And don’t forget the Azalea festival in April, usually Wilmington’s premier annual event to kick off warm weather season again.  There seems to be no end to the reasons to visit or live in Wilmington, and Landfall remains Wilmington’s prime residential destination.  If you know of an event that is of interest, please reply to this blog, so we can let our readers know about it!

2011 will see just over 100 real estate transactions in Landfall, a good showing in the continuing housing slump,  Landfall Realty’s market share has increased over 2010, resulting in a profitable year.  Howvever, the demand remains much stronger in homes $600,000 and under, and weak in the $1,000,000 and over price range, although the year has seen a few sales of high end properties.

2012 looks to be more of the same, with it unlikely that prices will rebound significantly in the next couple of years, as nationally the market continues to be a buyer’s market.  While Landfall has little foreclosure problem, the fact that there are over 2 million foreclosures nationally in the pipe line will keep prices from increasing materially.  It is a great time for buyers, not so good for sellers.  Fortunately, Landfall, as a mature community, with all amenities completed, and with an upscale club with little debt, remains well positioned to do better than most planned communities.

Mums the word for Landfall Realty

Orange was the color of the day, starting with the hand painted pumpkins by local Landfall artists.  The sky, however, was Carolina Blue on Saturday, October 9, which was a day of fun for kids of all ages. Landfall’s annual Fall Festival was another tremendous success raising money for the Kenan Chapel and the Landfall Foundation.  Landfall Realty was happy to volunteer at this community wide event, meeting and greeting new found friends as well as familiar property owners. The activities included a plant sale by the Council of Association, games for the children, face painting, and pumpkin painting, along with pony rides and the “Root Beer Float” in its own “boot.”

Landfall’s bluebird friends displayed their bluebird houses, and talked about their bluebird attraction program.  There were plenty of arts and crafts items for sale as well as a Landfall Bake Sale that was a huge hit, especially the specialties by our own entrepreneur Kate Costella, owner of Aunt Cake’s Cookies, yum!

Forum Attendees

Future posts will follow with additional comments, but one question posed by an attendee was how important Country Club of Landfall is to the Landfall real estate market.  Kirkman indicated that having a high quality club, debt free, in good condition is critical to Landfall’s short and long term value.  While perhaps only 25% of residents play golf regularly, others use the sports and dining facilities.  Of equal importance, the vast open, green spaces created by a quality golf course add value to all properties, and enhance the ability to resell.  Kirkman noted that in another development a poll of purchasers revealed that about 65% of the buyers would not have purchased had a golf course not been planned, while only 25%of them intended to play golf.  Clearly, the health of the real estate market and Country Club of Landfall are inexorably linked.

And for those of you looking for something different to do on a Friday evening, you can participate in the kickoff event by attending the Artrageous Preview Party (admission by ticket only) featuring selected pieces from local area artists as well as one selected for auction. The Preview Party is hosted by Fountain Side Fine Art Gallery and your ticket price includes food along with 4 tickets for wine tasting.  For all the details and information on a fabulous giveaway you can enter to win a Lumina Station Shopping spree and Bald Head Island Weekend Retreat go to http://www.luminastation.com/pages/artrageous_festival_artwalk.html and then head on over to  Lumina Station at 1900 Eastwood Road, Wilmington, NC. What better way to spend the weekend than perusing marvelous boutiques and art galleries, and enjoying great food all while supporting an excellent Wilmington Community organization.

Click Here for the Website

The Greek festival began in 1992 and has been growing every year.  The average attendance reaches around 20,000 and includes not only Wilmington and New Hanover County residents, but folks from Pender and Brunswick counties as well as visitors from out of state.  The proceeds from the festival directly benefit the church and local area charities. This year the Food Bank of  Central and Eastern North Carolina will be the recipient of the churches generosity, so in addition to having a great time and enjoying some of the most fabulous food of the year, you can feel even better about spending that cash ‘cause it’s all for charity!

The festival includes tours of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Greek dancing performances, Greek cooking demonstrations (yum) and both traditional and popular Greek music.  The menu for this event is as extensive as you’d find in any Greek restaurant and the prices are more than reasonable.  Fill up at the fest and make sure you take home desserts for the week, heck, take home dinner, too!

St Nicholas is located at 608 S College Avenue and admission is free before 5pm on Friday.  After that it will be $3 for Adults, $2 for Seniors and Students, 12 & under free, and one admission covers the entire weekend; do these folks know how to entice us to get to the fest or what?  For more information, click on the logo to the left and wave if you see us while you’re there!

Billboard on I-40 in Watha, NC

As the billboards in town and on the interstates proclaim, the event is being hosted by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and will surely draw a huge crowd from around the country.  You can purchase tickets for this event by calling 910.962.3233 or logging on to the NCAA website at http://www.ncaa.com/champ/index.html.  If you’re planning a trip to the Wilmington area anytime in the near future, you might want to consider coming down for this exciting event and joining the cheering crowds at Landfall!

Azalea in Bloom

The North Carolina Azalea Festival runs from April 7^th through April 11, 2010 and celebrates Wilmington’s exceptional artwork, gardens, rich history and culture with five days of entertainment that includes a plethora of activities and events for all ages and interests.   These include the Cole Brothers Circus, a Goo Goo Dolls Concert with Collective Souls, as well as a Montgomery Gentry Concert, ( both concerts taking place at the UNCW Trask Coliseum), the ever popular NC Azalea Street Festival that runs for 3 days downtown (and let’s not forget the parade), and of course the famous Azalea Garden Tour now in its 57^th year!  There is also a juried art show and sale and the Historic Home Tour, along with dozens of other happenings that will surely keep you busy all weekend long.  From flowers to fashion, crafters to clowns, and the queen and her court, be a part of the pageantry and all that is Southern by participating in one or more of these activities occurring at various locations throughout the city during the upcoming weekend.  Please log on to www.ncazaleafestival.org or call 910.794.4650 to find out all the details and costs associated with the many different programs  that aren’t mentioned here.    This is North Carolina’s biggest festival of the year and Wilmington, NC pulls all the stops out to ensure that everyone has a great time!