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There has been much good news in the the Athens, GA metro area lately regarding our community and the economy!
Athens, Georgia was named one of the 41 housing markets on an upswing by NAHB (National Association of Home Builders)/First America Improving Markets Index. "The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months."
In the awesome places to live category, Athens, GA was also ranked #1 of the 31 Coolest College Towns by Bleacher Report. Southern Living also named Athens, GA as one of the South's Best College Towns this year.
900 new jobs to be created in adjoining Jackson County when Bed, Bath & Beyond opens their new 810,000 sf distribution center expected to be operating in the summer of 2012!
An economic highlights tour combining the forces and leaders in Athens-Clarke County & adjoining Oconee County is planned for May 2012 to introduce the area to investors across the Southeast.
Other Accolades for Athens, GA in 2011:
Lets not forget the fabulous music scene as the home place of REM & The B52's. And food, fabulous food including Hugh Acheson chef/owner at Five & Ten and Top Chef Texas judge!
If you are looking for a new place to call home, consider Athens, GA! Music, arts, food, & football - we really have something for everyone! I'd love to be of service in helping you find your perfect Athens, GA area home.
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It's FUN! It is Free! It is for the whole Family!
Please join us at the 5th Annual Athens Area Association of REALTORS Family Fun Day.
Saturday, September 24th from 10am until 2pm
There will be Bouncy Houses, Games, & Activities for children of all ages. Along with free popcorn, cotton candy, & more!
The Fire Safety House will also be on location. Children will learn hadns on how to safely exit burning structures with simulated smoke & heat! STOP, DROP, & ROLL...this could safe your child's life one day!
Donations to the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation are appreciated, but all activities are FREE!
I look forward to seeing YOU there!
Where: Athens Area Association of REALTORS Office
1720 Meriweather Dr, Bogart, GA 30622
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The Colbert, GA Independence Day Celebration 2011 is scheduled to take place this Saturday on July 2, 2011 in downtown Colbert due to July 4th being on a Monday this year.
The parade will begin at 9am again this year, in an attempt to beat the heat!
As always, there will be a crafts festival, great music, and fabulous food available.
Plan to spend the day in downtown Colbert, GA just northeast of Athens, GA at the Independence Day celebration this Saturday July 2, 2011 from 9am until 2pm or so!
**Also of note, this is a dog friendly event however leash and common courtsey required :) (please clean up after your pup!).**
Hope to see you there!
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With Spring weather comes the relocation buyers to the Athens, GA area. While many of our northern neighbors still have snow on the ground, we are enjoying temperatures in the high 70's and flowers blooming everywhere!
The spring relocation market seems to be off to a healthy start this year, as my phones have been ringing and I met with two relocation buyers this week.
Athens, Georgia has some great reasons for retiring and relocating buyers to call us their new home!
Athens Named One of American Style Magazine's Top 25 Arts Destinations for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006
- Athens Ranks 34th Nationally in Quality-of-Life by 'Cities Ranked & Rated'
- Rolling Stone magazine names Athens America's #1 College Music Scene, 2/20/03
- Featured in LA Times Sunday Travel Section, 6/15/03
- Featured in Washington Post Sunday Travel Section, 6/29/03
- Featured in Country Discoveries Magazine, Summer 2003.
- Featured in Southern Voice, 6/27/03
- Athens' Hugh Acheson Named one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs for 2002
- Princeton Review Ranks Athens among Great College Towns
- New York Times Travel Profile: 36 Hours in Athens
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Athens: One of Seven Cool Cities, Kiplingers Personal Finance, October 2005
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Athens: One of Five Best Places to Retire 2005, Money Magazine, October 11 & November 2006!
Athens is home to:
- 14 neighborhoods and commercial districts on the National Register of Historic Places; 3 house museums
- Northeast Georgia's cultural, shopping, medical, professional, and educational hub
- The University of Georgia, the nation's first state-chartered university (1785)
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The Classic Center:70,000+ sq. ft. meeting/exhibit space and 2,000+ seat performing arts theatre
- A musical mecca that spawned R.E.M, the B-52s, Widespread Panic, and numerous other acclaimed acts
- The Southeast's largest and most concentrated collection of gardens and specialty nurseries
- The only double-barreled cannon in the world
- America's first garden club
- The original Constitution of the Confederate States of America
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The Morton Theatre, an early vaudeville theatre built, owned, and operated by an African-American
- One of only 11 United States Naval museums in the country
- The state of Georgia's official art museum and botanical garden
If you are looking for the perfect place to relocate to and would like a relocation package of Athens, GA info, please contact me, I look forward to being of service.
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You don't have to go to the mountains to see the colors change in Georgia!
We had really warm temperatures in Georgia this year, leading to a late explosion of color in November and early December.
I found the perfect pond.
And my car may have been the only one on this road that day!
The barn glowed from a hilltop.
This is probably the prettiest buzzard in Franklin County, GA. He was watching the explosion of color right along with me!
Fall Colors in Franklin County, GA this year made a spectacular show!
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Madision County, Georgia real estate market statistics, what a wild ride this county has taken lately.
The Good:
There are excellent deals to be found! As of 10/7/2010 there are 104 single family homes on the market listed for under $200,000. List prices start at $48,000.
The Bad:
Sellers of homes listed at over $200,000 are finding buyers to be very scarce. Year to date in 2010, ther have only been 9 sales in Madison County, GA over $200,000; with sales prices ranging from $200,000 to $349,000. Currently there are 41 active listings in Madison County, GA (per Athens MLS) ranging from $200,000 to $875,000.
The Ugly:
In September 2010, there were only 13 sales in Madison County, GA of which 10 were REO sales (homes that had been foreclosed upon and were bank owned at the time of resale). Madison County sales in September 2010 ranged from $39,900 to $182,000 in sales price.
Regarding Single Family Residential Sales in Madison County, GA year to date in 2010:
- Median Sold Price is $119,000
- Average Sold Price is $118,650
- Average Days on Market is 174
- There have been 116 total SFR sales
In comparision, for the same time period in 2009 in Madison County, GA regarding Single Family Residential Sales:
- Median Sold Price was $125,000
- Average Sold Price was $124,139
- Average Days on Market was 224
- There were 133 total SFR sales.
So although the median sales prices have declined by 5+-%, and sales activity has decreased by 13%; the average days on market has declined by 22% for 2010 year to date versus 2009 through the same time period.
All information is per Athens MLS and is believed accurate, but not guaranteed.
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Athens, GA Fireworks and area July 4th Celebrations 2010, Athens will be lit up with fireworks this year!
Fireworks in Athens, GA for July 4th, 2010! The STAR SPANGLED CLASSIC event in Athens, GA starts at 6:00pm on 7/4/2010 at Bishop Park and includes "concessions, family games, inflatables, patriotic arts and crafts for kids, and music".
Rise and shine early Saturday, July 3th 2010 to get a great spot for the Colbert, GA Fourth of July Parade. The parade features antique cars, tractors, horses, and lots more! Bring a bag for the candy thrown out to the kids! Colbert, Georgia is located about 15 minutes east of Athens off Highway 72 in Colbert. The parade starts at 9am, with a festival following which features arts & crafts, concessions, and gospel & country music.
If music is more your thing, check out the Classic City Band Patriotic Concert at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 3pm. FREE Family Fun!
Be safe & have a HAPPY 4th of JULY 2010!
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143 Milford Drive, Athens, GA 30605 - Convenient Eastside Location
Offered at $125,500
Just minutes from Publix Grocery store and Kroger Grocery Store!
Regardless of what you are craving, nearby dining options include several Mexican restaurants, most fast food franchises and:
View more information and interior photos 143MilfordDrive.com!
All information believed accurate, but not guaranteed.
GREC # 47230 706-543-1553 office or 706-207-2502 cell
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Short Selling in Athens, GA is frankly challenging! Although blessed by a relatively stable economy, we are still in a stagnant home resell market.
REO (real estate owned by banks after foreclosure) inventory is increasing monthly, and starting to significantly affect resale and new construction appraisals. Negotiating short sales has recently become even more fraught with potholes, as wait times increase and documentation of hardships becomes more stringent.
We are getting a lot of questions about "short sales". Over the next few weeks, I am going to attempt to answer some of the real estate short sale questions I am getting asked frequently starting with the most common below:
Do I have to get an approval from my lender to offer my house as a short sale?
The short answer is no. Because every contract offering you may receive from a potential purchaser is going to be different, an "approved short sale" can be a "mis-nomer" and many lender's do not offer "approved short sales". However, there are many things you can do to get the ball rolling. Your real estate short sale specialist should be collecting the paperwork necessary to submit with an offer including a form that authorizes your mortgage company to discuss your situation with the real estate broker (often called a third party authorization), providing you with the financial worksheet which will document your hardship situation, and advising what other documentation is going to be required.
Do I have to be behind on my mortgage payments in order to short sale my home?
Again the short answer is no. Your short sale may not get priority processing, as it may be placed behind homes that are in foreclosure or moratorium (forbearance) status; however most major lender will consider a short sale where there is documented hardship and declining market situations. It is desirable for the lender to not have your property go into foreclosure which will reflect an even greater loss for them.
When should I consider a "short sale"?
When you have or anticipate a hardship situation that will cause you to be insolvent (when you monthly expenses exceed your monthly income) and/or your home is worth less than you owe. In order to avoid foreclosure it is critical that you not wait to late to begin the short sale process.
If you need immediate assistance and answers to your short sale questions, please feel free to ask your questions in the comments below or contact me now privately (use the button the side of this blog for a confidential contact), otherwise I will continue to answer questions as they come in.
Short Sales in Athens, GA are not easy, but are possible!
Several of the areas around Athens, GA have weathered the real estate market slowdown relatively well due to USDA Rural Development loans.
These area include:
- Most of Madison County, GA
- All of Oglethorpe County, GA
- Parts of Oconee County, GA
- Most of Barrow County, GA
The end of the tax credit incentive and a possible lack of funds as described below, could send the peak summer selling season for these areas around Athens, Georgia into a tailspin.
Via Thomas Mortgage, Florida's FHA Loan Pro:
 I normally hate titles that are meant to scare people into reading but unfortunately this time there is no exaggeration to the severity of the issue. USDA Guaranteed Rural Development loans, one of the best low/no down payment financing programs left, has recently announced they expect to be out of the funds they use to guarantee loans by late April. If no action is taken by Congress to re-appropriate more funds then it will be the next budget year, after October, before we have this financing option again.
But the Tax Credit deadline is looming
Exactly- This funding shortfall couldn't happen at a worse time. Now as contacts are being negotiated, applications are being taken and plans are being made to ensure buyers meet the dates of the tax credit deadline, we throw a wrench in the system. Should a buyer proceed with USDA financing if they have just received a fully executed contract? Should a buyer that has been prequalified for a Rural Development loan continue house shopping? What can this mean to a buyer that is already in the process too far to turn back?
These questions must all be dealt with on a case by case basis, depending on a variety of factors. One of the most important factors to consider is current and anticipated turn times for your local USDA underwriting. Here in Lake County, FL USDA is at 7-10 business days so unless you can have your loan ready to go to the USDA by April 9th, there is a good possibility you may not make the funding cutoff. This is further complicated by the fact that USDA is the only loan program that does not require HVCC type appraisal restrictions (VA is a different animal but with the same results). This means if you commit to USDA financing now and are forced to revert to FHA or another program, you may need a new appraisal.
Buyers should follow the advice of their trusted lenders and know that proceeding with a USDA loan without enough time to make this cutoff is a gamble. We truly need an act of Congress to approve additional funds for these loans. Although it seems logical that they should want to avoid such a deep blow to the housing industry at this time, we all know oftentimes there is precious little logic in D.C. If you think I'm exaggerating the seriousness of this, do know the USDA Guaranteed RD program resulted in over 3500 transactions since October 1, 2009 in Florida alone! That breaks out to over 350 deals a month. Sure, some may be able to qualify through another program like FHA or VA but many won't.
Is there anything we can do to help?
Yes- please accept this call to action to contact your trade associations and express the severity of this. NAR, NAMB and the NAHB have all been made aware of this and I trust are beginning lobbying efforts to rectify it. You could also contact your members of elected officials in the House and in the Senate and urge them to sponsor legislation and fast track it to minimize the damage a funding delay could cause. This is not a partisan issue, both sides of the aisle should be eager to approve this. This isn't about bailing out the housing industry, it's about maintaining funding for a loan program that has suddenly become much more popular than anyone expected due to the current environment of real estate.
Gerry Suarez, Jr.
Your FHA Loan Pro!
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Michelle DeRepentigny, *Associate Broker * Broker * Athens, GA
Athens,
GA
More about me…
KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY Greater Athens
Address: 1361 Jennings Mill Road, Bogart, GA, 30622
Office Phone: (706) 316-2900
Cell Phone: (706) 207-2502
Email Me
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