Tourism in North Carolina accounts for over 190,000 jobs across the state, from the Outer Banks through the midlands and into the mountains, making it one of the most vital industries year after year in the state. Visitors spend more than $18 billion (yes, that’s a “b” on that number) in the state, contributing greatly to our tax revenues, to the tune of over a billion dollars a year.

So… tourism is still doing okay, but how’s the general NC economy doing? This question is significant for those from out of state who may be contemplating purchase of vacation property or would dearly love to relocate here – many from states with economies worse off than ours, who would like to get jobs or start new businesses. Columnist Michael L. Walden of the Raleigh area News and Observer wrote about the state of the state’s economy on the 9th of July.

Walden notes that North Carolina’s unemployment rate is the nation’s seventh highest, and will likely go higher before the year is out. A quarter million jobs have been lost in the state since the recession began, and property values have been sinking. While that’s bad news for old timers, it’s pretty good news for those in the market! And it’s not all bad news. Recessions provide opportunities for change that NC’s people are quite adept at taking advantage of, so we may come out of this one better off than we were before.

Tourism will still be a major industry, and serves to help protect our abundant natural resources because those are why people come to our state. We don’t cut the tops off our mountains because our mountains are worth more intact. We don’t grotesquely pollute our waterways because those waterways are much more valuable in a pristine state. The traditional jobs that have been steadily moving out of state, to other countries, or disappearing entirely are primarily of the low-wage variety that led to NC a generation ago being one of the poorer states in the Union.

Textiles, furniture manufacturing and tobacco. While fine hardwood furniture is still crafted in the western piedmont – thus is still a going industry – many old-time artisans are doing it for themselves these days rather than working on an assembly line. Their fine pieces still sell, and custom furniture returns a bigger paycheck to those woodworkers than the factory ever did. Tobacco growing is no longer the guaranteed income the base system was a generation ago, but inroads by the biotech industry and the move to agritourism, organic produce and fine wines is returning more for our farmers too.

And as the older ways fade, new things take their place. High tech concerns are moving in, including a new plan by Apple to build a $1 billion data center in Maiden, near Hickory and Gastonia. Construction could begin as early as next month. They’ll employ at least 50 people in high-tech positions, and could generate another 250 jobs servicing the plant. Optimistic estimates is that another 3,000 jobs could be generated in related areas in the region surrounding the site.

The strong banking industry in Charlotte has lost some jobs due to the crisis, but those are slowly coming back. In the Triangle Park area, jobs in biotech, pharmaceuticals, nanotechnology and other cutting-edge developing technologies are picking up as well.

So keep on making those plans for the future, consider that making the move may be more rewarding sooner rather than later due to better real estate prices, and bring your ideas with you! We here in North Carolina have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, useful skills and ample imagination. We’ll help get things going.

People young and old who have lived much of their lives in other places but have enjoyed North Carolina’s vacation offerings for many years, are among the many who choose either to build their own vacation home in our state, or find a way to live here full time. Even if that means moving their business to North Carolina, starting all over again with a new business, or just retiring to one of our spectacular communities specializing in making golden years golden.

Yet by now almost all of us old enough to know it takes money to live are keenly aware of the housing crisis that began a couple of years ago, became steadily worse throughout the country as the bubble burst entirely, and is now affecting more and more people who got fine prime rate mortgages. So this is a pretty good time to check real estate trends in some of North Carolina’s most popular and/or populated areas, see how our state is holding against current and developing economic trends. If you’re planning or just dreaming about a North Carolina home, here are some constantly updated sources you may want to check regularly…

Realty Times NC Market Conditions
NC Real Estate Market Reports
NC Mortgage Guide: FHA

Forbes voted Raleigh as the #1 city in America for careers, and the U.S. Census Bureau projects that more than Three of the top five housing markets in America that have maintained their home values are in North Carolina.

On June 19 the Charlotte Business Journal reported that North Carolina banks are outperforming nearby states on real estate loans. Our banks are still lending, at record low interest rates. WITM reports that despite the 28% drop in home sales during 2008, 2009 so far shows sales have regained 4%. Property values have fallen a bit to what was average in 2003, and there are bargains out there.

Small business loans are also being made in increasing number as the stimulus gets allocated, so this can be a positive relocation consideration as well.

Economic prognosticators are all over the board in this current recession, which came with a collapse of major players in such a way that no one has real experience with making firm projections. Recovery may be long or short, the “liquidation” of assets and businesses out in the real world could slow or speed. But if your family are among the many who have not been utterly ruined, it’s a good time to begin looking forward to making your future dreams come true. And if those include a little slice of the Paradise we call North Carolina, get started! From now through at least the next six months some great bargains will become available wherever in our beautiful state you decide best suits you!

During this 2007 holiday season, it seems the children are all nestled asleep in their beds, with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads… oh, wait. You say the “children” are all teenagers now, terminally bored with Christmas and expecting a 10-gig iPod loaded with every album too objectionable to be played in public, plus keys to a car and $400 worth of “Prison Chic” pants that hang somewhere around the thighs and show off their underwear?

Did the fudge never set, so you had to run to the store to buy enough ice cream to disguise the un-set fudge as super chocolate syrup? Were those tollhouse cookies hard as a rock, breaking grandpa’s dentures with the first bite? Did cousin Jim finish off the entire bottle of rum you’d brought for eggnog before passing out under the tree? Did the dog eat that perfect glazed ham before you could get it into the oven to heat? Did it snow during the night and hide all the firewood you’d stacked somewhere in the yard for the Christmas Eve fire? Are the in-laws insisting on watching Enemy of the State as a “Christmas Movie” instead of It’s a Wonderful Life for the 16th time?

Be of good cheer, enjoy yourself anyway, and…

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

October 15 has been designated “Blog Action Day”, when bloggers are encouraged to write about our environment and things regular people can do to reduce their environmental footprint on the planet and help steward the environment we depend upon to sustain our lives.

Here in beautiful North Carolina we are blessed with environments so spectacular and desirable that much of our drawn income over the year comes from visitors and tourists who just can’t get enough of us! This of course can cause some environmental stress, yet we’ve done a pretty good job so far of not urbanizing ourselves into depression and not so polluting our air and water that it’s struggle just to stay alive.

Out in the rural piedmont and mountainous west there is somewhat of a ‘housing boom’ going on. Despite overpriced land and housing in many areas of the country and a ‘bubble’ that is bursting as we speak, North Carolina still offers reasonably priced land and eco-friendly houses for young families, out-of-staters seeking vacation homes, and retirees seeking peace and a connection to the earth. A key to that housing boom isn’t just the relatively low price of land, it’s the popularity of log and timber frame homes and a sizable number of eco-conscious builders operating in our state.

The Log Home Advisor explains the industry and why it is that people from all stations in life are increasingly turning to these fine homes in lieu of the standard cheaply built tract homes of suburbia that seem destined primarily to become the slums of the future. The Log Homes Journal offers important tips on choosing the right location, the right home and the right builder to ensure you’re getting the most for your investment.

These and other sources (links below) will tout the environmental plusses of long, timber frame and hybrid houses. Some suppliers rely upon ‘culled’ timber from National Forest management, some get their logs from tree farms which produce largely for this industry. Still others, usually local to areas where homesteaders would want to live, boast that they get their timber from standing dead and down trees, which is a positive forest management practice that well serves the environment.

Here in western NC, we are dealing with infestations of insects that have killed off huge stands of southern pines and stately old hemlocks. While the US Forest Service and NC Extension Service are working hard to save young trees with new treatments landholders can obtain free for their trees, the swaths of standing dead still harboring these insects in their bark are a fire hazard as well as unsightly. This is a great deal of fine timber (pine and hemlock make excellent log homes) there to be harvested, and many harvesters are in the process of getting permits to do so. Why, the ultimate handyman could even build it himself! There are plenty of plans and instructions out there.

Thus a log home buyer need not feel guilty about the trees it takes to make their home, or to produce the timber for framing, or the siding inside or out. They get a sturdy, well-insulated shelter that will outlast almost any tract home in any suburb. Log homes are energy efficient, saving on heating and cooling costs as well as the energy resources used to generate electricity to provide heating and cooling. Log homes stay warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than standard houses or modulars, and out here in the west where there’s lots of shade and nights are always cool, many happy log homeowners don’t bother with air conditioning. It’s simply not necessary.

These cozy homes can be heated with wood, which is handy if you live in the woods – you can provide your own fuel and keep fit while you’re at it! Wood burning stoves are constructed to last at least as long as the house they heat, with modern efficiency and pollution control technologies built-in. In some log homes with 2 stories and loft, or with 15-20 foot cathedral ceilings, the exhaust pipe can be situated in such a way that as much heat is gained from exhaust as from the stove itself. Most heating sources can’t claim this kind of efficiency, and most homes can’t claim the solidarity to keep so much of that heat inside rather than radiating it outside.

Even if you’ve chosen a model with whole walls of glass to make your beautiful view a big part of your everyday living, most homebuilders offer double-paned insulating glass that keeps the cold out and the heat in for prime energy efficiency.

More and more of the visitors to North Carolina fall so in love that they decide to move here and live where their hearts feel most at home. Luckily, we have the space, the environmental consciousness and the wherewithall to welcome them happily. Check out some of the great links below and see if your future plans might include a home in North Carolina. You won’t be sorry!

Links:

Log Homes Journal

Western Carolina Real Estate Co.

North Carolina Lands & Properties

Natural Log Cabin Siding

An Environmentalists’s Guide to Responsible Wood Heating

GARN Smokeless Wood Heating System

Greenwood Hydronic Wood Furnace