Bayshore Estates

Hello Bayshore Neighbors!

After a brief hiatus (ahem!) we are back!  Sorry about the lapse in activity!  A Neighborhood Watch meeting is in the process of being organized.  As soon as the details are  ironed out we will let you know.  In that vein, we thought we would post some information about Neighborhood Watch programs.

According to a 2009 article published on the America.gov website (this site is no longer active, but it is archived, so all content is still available), the U.S. Neighborhood Watch Program was started to “unite law enforcement agencies, private organizations, and individual citizens in a massive effort to reduce residential crime.”  Amazingly enough, it has nothing to do with a wrist watch that  neighbors share!  All jokes aside, it seems to be working.  The state of Virginia has determined that neighborhoods that have started a Neighborhood Watch program have crime rates that are 40% lower than those with no program.  (CLICK HERE to read more)  Plus, the Lakeland, FL Police Department claims that “Neighborhood Watch Promotes Neighborliness”!  (CLICK HERE to read more) So, check back on the blog and find us on Facebook so that you can be “neighborly” and come to the next Neighborhood Watch meeting!

Greetings all! Tomorrow is the Bayshore Estates Yard Sale! This is an effort to maximize traffic at your yard sale by letting people all of us conducting a yard sale on the same day. If you are participating, all you need to do is have set your things out. If you’d like to, you can email me and let me know that you are participating (cb@finecoastalliving.com).

I have put a sign in the front of the neighborhood announcing the yard sale and hope that you will participate. Please let me know if you have questions!

Good Morning Bayshore! I hope that you are doing well today. We are going to have to postpone the community yard sale by about 1 week as I have broken my elbow and lost a week of planning etc. So, we’ll plan on having the yard sale on Saturday May 14, 2011. More details to follow later this week. I apologize and appreciate your patience with this!

The stats are in for the Bayshore Real Estate Market!  To provide some context, we’re going to take a look at 2010 stats and then we’ll move look at 2011 year to date stats as well.  All of this data was collected from the Wilmington Multiple Listing Service.

In 2010, there were 17 homes sold in Bayshore:

HTML Tables

*DOM= Days On Market, or the number of days from the date of a property was entered into the MLS.

On average, these homes sold for $120.03/SF.  Newer and waterfront homes sold for more and older, interior homes sold for less.  All in all a pretty successful year!

At this time, there are 12 homes for sale in Bayshore and one that is Under Contract.  Additionally, there were 4 sales through March 31.  Here are the stats for our sales so far this year:

HTML Tables

*DOM= Days On Market, or the number of days from the date of a property was entered into the MLS.

On average, these homes sold for $131.73/SF.  With only 4 homes sold, its hard for some of these numbers too mean much.  In this instance, the average price per square foot is heavily influenced by one home that sold, 922 Bayshore, for $544,000 or $210.20/SF.  Without that home in the mix, the average $/SF is $105.57, significantly lower than the total average price per square foot from last year.

Finally, we see that in 2010 there were six sales in the first quarter of the year, averaging $109.67/SF.

To summarize, we’re seeing that sales in Bayshore are slower than the were last year at the same time.  Also we’re seeing that the average sales price and price/SF may be falling, although it is too early to tell.  With the average days on market at 153, you should expect that it will take 6+months for your home to close once it is listed in Bayshore.  Thats 153 days from the date of listing to the date of a contract plus an additional 30-45 days until the property actually closes.

At this time, I’m proud to say that of the 4 sales here in the neighborhood, I had one of them, giving me 25% market share!  I’d love the opportunity to work with you or anyone that you know that has a real estate need!  Please let me know if there are any other stats you’d like to know about our Real Estate Market!  If you’d like to see an overview of the Wilmington Market, please visit my Wilmington NC Real Estate 1st Quarter Review.

Greetings All!  As promised, here are the minutes from the meeting last week.  Several important points:

1) Let’s work together to become PROACTIVE about keeping our neighborhood safe.

2) Please report ALL suspicious activity to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office by either dialing 911 or 910 452 6120.

3) Please come to our next meeting on May 5, 2011 at the Lutheran Church of Reconciliation.  Once we’ve completed that meeting, we will receive 2 Community Watch signs for the neighborhood.  We will need more than that so, in the meantime, please be on the lookout for posts about raising money to buy some extra signs.

To read the minutes from the meeting, click here: Bayshore Estates Community Watch Minutes- April 7, 2011

Thanks for all you do and hope you enjoy this wonderful weather!

Good Morning Bayshore!  I’m sure that you have all noticed a challenge getting to the Bayshore Facebook Page if you follow the instructions on the Flyer!  So sorry about this.  We do have a Facebook Page, as many of you know, and here is the correct address:

www.Facebook.com/BayshoreEstates

Please click on the link above and “like” our page.  My hope is to make sure that this page becomes a valuable resource for all of us!

Also, please let me know whether or not you are interested in a community wide yard sale- in my conversations with neighbors over the past few days, there seems to be a definite interest!

Thanks and enjoy your April Fools Day!  Happy Friday!!

Greetings All!  Thanks for being so receptive as I have been handing out flyers for our upcoming Neighborhood Watch Meeting.  Its been great to see everyone and thanks to all of you who remember me!  Here are some more details about the upcoming meeting.  We are going to work on dividing up the neighborhood into sections and assigning “area captains” to each section.  Also, we’re going to get an overview of how watches work from a member of New Hanover County’s finest, Sgt. Barnhill.  We will also be setting up regular meetings in the future.  When we’ve hit some specific goals, we’ll be able to get Neighborhood Watch set up around Bayshore.  Also, we’ll be working on having McGruff the Crime Dog make an appearance and have our kids photographed and fingerprinted by the police department.

Next Thursday we’re going to leave some time for socializing and getting to know one another as well.  To learn more about our meeting, view the flyer here:  Neighborhood Watch Flyer.

Just a quick blurb to let you know that we are going to be having our first Community Watch meeting on April 7th from 6:30-8:00 PM at the Lutheran Church (entrance of Bayshore).  We will have the support of the local authorities and they will be there to guide us through our first meeting.

A couple of things that we know we will be covering are identifying watch/area captains (our goal is to create a community watch for the whole neighborhood), determining what are future agenda will look like and how we execute a neighborhood watch and, above all, coming together as a community to socialize some and get to know each other better!

If you’re interested in being a watch/area captain, please email me at CB@FineCoastalLiving.com!  Thanks!

Yesterday I had a wonderful chat with one of our neighbors….unfortunately, he wasn’t bringing me the best of news. Apparently there have been several more burglaries in the neighborhood last week.  All occurred during daylight hours and it appears that the burglars waited until a time when they knew that no one would be home.

Special thanks to Bayshore Resident Jim for bringing these issues to the attention of the police and to me as well.  I will be working together with Jim and the local authorities to help set up a neighborhood watch program.  Be on the lookout for dates and times of an organizational meeting.

In the meantime, if you have an alarm, please set it when you leave the house during the day.  I know that it’s virtually impossible with work and children etc., but if there is a way to vary your schedule, please do!  Stay safe and try to stay dry today!