Archive for June, 2011
Fireworks and Fourth of July in the Triangle
One of the victims of the Chapel Hill budget cuts was the Town’s annual fireworks display in Kenan Stadium. For years this was a Chapel Hill institution, with music by Mike Cross (formerly of the Red Clay Ramblers) and thousands of people from all over the Triangle, gathering together to enjoy a celebration of patriotism [...]
The American Dance Festival, a Durham treasure
The American Dance Festival is a six-week fiesta of modern dance that takes place in Durham every summer. A brief history The dance festival originated in Bennington Vermont in 1934 thanks to dance pioneer Martha Graham and a small number of dancers and fans. The Festival moved to Connecticut in 1948 and incorporated an educational [...]
Big boxes are probably coming to Chapel Hill
What’s the big deal? Chapel Hill has long resisted the entry of “big box” retailers into the town limits, for political and aesthetic reasons. The attempt to retain the “village” look of downtown Chapel Hill has been a driving force for development considerations. Unfortunately, while that makes for an attractive-looking town it also robs the [...]
Greenbridge gets a much-needed foreclosure reprieve
As I reported last week, Tim Toben, managing partner of Greenbridge condos in Chapel Hill, has been working with several investors to take over the debt currently held by Bank of America in order to avoid foreclosure. Now it appears that Bank of America has finally taken the reasonable route and agreed to allow Toben [...]
Bunkey Morgan’s house is for sale
Chatham County residents will remember the contentious 2002 Board of Commissioners elections in which Bunkey Morgan ran against Gary Phillips. This in itself would not have been notable except for the fact that Mr. Morgan changed his voter registration to a small two-bedroom home in Silk Hope (shared with a young couple) in order to [...]
Carrboro advisory boards weigh in on the Carrboro CVS
I am a bit late with this news, but on May 5th the developer of the proposed new CVS building in Carrboro presented the concept of the new store to the town’s advisory boards. (You can read my earlier comments on the new CVS building here.) A brilliant synopsis of the advisory board comments can [...]
Zillow is not very accurate
“What about these?” One of my clients sent me a list of homes he had found on Zillow for which he wanted more information. I dutifully set about to research these properties which were not listed in the MLS. Two of the properties were listed as “preforeclosures,” meaning that the sellers were late on their [...]
Mortgage rates hit record lows: how affordable is housing?
How low are interest rates? The average rate on a 30-year mortgage fell last week to 4.49%, with 15-year loans down to 3.68 %. These are unheard-of numbers and are even more striking for adjustable rate mortgages, which are 3.28% for a five-year ARM and 2.95% for a one-year ARM. Interest rate history Freddie Mac [...]
Greenbridge may stave off foreclosure
Greenbridge, the state-of-the-art green building in Chapel Hill’s West End, is slated for foreclosure auction on June 27th. Those in the know tell me that before the foreclosure documents were filed, developer Tim Toben and his representatives submitted several offers on the condos to Bank of America, but B of A rejected these offers which [...]
Ellen DeGeneres has itchy feet
One of the best real estate “porn” sites is the Real Estalker site which posts listings of the rich and famous, accompanied with snarky details. A recent article depicts the extravagant compound of television star Ellen DeGeneres and tells an interesting story: Ellen bought the main Beverly Hills compound, a 9,000 square foot main house [...]
