Jasper, GA

The Funky Chicken is NOT a dance people do who have had too much to drink at weddings. It is a great Art Gallery Between Big Canoe and Dalonega Georgia

The sign outside tells you you have arrived. The place is a great art gallery. Artists store their works their on consignment.

Much of the work is done in metal and can be out door art. The Pig on the left is made from an old gas canister that you use to cook and grill. The Funky Chicken is just one of the many surprises you can see in the North Georgia Mountains

Of course there are chickens roosters and other birds ranging from the barnyard to the exotic. So as you are traveling though our mountains you should stop at this great and unique gallery. You will be happy you did.

It appears that the positive trend we had been seeing in Jasper GA home sales in the early part of the summer took a turn for the worse in August.

The number of homes placed under contract or sold, 24*, was 20% lower than August 2008, and 33% below 2007's numbers. It also reflects a notable decline from the prior month's sales numbers. The average closed sale price of $219,072 for those transactions that have closed holds some promise on the pricing side of things, although still at a very low list-to-sale price ratio.

Of the 24 transactions, seven of the homes were located in either Bent Tree or Big Canoe. Eight were bank-owned foreclosures (33%). This is compared with only five foreclosures sold in August for each of the two previous years, or, 17% and 14% of all sales, respectively, for 2008 and 2007.

Inventory continues to hover at an unfavorable two-years plus, with 531 homes for sale in Pickens County GA at the time of this writing. Twenty-seven of these active listings were listed as bank-owned or foreclosures -- a slight drop as an overall percentage of inventory over prior months. With 30-40% of all homes that are selling being some form of distress sale, this drop is not surprising, but is also likely to be quickly replenished if the number of foreclosure notices being published is anything to go by.

This turnaround from the improvements we had been seeing is hard to explain, and makes predicting future trends almost impossible. September and October aren't showing significant signs of improvement, so the earlier gains may simply have been a release of pent up demand, and some bargain hunting by savvy buyers seeing great opportunities that met their needs. Even the anticipated surge of first-time home buyers racing to meet the tax credit deadline hasn't been as great as many expected.

Overall it seems the mood of uncertainty about job security, unemployment, housing prices and the economy, seems to be holding in check any sustained turnaround in the local Pickens County housing market.

*Some data used herein obtained via First Multiple Listing Service and is not warranted.

Georgia Lake levels are all up. Below is the report. Lake Lanier will be full today, as it is raining. This is amazing as a year ago they were talking about 60 days of water left. All the lakes look good for fall and winter. If you are coming to the North Georgia Mountains we are expecting a dry period to start this Friday. It will be fall weather for sure. We are about a -2 weeks away from peak leaf season I think.

But there is a big exceptioon to this. Lake Raburn in North East Georgia has had a dam problem due to the rain. This lake is empty right now according to some friends of mine and will not be re-filled until some time in December. So Be advised