About Oconee County, GA

If you are interested in purchasing or building a home in a rural area, you might want to consider a USDA loan. In today's world, 100% financing has pretty much disappeared, but the USDA Rural Housing Program still can provide 100% financing if you qualify.

The benefits are:

100% loan-to-value financing for existing homes and new construction (based on appraised value)

Low and moderate income rural households qualify (# of family members and total income considered). You seriously have to provide your children's birth certificates!

You don't have to be a first time home buyer.

Closing costs are lower than conventional or FHA loans

No monthly mortgage insurance required. There is a one-time guarantee fee which can be financed in.

30 year fixed rate loans

No pre-payment penalties

2/1 temporary buydown available

There is no maximum loan limit. No longer tied to FHA loan limits.

To determine if your area qualifies (in this area, Athens-Clarke does not qualify, parts of Oconee Co. do).

visit http://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do.

One thing to consider is if your lender will have USDA fund the loan or will your lender. This is important to know because there are times when USDA doesn't have the money to fund the loan and you might have to wait until funds are available.

Oconee's own resident country singer John Berry is bringing his annual Christmas concert to the Oconee County Civic Center 8 pm Saturday, November 28th. Admission is $25.00 and may be purchased by calling toll-free (877) 438-5646, according to the Oconee Enterprise newspaper. They say that tickets are going fast, so call today! We attended several years ago and it is always a great way to start off the Christmas season.

October 2009 residential real estate sales volume in Watkinsville, GA showed a slight rise in the 12 month sliding sales volume after a slight decline in September. For the last 3 months, volume has been hovering in a narrow range.

Annual volume is still down over 32% from a year ago. The average Days on Market (D.O.M.) is down slightly from September but still above last years average by 2 weeks. The average sales prices is almost back to what it was at this time last year, and, has been experiencing 3 months of rising after the lows of August. The median sales prices is still down from this time last year.

First time home buyers are still a strong part of the market. With the current extension, first time buyes will probably still remain a significant percentage of purchasers, and the inclusion of existing home owners qualifying for a credit will, hopefully, also contribute to a volume increase.

At the end of October there were 32 pending sales of residential property in Watkinsville, the This Residential properties include single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, condos, townhouses, mobile and manufactured homes.

The following table shows the sliding 12 month residential sales volume in Watkinsville over the last 12 months:

If you would like more information on Watkinsville, GA, or you are interested in buying or selling your home there, please call me at 706-207-5290. Or you can click here to email me with your inquiries. To search for homes in Watkinsville please visit my The Athens Real Estate Page website.

October 2009 residential real estate sales volume in Oconee, GA showed a decline of just over 3% in the 12 month sliding sales volume from Septemer, after being flat for a month. The average Days on Market (D.O.M.) remained constante while both average sales price rose more than 1% and the median sales price rose just over 3%. The volume losses were experienced across all areas of Oconee County while prices fell is South Oconee County but rose in West Oconee County and Watkinsville, GA.

At the end of October there were 51 pending sales of residential property in Oconee County. This number is down from the last month. Residential properties include single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, condos, townhouses, mobile and manufactured homes.

The following tables show the sliding 12 month residential sales volume in Oconee County over the last 12 months through August 31:

If you would like more information on Oconee County, GA, or you are interested in buying or selling your home there, please call me at 706-207-5290. Or you can click here to email me with your inquiries. To search for homes in Oconee County please visit The Athens Real Estate Page website.

This coming Thursday, Nov. 5, from 10 AM until 4 PM, the Athens Area Humane Society will be hosting the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile outside of it's facility at 1781 Mars Hill Road, Watkinsville, GA 30677.

Bring your kids as an excuse to tour the Wienermobile and have a hot dog or two, or three..... There will be prizes, giveaways, adoptions, games, AAHS merchandise for sale, and in case you missed it, HOT DOGS!!!

Volunteers are still need to help with:

• Grilling the hot dogs and handing out drinks
• Running the game booths
• Helping at the merchandise stand and info table
• Crowd control
• Help with adoption room

If you would like to volunteer, please call Denise Plemmons, Special Projects Manager, at 706-224-4474.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so come on down and have a hot dog and be a little kid again. And maybe you can help save an abandoned animal with your contribution, or, even adoption.

The Athens Area Humane Society is a No-Kill shelter. More information about AAHS can be found on their website, www.AthensHumaneSociety.org.