Local Real Estate Comments and Ramblings

I just found this on the HUD website.  It gives a history of rates for FHA 30 year fixed single family home loans since 1992.  Yes, rates are up slightly from the last year or so but way down overall.  Check it out!

http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/comp/rpts/rates/fharates.pdf

This is a pretty good time to buy a home if the situation is right for you. 

Weds night I sat out in the front yard of our Powder Springs, Georgia with my kids and we were treated to a fantastic show in the night sky.

It started off a little cloudy and weren't sure how much of the show we would be able to see.

Fortunately the skies cleared about 15 minutes before the eclipse was at its peek.

As an added bonus - look at that white dot at about 7 o'clock from the moon. The camera didn't pick it up to well but it's Saturn in full view.

We also had our telescope set up and got some great views of the eclipse and the rings of Saturn. It was an unbelievably inspiring night.  The designer of the universe is truly awesome ...

"1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 2 Now the earth was ^[a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-3

Wothington Oaks is a very nice neighborhood on the west side of Powder Springs, on Meadows Road between Hiram Lithia Springs Road and Hwy 278.

On the night of Jan. 28 some juveniles from a nearby youth home decided it would be their idea of fun to burn down the clubhouse.  A representative from the company doing the insurance work contacted me yesterday to see if I could locate any pictures of the clubhouse to use for the insurance claim and eventual rebuild of the clubhouse.  It took some digging through tax records and old listings but I was able to locate the two photos that you see above.

A few days ago I was showing homes in the area and drove by Worthington Oaks.  At that time I was unaware of what had happened at the clubhouse and I was quite suprised by what I saw. 

I'll refrain from any social comments about what the heck were those kids thinking.  But let me offer some advice for local homeowners associations. Keep photos and records of your amenities areas.  Try to track down the blue prints from back when the buildings were constucted. 

You may even want to hire an appraiser every few years.  The will take pictures, draw a floorplan, and document value and potential replacement cost for you if you need it.  Hopefully you won't need to have that information. But the folks from Worthington Oaks didn't have it and now they are trying to document what their clubhouse looked like after the fact. Who would have ever thought that they would need this?

Below is the entire market report from the last three months for Worthington Oaks subdivision in Powder Springs, Georgia.

The trend in worthington Oaks seems to be following along the trends of the entire metro Atlanta area.  There were a large number of expired and withdrawn listings in the time period. In my opinion this may be a good thing in the long run. There are only 8 homes actively for sale at this time.  For a neighborhood the size of Worthington Oaks this is a very reasonable number of homes for sale without being oversupplied.  Hopefully this will lead to a good Springtime selling season for these homes. However, if a lot of the expireds and withdrawns jump back in the neighborhood market could become diluted causing slower selling times and lower than expected pricing.

	Comparative Market Analysis

See all of the homes for sale in Worthington Oaks and all of Powder Springs at www.PowderSpringsHomes.info

This was just announced in the last few hours!  We get to open our pools this summer!

                       View the news story here

It had not  received a lot of press yet, but with the severe drought and water restriction, swimming pools were considered non essential water use and may not have been allowed to open this summer. People in the swimming pool industry as well as neighborhood associations and public pool managers had appealed for a clarification/exemption in order to allow pools to open.

Governor Purdue has now OK's the opening of pools for the summer.  However, I don't think this changes the mandate to decrease consumption by 10%.  If water use gets to high or the drought continues or worsens, anything can change.

My advice ..... take short showers and throw the kids in the pool!

Governor Purdue gave at least a ray of hope in the states ongoing water crisis.  He announced this morning to allow some minor exemptions to the watering restrictions.  We will now be able to water plants by hand for 25 minutes per day. 3days per week.  Also, new, professionally installed landscapes can be watered for 3 days per week for 10 weeks. Those who wish to water the newly installed landscaping must register through the on-line Outdoor Water Use Registration Program.

He is also expected to announce sometime today if there will be an exemption to allow adding water to outdoor swimming pools. This has not gathered a lot of attention so far, but under the current level 4 drought restrictions, swimming pools are considered "non-essential" water use and therefore if you added water to your back yard pool you would be breaking the law.....more to follow on this.