The "Gem" of the Brunswick Islands

Posted At : January 19, 2009 4:20 PM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories: Bob's Blog

Ocean Isle Beach is located in the Southeastern corner of the state between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, SC. It is a seven mile beach that runs from East to West with wide sandy beaches and sub-tropical temperatures.

It is a family beach that is a hot vacation destination for the 20,000 plus that come here weekly in the summer time. The year round population is about 450 residents. Over 30,000 people attend the Oyster Festival each year and enjoy the fresh oysters, live entertainment, a road race, Oyster Shucking Contest, and best of all the Oyster Stew Cook Off!

In addition to its beautiful coastline, Ocean Isle is also home to the Ingram Planetarium, an 85 seat domed theater and the Museum of Coastal Carolina. Residents and visitors also enjoy its many boutiques, miniature golf, biking, fishing, kayaking,and it is home to many idyllic weddings either on the beach or in the local chapel.

One can not forget the abundance of golf courses in the area with well known names such as The Pearl, Panthers Run, Bricklanding, Lions Paw and of course Sea Trail Plantation and Brunswick Plantation.

There are great restaurants both on the Island and in near by Calabash, sea food capital of the world, and the fishing village of Little River, SC.

The Real Estate Market here makes this a great place to live, invest, own a second home or to just visit.

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News Letter vol 1

Posted At : January 19, 2009 4:14 PM | Posted By : Admin
Related Categories: Bob's Blog

What a wonderful time of year to be at Ocean Isle. Today is 75, sunshine and light winds. It don’t get no better.

We have had a great deal going on the last few months. Our beach renournishment is a hugh success. We now have plenty of new sand and wide beaches. As you recall the program starts at Shallotte Blvd and goes West. This year the Town of OIB stepped up to the plate and gave the East end new life with renourshment on their tab. The town has also introduced a bill in Raleigh to establish a pourse groan in the Shallotte Inlet that if passed will help stabilize the work done on the East End. We should congratulate the Town for their hard work in making this a better place for all residents and visitors.

More good news is the canal dredging project will start this fall around November. They are planning to do the parallel canal and natural canals. The not so good news is there is not enough tax funds to address the concrete canals at this time. My thoughts on this is to let them bill us in advance the $300 yearly assessment to have enough funds to dredge the concrete canals rather than waiting three years or so. We are going to pay it anyway. The concrete canals have been dredged once in 20+ years. Another dredging and some of us will not have to worry about the next one. E-mail the town and express your opinion on the concrete canals. divey@oibgov.com

Have you heard about the “round about”? It will be built next winter and located on the Causeway at Second Street. This will certainly make the traffic flow much smoother.

The water slide is GONE!!! I have not been able to get any details as to why and what is going to replace it.

This would not be a very up to date news letter without talking about the new property valuations. I am sure you were all put in shock but it is not that bad. There will be adjustments in the tax rates to keep both the county and towns close to “revenue neutral”. The revenue neutral rate for the county is 29.5 so we are probably looking at a new rate around the low .30 cents. The revenue neutral rate for the town of OIB is .06 so we are looking at a new rate in the single digit area. The old rate for the county is .54 and the old rate for Ocean Isle is .14. It will not be sooo bad.

REAL ESTATE—Things are picking up some. We have the largest inventory ever. There are 160 houses and 100 condos on the market at this time. We have seen some decline in prices and it is definitely a buyers market. The investor seems to still be in the stock market and most sales are for end users. Now is an opportunity to purchase because it will not stay this way forever.

Thank you for your time,

Bob