Valdosta, GA

Market Report for Lowndes County/Valdosta Georgia and surrounding areas - Single Family Homes

Counties Include: Lowndes, Berrien, Brooks, Cook, and Lanier

Current active listings for Lowndes County Georgia (Valdosta and Hahira):

Lowndes High School Drama Club's performance of..... 5,6,7,8...Dance Out Loud!

I had the spectacular honor of watching these teens perform last night in their yearly performance of 5,6,7,8, a musical review.

Completely student directed and choreographed.

What an awesome performance these gave us.

Here pictured doing their performance of "Stomp"

We were entertained with renditions from the broadway musical Rent with Season's of Love.

To Disney's Little Mermaid

My daughter Caitlynhas been a member of these wonderfully talented teens for the past 3 years. Each year they get together to do several performances. The two of which this year were Suesical the Musical. They work incredibly hard putting these performances together and taking Suesical to competition in Macon Georgia placing second! And Godspell, which they will be performing in March this year.

That's my daughter Caitlyn (hand on hip, not smiling. I need a new camera. Just caught her at the wrong time) Doing their performance of We Beseech Thee

We even had some praise and worship music from the Praise Team!

I just wanted to give these kids another big round of applause.

So, if you are thinking of moving to Valdosta and have a student who is interested in the arts I highly recommend Lowndes High School as having an excellent drama department.

Had a question this morning regarding buying vs. renting and thought I would give a few logical reasons for buying a home as opposed to renting one.

1) A home tends to increase in price over times so this is one of the best investments a person can make without too much risk. A home can increase in value 3-6% every year. Even if it didn't appreciate, you could still sell it and recoup some of your expenses, where as if you were renting when you move, your money is gone and you will be lucky to get your deposit back in the end.

2) You'll pay less tax. This is one of the biggest reasons you buy a home. You can deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage from your taxable income, which means you will pay less taxes.

3) Pride of ownership. This has been the American dream since before the dawn of time.

4) Interest rates are still historically low. This makes it less expensive to buy a home. The lower the interest rate the lower your payments and loan will be.

5) Capital Gain Exclusion: You can exclude up to $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a married couple of profit from capital gains, so long as you have lived in your home for two of the past five years.

6) You'll be able to use the equity in your home for low-cost loans for other purposes. You can access the equity you have accumulated in your home in the form of a home equity loan. You can use this to make improvements, payoff bills etc. Because they are secured, home equity loans usually have a lower interest rate than other types of consumer loans. The interest is usually tax deductible at the end of the year as well.

7) You'll be able to redecorate or renovate whenever you like, without worrying about the color of paint you use or wheather or not you can knock out a wall between to rooms to make one big room. Some improvements will actually increase the value of your property, which is excellent when you go to sell your home.

Example of how much your rent could be buying you;

Monthly rent 3 years 10 years 15 years 30 years

400.00 14,400 48,000 72000 144,000

700.00 25,200 84,000 126,000 252,000

1000.00 36,000 120,000 180,000 360,000

Hope this helps all those who are sitting on the edge trying to decide whether or not to buy. It makes no sense not to buy in this market. It is a buyers market right now and the best time ever to buy a home of your own.

April 14, 2008

Regardless of all the doom and gloom being pronounced by the pundits, let me assert that people are still buying real estate in the Valdosta-Lowndes County markets. Don't get me wrong because times are tough. Our listing inventory has crested 1200 houses for sale and current absorption figures indicate that we have a 12.6 month suppy of inventory in our MLS. An (actually really good and well researched) article in this past week's Valdosta Daily Times indicates that foreclosures have plateued at around fifty per month and have maintained that level since this time last year.

People are still buying regardless of what the media would have the public believe. However, things are softer and slower and that presents us all with certain challenges. The National Asociation of Realtors Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, maintains that a good 80% of today's buying pool is sitting on the fence for the simple reason that they have property to move before reinvesting in another home.

This takes time, of course. Often times what we are seeing is that it may take anywhere from 12 to 24 months before a prospect incubates to become a bona fide buyer. This is an obvious change from the good ol' days of say '02-'05 in which prospects would either buy within a few weeks or at worst a few months because they had more confidence in the market and thus more options (swing loans, etc.).

People just won't stick their necks out like that anymore and really, who can blame them. This is a time of prudence and careful decision making as opposed to the swagger of just several short years ago.

But here's what all this means to seller. buyers and professional. Buyers now have the element of time to make decisions and as they are waiting anywhere from 12 to 24 months they can digest and assimilate a lot of information within that period of time. So, by the time they step into the negotiating arena, they are usually very well versed and sophisticated about a local market in terms of values, financing options, and local customs and concessions.

For the realtor, the name of the game is follow up. We now have the ability to automatically e-mail clients with property profiles that fit their parameters once such a property hits the market. Also, contact management software has never been as intutive as it is today. One of the great features of the LeadRouter System that we are now getting service for is that it has contact management software that prompts agents to follow up within a defined period of time. If an agent doesn't follow up, they don't get fresh leads as the system reasons that the agent is too busy to service new business. The broker can also look over the agent's shoulder as well. Yeah it sounds a little creepy and big brotherish, but accountability is becoming a big buzzword in our industry.

Okay Sellers, for you all of this points to the ever increasing need to PRICE PROPERTY RIGHT TO BEGIN WITH (!!!!! And if I had a way to highlight that last statement,I would). With an inventory of 1200 properties, houses in our services area are almost commodities with buyers caring very little for spending extra money for amenities and upgrades. We have several agents in this office who are still selling houses very strongly. I asked on e of them this morning what was the secret of her sucess and without hesitation it was that her listings have all been priced properly from the very first...