I got a call yesterday from a potential buyer for one of my listings.  He told me he would like me to present an all cash offer of $350,000 for a property I just listed at $429,000.  With a little prodding I was able to find out that he hadn’t seen the home and didn’t know the neighborhood.  I tried to explain a bit about the price and comps and his response was “it is a terrible real estate market and that’s all I need to know”.  REALLY?

Needless to say, my client’s counter to this buyer was not accepted.

This is just one example of how not to be successful in our current Lake Norman housing market. While it is quite common for investors and low-ballers to make these kind of offers when a new listing comes on the market, I have to wonder what these buyers are thinking?  Or, are they thinking at all?  Even banks get disgusted with these types of buyers.  Here is a great example:

A Lake Norman waterfront foreclosure was listed a few months ago for $399,000.  I had an interested buyer so I spoke with the listing agent.   At that time, the bank had already received and turned down several very low offers from investors and it was clear that both the listing agent and the bank were frustrated with these buyers.  My buyer decided to wait.  Over a period of several months the price was lowered twice.  Finally, they lowered it to $329,000.  My buyer quickly made an offer of $305,000 and it was accepted just before multiple offers were coming in.  Clearly, if my buyer had made an offer of $305,000 when it was originally listed it would not have been as well received.

I had a buyer a while back who wanted to make an offer of $800,000 on a home listed at $1,189,000 because he heard the sellers might be desperate to sell.  I knew the comparable sales would not justify anything even close to this price but my buyer felt that if “your throw out enough of these offers eventually one will stick”.  But seriously, if the seller was that desperate wouldn’t they have lowered the price to get multiple offers?  This kind of thinking is truly irrational.  This property just closed for $1,100,000.

I have sold and continue to sell some incredible bargains on Lake Norman but I try to counsel and educate my buyers:

• Timing is everything.  Develop a relationship with the listing agent, especially of foreclosures and shortsales, so that you will know when the sellers are ready to work with a lower offer.
• Do your homework!  I always do a complete market analysis and research the history of any property for my buyers before they make an offer.  We will know how long it has actually been on the market, how many price reductions, what their loan amount is and if there are any signs of distress like a notice of default, a divorce, etc.

There was a recent article in the Los Angeles Times “Low-ball Offers Decline in Some Housing Markets” April 22, 2012 which stated “For home buyers who still think they have a chance of hitting it lucky with a low-ball offer, they’re finding in many markets that their offers are more often being rejected or countered closer to the original asking price.”  In my opinion this is an accurate description of our current Lake Norman real estate market.  Be smart!

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Want the very latest insight into our Lake Norman real estate market? So do I which is why, every month, I do a snapshot analysis of the middle two weeks of the month to get a sense of where our Lake Norman real estate market is at this very moment…an almost live insight into the heartbeat of the Lake Norman housing market.  These Hot Sheet reports serve as pretty good predictors of our short-term Lake Norman real estate market.

Well, last month I was very enthused by our string of “hot” months.  Unfortunately, a bit of doubt is beginning to creep in to my perspective of our current Lake Norman housing market.  Instead of a consistent showing of improving numbers across the board, there are some hiccups that indicate to me that we once again may see some mild ups and downs in the coming months.

Lake Norman Real Estate’s Two-Week Hot Sheet

4/21/2012

* The above chart is a summary of today’s “Hot Sheet” from the Charlotte Multiple Listing Service for single family homes in all of Lake Norman (area 13).  These numbers represent a real time snapshot of the past two week’s activity.  (April 7th – 21st).  As always, I have included the past 6 months so that you can put these numbers in perspective.

I created this additional chart comparing just the April Hot Sheets for the past 3 years to help put our April 2012 numbers in perspective with the past Aprils, not just the past 6 months:

April Hot Sheet Numbers for the Past 4 Years

Highlights:

• New listings: While our new listings are up from the winter months, they are still lower than any April since I have been keeping these records. If you add our new listings to the 26 back-on-market we had a total of 138 Lake Norman properties added to our housing inventory in the past two weeks compared to last April’s 117, 193 in April 2010 and 197 in April 2009.  As of this morning the total number of active listings in Lake Norman had increased from our all time low of 752 in January back up to 933 which is still extremely low historically.  The reason these low numbers are good news is because keeping our inventory low will help stabilize our own Lake Norman housing market no matter what is happening in other areas or states. That said, we are trending a bit higher this month with new listings.

• The number of properties that came back-on-the-market, most likely due to cancelled contracts,  jumped up after several very low months. However, compared to the past four April’s they are low with the exception of last April. While challenges continue related to securing financing due to tight restrictions on home loans by lenders, they are improving a bit.  Every loan approved warrants a celebration!

• The number of price changes were up compared to 5 of the past 6 months but down substantially from the past 3 April’s.  Considering sales are fairly good, this would indicate that prices are stabilizing.  There is no doubt that overpriced listings are sitting until they are reduced to the “magic” number that generates offers, even multiple offers.

• Pending home sales are actually the weakest category on this chart.   This indicates our closed sales for the next 30 days may not be as strong as they will be further into spring/summer. Pending home sales are contracts that have passed all of their conditions/contingencies/Due Diligence Deadlines and are just sitting ready to close.

• The number of closed sales reported in the past two weeks improved from last month’s  and is more in line with our  late 2011 numbers.  They were also higher than three of the past 4 April’s.  So far this entire month 43 closed sales have been reported to our MLS compared to 43 last month,  34 in February,  21 in January,  33 in December, 37 in November, 47 in October, 29 in August, 55 in June, 45 in July, 44 in June, 30 in May, 50 in April, 34 in March and 20 in February 2011.  Considering all of these numbers, my best guess is that we will close about 80 single family home sales this month and may end up slightly below April 2011 and April 2010… the first such drop in 2012.

• Our Conditional and Contingent sales are lower than the last 2 month’s but better than the past 4 April’s.  As the very most recent properties to go under contract, this number coupled with a bit lower pending sales makes me pause long enough to loose a bit of my confidence that our Lake Norman housing market is on a sustainable path to recovery.  Each month will help to support this or undercut this.

Overall this month (not just the past 2 weeks) our conditional sales are very strong but our pending sales are low.  This indicates to me that we may not have a strong ending to our April sales but we should pick up again in May/June.  So, inventory remains low, sales are at least steady if not improving.  Not quite as strong a statement as the past few months.

With our range of the months of supply of active listings at about 11 months using our 83 closed sales in March compared to the national average of 9.4 months and a balanced real estate market of 6-8 months, we clearly have a ways to go.  Improving national economic and jobs numbers and improving consumer confidence are needed to support the current healing of our Lake Norman housing market. I continue to encourage my buyers to buy if they find a good home at a good price, especially waterfront homes.  While I don’t anticipate prices going up in Lake Norman this year, I also don’t see that many truly exceptional bargains. (Less than 8% of our inventory are distressed properties: foreclosures and shortsales).  Prices in general are low as are interest rates.  In my opinion, 2012 represents a great opportunity for potential Lake Norman home buyers.  Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel?  Only time will tell!

Learn More About Life in Lake Norman:

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 Want the very latest insight into our Lake Norman real estate market? So do I which is why, every month, I do a snapshot analysis of the middle two weeks of the month to get a sense of where our Lake Norman real estate market is at this very moment…an almost live insight into the heartbeat of the Lake Norman housing market.  These Hot Sheet reports serve as pretty good predictors of our short-term Lake Norman real estate market.

Well, last month I wrote: “There is nothing better than a HOT Hot Sheet!”  But, you know what, I was wrong. TWO months in a row of HOT Hot Sheets is even better! Here are our numbers:

Lake Norman Real Estate’s Two-Week Hot Sheet

3/21/2012

* The above chart is a summary of today’s “Hot Sheet” from the Charlotte Multiple Listing Service for single family homes in all of Lake Norman (area 13).  These numbers represent a real time snapshot of the past two week’s activity.  (March 7th – 21st).  As always, I have included the past 6 months so that you can put these numbers in perspective.

I created this additional chart comparing just the March Hot Sheets for the past 3 years to help put our March 2012 numbers in perspective with the past Marches, not just the past 6 months:

March Hot Sheet Numbers for the Past 4 Years

Highlights:

• New listings: While our new listings are up from the winter months, they are still lower than any March since I have been keeping these records. If you add our new listings to the 16 back-on-market we only had a total of 117 Lake Norman properties added to our housing inventory in the past two weeks compared to last March’s 127, 192 in March 2010 and 178 in March 2009.  As of this morning the total number of active listings in Lake Norman had increased from our all time low of 752 in January back up to 876 which is still extremely low historically.  The reason these low numbers are all good news is because keeping our inventory low will help stabilize our own Lake Norman housing market no matter what is happening in other areas or states.

• The number of properties that came back-on-the-market, most likely due to cancelled contracts,  remain historically low which is even more telling because the market is very active. Clearly sales are “sticking” better now. Compared to the past four March’s they are extremely low. While challenges continue related to securing financing due to tight restrictions on home loans by lenders, they are improving.  And, it appears that buyers are more committed than they have been in years.  (Although some remain very challenging!)

• The number of price changes, while up compared to the past few months, are down substantially from the past 3 March’s.  Considering sales are picking up, this would indicate that our prices are stabilizing and a continued decline may reflect a stabilizing of our prices.

• Pending home sales are actually the weakest category on this chart for the second month in a row.   This indicates our closed sales for the next 30 days may not be as strong as they will be further into spring. Pending home sales are contracts that have passed all of their conditions/contingencies/Due Diligence Deadlines and are just sitting ready to close.

• The number of closed sales reported in the past two weeks improved slightly from last month’s  and is more in line with our  late 2011 numbers.  They were sigificant;y higher than any March in the past four years.  So far this month 43 closed sales have been reported to our MLS compared to 34 last month,  21 in January,  33 in December, 37 in November, 47 in October, 29 in August, 55 in June, 45 in July, 44 in June, 30 in May, 50 in April, 34 in March and 20 in February 2010.  Considering all of these numbers, my best guess is that we will close about 70 – 80   home sales this month.

• Our Conditional and Contingent sales are slightly better than last month’s and simply HUGE when compared both to the past 6 months and the past March’s of 2009 – 2011. 52 new contracts in just two weeks of March is just plain exciting.  As the very most recent properties to go under contract, this further substantiates that our Lake Norman housing market is not just accelerating but, if sustainable, may truly be heading back up for good or at least stabilizing at higher numbers than the years since the recession hit us.  Each month will help to support this or undercut it and this m is the second month in a row with such strong numbers.

I have used the term  “erratic” for more than a year now when describing the nature of our 2011 Lake Norman real estate market.  The next few months may serve to enable me to eliminate this adjective once and for all or may bring it back in my vocabulary.  While this month our closed sales numbers will not be remarkable, the Lake Norman real estate market is definitely trending upwards right now.  With record low inventory, fewer price reductions/stabilizing prices and increasing sales, I’d say we are in for a very positive spring.

With our range of the months of supply of active listings at about 14.8 months using our 59 closed sales in February compared to the national average of 9.4 months and a balanced real estate market of 6-8 months, we clearly have a ways to go.  However, if we have 70-80 sales this month our months of supply will drop to 10-12 months. Improving national economic and jobs numbers and improving consumer confidence should help support the current healing of our Lake Norman housing market. I am encouraging my buyers to buy if they find a good home at a good price, especially waterfront homes.  While I don’t anticipate prices going up in Lake Norman this year, I also don’t see that many truly exceptional bargains. (Less than 8% of our inventory are distressed properties: foreclosures and shortsales).  Prices in general are low as are interest rates.  In my opinion, 2012 represents a great opportunity for potential Lake Norman home buyers.  Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel?  Only time will tell!

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It is important to note that these numbers are only as good as the agents who report them. Expect an adjustment in our 57 sales in February upward perhaps two more sales by the end of the month since it takes some Realtors several weeks to actually input their sales into our MLS.  I create these reports early in the month while the information is still very fresh so always pad the sales upward just a bit.

Here are the February 2012 numbers from our Charlotte Multiple Listing Service for our Lake Norman area real estate market:

Some significant additional interesting statistics for you:

• “Distressed sales” ( Foreclosures (REOS), defaults, Short Sales) comprised 21% of our closed sales in February down from 31% last month,  36.7% in December, 36% in November, 19.8% in October, 10% in September, 16.8 in August,  18.5%  in July,  25% in June and 27% in May. The US average is 24%. The price range of these distressed sales was$40,500 – $350,100 with NO waterfront homes included.  And, our percentage of distressed active listings dropped to a new low of 7.4 % down from 9.5% last month and 10.9 % in December which indicates that our ratio of distressed new listings is actually decreasing.  We are not being bombarded by foreclosures and shortsales so far in 2012 as some had predicted.
• 32% of our closed sales were waterfront homes up from 22% last month. Again, there were no closed sales of distressed waterfront properties in February and there are currently only 27 distressed waterfront properties for sale in all of Lake Norman out of 350 or 7.7%.
• 49% of our February Lake Norman home sales were under  $400,000 compared to 60.9 %  last month. 70% of February sales were under $500,000.
• Our average price is up for closed and conditional sales.
• On March 1st the number of active listings for all of Lake Norman totaled 856 up slightly from 811 on February 1st and our low of 752 on January 1st.  To put this number in context, back in June of 2008 we had 1789 active listings.

A closer look:

• The number of Active Listings in Lake Norman increased 5% from last month but were 20% lower than last February. It should be expected that our inventory will continue to rise this spring but hopefully we will remain well below last year’s numbers. Our absorption rate/months of supply of active listings stands at 15.  Our shrinking inventory is helping but at this lower pace of sales we are still twice as high as a balanced 6-8 months of supply in Lake Norman area (MLS area 13).  The good news for the long-term health of our Lake Norman housing market is that we are not being flooded with new listings so far this year.

• Contingent Sales, (sales contracts that are contingent upon the buyer selling their own home) which don’t account for a significant segment of our housing market, remain extremely low most likely because sellers are unwilling or unable to take on the risk of waiting for the buyer’s home to sell before closing.

• Conditional Sales increased for the third month in a row, this time by 9%. Our Lake Norman housing market has definitely picked up! These are homes that just went under contract and still have financial and inspection conditions. They represent future closed sales most likely in late March/April. Based upon these numbers our closed sales this month and next should exceed the same months in 2011.

• Pending sales were also up 18% compared to February 2011.    These are the contracts that are past inspections and are just waiting to close.  Pending sales are usually the best indication of closed sales in the next few weeks.

• The number of closed home sales in Lake Norman in February were up for the second straight month in a row and a substantial 30% higher than last February.  This was the BEST February since 2007!  (See the annual chart below).

Lake Norman homes under contract (but not yet closed) on the first of each month are as follows:

• March 1, 2012: 178
• February 1, 2012: 155
• January 1: 134 (the lowest ALL year)
• December 1: 147
• November: 169
• October: 193
• September: 183
• August: 193
• July: 178
• June: 199,
• May:  173
• April 195,
• March: 163
• February: 142

We are now seeing a marked upward trend after a lag at the end of 2011.  This uptick in sales coupled with our low inventory bode well for the overall health of the Lake Norman housing market.

Here is a breakdown by price-range of our January 2012 closed sales in Lake Norman’s area 13-1 to 13-5:

• $40,000 – $199,999:  7
• $200,000 – $299,999: 13
• $300,000 – $399,999: 10

(These price ranges represented 52.6% of  February sales )

• 400,000 – $499,999:  10
• $500,000 – $599,999: 5

(These price ranges represented 26% compared to 13% last month)

• $600,000 – $699,999:  6
• $700,000 – $799,999: 0
• $800,000 – $899,999: 0
• 900,000 – $999,999:  2

(Solds for $600,000 – $1mill = 14% compared to 23.9% last month)

• $1,000,000 – $1,999,999: 3
• $2 million+ : 1

(Solds $1million+ = 7% compared to 2% last month)

8-Year Comparison of Lake Norman Home Sales By Month

* Please note that all of my numbers are for single family homes. They come from the Charlotte Region Multiple Listing Service and will not include sales that took place outside of our MLS.

**I have made an adjustment of  the totals reflecting the ACTUAL  sales  every month in 2009, 2010 and the totals in the prior calendar years.  The columns may not add up but I do my best with what I have to work!  I also adjust past months when I do the monthly update as a few more sales are usually input late by agents.

Summary and My Insight

The Good News and the Bad:

Very Good:

• Inventory remains low without a significant spring bump
• Conditional, Pending and Closed sales are up boding well for the next few months at least!
• Number of distressed homes for sale are actually decreasing as a percentage of our total inventory
• I have experienced multiple offers including one listing of mine that sold for OVER ASKING last week
• We are seeing more and more new construction popping up (Not spec homes)
• Higher-end waterfront lots are selling again. Another sign that construction is returning
• Interest rates are at all time lows
• Unemployment rates are dropping locally and nationally

Bad:

• Sales above $700,00 are painfully low; our trade-up price ranges and our luxury homes continues to struggle
• With a shrinking inventory of active listings, buyers have fewer options
• Prices remain low
• Home loans, especially construction loans, are still a challenging process.

I continue to believe that our Lake Norman housing market has hit its bottom in terms of sales volume.  That said, prices for the most part remain low and buyers continue to be very picky. This is not an easy market for either buyers or sellers.

The future of our Lake Norman real estate market still depends primarily on these two things:

1. How much ”shadow inventory” do we have in our Lake Norman area?  Will we see more distressed properties coming on the market later this year or next year? So far this hasn’t been the case.

2.  Consumer confidence based upon the national/global economy and relative stability of our national economy

My advice to Lake Norman home buyers remains this: Look for homes that are in good locations and have most of the priorities on your list.  While your perfect home might come along, don’t wait too long and don’t dismiss a property if it isn’t perfect.  Prioritize: Location, quality and depth of water (if waterfront buyer) and floorplan. Then, to determine a realistic price, use VERY RECENT comparable sales in your specific market niche.  The selection may not be great but with interest rates at all time lows and prices low it is a good time to buy.  With only  7.4% of Lake Norman’s current listings being “distressed sales” don’t expect the perfect foreclosure or shortsale to come along at an unrealist price.  If you insist on lowballing, at least have some comparable sales to justify your number.  Don’t focus as much on the price as on the future marketability of the property.  A bargain that has incurable issues that will make it difficult to resale, really isn’t a bargain at all.  Be smart!

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It is important to note that these numbers are only as good as the agents who report them. Expect an adjustment in our 46 sales in January upward perhaps two more sales by the end of the month since it takes some Realtors several weeks to actually input their sales into our MLS.  I create these reports early in the month while the information is still very fresh so always pad the sales upward just a bit.

Here are the January 2012 numbers from our Charlotte Multiple Listing Service for our Lake Norman area real estate market:

Some significant additional interesting statistics for you:

• “Distressed sales” ( Foreclosures (REOS), defaults, Short Sales) comprised 31.1% of our closed sales in January which was a slight drop from the 36.7% last month, 36% in November, 19.8% in October, 10% in September, 16.8 in August,  18.5%  in July,  25% in June and 27% in May. Our active buyers right now are clearly folks looking for bargains. The good news is that our number of distressed active listings dropped to 9.5% of our total number of homes for sale in Lake Norman compared to 10.9 % in December which indicates that our ratio of distressed new listings is actually decreasing.  We are not being bombarded by foreclosures and shortsales so far in 2012 as some had predicted.
• 22% of our closed sales were waterfront homes down from 33% last month, 19% in November,  28% in October and 38% in September.
• 60.9 % of our January sales were under were under $400 and 71.7% were under $500,000. Clearly our lower priced homes are still driving the market.
• Our average prices are down in our pending and closed sales but I believe this is more a reflection of our weaker higher end sales than actual price declines. Note that the average price of our conditional sales is 15% higher!
• On February 1st the number of active listings for all of Lake Norman totaled 811, up from 752 on January 1st which was the lowest number since I started these reports in 2007.  To put this number in context, back in June of 2008 we had 1789 active listings.  Today we have 843 active listings in all of Lake Norman (area 13).

A closer look:

• The number of Active Listings in Lake Norman increased 7.8% from last month but were 23% lower than last January. It should be expected that our inventory will continue to rise this spring but hopefully we will remain well below last year’s numbers. Our absorption rate/months of supply of active listings increased from 12.5% last month back up to 17.6% thanks to our low January sales.  Our shrinking inventory  is helping but at this lower pace of sales we are still twice as high as a balanced 6-8 months of supply in Lake Norman area (MLS area 13).

• Contingent Sales, (sales contracts that are contingent upon the buyer selling their own home) which don’t account for a significant segment of our housing market, remain extremely low most likely because sellers are unwilling or unable to take on the risk of waiting for the buyer’s home to sell before closing.

• Conditional Sales increased for the second month in a row, this time 16%  when compared to January 2011  and  19.7% higher than last month’s. Our Lake Norman housing market has definitely picked up! These are homes that just went under contract and still have financial and inspection conditions. They represent future closed sales most likely in late February/March. Based upon these numbers our closed sales in this month and next should exceed the same months in 2011.

• Pending sales were also up compared to January 2011 AND last month as well.    These are the contracts that are past inspections and are just waiting to close.  Pending sales are usually the best indication of closed sales in the next few weeks. While you are reading in the news about the national increase in pending sales here in Lake Norman our pending sales have been down so it is significant to see them picking up again!

• The number of closed home sales in Lake Norman in January were just about equal to January 2011.  While we didn’t reach January 201o’s 53 sales it is good to see us at least equal to last year’s. (See the annual chart below).

Lake Norman homes under contract (but not yet closed) on the first of each month are as follows:

• February 1, 2012: 155 (much better than the past two months!)
• January 1: 134 (the lowest ALL year)
• December 1: 147
• November: 169
• October: 193
• September: 183
• August: 193
• July: 178
• June: 199,
• May:  173
• April 195,
• March: 163
• February: 142

We are now trending upward again after a lag of several months.  This uptick in sales coupled with our low inventory bode well for the overall health of the Lake Norman housing market.

Here is a breakdown by price-range of our January 2012 closed sales in Lake Norman’s area 13-1 to 13-5:

• $42,000 – $199,999:  11        
• $200,000 – $299,999: 11 
• $300,000 – $399,999: 6

(These price ranges represented 60.9% of  January’s sales )

• 400,000 – $499,999:  5
• $500,000 – $599,999: 1

(These price ranges represented 13% compared to 16.6% last month)

• $600,000 – $699,999:  4
• $700,000 – $799,999: 2
• $800,000 – $899,999: 3
• 900,000 – $999,999:  2

(Solds for $600,000 – $1mill = 23.9% compared to 20% last month)

• $1,000,000 – $1,999,999: 1  (The highest sale in January was only $1.075 million!)
• $2 million+ : 0

(Solds $1million+ = 2% )

 8-Year Comparison of Lake Norman Home Sales By Month

* Please note that all of my numbers are for single family homes. They come from the Charlotte Region Multiple Listing Service and will not include sales that took place outside of our MLS.

**I have made an adjustment of  the totals reflecting the ACTUAL  sales  every month in 2009, 2010 and the totals in the prior calendar years.  The columns may not add up but I do my best with what I have to work!  I also adjust past months when I do the monthly update as a few more sales are usually input late by agents.

Summary and My Insight

The Good News and the Bad:

Very Good:

• Inventory is way down
• Conditional and Pending sales are up!
• Number of distressed homes for sale remains low and is actually decreasing as a percentage of our total inventory
• We seeing more and more new construction popping up (Not spec homes)
• Higher-end waterfront lots are selling again. Another sign that construction is returning
• Interest rates are at all time lows
• Unemployment rates are dropping locally and nationally

Bad:

• 47.8 % of our Lake Norman sales were under $300,000!
• Distressed sales comprise a larger percentage of our sales than our inventory.  Buyers are still motivated by bargains.
• Our highest closed sale last month was $1.075 million.  Our luxury home market was hit hard in the past three months but seems to be improving.
• With a shrinking inventory of active listings, buyers have fewer options.  With fewer “screaming bargains” will buyers sit back a bit this winter hoping for for another wave of foreclosures or will they buy as they did over the summer realizing that those days are behind us? The national news reports about a potential onslaught of  new foreclosures may keep buyers from taking advantage of our low prices right now.
• Home loans, especially construction loans, are still a challenging process.

I still believe that, overall, our home prices have stabilized.  I’m not seeing, for instance, the extremely low prices of waterfront home sales with good water that I did two years ago. The future of our Lake Norman real estate market still depends primarily on these two things:

1. How much ”shadow inventory” do we have in our Lake Norman area?  Will we see more distressed properties coming on the market later this year or next year? So far this hasn’t been the case.

2.  Consumer confidence based upon the national/global economy.

My advice to Lake Norman home buyers remains this: Look for homes that are in good locations and have most of the priorities on your list.  Then, to determine a realistic price, use VERY RECENT comparable sales in your specific market niche.  The selection may not be great but with interest rates at all time lows and prices for the most part having hit bottom it is a good time to buy.  With only  9.5% of Lake Norman’s current listings being “distressed sales”,  the “shadow inventory” hasn’t impacted our market.  At this pace, I think our market will remain at a rocky bottom of sorts with a continuation of the erratic ups and downs in 2012.

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