The Native North Carolinian

Did you know that several television shows have been filmed here in coastal North Carolina? We’ve had a few movies, too. Umm, the fact that I am not giving you any names should indicate the need for shows filmed here to get a life insurance quote before filming begins. It’s almost as if coming here sounds death knell for any projects that do it, and I am not quite sure why that is. We’ve got great weather, awesome scenery, and a booming economy. I’m not sure what else they’d need, yk?

I’ve said repeatedly that North Carolina is booming, and thought it would be interesting to compare the Raleigh and Phoenix real estate markets. A search for 3+bed/2+ bath homes revealed 2,770 such single family properties available in Raleigh with prices ranging from $40,475 (home built in 1930, 3bed/2ba, 1345 sq ft) to $23,000,000 (built in 2000, 8bed/13 Bath, 16,856 sq ft). To contrast, Phoenix has 8,277 single family homes ranging from $59,900 (1942, 3bed/2ba, 1000-1200 sq ft) to $7,900,000 (1985, 7bed/11ba, >5,000 sq ft).

The low end of the housing market is pretty much a given–they don’t call it fixed income for nothing. But look at the top end. Almost 3 times the price for fewer bed/bathrooms. Phenomenal! It’s a great time to be a realtor in North Carolina.

And also, am I the only one who thinks it’s amusing that super-rich people apparently poop more than they sleep?

That’s the answer, of course. The question is: what does an uber cool Native North Carolinian drive? Now, I am not uber cool, only slightly cool, and also, I have 8 kids, so I drive a minivan. I should actually drive a bus, but HEY! we take what we can get, yk? But my dad drives a truck, and he is absolutely the coolest person I know, bar none. Let’s not make this article about my dad, though. I could do that, but I really want to talk about trucks.

We do drive trucks here in North Carolina, and it’s because we use them. North Carolina is still heavily agricultural, and so trucks are necessary for moving and hauling stuff. Tobacco and cotton must be taken to market, feed purchased and brought back home, and in general something must always be hauled somewhere. Now, it used to be that one purchased a vehicle and just drove it’s wheels off and then bought a new one, but these days, many are leasing their cars or trucks, and this includes working farmers. These folks typically use truck bedliners so that the bed remains unmarred and they don’t get docked for damages when they turn the truck back in.

Of course, that doesn’t explain the uprising in pickups in heavily urban areas, does it? Wannabe rednecks, maybe?
Not the stuff they make fiber cable from, either.

Like most states in the Union, North Carolina requires car insurance. I remember back in the day, before computers linked every office and communications were instant, that one could occasionally let their insurance lapse for a few days and not get dinged for it. This is no longer the case, as I have received a plate surrender notice for merely switching insurance companies. The old company notified the state my policy was canceled, and the computer printed and mailed me a notice immediately before the info from the new company was processed. Now, I did not have to surrender my plates, I just had to send the notice back with my new policy information, but that doesn’t change the fact that NC knew the status of my car insurance instantly. And of course, they had already received the new info via computer before my return mail reached them.

What’s the moral of my little story? North Carolina is serious about car insurance, and if you don’t want to find yourself having to file an SR-22, don’t get caught with your pants down.

Navtej Kohli has been gracious enough to sponsor a post about my favorite charity. In fact, he’s sponsored several across my different blogs, and I’ll be highlighting a different charity for each sponsorship.

I spoke on another blog about an agency that helps distribute food to the eastern portion of our state, and on this blog, I’ll talk about one that serves the western part. Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC is a major distributor of donated food, helping to feed the hungry in 18 North Carolina counties. They have been given a rating of four stars by Charity Navigator. Over 95 percent of donations to the food bank are used to service the people who come to them for help. That means that less than 5 percent is spent on salaries and overhead. The food bank raises donations in several ways. In August, they are having a golf tournament, and they collect canned goods at local free concerts.

There is no need for people to be hungry in this state, or in this country. The food is there, we just need to get it to the people who need it. Second Harvest makes that happen. I want to thank Navtej for the opportunity to talk about an organization that’s making a difference for people in my state.

According to the article below, Lenovo may be opening a distribution center in North Carolina. The facilty would add 40 to 50 jobs in teh Greensboro area.

This is a good start, but I’d love to see some of the manufacturing jobs brought back to the states. There’s only one computer manufacturer that I now that builds all it’s units in the US, and that’s Systemax. And, yes, the machines are sweet, and built to order in Fletcher, Ohio.

I blogged the other day about the cost of hurricanes, and you are liable to hear quite a bit more about hurricanes between now and the end of November. Living in this area can make finding good Homeowners insurance tricky. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get such insurance at all if you are east of I-95. It seems the insurance like to categorize the entire area as a flood zone, whether or not your property is actually subject to flooding. For instance, my property never floods. The soil is sandy loam, and even after the storms a couple of years ago, we only had small puddles, and those were confined to the driveway. Nonetheless, I pay through the nose for insurance.

Another trick insurance companies pull here is to re-define words to suit themselves, and to add little caveats to your insurance policies. For instance, my policy covers damage from storms (including flood), but it doesn’t cover damage from standing water. So, essentially, if my house is dislodged by a massive wave of rushing water, I’m covered, but if the foundation weakens and crumbles from exposure to the saturated ground, I’m screwed. But since I am in a mobile home, east of I-95, that’s the best we could find.

So, I’ve said all that to say this: if you are looking for home insurance in North Carolina be sure to comparison shop. Make sure that you read and understand exactly what your policy does and does not cover. If your area is prone to flooding, make sure you get coverage for that. And whatever you get, be sure you have storm coverage.

Some friends and I were having a discussion recently on the cost of living in various areas of the country. I was pleased and surprised to find out that North Carolina is less expensive than other places to live. Even after our recent phenomenal growth North Carolina Mortgages are still a pretty good deal. Since mortgage rates are a pretty good indicator of the general cost of living, I can continue to say The Tarheel State is a great place to live. Of course, I’ve always known that, but now I can say the numbers back up my opinion, LOL!