Posts Tagged ‘outer banks’
It definitely seemed like business in the Outer Banks was picking up through October. Now that the month has passed, we saw a total of 20 additional homes sold this October 2009 as compared to October 2008. Another strong signal was that in addition to the 20 additional homes sold, we also saw 18 additional homesites sold in October this year. The third strong signal for October was the median home price as compared to last year was up $10,000. Additional sales and increased median home price is a good sign for those looking to buy and sell in the Outer Banks.
We are continuing to see a strong number of sold homes be distress sales – Outer Banks foreclosures and short sales. Foreclosures in Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head continue to be attractive to both investors and those looking to buy a vacation home in the Outer Banks.
Sold Homes Data for October
Outer Banks Sold Homes Report for September 2009
September on the Outer Banks saw 95 residential homes sold. This was down 3 from the month of August. When compared to the month of August we saw less homes sold, but more pieces of land. The month of September ended up having 2 more sales that August due to the number of closings on vacant land.
While under 100 homes sold in September it does seem as if there are a number of people interested inpurchasing homes in the Outer Banks. Hopefully a strong October is to follow to keep the progress of the last 5 months going. It does seem as if home prices are starting to stabilize along the OBX.
N.C. tourism was down, but with bright spots
By Connie Sage
Fishing and the weather have been good on the Outer Banks. And unlike in the summer of ’08, gas prices have held steady and there have been no major storms or wildfires to scare tourists away.
“We’re doing better than anticipated,” said Aaron Tuell, public relations director for the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
“The Outer Banks is proving itself as a relevant and strong vacation destination for many Americans during the worst recession in memory,” he said. “It’s not all roses, but other places are doing a lot worse.”
Still, the recession and beach closings from nesting birds and turtles continue to play economic havoc on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands.
Business on the islands dropped about 15 percent compared with last year, said Allen Burrus, owner of Burrus Red & White Supermarket in Hatteras Village.
While some did a little better, “overall you’ll find universally it was a little worse than last year,” said Burrus, who is vice chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
Money spent on accommodations on Hatteras and Ocracoke fell nearly 10 percent in July and more than 6 percent in June compared with the same months last year.
Occupancy revenue for the entire Outer Banks dipped by 5.4 percent in July and more than 13 percent in June compared with the same periods in 2008, according to Visitors Bureau statistics.
That doesn’t necessarily mean there were fewer visitors, Tuell said. Some vacationers may have rented less expensive accommodations or stayed for shorter periods of time in more costly quarters.
Sun Realty saw an increase in smaller-home and partial-week rentals on Hatteras, marketing director Cori Davis said.
Rentals were discounted 20 to 40 percent in some cases, Tuell said, as the Outer Banks competed with other coastal destinations.
Vacationers didn’t cut back much on dining out, however.
Revenue for meals throughout the Outer Banks fell by only 1.7 percent in July, compared with the same month last year, Tuell said.
Limited seasonal access to Hatteras and Ocracoke beaches hurt some businesses.
“I’m still a third off this year,” said Bob Eakes of Red Drum Tackle in Buxton. “I don’t have a lot more I can give up.”
In April 2008, a federal judge signed a consent decree that protects wildlife on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
From mid-March to mid- to-late August, posted areas are off-limits to vehicles, pedestrians and pets to protect threatened and endangered nesting shorebirds.
Sea turtles are included, and 22 turtle protection areas were still in place last week, according to the National Park Service.
There were 23 breeding pairs of oyster catchers in 2008 and 2009, with 13 chicks fledged this year, compared with 17 the year before, according to Park Service statistics. Piping plovers had nine nests this summer and 11 the year before; six chicks fledged, compared with seven in 2008. Sea turtles had 103 nests this year and 112 the summer before.
Some fishermen didn’t come to Hatteras at all this year because of the closures; others are coming later, said Bryan Perry, owner of Frisco Rod & Gun. “If they did come, they weren’t buying tackle or fishing when Cape Point was closed because of nesting birds,” he said.
Derek Taylor, captain of the Carolina Girl, said charters have been better than early bookings indicated.”However, this will be the slowest year I’ve ever had,” he said.
There are bright spots.
“It was not a bad summer,” said Tommy Hutcherson, manager of Ocracoke Variety Store. “The fall is holding up pretty good.”
Ferry traffic between Hatteras and Ocracoke was up in June, July and August.
Fishing and business are “very, very good right now,” Eakes said.
Perry noted that catches of white marlin and sailfish were “tremendous” this year.
And this has been “one of the most prolific dolphin seasons we’ve had in years,” said Steve Hissey of Teach’s Lair Marina in Hatteras Village.
OBX could become source of wind energy – WRAL.com
Buxton, N.C. — Gov. Beverly Perdue and other state leaders were on hand as researchers gave a presentation introducing an Outer Banks community to the idea of massive offshore wind farms.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill described a new study that found 2,800 square miles of coastal water, including the Pamlico Sound, could generate industrial-scale wind energy.
“I believe North Carolina has the capacity to position herself to be a leader in global energy,” Perdue said.
The public meeting in Buxton was packed, with islanders making up about half the crowd.
Researchers said that if all the usable waters are fully developed, offshore wind farms could supply 130 percent of all the power used by North Carolina in 2007. The industry could also create as many as 9,000 local jobs by 2030.
“This is among the best wind resources on the East Coast,” said Dr. Harvey Siem, a marine-sciences professor at UNC.
Siem said that a pilot site could be in the Pamlico Sound, about 10 miles west of Avon and northwest of Buxton.
Researchers also discussed the potential impacts of a wind farm on the coast’s economy, quality of life and environment.
Senate leader Marc Basnight, D-Dare County, said that he wouldn’t fight offshore wind farms, although he is sensitive to concerns that wind turbines could disrupt the tourism industry on which the region depends.
The wind turbines would be 300 to 500 feet tall and could be visible from the coast.
“Change does not come easy to me or to the people of this island,” Basnight said.
He wouldn’t want to turbines to break up views of the sun rising from the ocean, Basnight said, but global warming could inundate the region if alternative energy sources aren’t exploited.
Tourists at the meeting viewed wind energy favorably but said they had the least stake in the question.
“I think wind turbines are probably a great source of energy,” visitor Colin Christen said. “It’s up to the locals to decide that kind of thing.”
Wind generates about 1 percent of the country’s electricity but is the fastest-growing type of renewable power.
Along North Carolina’s coast, the Outer Banks Brewing Station uses wind to generate about 10 percent of its power. The National Park Service uses wind to power at the Coquina Beach Bathhouse and plans to do the same at Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
The UNC study, which was commissioned by the General Assembly, recommended that the state “aggressively pursue” offshore wind farms. Researchers said the state should study what upgrades to the electrical system might be needed, loosen regulations on development in state waters, create incentives for wind power and continue to study coastal winds.
Technology will also need to be improved to strengthen wind turbines against hurricanes. Turbines being built today are designed to withstand up to a Category 3 storm.
The Examiner took a look at a Labor Day forecast for the Outer Banks. Let’s hope they are correct.
OUTER BANKS (OBX)
Swimming like a fish in the largest fishbowl is not such a bad idea to enjoy your Labor Day weekend. It may be chilly but still to reach the 80′s over the weekend as the Outer Banks can bring a peaceful ending to a long summer breeze. Experience the clean air, the ocean wide and the gulls that fly pass squawking, not a bad way to end the summer.
Route 12 can be met may different directions, that is if you are coming from the Atlantic Ocean. There are only two ways to truly enter Route 12 of the Outer Banks, either take a ferry (1-800-byFerry) or drive from the north peak. This is one of the enjoyments of life that normally takes a couple of days, such as all three days of Labor Day weekend, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Outer Banks Labor Day traffic should not be a serious issue.
Great look at vacationing in the Outer Banks by the Examiner.com
BS News producer Jack Halsbond was behind the wheel of The Early Show’s Winnebago, traveling the country in July and August as part of the “Great American Vacation” giveaway road trip. Read his Web-exclusive road diary.
The “Great American Vacation” giveaway on the Outer Banks of North Carolina featured a lot of terrific people.
Mo and Beth Vandesteene, who manage the KOA Campground in Rodanthe, make sure that every detail is taken care of. We though that we were receiving special attention until the other campers quickly informed that that’s the way they treat all their guests.
At the KOA’s Cape Hatteras Campground, you will met some genuine folks such as Manny and Angela Negreiro who with their son and daughter, Nathan and Ariana, and German Shepard Zeus came up from Florida.
The Cyr Michaud and Wilson families’ traveled down from Ontario in French Canada and have been doing so for the past 20 years. Their children have literally grown up at Rodanthe. They were camped out in front of our Winnebago. There were lots of different people from diverse backgrounds with a common interest in living life to the fullest. On the Outer Banks, that’s the way it is.
On Manteo, another island on the Outer Banks, we visited the Roanoke Island Festival Park where we gave away another Caribbean Island dream vacation. Thanks to the efforts of many and with the considerable help of Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and Scott Stroh III, Executive Director of Roanoke Island Festival Park we enjoyed another spectacular morning. As the threat of rain passed into brilliant sunshine, we were treated to the sights of the original inhabitants of the Outer Banks.
Read the Rest of the Article
I thought this was a great blog post from the Washington Post. Turns out the Outer Banks has its own version of the Loch Ness Monster: Tom Cruise. And because it is impossible for me to actually escape celebrity infiltration of my life, even while on vacation, I wasn’t surprised last week when my 17-year-old niece came back from a plane tour of North Carolina’s beaches with breathless tales of Tom Cruise owning the property JUST TWO HOUSES DOWN THE BEACH FROM OUR RENTAL! OMG! If you thought that was good, check out the rest of the post.
I just laughed when I saw this. It was good to see local agents get quoted in the post. It really is funny. You always get to hear people talk about what celebrities own homes in the OBX. Heard Morgan Freeman owns a home and well as Bill Cowher. It seems as if the local celebrity gossip will never die.
Targeted sandbags in N.C. can stay until 2010
By Catherine Kozak
The sandbags won’t have to go, after all, at least not for a year.
Legislation signed by Gov. Bev Perdue this month imposes a moratorium on sandbag removal until Sept. 1, 2010.
The same bill also directs the state Coastal Resources Commission to study terminal groins, or jetties – which have been banned in North Carolina since 1985 – as erosion control devices at inlets and isolated sections of the coast that have their own sand sources.
The bill bears significant potential for South Nags Head, which has the largest number of exposed sandbags targeted for removal in the state and a stretch of beach with a high erosion rate, Nags Head Mayor Renee Cahoon said.
“We’re anxious to see what the study shows about it being helpful to Nags Head,” she said.
Cahoon said a terminal groin – a rock wall that traps sand – could possibly stem beach erosion while preventing shoaling in Oregon Inlet, a few miles south.
“We’d like to see one in South Nags Head,” she said. “It could kill two birds with one stone.”
Nags Head is still pursuing permits for a beach nourishment project, Cahoon said. Proponents of the yet-unfunded town project say nourishment would widen the beaches and alleviate the need for the sandbags for erosion control.
For the past two years, state coastal regulators have been working on getting exposed sandbags with expired permits removed. The huge bags are permitted for up to five years as a temporary erosion-control measure to protect an imminently threatened structure, but some have been in place since the 1980s. If the bags are covered with natural vegetation, the state said, they could stay. All others with expired permits had to be taken out after May 1, 2008.
Of the 370 structures in the state permitted to have sandbags, the bags at 149 are subject to removal. Of those, 117 are in Dare County – mostly in South Nags Head.
But affected property owners protested that their houses would be doomed without the sandbags and appealed to state lawmakers and town officials for help.
In part, the legislation is responding to those concerns, said Mack Paul, a partner with law firm K&L Gates in Raleigh who has represented dozens of the property owners. But it is also recognizing the complex concerns that coastal policy must confront, he said.
“Instead of continuing to react to the symptoms – like the sandbag issue – I think a number of folks realize it is important to address the underlying causes,” he said.
Paul said the legislation allows breathing room to continue discussions on tough challenges such as funding beach nourishment, and for coastal regulators to devise better rules for sandbags. Rather than putting time limits on permits, for instance, he said sandbag rules could focus on maintenance, size and condition.
Read the Rest of the Article
New director hired at Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
By Catherine Kozak
After a summer without a person heading Dare County’s major industry, the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau has hired a new managing director to be the face of tourism.
Lee Nettles will start work in September, according to a statement issued Thursday by the Visitors Bureau. He is coming to Dare County from the Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“As we navigate this challenging economy, it is provident that we chose someone who comes from a coastal heritage with tourism experience,” Renee Cahoon, chairwoman of the Dare County Tourism Board, said in the statement.
Plastic bag ban tested on Outer Banks
Manteo, N.C. — An experiment ordering big grocery stores to stop giving away disposable plastic bags on the Outer Banks took effect Tuesday.
The law requires big stores on the barrier islands to offer paper bags made of 100 percent recycled paper or coax customers to try reusable shopping bags. The law applies to large stores on islands or peninsulas in Dare, Currituck and Hyde counties.
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