Looking for a new color palate for your home?

Interior design experts consider these color trends:

Grey - the new neutral, balances bolder colors.
Green - a timeless color...olive tones and shades of teal are returning.
Purple - a classic shade...the lighter versions are becoming common.
Blue - "true" blues will remain decorating staples for the future.

Accent colors: golden yellow, purple and pink are increasingly popular
accent colors for extra "pop"!

Great things are happening in Apex this week!

Great things are happening in Apex this week! Be sure to visit Apex Town Hall Campus for the Saturday, July 2nd, kick off for 4th of July!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/THIS-WEEK---FREE-CONCERT-ON-THE-CAMPUS-AND-YOUTH-ART-SHOW-RECEPTION.html?soid=1103123456426&aid=ZB0rP3Ba1yE

The accolades for our area continue!

In June 2011 alone, Forbes Magazine named Raleigh the #1 Place for Families. Ernst & Young named North Carolina the #1 Most Profitable Biotech Industry. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics named us #5 in US for JOB GROWTH! Is it any wonder everyone is moving here?

Raleigh-Cary Tops Forbes List for College Grads!

College graduates are heading in droves to Raleigh, Austin and, surprisingly, New Orleans.

For a decade now, U.S. city planners have obsessively pursued college graduates, adopting policies to make their cities more like dense hot spots such as New York, to which the "brains" allegedly flock.

But in the past 10 years, "hip and cool" places like New York have suffered high levels of domestic outmigration. Some boosters rationalize this by saying the U.S. is undergoing a "bipolar migration" -- On the one hand the smart "brains" head for cool, coastal cities like New York and Boston, while "families" and "feet" -- a term that seems to apply to the less cognitively gifted -- trudge to the the nation's southern tier -- a.k.a. the Sun Belt -- for cheap prices and warm weather. "College graduates with bachelor's degrees or higher," Thompson notes, "have been moving to the coasts, like salmon swimming against the southwesterly current."

However, this analysis -- no matter how widely accepted in the media -- is grossly oversimplified, perhaps even misleading. Indeed, college graduates, for the most part, are heading not to the big cities on the coasts, but to smaller, less dense and quite often Sun Belt cities.

To come up with our list of the country's biggest brain magnets, we took the 50 largest metropolitan areas and ranked them by gains in people with college educations compared to the population over 25 years of age between 2007 and 2009, using the latest data from the American Community Survey provided by demographer Wendell Cox. It turns out that none of the top 10 gainers were large Northeastern cities, but largely Southern or Midwestern. New Orleans; Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; Nashville; Birmingham, Ala.; Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.; and Columbus, Ohio, all scored high marks. Only one California city, San Diego, made the top 10. Perennial "brain gainers" Denver, Colo., and Seattle round out the top 10.

Among those metropolitan statistical areas with populations over 5 million, the best ranking went to the Philadelphia region (No. 12 overall), arguably the least glitzy and most affordable of the large northeast cities. The San Francisco metropolitan area, long a leader in its percentage of college-educated adults, held the next spot at No. 13. On the other hand, supposed "brain" magnets Boston and Chicago managed middling rankings, right behind Charlotte, N.C., and just ahead of San Antonio, Texas. Both fell well behind such overlooked "brain gain" areas as Jacksonville, Fla.; St. Louis, Mo.-Ill.; and Indianapolis. New York, the nation's intellectual capital, ranked a mediocre 29th and Los Angeles an even worse 37th. To put in perspective, Nashville's rate of college educated migration growth was 3.7%, compared with 1.4% for New York and a measly 0.7% for Los Angeles.

Rather than following a clear path to the world of the "hip and cool," college graduates appear influenced by a more nuanced and complex series of factors in terms of their location. New Orleans' No. 1 ranking, for example, is likely product of the continuing recovery of its shrunken population, where the central city appears to be somewhat more attractive to professionals than before Katrina while the suburban populations have recovered more quickly from the disaster. The strong showing of Birmingham may likely be traced not to changes in the core city itself, but to the rapid growth in its surrounding suburban counties and the rapid expansion of the region's medical complex.

This reflects something not often mentioned: the spreading out of intelligence. Conventional theory suggests that the new generation of college graduates will go to the largest, densest places, eschewing their parent's McMansions for small abodes in the inner city. Yet the ACS numbers indicate that, overall, college migrants tend to choose less dense places. In the two years we covered, the growth rate in urban areas with lower urban area densities (2,500 per square mile) boasted a 5% increase in college-educated residents, compared with roughly 3.5% for areas twice as dense.

This can be seen in the pattern of migration toward relatively low-density metropolitan areas like Nashville, Columbus, Raleigh or Kansas City as opposed to more packed regions like New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. And wherever these college graduates migrate, they are at least as likely to settle outside the urban core. Another overlooked fact: Most places with the highest percentages of college-educated people are in suburbs. Only two of the 20 most-educated counties in the country are located in the urban core: New York (Manhattan) and San Francisco. Virtually all the rest are suburban.

Another somewhat surprising statistic revolves around affordability and job growth. The college-educated, particularly in this tepid economy, are not immune to reality. They may want to go one place -- for example, ever-alluring New York or sunny Los Angeles -- but may soon find they can find neither a good job there nor an affordable place to live in order to stay there. Overall our analysis shows that many end up in places with lower housing prices. Areas with the highest price housing experienced college-educated growth at a rate only 60% of those with more affordable real estate. This is one thing that makes an Austin or Raleigh, even a Columbus or Kansas City, more attractive than a Boston, New York or Los Angeles

Finally we have to consider employment trends. For the most part college graduates, like most folks, preferred cities with lower unemployment and more job growth. Some top gainers, such as Raleigh, Columbus and Kansas City, all boast lower than average unemployment and appear to be recovering from the recession. But this is not always the case: Some relatively poor performers on the job front, like Portland, Ore., and San Diego, have managed to maintain their appeal -- for now.

As the economy recovers these patterns are likely to accelerate, although they could also shift a bit as regions gain or lose employment momentum. Meanwhile, the best strategy for attracting graduates lies in creating jobs, as well as in offering both affordable housing and a range of housing options, including both reasonably priced urban and lower-density living. Generally speaking an area that is economically vital as well as physically or culturally appealing will do best. In the next decade advantages will also fall to family-friendly regions, particularly as the current crop of millennial-generation graduates starts entering en masse their family-forming years. These factors, more than hipness or dense urbanity, may well be more influential in determining which regions do best in the ongoing war for talent.

No. 2: Raleigh-Cary, N.C.

Grad gain: 28,748

Share of 25+ Population, 2007: 4.27%

Even in hard times Raleigh-Durham -- the fastest-growing metro area in the country -- has repeatedly performed well on Forbes' list of the best cities for jobs. The area is a magnet for technology companies fleeing the more expensive, congested and highly regulated northeast corridor. Affordable housing and short commute times are no doubt highly attractive to millennials seeking to start a family. Indeed, a 2010 Portfolio.com/bizjournals survey ranked the city the third-best for young adults.

Source

Hiring Plans Top Layoffs!

The economy is on the mend in the Triangle.
Check out this article - hiring plans top job lay offs for the first time in 12 years!

http://www.wral.com/business/story/8990744/

NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL YOUR HOUSE! BUYERS ARE BUYING!

RISMEDIA, January 21, 2011—Existing-home sales rose sharply in December 2010, when sales increased for the fifth time in the past six months, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, rose 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million in December from an upwardly revised 4.70 million in November, but remain 2.9% below the 5.44 million pace in December 2009.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said sales are on an uptrend. “December was a good finish to 2010, when sales fluctuate more than normal. The pattern over the past six months is clearly showing a recovery,” he said. “The December pace is near the volume we’re expecting for 2011, so the market is getting much closer to an adequate, sustainable level. The recovery will likely continue as job growth gains momentum and rising rents encourage more renters into ownership while exceptional affordability conditions remain.”

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $168,800 in December, which is 1.0% below December 2009. Distressed homes rose to a 36% market share in December from 33% in November, and 32% in December 2009.

“The modest rise in distressed sales, which typically are discounted 10 to 15 percent relative to traditional homes, dampened the median price in December, but the flat price trend continues,” Yun explained.

Total housing inventory at the end of December fell 4.2% to 3.56 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.1-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 9.5-month supply in November.

NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I., said buyers are responding to very good affordability conditions despite tight mortgage credit. “Historically low mortgage interest rates, stable home prices, and pent-up demand are drawing home buyers into the market,” Phipps said. “Recent home buyers have been successful with very low default rates, given the outstanding performance for loans originated in 2009 and 2010.”

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.71% in December from 4.30% in November; the rate was 4.93% in December 2009.

A parallel NAR practitioner survey shows first-time buyers purchased 33% of homes in December, up from 32% in November, but are below a 43% share in December 2009.

Investors accounted for 20% of transactions in December, up from 19% in November and 15% in December 2009; the balance of sales were to repeat buyers. All-cash sales were at 29% in December, compared with 31% in November, but up from 22% a year ago. “All-cash sales have been consistently high at about 30 percent of the market over the past six months,” Yun said.

Single-family home sales jumped 11.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.64 million in December from 4.15 million in November, but are 2.5% below the 4.76 million level in December 2009. The median existing single-family home price was $169,300 in December, down 0.2% from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales surged 16.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000 in December from 550,000 in November, but remain 5.2% below the 675,000-unit pace one year ago. The median existing condo price was $165,000 in December, which is 7.4% below December 2009.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast jumped 13.0% to an annual pace of 870,000 in December, but are 5.4% below December 2009. The median price in the Northeast was $237,300, which is 1.4% below a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest rose 11.0% in December to a level of 1.11 million, but are 4.3% below a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $139,700, up 3.3% from December 2009.

In the South, existing-home sales increased 10.1% to an annual pace of 1.97 million in December, but are 2.5% below December 2009. The median price in the South was $148,400, unchanged from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the West surged 16.7% to an annual level of 1.33 million in December, but remain 1.5% below December 2009. The median price in the West was $204,000, down 5.6% from a year ago.

Source: http://rismedia.com/2011-01-20/recovery-on-move-december-2010-existing-home-sales-jump-12-3-percent/

Unemployment Benefit Applications Drop! Job Market Improving!

A great sign regarding the job market - 2011 will be a NEW YEAR!
2010 has been a tough one for all, but this new finding is a sign that we are on the way up.

http://www.wral.com/business/story/8853822/