Last weekend’s snowstorm jammed up the final gun buyback events scheduled by the Asheville Police Department in the Montford and Shiloh communities. A posting on the Asheville PD Blotter says the final buybacks for 2009 will have to be rescheduled in those neighborhoods after the new year.
Any individual turning in a gun will receive $50 for an operational handgun or long gun, and $100 for an assault rifle. Money will be paid only for guns that are fully functioning. No black powder firearms will be accepted. The program is aimed at reducing accidental injury, suicide, domestic violence and gunfire in the community.
Greensboro shows the largest percentage price reductions in North Carolina at an average of 5.3%. Over a quarter of the homes in that market had recent list-price reductions. Greensboro’s home value index is 4.4% lower than a year ago.
Charleston leads South Carolina in declining home prices, according to the data. Spartanburg and Greenville rank in the middle of the list of 144 metro areas, with average price reductions in the 3.5% range.
Average days on the market are over 100 days in each of the metro areas mentioned above – sometimes well over 100 days. Zillow reports Asheville’s days-on-market in August as 110.
The biggest house price declines are in Florida. Zillow reported that 14 of the top 20 metro areas had the biggest discounts in list prices.
The good news for sellers is that the first-time buyers credit is helping stretch the traditionally strong summer home-selling season this year. Video from Trulia.com is below:
The impact of falling housing prices is illustrated in this Zillow.com chart showing plunging home values in Biltmore Forest. Asheville seems to be holding together comparatively well, however, and Zillow reports some North Carolina communities such as Fayetteville are actually seeing housing appreciation.
In the South, nothing may be as bad as Atlanta, where failed housing developments and failed banks have left “zombie” subdivisions forming a “ring of death” around the city, according to the local newspaper.
To say the market has been sluggish would be an understatement. The main problem is sheer volume – a staggering 150,000 vacant housing lots across metro Atlanta are available, more than a decade’s supply at current absorption rates.
Experts say the bottom in housing prices may still be a long way off. Analysts at Deutsche Bank in New York are saying that 48 percent of mortgaged properties will eventually be underwater as they expect prices to drop through the first quarter of 2011.
We haven’t seen a bottom in home prices, and it could take into 2011 before we see equilibrium in the market,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital in New York.
The good news is for first-time home buyers and investors with liquidity. Now is probably as good a time as any to look for housing deals.
Update: Data in distressed areas is showing that most housing sales indeed involve first-time home buyers using government assistance programs and investors using cash.
Mastercard has released a cool iPhone app that allows you to share the best shopping deals in your area.
[Priceless Picks is] a social app that allows consumers to point out their best deals at their favorite local spots for all to see. The app uses the iPhone location services to figure out where you are. It then shows you on a map and shows all the deals others have placed around you.
If you’re in the Asheville area, download the application to your iPhone and you’ll find deal alerts from Smiley’s, Cinebarre, TracPhone, Advance Auto Parts, Grove Park Inn, and now Iwanna — Western North Carolina’s home for free classified ads.
If you want to add you own deal, you simply click the “+” button, and enter the relevant details. It will tag the place at whatever your current location is.
Sprint is apparently teaming up with Best Buy to offer a 99-cent netbook if you sign up for a two-year, $60-a-month 3G service contract.
All three carriers have invested billions of dollars in their networks, but you can’t recoup your costs and turn a profit if you can’t get customers on the network. In a recent, detailed 3G test, Sprint won out as the “most reliable” network, but you don’t earn money by winning titles. You have to get paying customers, and at 99 cents for a netbook, Sprint might do just that.
Sam’s Club and other discounters have turned the impulse to stock up into a business model. The majority of items for sale at these warehouse-like stores are bulk, and club members buy with the hope that they’re saving money over the long run.
The flipside, of course, is overbuying stuff you don’t need or use just because the price looked good. Who of us haven’t asked ourselves:
Are these impulses foolish? They don’t feel foolish, but sometimes I’m not as smart as I should be about these decisions. Would buying these extra iPods or boots just be a sort of hoarding? Would I be bringing more clutter into the house? I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t feel guilty for considering these options — so long as I can afford them.
Everybody who shops discount groceries knows that deals don’t last long on the shelves. If you think about stocking up on a good deal too long, it could be gone the next time you come back.
This handbook will help sellers of used products identify types of potentially hazardous products that could harm children or others. CPSC’s laws and regulations apply to anyone who sells or distributes consumer products. This includes thrift stores, consignment stores, charities, and individuals holding yard sales and flea markets.
Speaking of frugality, here’s a thoughtful post for folks looking for affordable Mother’s Day gift ideas.
Mother’s Day is quickly approaching! It’s easily a day you can go crazy taking care of the moms in your life. But there are ways you can be frugal for Mother’s Day!
People who once lived beyond their means, financing their lifestyle with debt, have “found religion.” They’ve begun to embrace frugality, and have discovered the joy that can come through spending less.
This blog post has some interesting insights, including links to stories from Redbook and The New York Times and Business Week and Fortune, while proclaiming the need for a “gospel of thrift” in America.
You don’t get much thriftier than folks who are looking to trade in Iwanna. On Iwanna.com, a search of the word “trade” returns 428 results from our thousands of local classified ads today. Try it for yourself and see if you can find something to trade for.
Iwanna Blog 