We hope that you are enjoying friends and family and that the Christmas spirit is with all. Eat to much, laugh a lot, and enjoy the little ones!
Merry Christmas from Realty World Heritage Realty!

If you are headed our way bring your ski, tubing gear. The ski resort has been open since November, but this morning I saw that Tony’s Tube World has been busy making snow the last few nights and they should be open this weekend. Also, for the little ones the Maggie Valley Snowmobile Park has plenty of snow made and should be open over the weekend! Check the local forecast below for more details on the Christmas week forcast.

TodayDec 20
Mostly Cloudy
49°/33°

FriDec 21
AM Showers
45°/27°

SatDec 22
Cloudy
51°/37°

SunDec 23
Light Rain
47°/20°

MonDec 24
Partly Cloudy
48°/25°

TueDec 25
Rain / Snow Showers
42°/20°

WedDec 26
Partly Cloudy
40°/22°

ThuDec 27
Partly Cloudy
47°/23°

FriDec 28
Rain / Snow Showers
49°/25°

SatDec 29
Rain / Snow Showers
45°/21°

For all of those in sunny Florida we had our first 2 hour school delay this morning due to icy roads. Some residents reported 2 inches of snow in the higher elevations. You had to awake early to see it because it melted quickly and all the kids got off to school safely! We can only hope for a white Christmas in the mountains. How is the weather in your neck of the woods?

Here is an update on the proposed Cataloochee Wilderness Resort in Jonathan Creek, NC. The partners made their first official appearance last night in front of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners. The overall message was that a development will take place in the Jonathan Creek area in the near future, but there have not been any parcels closed on for the proposed 4,500 acre development. Many county residents are concerned about the impact of such a large development. Some argue that the jobs that will come with such a development will be the lower paying service jobs that cannot sustain families in the area. The other big argument against is the environmental impact although no impact studies have been completed at this time. With Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN so close we have all seen the impact of poorly designed development and the traffic and other headaches that comes along with it. The developers of this proposed resort seem to understand that the project must be designed with the environment and the citizens of this county in mind in order for it to be embraced. It will be interesting to see how this project progresses.
Please tell us what you think about the proposed Cataloochee Wilderness Resort! Click the COMMENT button!

There has been a lot of talk and a lot of front page coverage in the local newspaper about the “Cataloochee Mountain Resort” which would sit on 4500 acres in Jonathan Creek. For years there has been talk of developement in that area and this project has attracted the most attention because of its size and cost. The developers have met with the State of North Carolina according to the media, but they have bypassed the local officials thus far. This morning it was announced that an Architect has been hired from Atlanta to work on the project.

I will keep you up to date on the progress and I will try to link some article so you can read for yourself about the “Cataloochee Mountain Resort”.

With all the doom and gloom from the media on the housing “crisis” there was a very good article in the local newspaper this morning about buying in Haywood County. I am glad to see that the silver lining is being exposed. All over the country there are markets that are down, but there are some tremendous deals to be found. If you are looking to invest this is the time to do it! ” Buy low and sell high” is the old motto and it stands true over the course of time. The market will not be what it is today a few years from now. History proves that. So, if you are looking for investment in our area or anywhere in the country please give us a call and we will assist or we will refer you to one of our referral network agents across the nation.

To view the Mountaineer Newspaper click HERE

Here are some current Residential Market Stats for Haywood County as of today courtesy of the Western North Carolina Regional MLS:
1/1/07- 12/12/07
Average List Price: $261,595
Average Sales Price: $247,683
List to Sell Ratio:94.7
Average Days on Market: 137
Total Sold to date: 739

Click HERE for a great video about the inability to “change” and “adapt” when a new challenge comes your way. Very funny!

I would like to welcome everyone to the “new” Realty World Heritage Realty Blog. Originally, this blog was on Thomas and Christine Mallette’s personal website. When we purchased Realty World last January we stopped using our site and converted to the new and improved www.RealtyWorldHeritage.com site. We will use this Blog to inform and educate those who are interested in the the happenings in Western NC. There will be alot of Real Estate news and general happenings in the area. Please check back often and we encourage all to comment on the content and please ask us any questions that you have about the area and the health of our market. I love statistics and I will be happy to provide you will a complete breakdown of what is happening in our marketplace.

I will be compiling some local market data and will post tommorrow,but for now if you want to see some very informative reports about the housing market check out www.ofheo.gov which is the Office of Federal Housing Oversight. There are some great reports on the strength of the market in the largest cities in the United States. I do use the word “strength” because as you may see with the number of homes on the market and the number of foreclosures in those markets it is a great time to invest in real estate!