About Newton County, GA

Way!!

This morning, I saw the first flock of geese flying south over my house, foretelling a change of seasons for Covington. Autumn is my favorite time of year, bringing clean, crisp air, beautiful colored leaves against the backdrop of white antebellum columns, SEC football, and vampires. Vampires?!?!

Covington has again been chosen as the perfect site for the filming of a new television series, The Vampire Diaries. When writers and location managers visited Covington and saw the historic square, it was exactly what they had in mind for the fictitious town of “Mystic Falls, Va,.” setting fo the series.

The teen-oriented series will share similarities with the highly popular “Twilight” movie series about a high school student who becomes infatuated with a mysterious classmate who turns out to be a vampire. The CW web site describes the series like this:

“Elena Gilbert has always been a star student: beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends. As the fall semester begins, Elena becomes fascinated with the mysterious new boy in school, Stefan Salvatore, and she has no way of knowing he is a centuries-old vampire. While Stefan struggles to live peacefully among humans, his brother Damon is the embodiment of violence and brutality. Now these two vampire brothers – one good, one evil – are at war for Elena’s soul in the small town of Mystic falls, Virginia.”

In addition to Covington starring as Mystic Falls, the series will also star Nina Dobrev, currently in the CW series “Degrassi: The Next Generation;” Paul Wesley, recently on episodes of “24” and “Army Wives;” and Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone Carlyle on “Lost.” The show began filming in Covington in late July, and will be shooting at various times until around April.

Producers are very pleased with the way the show has progressed, and hope it will be picked up for a second season. Michael Walbrecht, vice president at Warner Bros. Entertainment, is so pleased with the series progress and Covington’s involvement; he recently notified the city that he could be sending a couple more shows our way, according to “The Covington News.”

If you’d like more information about “The Vampire Diaries,” including a trailer and still photos, take a look at The CW’s web site at cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries.

Other movies and television series filmed in Covington include “A Man Called Peter, My Cousin Vinnie, Six Pack, Halloween II, The Dukes of Hazard, and In the Heat of the Night.” After a long hiatus, Covington may be regaining its title as “Hollywood of the South.”

Film crew trucks loaded with cameras, lights, props, wardrobe and dressing rooms line Covington's historic Floyd Street during filmin of the new CW network TV series "The Vampire Diaries"

Here's my dinner for this evening...

Grilled chicken breast slathered in my own secret recipe, home-made BBQ sauce

Baked potato dripping rich butter and chives

Sweet corn directly from my garden

Topped off with a crisp tossed salad full of my juicy, red, home-grown tomatoes

And garnished with herbs from my kitchen herb garden

Now, that's so good, it'll make you slap your Mama!

This is a great home for taking advantage of the first time home buyers tax credit ! Affordable home in south Rockdale. Salem/Memorial/Barksdale schools and a neighborhood with plenty of mature trees! Walk around the block for pleasure or for exercise!

This home is a 3BR 2BA split level with a full finished basement. Wood laminate flooring in kitchen, living and dining rooms was installed last year! This creates a great look with durability and style - not to mention the ease of caring for it! Inside, you'll also find a brand new kitchen sink with new faucet. Also, the bathroom sinks and faucets have been updated.

Also last year a new back porch was added. The backyard is partially fenced and there is a large number of mature trees on the lot in front and back of the house that offer plenty of shade. The basement area has carpet and new laminate tile and a possible fourth bedroom! The owner will be glad to leave all appliances including the washer and dryer, and will be glad to negotiate closing costs with you. Come and see! Make an offer! 3985 Woodland Circle in Conyers! $119,000 OWNER/AGENT

Alison Hunter

Bradford Realty Group

770-833-5547

Here’s a summary of what’s happening in the Covington and Newton County real estate market as of the end of July, 2009:

Homes in Covington and Newton County newly listed on the Georgia Multiple Listing Service during July totaled 246, down 34.9% from the same period last year. However, pending sales in July were up by 32.8% over a year ago. The reason is three-fold… July is historically a good selling season as families try to get resettled before school reopens, home prices remain depressed as opposed to last year, and mortgage interest rates remain low.

The average sales price of a home in our area in July was $113,323, down 17.5% from July 2008.

There remains a 9.3 month supply of homes for sale in Covington and Newton County. We’re getting better, but a 6 month or lower supply is generally considered by Realtors® to be a “normal” market. The absorption rate, or how long it should take to sell the number of homes available in a particular price range, stretches from a low 3.6 month supply in the $0 - $100,000 price range, to a 44.6 month supply of homes priced between $225,000 and $250,000, to a whopping 53.6 month supply in the range between $450,000 and $500,000.

New foreclosures coming on the market continues to be one of the largest problems in our local real estate market. Even though sales of homes have improved recently, the numbers of foreclosed homes continues to add to our existing inventory and keep home prices depressed. Today’s "Covington News" legal section contained 32 pages of new foreclosures coming onto the market… not an unusual occurrence.

There were 54 foreclosed homes which arrived on the market in July, bringing our yearly total for 2009 to 476. Unfortunately, that keeps us about on track with 2008, during which we saw 790 foreclosures in the County. Newton County was cited last week in the "AJC" as having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state. Unfortunately, that statistic does not seem to be abating.

Although we can’t compare Newton to our surrounding counties due to different urban and rural characteristics, population concentrations, median incomes, etc., it’s still interesting to note that Butts County had 7 foreclosures in July and 54 for the year to date, Henry County had 144 for the month and 884 year-to-date, Jasper County had 1 and 15, Morgan County 6 and 21, Rockdale County 46 and 318, and Walton County 51 foreclosures in July and 316 for 2009 thus far.

If you have questions or comments, or would like more detailed information on the real estate market in Covington and Newton County Georgia, just let me know.