Pruitte Shopping Center ready for tenants after getting renovations:

At the Pruitte Shopping Center on Main Street in Anderson, the old signs, with faded letters, are gone. Trees have been added to the parking lot. And new windows in storefronts glisten in the sun.

Some are full of life. Others are not.

But now that construction is finishing up there, this shopping center's owner, Bill Martin, is switching his focus to who is going to move into the empty storefronts.

"This was a difficult process, just getting the construction completed,"Martin said. "So we are just now starting our marketing campaign. Colliers and Keenan, they have been taking calls on the place. They told me yesterday that their phones have been ringing."

Martin said he did not know who has been calling, interested in the renovated complex. But he's hoping for maybe restaurants, a women's dress shop, or men's clothing store.

Colliers Keenan, a property management company, manages the shopping center for Martin. The shopping center, one of the city's oldest, has been under renovation since mid-Janurary. This week, workers were washing off the dusty, newly built sidewalks and getting ready for final inspections-right on time. Next week, the workers will finish any last-minute changes pointed out during the inspections, said Ryan Boiter, the site's superintendent with SYS Constructors.

Some businesses moved out of the center. Six remain: Model Barber Shop, The Card and Jewelry Shop, Credit Central, White Jones Hardware, Master's Wok Restaurant, and Carlee's Restaurant.

Some of those who remained said they are excited about the renovations and are ready for business to move in. But not all are happy with the work.

"It looks great," said Sherrell Crawford, owner of The Card and Jewerly Shop. "We did struggle through the construction. But of course, we hope now it'll pick back up with the great new look."

Gus Ashy, who owns two restaurants in town, including Carlee's, said he has been frustrated by the work. he had to close for 11 days while crews rebuilt the parking lot in front of his business.

Now, he's lost some of his parking spaces because of the added landscaping in the parking lot. He sais he feels its going to be difficult to build the traffic back up again at the shopping center. "It looks nice, looking at it," he said. "But if you have a beautiful home and no one is living in it, what good is it."

Connie Ng, at Master's Wok, said she is pleased that the center has been updated. And on Wednesday, she was hopeful that more tenants would be moving into the shopping center soon.

"I have a strong feeling he is going to fill it," Ng said.

In response to Ashy's concerns, Martin said the space where Carlee's restaurant is located is part of the next phase of construction because of the detail it will take.

Architects are drawing up plans now for changing the look of the restaurant. he said.

He said it was not included in the first phase because it will require signifcant changes to the roof. He said the roof must be extended to bring it nearer to the level of the rest of the shopping center. Some changes will be made to the parking lot to give Ashy some spaces back and the exterior of the building, including some of the old wood siding, will likely be replaced. And new windows will be installed at Carlee's Restaurant.

"Essentially we are going to have this building blend in with the rest of the shopping center," Martin said.

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10 Reasons To Buy A Home: By BRETT ARENDS

Enough with the doom and gloom about homeownership.

Sure, maybe there's more pain to come in the housing market. But when Time magazine starts running covers that declare "Owning a home may no longer make economic sense, "it's time to say: Enough is enough. This is what "capitulation" looks like. Everyone has given up.

After all, at the peak of the bubble five years ago, Time had a different take. "Home Sweet Home," declared its cover then, as it celebrated the boom and asked: "Will your house make you rich?"

But it's not enough just to be contrarian. So here are 10 reasons why it's good to buy a home.

1. You can get a good deal. Especially if you play hardball. This is a buyer's market. Most of the other buyers have now vanished, as the tax credits on purchases have just expired.. We're four to five years into the biggest housing bust in modern history. And prices have come down a long way-about 30% from their peak, according to Standard&Poor's Case-Shiller Index, which tracks home prices in 20 big cities. Yes,It's mixed.  New York is only down 20%. Arizona has halved. Will prices fall further? Sure, they could. You'll never catch the bottom. It doesn"t really matter so much in  the long haul.

Where is fair value? Fund manager Jeremy Grantham at GMO, who predicted the bust with remarkable accuracy, said two years ago that home prices needed to fall another 17% to reach fair value in relation to household incomes. Case-Shiller since then: Down 18%.

2. Mortgages are cheap. You can get a 30 Year loan for around 4.3%. What's not to like? These are the lowest rates on record. As recently as two years ago they were about 6.3%. That drop slashes your monthly payment by a fifth. If inflation picks up, you won't see these mortgage rates again in your lifetime. And if we get deflation, and rates fall further, you can refinance.

3. You'll save on taxes. You can deduct the mortgage interest from your income taxes. You can deduct your real estate taxes. And you'll get a tax break on capital gains-if any-when you sell. Sure, you'll need to do your math. You'll only get the income tax break if you itemize your deductions, and many people may be better off taking the standard deduction instead. The breaks are more valuable the more you earn, and the bigger your mortgage. But many people will find that these tax breaks mean owning costs them less, often a lot less, than renting

4. It'll be yours. You can have the kitchen and bathrooms you want. You can move the walls, build an extension-zoing permitted-or paint everything bright orange. Few landlords are so indulgent; for renters, these types of changes are often impossible. You'll feel better about your own place if you own it than if you rent. Many years ago, when I was working for a political campaign in England, I toured a working-class northern town. Mrs. Thatcher had just begun selling off public housing to tenants. "You can tell the ones that have been bought," said my local guide. They've painted the front door. It's the first thing people do when they buy." It was a small sign that said something big.

5. You'll get a better home. In many parts of the country it can be really hard to find a good rental. All the best places are sold as condos. Money talks. Once again, this is a case by case issue: In Miami right now there are so many vacant luxury condos that owners will rent them out for a fraction of the cost of owning. But few places are so favored. Generally speaking, if you want the best home in the best neighborhood, you're better off buying.

6. It offers some inflation protection. No, it's not perfect. But studies by Professor Karl "Chip" Case(of Case-Shiller), and others, suggest that over the long-term housing has tended to beat inflation by a couple of percentage points a year. That's valuable inflation insurance, especially if you're young and raising a family and thinking about the next 30 or 40 years. in the recent past, inflation-protected government bonds, or TIPS, offered an easier form of inflation insurance. But yields there have plummeted of late.

7. It's risk capital. No, your home isn't the stock market and you shouldn't view it as the way  to get rich. But if the economy does surprise us all and start booming, sooner or later real estate prices will head up again, too. One lesson from last few years is that stocks are incredibly hard for most normal people to own in large quantities-for practical as well as psychological reasons. Equity in a home is another way of linking part of your portfolio to the long-term growth of the economy-if it happens-and still managing to sleep at night.

8. It's forced savings. If you rent an apartment for $2000 a month instead of buying  one for $2400 a month, renting may make sense. But you will save that $400 for your future? A lot of people won't. Most, I dare say. Once again, you have to do your math, but the part of your mortgage payment that goes to principal repayment isn't a cost. You're just paying yourself by building equity. As a forced monthly saving, it's a good discipline.

9. There is a lot to choose from. There is a glut of homes in most of the country. The National  Association of Realtors puts the current inventory at around 4 million homes. That's below last year's peak, but well above typical levels, and enough for about a year's worth of sales. More keeping coming onto the market, too, as the banks slowly unload their inventory of unsold properties. That means great choice, as well as great prices.

10. Sooner or later, the market will clear. Demand and supply will meet. The population is forecast to grow by more than 100 million people over the next 40 years. That means maybe 40 million new households looking for homes. Meanwhile, this housing glut will work itself out. Many of the homes will be bought. But many more will simply  be destroyed-either deliberately, or by inaction. This is already happening. Even two years ago, when I toured the housing slump in western Florida, I saw bankrupt condo developments that were fast becoming derelict. And finally, a lot of the "glut" simply won't matter: It's concentrated in a few areas, like Florida and Nevada. Unless you live there, the glut won't  have any long-term impact on housing supply in your town.

 Seven Demographics in Real Estate Over The last Decade:

1. 1999:37% of buyers searched for a home online. 2009: 90% of buyers searched for a home online.

2. 1999: median  home value is $137,600. 2009: median home value is $172,600.

3. 1999: 82% of buyers purchased detached single family homes. 2009: 54% of buyers purchased detached single family homes.

4. 1999: 46% of buyers choose surburban neighborhoods. 2009: 54% of buyers chooose surburban neighborhoods.

5. 1999: 68% of buyers were married couples. 2009: 68% of buyers were married couples.

6. 1999&2009: median age for buyers was 39.

7. 1999&2009: "neighborhood quality,affordability,and convenience to work&school have consistently been top priorities."