Business Ticker
• Statesboro Beautification Committee has placed colorful banners downtown. Each banner was hand sewn and each contains see through mesh with four designs: Courthouse clock tower with cardinal, Triangle park fountain with azaleas, Art and Music--Blind Willie's Guitar and a Painters palate, Shipping and Dining--Gift bag with plate and flatware imposed on top. The committee includes Perri Ann Dean, Virginia Anne Waters and Rick Smith.
• 40 East Grill has begun breakfast daily from 7 to 10 am. They are introducing lunch delivery to downtown businesses and beginning this Saturday they will be opening for Saturday lunch and breakfast.
• Georgia Power has named Tan Adams as the Statesboro Area Manager, effective immediately. A native of Troy, Alabama, and graduate of UAB with a degree in Electrical Engineering, she began her Southern Company career in 1991 working for Alabama Power as a Power Delivery Distribution Engineer.
• Excelsior EMC's 76th annual meeting is Friday, May 16th at the Nessmith-Lane Conference Center on the GSU campus. Registration begins at 1:30 pm and the business session begins at 2:30 pm
• EGRMC welcomes Darron Burnette, President and CEO of Sea Island Bank and Billy Hickman, partner at Dabbs, Hickman, Hill & Cannon LLP. as new board members. They are replacing Tommy David, who served 18 years and Bruce Yawn who served 10 years.
• Farmers Market Vendor of the week: Green Frog
It is almost impossible to drive around the city or county and without noticing commercial construction projects. I encourage you this week to pay particular attention to the residential growth, especially the detached (individual family residence) home market.
I checked out a few subdivisions and was stunned at all the growth. Bridge Water on Josh Deal road has begun construction. Johnson Run, off of Pretoria Rushing road has opened the third phase. Sugarland in Brooklet has opened another phase plus Hamilton Landing off Young Blood road on Hwy 80 has begun construction. All four have received preconstruction contracts for custom homes and individual lot sales.
In touching base with the city and county to get a feel of where detached home sales are year to date, I learned that sales are on track with 2013, which was a great year.
Realtor Jack Conner of Coldwell Banker had this synopsis of the market: "A continued large market is investors buying rental property for long term investment. Investor confidence has risen considerably in the past year and many are seeing and taking advantage of the current market condition. With values still decreased from historic recent highs coupled along with the historic current highs in rentals rates in our area and interest rates remaining low it has provided a perfect climate for long term real estate investors."
He added, "Residential lot sales have also seen resurgence with all of the foreclosed lots now having been absorbed and developers are seeing a demand to either begin new developments or expand phases of existing."
Jonathan Young, assistant vice president/mortgage originator at Citizens Bank offered his assessment: "Now is definitely a good time to buy. Mortgage rates are currently very low. However, future buyers will be faced with rising rates and higher building costs on the horizon. Market indicators are showing a slow increase in the economy.
"2013 ended with home prices increasing 1.2 percent in our South Atlantic region, 0.6 percent higher than national average. (Source: FHFA). Decreased jobless claims and increased national (non-farm) payroll also indicate a healing economy. Credit is available to those who could not previously qualify due to credit score requirements being a touch lower than the beginning of 2013. As of May 6, 2014, all of Bulloch County is eligible for up to 100 percent financing through the USDA Rural Development program. This is one of the best products we offer."
It certainly is encouraging news for the local real estate market.
Whether you are in the market for a new home or simply want to get out and see all the latest innovations in today's homes, Sunday is a great time for you to do it. The Statesboro Homebuilders Association is holding their annual Tour of Homes on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
The tour offers the perfect opportunity to get out and check out all the new developments by visiting one of the neighborhoods being featured on the tour of homes.
According to Keely Fennell of Nesmith Construction, there will be 10 homes on tour in six neighborhoods including Moss Creek, Pebblestone, Johnson Run, Hawks Ridge, Sweetbriar and Sugarland Plantation.
Admission is free, so go check out what is new in the housing market. For more information on the tour of homes, contact the Statesboro Homebuilders Association at (912) 489-8887.
Please email DeWayne at dgrice@statesboroherald.com or give him a call at (912) 489-9499.