We're Moving!!

Over the past several months we have been "house hunting" around Charlotte. At first, we were excited to potentially find a really great deal....because supposedly we are still coming out of an economic recession, and interest rates are at record lows. Or so we thought... but the Real Estate market in Charlotte is experiencing an interesting turn around, meaning investors have flooded the market and are snatching up every home that becomes available!! The inventory of homes in Charlotte are meeting record lows. After we were disappointed on 7 different offers on different homes, we began to feel like maybe this isn't the best time to buy. Some of the homes we put offers on were foreclosures, others were resales. Some of our offers were below the asking price, and others we offered well above. In every instance, we were outbid by an investor with cash. Nothing panned out for us, and I'm okay with that. I never felt like any of the homes we saw were perfect for us like I wanted them to be. We didn't want to make an impulsive decision and settle for a home that we were not completely happy with, but that is what was beginning to happen.

In the end, Jared and I decided to continue renting for the time being. Perhaps the market will swing back the other way after a while, and the buyer's market will return!  Once Grad School is out of the way, we will have a better idea of where we want to look anyway. Either way, our lease is up at the end of June (our landlord wants to sell this house), and we needed to figure out where we wanted to live.

At the time we were making this difficult decision THIS house (pictured below) happened to become available to rent at the exact time that we needed to move out of our current house. It is PERFECT for us! Great location (about 15 min away from where we are now) that is close to Jared's work and Wake Forest, and we absolutely love the neighborhood (lots of pools and parks!) We are so excited!

I also have to add what a blessing it is that this fell into our laps the way it did. My parents who are leaving on a 2 year mission to Chile... offered to rent it out to us!

Here is Kyler on the front porch of our soon-to-be new home. I'm trying out my new camera (mother's day present) LOVE IT!! I have no clue how use it yet...so much to learn...like.... Jared had to show me how to take the lens cap off haha and I don't know how to focus or change the shutter speed or anything ...but even still the pictures are SOOO much better than my old camera.

 I was trying to focus on Kyler and make the background blurry...kinda succeeded but not really because he is not really in focus either...I need to watch some camera tutorials ASAP.

Our dog and kid approve of our soon-to-be new (rental) back yard! They were both running around like crazy. I'm just happy you can see them in the picture-with my old camera it would have been one big blur and a splash of color flying in the air.

We will be sad that we won't see some of our church friends as often (we will be in a new congregation with the new area), but we won't be too far away...
at the same time we are looking forward to making a few more friends and starting new adventures in our new home come the end of June!