Over the past several years it has been more than a little bothersome to me that some of the news media has lumped the real estate market into one big story.  The real estate industry has worked methodically in an attempt to make the public aware that the downturn in the economy has not affected all areas equally.  As a matter of fact, some areas experienced fewer foreclosures in the past 2-3 years than they did in the "golden years" of 2004-2005.

Recently I stumbled onto some interesting data while watching a local morning newscast on WITN-TV, a local NBC affiliate in Washington, NC.  The foreclosure numbers reported caught my attention as being surprisingly low.  I logged on to the station's website and downloaded the data sheet referenced in the report. Click here to download a PDF copy of the report (I have highlighted the three main areas I serve in yellow).  This report contains the foreclosure data for North Carolina, by county, from 1998 through 2009. Note that the data is indicated not to be verified, which is not surprising to me, given the vast amount of numerical data spanning 12 years.  In any case, this makes for some very interesting reading.  As mentioned above, note the significant number of counties listed, which experienced fewer foreclosures in the past 1-3 years than in the 2004 time frame.

The data contained in this report could not more clearly support the localized nature of real estate.  Contiguous counties are shown here in which one suffered significant increase in the incidence of foreclosure, while the other saw little or no increase at all.

There is no question in my mind that the painting of the real estate market with the "broad black brush" in the past few years has led to unrealistically low offers, frustration and a tremendous waste of everyone's time in some areas. Knowledge is power!  Let's do our homework and go look at some homes.

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