf — a nine-hole putting course, sand volleyball, an outdoor skating park, and more, it’s easy to see why this resort-like community has three times been selected, “Community of the Year.”

757-238-9500
Homes from the $300s to over $700,000.
Information Center open daily.

Enough with the doom and gloom about homeownership.

Sure, maybe there’s more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare “Owning a home may no longer make economic sense,” it’s time to say: Enough is enough. This is what “capitulation” looks like. Everyone has given up.

But it’s not enough just to be contrarian. So here are 10 reasons why it’s good to buy a home.

1. You can get a good deal. Especially if you play hardball. This is a buyer’s market. Most of the other buyers have now vanished, as the tax credits on purchases have just expired. We’re four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern history. And prices have come down a long way– about 30% from their peak, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Index, which tracks home prices in 20 big cities. Yes, it’s mixed. New York is only down 20%. Arizona has halved. Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You’ll never catch the bottom. It doesn’t really matter so much in the long haul.

Where is fair value? Fund manager Jeremy Grantham at GMO, who predicted the bust with remarkable accuracy, said two years ago that home prices needed to fall another 17% to reach fair value in relation to household incomes. Case-Shiller since then: Down 18%.

2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30-year loan for around 4.3%. What’s not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. As recently as two years ago they were about 6.3%. That drop slashes your monthly repayment by a fifth. If inflation picks up, you won’t see these mortgage rates again in your lifetime. And if we get deflation, and rates fall further, you can refi.

3. You’ll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes. And you’ll get a tax break on capital gains–if any–when you sell. Sure, you’ll need to do your math. You’ll only get the income tax break if you itemize your deductions, and many people may be better off taking the standard deduction instead. The breaks are more valuable the more you earn, and the bigger your mortgage. But many people will find that these tax breaks mean owning costs them less, often a lot less, than renting.

4. It’ll be yours. You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension–zoning permitted–or paint everything bright orange. Few landlords are so indulgent; for renters, these types of changes are often impossible. You’ll feel better about your own place if you own it than if you rent. Many years ago, when I was working for a political campaign in England, I toured a working-class northern town. Mrs. Thatcher had just begun selling off public housing to the tenants. “You can tell the ones that have been bought,” said my local guide. “They’ve painted the front door. It’s the first thing people do when they buy.” It was a small sign that said something big.

6. It offers some inflation protection. No, it’s not perfect. But studies by Professor Karl “Chip” Case (of Case-Shiller), and others, suggest that over the long-term housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year. That’s valuable inflation insurance, especially if you’re young and raising a family and thinking about the next 30 or 40 years. In the recent past, inflation-protected government bonds, or TIPS, offered an easier form of inflation insurance. But yields there have plummeted of late. That also makes homeownership look a little better by contrast.

7. It’s risk capital. No, your home isn’t the stock market and you shouldn’t view it as the way to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real estate prices will head up again, too. One lesson from the last few years is that stocks are incredibly hard for most normal people to own in large quantities–for practical as well as psychological reasons. Equity in a home is another way of linking part of your portfolio to the long-term growth of the economy–if it happens–and still managing to sleep at night.

8. It’s forced savings. If you can rent an apartment for $2,000 month instead of buying one for $2,400 a month, renting may make sense. But will you save that $400 for your future? A lot of people won’t. Most, I dare say. Once again, you have to do your math, but the part of your mortgage payment that goes to principal repayment isn’t a cost. You’re just paying yourself by building equity. As a forced monthly saving, it’s a good discipline.

9. There is a lot to choose from. There is a glut of homes in most of the country. The National Association of Realtors puts the current inventory at around 4 million homes. That’s below last year’s peak, but well above typical levels, and enough for about a year’s worth of sales. More keeping coming onto the market, too, as the banks slowly unload their inventory of unsold properties. That means great choice, as well as great prices.

10. Sooner or later, the market will clear. Demand and supply will meet. The population is forecast to grow by more than 100 million people over the next 40 years. That means maybe 40 million new households looking for homes. Meanwhile, this housing glut will work itself out. Many of the homes will be bought. But many more will simply be destroyed–either deliberately, or by inaction. This is already happening. Even two years ago, when I toured the housing slump in western Florida, I saw bankrupt condo developments that were fast becoming derelict. And, finally, a lot of the “glut” simply won’t matter: It’s concentrated in a few areas, like Florida and Nevada. Unless you live there, the glut won’t have any long-term impact on housing supply in your town.

The picturesque setting of these homes is made even more beautiful by the scenic natural surroundings. Large hardwood trees grace the neighborhood, enhanced by preserved open spaces, detailed landscaping, cul-de-sac island parks, and sidewalks connecting it all.  Home values in Graystone range from the mid $300s to over $700,000.

Recent additions to the Eagle Harbor area include an animal clinic, fitness center, dry cleaners, pet store, tanning salon, nail salon & spa, medical facilities, and a variety of restaurants and specialty retail shops.

Just 10 minutes down the road in one direction is the quaint, small town charm of Historic Smithfield, honored as one of the “Best Small Towns in America.” In the other direction, the fast growing Harbour View area of northern Suffolk gives Eagle Harbor residents even morechoices with a variety of restaurants, upscale shops and other services. With new businesses opening regularly, the convenience of having Harbour View nearby keeps getting better.

Eagle Harbor’s central location, off Route 17 just south of the James River Bridge, allows residents to enjoy the rural nature of Isle of Wight County, while still having access to every major city in Hampton Roads within an easy drive.

Over the past six years, Eagle Harbor has also received recognition for: Best Entry Monument, Best Sales Office, Best Community Signage, Best Logo, Best Website, Best Marketing Campaign, and Advertisement of the Year. 

Since the Grand Opening in 2001, more than 800 families have chosen to make this award-winning community their home. 

Mark Edwards, a Senior Vice President of East West Communities, has enjoyed a 22 year tenure with the area development company, beginning in 1988 with the opening of Gatling Pointe in Isle of Wight County.  He has overseen East West Realty’s new and previously owned home sales in Gatling Pointe, Gatling Pointe South, The Riverfront, Founders Pointe, Liberty Ridge, and now Eagle Harbor – East West’s award-winning community in Isle of Wight County, just south of the James River Bridge on Highway 17.  Edward’s expertise includes overseeing the featured builder programs in the communities by creating neighborhood themes and assembling creative new home designs appropriate for the upscale custom home communities.  Recently, he was an integral part of the vision and development of the first spring 2010 HOMEARAMA held in Founders Pointe.  He has recieved numerous awards and honors including Top Producing New Homes Agent for Virginia Peninsula Association of Realtors (VPAR) ’97, ’98, and 2000, four times named #1 Agent for Hampton Roads Realtors Association (HRRA), 1999 Top New Homes Salesperson of the Year for HRRA, and Top Ten Real Estate Agents in Hampton Roads by Virginia Business Observer magazine in 2000. 

Hardy Hight has been a licensed Realtor in Hampton Roads for the past 25 years.  He is an experienced new home sales agent, and was an opening team member of the Eagle Harbor community in 2002.  After five years of selling homes in another new home community, he is returning to representing the featured builders of the Graystone neighborhood in Eagle Harbor, with new homes ranging from $300,000 to over $700,000.  He is a member of Virginia Peninsula Association of Realtors, and has been distinguished with Platinum, Gold, and the 10 year Ruby, and the new construction Gold Handler awards.  Hight has lived in the Hampton Roads area his entire life and served three years in the Army.

 Jennifer Osborne is joining Hight as a Graystone neighborhood agent, representing all of the featured builders as well.  Osborne became a licensed agent in Feburary, 2010 and worked for William E. Wood prior to coming to Eagle Harbor.  Prior to her experience in the real estate industry, Osborne was a volunteer serving on the Chittum Elementary PTA board, and she spent a year as the Parent Teacher Organization President for Christopher Academy after moving to the area in 2003.  Prior to Hampton Roads, she was a trainer for ExecuTrain in Owings Mills, MD teaching adults how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook, and Access.  She has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Faulkner University in Montgomery, AL.

Sasser Construction has been building quality homes in the Hampton Roads area for 24 years and was invited to become a Southern Living® Custom Home Builder in the early 90’s.  In 2009, the team built the stunning Falkirk Ridge Southern Living® Showcase Home in The Riverfront, an award-winning resort-like community in the Harbor View area of Northern Suffolk by East West Communities. 

The showcase home, which boasts over 5,000 square feet and features an abundance of both outdoor and indoor entertaining space has currently drawn over 7,000 visitors and was the site for numerous community benefits, including a $10,000 “Vote for Your Favorite Charity” giveaway and a “Stock the Pantry” contest for the local Salvation Army.  The home originally debuted in the May issue of Southern Living®.

Brent Warren, the Southern Living® Builder Programs and Services manager commented, “We created this program as a service to our readers.  We look for builders who can build a home using our quality partner products; a home that reflects a story you might see in the pages of Southern Living®.”  Warren added, “Sasser’s Falkirk Ridge home is an excellent example of what we are looking for in this program; the epitome of Southern style and grace.” 

Mark Edwards, broker at The Riverfront said, “Sasser Construction is dedicated to providing our customers a great experience, and that sincerity and devotion to quality construction has really made this building team stand apart in Hampton Roads.  We feel very fortunate to have them as one of our Featured Builders.”

The Southern Living® Custom Builder Program is an invitation-only network of nearly 100 builders across the country.  Each member is hand-selected for their outstanding reputation, quality of design and construction, integrity, and stability in the locations they represent.           

Southern Living® is a premier lifestyle and entertaining magazine of the South and the seventh largest monthly consumer magazine in the U.S. (based on readership).  It reaches nearly 16 million readers each month and enjoys a circulation of about 2.8 million. To learn more about the Southern Living® Custom Builder Program, please visit www.southernlivingcustombuilder.com.

 To see why Sasser Construction earned the 2010 Southern Living® Builder of the Year, you can still visit the Southern Living® Showcase Home in The Riverfront.  To tour this home, go to 3002 North James Drive in The Riverfront, Friday through Monday, 12:00-4:00pm.  The community is located in the Harbour View area of northern Suffolk, off I-664, just south of the Monitor Merrimac Bridge Tunnel.  Or, visit the builders’ Charity House benefiting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Virginia during the May 8-23, 2010 Homearama in Founders Pointe, an East West community located in Isle of Wight County.  The Charity House is currently under construction.

For more information on Sasser Construction or East West Communities call (757) 638-9100 or visit the builder’s website at www.sasserhomes.com or the developers’s websites at www.the-riverfront.com or www.founderspointe.com.