Relocation Guide

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Senators agreed Wednesday to extend a popular tax credit for first-time homebuyers and to offer a reduced credit to some repeat buyers.

The tax credit provides up to $8,000 to first-time homebuyers but is set to expire at the end of November. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new home sales fell 3.6 percent in September, and some industry representatives blamed uncertainty about the tax credit.

Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time homebuyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years, said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The tax credits would be available to homebuyers who sign sales agreements by the end of April. They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes, according to a summary of the legislation being circulated among lawmakers.

Senators were still negotiating the expansion of a separate tax credit that lets money-losing businesses get refunds for taxes paid in previous years, providing them with an immediate source of cash.

Senators in both political parties were hoping to add both tax provisions to a bill that would give people running out of unemployment insurance benefits up to 20 more weeks of federal aid. The Senate could vote on the overall bill as early as Thursday, but lawmakers were still haggling over several unrelated amendments Wednesday evening.

Popular bills like the one to extend unemployment benefits often attract amendments that would have a difficult time passing on their own.

Republicans were demanding that they be given a chance to offer amendments to restrict federal aid to the beleaguered community activist group ACORN and on requiring that people receiving unemployment insurance be processed through E-Verify, an Internet-based system that employers use to check on the immigration status of new hires.

Majority Democrats have refused to add the amendments.

If the Senate passes the bill, it would go to the House, which passed a similar bill extending unemployment benefits last month. House leaders have also said they support extending the tax credit for homebuyers.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., has been negotiating for several weeks with Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., to craft an extended tax credit for homebuyers that would pass the Senate.

Lawmakers didn’t release a cost estimate for extending the tax credit, though similar proposals were projected to cost about $10 billion.

Industry representatives said uncertainty about the tax credit is hurting new home sales. September’s decline was the first since March.

It takes 45 days to 60 days to close on a house, making it unlikely a sale made today would be consummated by the end of November, said Lucien Salvant, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

“Buyers right now have an incentive to hold off, not knowing whether the credit will be extended,” Salvant said.

About 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have qualified for the credit through August. The National Association of Realtors estimates that 350,000 of them would not have purchased their homes without the credit.

The tax credit for money-losing businesses is a favorite among Republican lawmakers. Businesses could get tax refunds by using losses from 2008 and 2009 to offset taxable profits made in the previous five years. Under current law, they can only offset profits from the previous two years.

The provision would help a variety of industries, including retailers, manufacturers and home builders, though it’s expensive.

“It’s clearly a way to put cash in the hands of some major economic players,” said Clint Stretch, a tax policy expert at Deloitte Tax.

A similar proposal that was ultimately dropped from the economic stimulus package enacted in February would have cost nearly $20 billion over 10 years. Lawmakers are working to reduce the price tag.

Because people are so strapped for cash, this is a good way to get refunds when businesses need them for operating expenses, said Rachelle Bernstein, vice president and tax counsel for the National Retail Federation.

-wral.com
Two national magazines have recognized Raleigh Charter High School as one of the nation’s best high schools.

Raleigh Charter ranked 20th in U.S. News and World Report’s list, and Newsweek ranked the school 34th in the country.

“There’s not a discussion of ‘Oh, we want to have good test scores’ or ‘We want to have good rankings.’ I think it’s a by-product of a focus on learning,” said teacher Lisa Huddleston.

Raleigh Charter, a college-preparatory school, opened in 1999 and currently has 535 students. Students must apply and be chosen by lottery to attend the school, which has children from nine counties across the state.

In its first year, Raleigh Charter attained the state’s highest End-of-Course test scores, and in 2001 became the first high school in the state to be named a School of Excellence, according to school leaders.

The school resides in historic Pilot Mill, a restored textile mill on the National Register of Historic Places, and has freedom to govern a little differently than traditional public schools.

“In many ways, we try to use the Charter Law as an education laboratory to try out new and innovative ideas,” said Principal Thomas Humble.

For example, school officials vary the schedule and build in days with six, 45-minute periods for in-depth learning or community work projects. Also, teachers don’t have to be licensed as long as they have industry or academic experience.

Class sizes are small with about 19 students to every teacher. As a college-prep school, many students take Advanced Placement courses and test well, school leaders said.

“My favorite question is ‘What if? What if you did this? What would happen?’ If I can get a kid to buy-in to the what-if question, we’ve got them for life,” Huddleston said.

Raleigh Charter High School is one of 100 charter schools in the state. About 96 percent of its seniors go on to college, according to the school’s statistics.

Triangle fashionistas can cross another shop off their retail wish list: H&M.

The Swedish retailer known for its cheap-chic offerings is about to complete a deal to open a store in Raleigh’s Crabtree Valley Mall. It will be the first H&M in the Carolinas, and it’s expected to draw shoppers from across the state.

The deal for a 21,000-square-foot store is about a week from being finished, mall spokeswoman Sandra Geist said. If all goes as planned, the store will open in the spring.

When the deal is finalized, it will be one of the biggest retail announcements in the market this year. And while exciting to H&M fans, the news may be less welcome to some competitors in a time when the retail industry is suffering.

H&M has always had loyal followers, but the chain has become more popular lately, said retail analyst Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group in Charleston, S.C.

“They’d be popular anyway, because they have such a good fashion sense with the low pricing,” he said. “But with the economy today being difficult, they’re even more popular. More people demand them to open because they can’t afford to shop at Abercrombie” & Fitch.

The store mostly appeals to girls in their teen years and their 20s, Beemer said, and competes head-on with stores such as Abercrombie and especially Forever 21, another cheap-chic fashion chain that opened in Crabtree mall in late 2007.

H&M is certain to draw shoppers from those stores, Beemer said. This year, his firm did a survey in which 40 percent of consumers who said they have shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch said they had stopped shopping there because it was too expensive.

“They’ll decimate them,” Beemer said. “Half the people who are now shopping at H&M used to be going to Abercrombie, Hollister, American Eagle.”

Last week, Abercrombie reported dismal financial results for September, with sales at stores open more than a year dropping 18 percent. Overall in September, sales of clothing rose 0.5 percent from August, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Wednesday.

And now may be a good time for H&M to try to snap up teen customers.

Teens plan to spend 2 percent more on clothes, shoes and accessories than they did a year ago, and 6 percent more than they were thinking about just six months ago, a nationwide survey of 11,000 students released last week by Minneapolis investment banking firm Piper Jaffray found. It’s the first time since the spring of 2006 that Piper’s twice-a-year survey has found teens in the mood to spend.

Where it’s going?

The Crabtree H&M will go on the mall’s lower level near center court, below the Belk Men’s Store. Try Sports, which is the only retailer on that stretch of hallway now, will move across the hall to make room.

Geist declined to comment further on the store until the deal is done.

Owners of the area’s smaller clothing boutiques say the H&M opening will not affect them much, because they serve a different clientele.

“[H&M] will be great for the teenagers and the preteens that just want the latest thing and they don’t care if it lasts more than a couple weeks,” said Susan Burney, co-owner of the Galatea boutique at Raleigh’s Seaboard Station.

According to the Piper survey, teens spend $70 billion a year in this country and 42 percent of that is on clothing and accessories.

H&M has been looking at the area for years. In 2006, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance was in talks with the company, but a deal never happened.

It will be one of a number of new-to-the-state openings in recent years. Other retailers, including Ikea and gourmet grocer Trader Joe’s, also recently decided to open in the Tar Heel state.

For area fans of the chain, any location in the state is a vast improvement. Many travel to Virginia or Atlanta to patronize H&M stores.

Raleigh resident Heather Hefner said she shops at the H&M at the Short Pump Mall in Richmond, Va., every time she has the opportunity, drawn by the chain’s fashionable styles, quality of clothing and low prices.

“The last few times I was there, I’ve gotten a bag of clothes — maybe five or six tops — for $50,” she said. “My husband tries to give me a spending limit, and at H&M I can still stay under the limit and it’s like, ‘Look at all these clothes I got.’ ”

-By Jim Brumm, StarNews Correspondent

Wilmington’s unique attractions to entrepreneurs were recognized Wednesday when CNN Money said the Wilmington area is one of the best 50 places in the U.S. to launch a small business startup.

Specifically, the cable network said that the metro area comprising New Hanover, Pender County and Brunswick County are 14th among 20 mid-size metro areas.

With few large employers, CNN says, the Wilmington area has created an entrepreneur-led economy.

Jonathan Rowe, director of the UNCW Entrepreneurship Center, explains that many of the employees who are attracted to strong businesses such as GE Nuclear, Corning and PPD come with trailing spouses who become entrepreneurs after being unable to find local corporate positions in their professions.

As CNN put it: “In Wilmington, if you can’t find a job, you create one.”

There’s also the quality of life, Rowe said, reflecting CNN’s point that the biggest incentive for many entrepreneurs moving to the Port City is the beaches.

Among CNN’s 20 midsize areas – those with a population of 250,000 to 1 million, Wilmington’s metro area of nearly 350,000 people is the only city located on the coast.

Rowe said the quality of life often attracts UNCW graduates who want to stay in the area, creating their own employment to do just that.

It also attracts those who do not have to be in a specific place to operate the business they have created, said Tom Looney, the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce’s Entrepreneur in Residence.

That’s why he came to the area a decade ago, Looney noted, explaining technology has made location irrelevant for many who want to raise their family in a wonderful place.

Supporting the economic activity surrounding a few big companies and the area’s natural beauty are “a great university and community college,” Rowe said.

Also important he added are the arts and a strong secondary school system.

CNN pointed out that Wilmington has evolved considerably over the last three decades.

In the 1980s, I-40 improved connections between Wilmington and other state metro areas. The local film industry began to grow with construction of EUE/Screen Gems Studios, the largest television and movie production facility east of California and home to the television show “One Tree Hill.”

During those decades, Rowe said, business growth has trended up with the velocity of the area’s population growth.

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The National Park Service will offer evening tours of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Oct. 4 to coincide with the full moon. Each tour – at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. – is limited to 30 people.

Climbers are asked to bring their own flashlights to navigate the lighthouse’s 257 steps. At the top, they will stand on the balcony to witness the beam of the light shining out onto the ocean.

Admission fee is $7 for adults, $3.50 for those under age 12 and over age 61. advance tickets can be purchased at the lighthouse ticket booth beginning Oct. 2. This event is expected to sell out.

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Raleigh, N.C. — Urban chicken keeping is a growing trend across the Triangle. Raleigh residents are allowed to have laying hens in backyards, Durham residents need a permit for household hens and those living in Chapel Hill can have up to 10 hens. However, chicken keeping is still illegal in Cary.

Backyard chicken farming on the riseWATCH VIDEO
Backyard chicken farming on the rise

Bev Norwood’s has had backyard chickens for four years.

“I just had this thing that I wanted chickens,” she said.

Norwood built the Chicken Ranch coop at her Raleigh’s Five Points home. She now has four hens and a steady supply of fresh eggs. However, the eggs aren’t the chickens’ only by-product.

“The chicken poop goes on my compost and eventually gets used in the landscape,” Norwood said.

Chickens also turn over compost piles by eating table scraps and bugs. The benefits of chicken raising had led to an ‘egg-centric’ movement among urban areas.

“It’s amazing. It may be exponential,” chicken keeper Bob Davis said.

Davis raises baby chicks.

“These two birds will actually wind up with a family in Chapel Hill,” he said as he showed off his chicks.

Davis also teaches chicken-keeping courses several times a year. First and foremost, he said, you need to plan the coop carefully.

“If you design it to where you keep the predators out, then there are a lot of heartaches you can avoid,” Davis said.

The chickens cost about $5 each.

It costs Norwood about $12 a month to feed her four hens, and she spends about 10 minutes a day caring for them. She said to expect one egg almost everyday from each hen.

Some people start off wanting chickens for the eggs and other benefits, but eventually, they become attached to the birds, Davis said.

“Pretty soon, they’ve got names,” he added.

“Rosie, Penny, Scarlett and Bonnie Blue,” Norwood has named her chickens.

“They are so much fun. I plan to have chickens as long as I can. I love it.”

-wral.com

Raleigh, N.C. — The clock is ticking for first-time homebuyers wanting to cash in on a federal tax credit of up to $8,000.

The offer ends Nov. 30, and if you want to take advantage of it, you need to buy this month to go through the loan process and close.

“Right now, we’re advising people to get in before Oct. 15 in order to meet that Nov. 30 deadline,” said Carla Sevilla, vice president of sales for Pulte Homes.

Tax credit clock ticking for first-time homebuyersWATCH VIDEO
Tax credit clock ticking for first-time homebuyers

Pulte Homes has seen demand spikes, putting putting sold signs on more than 100 homes in September, doubling its average monthly sales for the past 18 months.

Seventy percent of those sales are from first-time homebuyers.

“The tax credit is pushing people over the fence, I think,” Sevilla said.

Loan consultant Christi Pittarelli says the reason for the Oct. 15 date is to make sure loan officers can verify employment, assets, income and to take care of other business so that the buyer can close on time.

The Internal Revenue Service considers a first-time homebuyer is someone who has not owned a home in the three years prior to purchase.

The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase up to a maximum of $8,000 and is available to single tax-payers making less than $75,000 or married couples with a combined income of less than $150,000.

Homebuyers must also live in the home for three years of pay back the tax credit .

-www.wral.com

The Daily Beast website has ranked Raleigh-Durham number one in its inaugural ranking of America’s smartest cities.

The publication wrote:

“Raleigh-Durham has just about every intangible useful in attracting and developing a smart populace; It’s a university hub, including two of the nation’s elite schools (Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and those school led to one of the nation’s great technology incubators (Research Triangle Park). On top of that, Raleigh, as the state’s capital, attracts engaged political minds as well.”

The Daily Beast compared 55 American metropolitan areas with a population of more than 1 million.
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Criteria included education and intellectual environment.

The education half measured how many residents had bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees. No credit was given for attending either undergraduate or graduate school.

The environmental half had three parts, including non-fiction books sales, the ratio of institutions of high education that impart intellectual vigor to a community and the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots in the last presidential election.

The remaining top ten smart cities are:

2 — San Francisco- Oakland-San Jose;
3 — Boston;
4 — Minneapolis-St. Paul;
5 — Denver;
6 — Hartford-New Haven;
7 — Seattle-Tacoma (tie);
7 — Washington, D.C. (tie);
9 — Portland, Ore.; and,
10 — Baltimore.

Charlotte is ranked 16th and Greensboro 37th.

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Clayton, N.C. — Clayton ranks among the best locales nationwide for its combination of good schools and affordable housing, according to BusinessWeek.

The magazine worked with real estate portal Cyberhomes to find the 25 most affordable ZIP codes with the best public schools. The top-ranked places have relatively low home values compared with the closest metro area and at least three schools with good standardized test scores.

Clayton placed 10th on the BusinessWeek list, which included Riverwood Elementary School, East Clayton Elementary School and Riverwood Middle School among its top schools. The town’s median home price of $167,900 is lower than the $204,000 median price in the Raleigh-Cary metro area.