Happy 50th Birthday "To Kill A Mockingbird"

What a great thing to celebrate….. the 50^th birthday of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Truly a great book on so many levels and each time I read it, I discover something new. Please note, I have read this book at least a dozen times since first reading it in the 8^th grade in 1973. Trust me, it is well worth the time to get to know Atticus, Scout, Jem, Miss Maudie, Tom Robinson, Dill, Calpernia, Boo Radley and not least of all a southern town called Maycomb. Meet a man of honor who lives what he believes and teaches his children this same lesson. Take a hard look at the grave injustice of ugly racism up close and personal in this riveting tale of a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Watch some great kids as they struggle with the pain of well… growing pains. Go to your library or get it from Amazon. You'll be glad you did.

One last thought..... Sadly Harper Lee never wrote another book.

Top 3 Beaufort SC Real Estate Investment Opportunities | Finance News – EgroupX

Interesting story about real estate investment in the Beaufort Area. Worth the time it takes to read.

Top 3 Beaufort SC Real Estate Investment Opportunities | Finance News – EgroupX

Sales – June 1 – 30, 2010

Just thought you might find it interesting to see what sold last month. Things are looking up!!!!!

 

 

Fripp Sales June 1 – 30, 2010

Homes

Address	List Price	Sold Price
514 Remora Dr	$379,000	$310,000
750 Bonito Rd.	$379,900	$365,000
21 Fiddlers Point	$525,000	$450,000
512 Remora Dr - short sale	$525,000	$526,000

 

Lots -- 0

 

Harbor Island Sales June 1-30, 2010

Homes

Address	Ask Price	Sold Price
E210 Cedar Reef Villa	$162,500	$160,000
70 Harbor Drive N	$538,000	$538,000

 

Lots -- 0

 

Coosaw Point Sales June 1-30, 2010

Homes    -- 0

Lots

Address

Ask Price

Sold Price

131 Coosaw Club Dr. $99,000 $86,500

 

While not the "boom times" of '05-'06 it is certainly not the dark days of 2009 and that makes me happy.

 

See you again soon.

 

Cindy Byers

cindy@islandrealty.info

www.islandrealty.info

Real Estate as an Investment

Sometimes the media is just not your friend. I'm serious. Think about it, if the story is not sensational it won't make the news. When was the last time you read or saw a story along the lines of, "Family Lives Well, Works Hard, Behaves Ethically and Lives Happily Ever After"? The phrase "If it bleeds it leads" was coined for that very reason. Even sadder though is that all of this reporting of news is ultimately to sell the advertising associated with the media outlet.

Enough on that, the real purpose of the post is to tell all those naysayers out there that spewing forth comments like, "real estate is a crummy investment" that I disagree. Not only do I disagree emotionally, but I disagree factually. Check out the following chart.

Pretty sobering don't you think?

Beach Sweep

The Fripp Island Beach has been swept!!!!!!!!!! No not with a broom......... This morning approximately 20 volunteers armed with rubber gloves and trash bags combed the beach looking for trash and all manner of debris. Personally my group and I (Patty Patek, Theresa Cooper & Steve Chesler) worked from the Beach Club to the south end of Tarpon. Although I didn't find anything spectacular, (a kids flip flop, an old sand bucket and some large pieces of styrofoam were about as exotic as I got), I did help return our beach in the Lowcountry to it's naturally beautiful state.

There were however a few items worth mentioning; a half bra, some birth control devices and best of all, Theresa Cooper found a bottle with a message in it. The message was from a six year old and a four year old who were vacationing on Fripp about 2 weeks ago. The simply sent a message out in hopes that whoever finds it will let them know. So Theresa of course is sending them a note telling them where she found it.

Would it be more fun for the kids if the bottle had turned up in some far off exotic locale? Probably..... However, it's fun for me to know that two kids were outside playing, breathing fresh air and learning about the earth. All three of those activities beat video games in my book every day of the week and twice on Sunday's.

Great News

June 28, 2010

Senate Bill 1051 becomes law!!

All of us have been closely following the progress of Senate Bill 1051 during the last weeks. There were tense times as the legislative session was nearing its end but the bill was approved just under the wire, and is now law. Today, Governor Sanford has filed the unsigned bill with the Secretary of State where it now has the full faith and backing of the state of South Carolina.

This bill was critical to all Fripp owners for several reasons not the least of which was the potential significant drop of property values island wide, and other unintended consequences such as difficulty for buyers to obtain home loans. When the Office of Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) changed our setback lines last November and refused to address our concerns in a hearing, our only recourse to prevent the decision from becoming permanent was to delay the action by appealing to the Administrative Law Court. Your Board voted unanimously to appeal and start the process of getting the OCRM decision reversed on Fripp allowing time for our legislative representatives to start the process of the exemption bill.

What this bill means for Fripp going forward is that Fripp Island will be allowed to maintain its rock revetments. It also means that the baseline will be fixed at the top of the revetment and the setback lines will be permanently fixed at 20-feet landward of the revetment. OCRM will not come to Fripp every 10 years as they do elsewhere along the coast to re-examine the erosion rates, Fripp will be exempt from that section of the Beachfront Management Act. As long as the rock revetments are maintained, and it will remain each owner’s responsibility to maintain them, Fripp’s beachfront lots will continue to have the same jurisdictional lines within which to build that they have had for the past thirty years. The threat to all Fripp owners from OCRM’s landward movement of setback lines by use of unreliable data is no longer an issue.

We have many people to thank for making S. 1051 a reality. First and foremost is our General Manager, Kate Hines. She has worked tirelessly on this effort. The Board deserves credit for taking the initiative to move quickly when short timelines were imposed by OCRM. Mary Shahid of McNair Law Firm worked with Kate and the Board and also helped Senator Tom Davis who deserves our deepest gratitude for giving us not only his time but for having the forethought to draft this bill. Representative Shannon Erickson lent 100% of her support for the bill in the House of Representatives. Last but not least our members stepped to the table, called their Senators and Representatives, not just once but many times as this bill went from one legislative body to another and into Conference.

Congratulations Fripp Island it’s a great day for all of us!

Micki McCormick

FIPOA President

4 Good Things That Are Happening

4 Good Things That Are Happening



1. May’s consumer spending is up 0.2%
2. May’s incomes are up 0.4%
3. May’s savings rose from 3.8% to 4.0%
4. GDP is up 2.7% from the first quarter

While these things are not a declaration that the worst of this challenging market is over, they are certainly pieces of good news and I feel a need to mention it as good news seldom gets talked and or written about.

Cindy