IG BLOG

The Greenville area continues to  improve in the housing market.   According to the Brookings Institution, the Greater Greenville Area is ahead of half the 100 largest metro areas in terms of economic strength.   We are expected to lead the state in economic recovery.   Charleston, Columbia, and Greater Greenville are on track to create 30,000 new jobs between December 2009 and end of 2010.   We are adding knowledge-based companies such as Proterra Inc, Parkdale Mills, and of course Southwest Airlines.   This should make our area more attractive to relocating companies and families.   Greenville County is expanding with 1,700 new jobs and $10 million in infrastructure.    

Consumer confidence is improving at a much faster rate than the nation.   Greenville County is among the top counties with the lowest unemployment rate, which is below the national rate of 9.7%.

So proud of our Greenville Area.   Please call me direct for your real estate needs.

Irene Gray, GRI, CRS, e-Pro                                                                                                                      

Keller Williams Realty

www.greenvilledowntownliving.com

Irene@irenegrayhomes.com

864 382.9836

Falls Park in the running for national award for best public open space.

A national competition designed to find the best public open spaces that spawn surrounding redevelopment has selected Falls Park in downtown Greenville in its inaugural class of six finalists.

It’s the only park in the South to make the list from among 88 applications, and the only one not situated in a major U.S. city. Other finalists are Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh,  New York  and Seattle.

The Urban Land Institute will name a winner, which will receive $10,000, next month.

The institute noted a Reedy River formerly surrounded by textile mills and now home to a 26-acre park that helped spark West End development and that includes a curving suspension bridge.

Greenville Downtown Falls Park in the running for national award for best public open space.

A national competition designed to find the best public open spaces that spawn surrounding redevelopment has selected Falls Park in downtown Greenville in its inaugural class of six finalists.

Greenville Downtown Falls Park is the only park in the South to make the list from among 88 applications, and the only one not situated in a major U.S. city. Other finalists are Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh,  New York  and Seattle.

The Urban Land Institute will name a winner, which will receive $10,000, next month.

The institute noted that Greenville Downtown Reedy River formerly surrounded by textile mills and now home to a 26-acre park that helped spark West End development and that includes a curving suspension bridge.

 The point is about how buildings and streets contribute to œinviting public spaces.

œGreat public space is why you stay in the city.  

Other finalists are Bremen Street Park, which reunited an East Boston neighborhood split by an airport and highway; Campus Martius Park, which is at the heart of Detroit’s downtown redevelopment; Herald and Greeley Square Parks in once-dangerous parts of New York City; Olympic Structure Park on Seattle’s waterfront; and Pittsburgh’s Schenley Plaza, where there was once an overgrown parking lot.

Jury members include real estate, development and urban design professionals from across the country.

So Proud of our Downtown Greenville Area.

Irene Gray, GRI, CRS, e-Pro                                                                                                                      

Keller Williams Realty

www.greenvilledowntownliving.com

Irene@irenegrayhomes.com

864 382.9836

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Greenville’s Arts Weekend recently received a Top Ten ranking in Greg Lawler’s Art Fair Sorucebook for the 2009 Festival.   The Greenville Downtown Artisphere ranked 6th out of 600 shows, WOW! The 2009 ranking are the highest Artisphere has received in its 5 year history.   Praise from Artisphere’s 2009 participating artists resulted in a record high 682 applications for the 2010, which will be held on May 7-9.     The arts make a tremendous contribution to our life in  Greenville

For more information on Greenville Downtown Events, visit site:

                                                      www.greenvilledowntownliving

Downtown Greenville  has become so popular that many clients are moving closer to   Downtown Greenville area to enjoy wonderful Restaurants, Shops, Performing Arts, Parks,  and so much more!    

                          Irene

  IRENE GRAY, GRI, CRS, e_PRO,

  KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY                                                                                                                    

 irene@irenegrayhomes.com

   864.382.9836  

 South Carolina housing officials want to help everyday heroes like teachers and emergency first responders buy homes, and they now have $40 million to do it. The State Housing Finance and Development Authority has announced a program that will offer down-payment assistance and low-interest mortgages to teachers, firefighters, police and correctional officers and EMS workers who meet income criteria.  

The program also offers up to $7,000 in down-payment assistance. Most of the assistance is for teachers and first responders who are buying a home for the first time, although the qualifications vary from county to county.

Greenville first time home buyers who close on a home before April 30 would be eligible for the Federal New Home Buyer’s tax credit OF $8000 on top of the down-payment assistance. A  total of up to $15,000 that a buyer could take advantage of right now.  

Clayton Ingram, the spokesman for The State Housing Finance and Development Authority, said none of the $40 million is tax money. All of it was raised through the sale of bonds, he said.

Ingram said that anyone with questions about how to qualify for the assistance should talk with a mortgage broker, or visit the agency’s Web site at www.schousing.com.

Call me direct at 864 382.9836  for your real estate needs.

Irene Gray, GRI, CRS, e-Pro

Your expert in the Greenville Area.

Keller Williams

www.greenvilledowntownliving.com

irene@irenegrayhomes.com

 COME VISIT OUR WONDERFUL GREENVILLE DOWNTOWN AREA.  

I am a relocation specialists and an expert in the area.     Call me direct at 864 382.9836 or visit my website at   www.greenvilledowntownliving.com

Irene Gray, GRI, CRS, e-Pro

 Keller Williams  Realty    

864 382.9836                                                                  

irene@irenegrayhomes.com

www.greenvilledowntownliving.com

 March 2010
6: Reedy River Run. More info
7: Return to the Green. More info
28: Walk with the Docs

May 2010
1: Reedy River Duck Race. More info
7-9: Artisphere More info
20-23, 27-30: Upstate Shakespeare Festival, More info

June 2010
3-6, 10-13: Upstate Shakespeare Festival, More info
18: Chautauqua Festival More info

 July 2010
4 Red, White and Blue Festival More info
8-11, 15-18, 22-25, 29-31: Upstate Shakespeare Festival, More info

August 2010
1: Upstate Shakespeare Festival, More info

September 2010
18-19: US Pro Cycling Championships, More info

October 2010
2: Paws for a Cause More info
7-10: Fall for Greenville. More info
10-11: Greenville Cycling Classic More info
16: Greenville Area Memory Walk More info

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                             
                                                           HISTORY OF FALLS PARK  IN GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA

Long before white settlers arrived, the Cherokee lived and hunted at present-day Greenville. In 1773, the first European settler in the area, Richard Pearis, purchased 10 square miles along the Reedy River  in Greenville  from three Cherokee chiefs. Pearis later operated a grist mill at the Upper Falls of the Reedy.In 1852, Furman Institution (now Furman University) bought the land. Three textile mills and a cotton warehouse operated in the early 1900s, all contributing to the pollution of the Reedy River.In 1967, the Carolina Foothills Garden Club reclaimed 26 acres for the current park, with the support of the City of Greenville, Furman University and the Planning Commission. Over the next 40 years, the Garden Club and the City of Greenville have worked with individuals, corporations and state and federal agencies to further develop the park, clean up the river and restore the historic Falls Cottage. In 1990, landscape architect Andrea Mains introduced the concept of transforming the park into a regional attraction, with beautiful public gardens and a pedestrian bridge.
 

GREAT START FOR 2010.   In upstate, we are fortunate to have so much to offer of new companies coming to Greenville area and those that are expanding to hire new employees.   MLS stats show numbers moving in the right direction with sales increasing to 10.3% in January.    

The Greenville Downtown receives great recognition as shown by US Ariways Magazine:

You can expect world-class culture,superb shopping,and a flavorful dining scene on Main Street in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. How happenin™ is it? The American Planning Association named Greenville downtown main street as one of the Top 10 Great Streets in America last year ” areal coup when you consider that it™s gone from downtrodden to distinguished in just 25 years.

The opening of the Hyatt Regency in 1982 in Greenville downtown established a northern Main Street anchor, and the 1990 opening of The Peace Center Performing Arts brought people farther south. When local restaurateur Carl Sobocinski opened Soby™s restaurant on Main in the late ™90s, and the renovated Westin Poinsett opened across the street in 2000, Greenville downtown became the place to see and be seen. In the past decade, locally owned shops, bars, and restaurants have filled in the gaps. Downtown™s diminutive size (about 15 blocks) makes it easy to walk to most hot spots, or take the free trolley running along Greenvile Downtown Main Street.

AS A CERTIFIED RELOCATION SPECIALIST AND EXPERT IN THE GREENVILLE DOWNTOWN AREA, PLEASE CALL ME FOR YOUR REAL ESTATE NEEDS.

IRENE GRAY, REALTOR   GRI,CRS,ePRO                                                                                                                                                                                       KELLER WILLIAMS  REALTY                                                                                                                                           www.greenvilledowntownliving.com                                                                                                               irene@irenegrayhomes.com                                                                                                                                                                             864 382.9836

Greenville metropolitan area is expected to be one of the nation’s “front runners” in the housing recovery for 2010.   Greenville is in the listing of the top 20 healthiest markets in the Nation.   Greenville did not have the tremendous declines that markets had, so we are very fortunate all along.   Greenville was conservative in the building of homes, having a 13 percent increase for 4th quarter of 2009.   Greenville has great opportunities as interest rates remain low and is considered  in the Top 7 nationwide to relocate.  

Come visit my site to find your home www.greenvillehomesforyou.com  or email me at irene@irenegrayhomes.com

Irene Gray, GRI, CRS, e-Pro

Keller Williams

864  382.9836

(MCT/The Wall Street Journal)-The Senate has reached a compromise on extending and expanding the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry believes will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.  

While its passage remains uncertain, the agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering  a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners, Senate aides said. The reduced credit would be available to all homebuyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years.

The Greater Greenville housing market held its own, with the fifth best year-over-year housing price appreciation of the 100 largest metros in the nation according to the Brookings Institution.   Based on leading economic indicators, the research division found that the recession is coming to an end, and that housing will be on the first sectors to recover.    Greater Greenville are seeking to relocate high-tech employers and manufacturers such as  Boeing, and meet new demands for our area.     Read the praise’s in the Chicago Times,  http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/travel/1706238,hoekstra-detours-greenville-euphoria-080909.article   He called it the best American downtown development I have seen since the San Antonio River Walk.   As a relocation specialist,   I can assist you with all aspects of our great community.

 Irene Gray, GRI, CRS e-Pro

864 382-9836

Keller Williams Realty