About Vanderburgh County, IN

We congratulate the Reverend Adrian Brooks, pastor of Memorial Baptist Church, for receiving the Evansville Rotary Club Award for 2009. Reverend Brooks has worked for many years to help families in need. He truly is a well deserved recipient of this award.

Evansville Rotary Club hands out annual award



EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - It's been a tradition since 1927, the Evansville Rotary Club gives out its award for outstanding community service.

This year's winner, the Reverend Adrian Brooks, pastor of Memorial Baptist Church.

Reverend Brooks has helped create a wide variety of programs for members since becoming pastor in 1993 and through the church's development corporation has helped provide safe housing for those in need.

"It was important for us in the Genesis to be more than just a church that gathered on Sunday," Brooks said. "We wanted to help solve some of the problems we saw Monday through Saturday and then gather on Sunday for a great celebration of what God can do through his people."

Brooks' leadership has led to the creation of more than 50 ministries including a childcare center, youth programs and substance abuse counseling.

Source: http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=9899240&nav=menu54_2

Southern Indiana's favorite family park has gotten thumbs up from Oprah Winfrey. Although her title to the story is "Oprah's short list of 'wacky' vacations", the management at Holiday World is happy to be included in this list. We have been to the park numerous times and we can certainly recommend a visit if you have not done so already. Enjoy your trip to Holiday World.

Oprah's short list of 'wacky' vacations includes Holiday World

The folks at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari aren't going to quibble with talk show queen Oprah Winfrey who has included the Southern Indiana theme park on her just-released list of eight "Wacky Family Attractions" cash-strapped families should try this year. "If Oprah wants to call us ‘wacky,' we don't mind a bit," says the theme park's president, Will Koch. "Come to think of it, it is a little wacky for a theme park to play ‘Jingle Bells' in the middle of July." The popular website Oprah.com, which is one of the 2,000 most-visited websites on the Internet, included Holiday World in a story suggesting families vacation closer to home this year "when time and money are in short supply." The article includes a photograph of Santa Claus in his Holiday World summer garb along with a brief history of the park (established by the Koch family in 1946) and a description of the rides and holiday areas. Other parks mentioned in the piece include Mammoth Cave National Park near Bowling Green, Ky., and Legoland in California. Holiday World begins its 63rd season May 2 with the premiere of Pilgrim's Plunge, the world's tallest water ride. Source: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/feb/24/oprahs-short-list-wacky-vacations-includes-holiday/

The interest rate continues to decline, which is good news for all home owners. With buy downs, the interest rate can be locked in below 5.0%. Call me at 812-499-9234 for up to date rate information. If your current interest rate is above 6.0% it may be to your advantage to re-finance your mortgage.



30-Year Rates Drop to Near 5%

Mortgage rates across the board fell this week, a welcoming sign to potential buyers and home owners looking to refinance.The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.04 percent this week, a drop from last week's 5.16 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year rate averaged 6.04 percent, Freddie Mac reports.
Freddie Mac reported the following for other rates for the week:
15-year mortgage rates: averaged 4.68 percent, down from last week's 4.81 percent. Last year at this time: 5.64 percent.
5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 5.04 percent this week, a drop from last week's 5.23 percent. Last year at this time: 5.37 percent
1-year ARMs: averaged 4.8 percent, down from last week's 4.94 percent. Last year at this time: 4.98 percent

The article below shows a quick overview of the stimulus package. It is a condensed version of the thousands of pages which make up the stimulus package.

Stimulus Package Stats

The economic stimulus law contains

billions of dollars for making existing

homes more energy efficient, including:

$5 billion to weatherize houses

of low-income families.

$2.25 billion to retrofit Section 8 housing

with energy-efficient products, including

$250 million for a program to make

HUD-sponsored, low-income housing more efficient.

$2.25 billion to help build and rehabilitate

low-income housing, including the use of

green technologies, under the HOME Investment

Partnerships Program.

$510 million to improve energy efficiency

through Native American housing block grants.

$300 million to the Energy Star program

and to states for matching grants and rebates

to consumers who replace their old appliances

with Energy Star-rated products.

The law also expands the following homeowner programs:

The Existing Homes Tax Credit

increases from 10% to 30% for the

cost of energy-efficient windows, HVAC

equipment, and insulation, up to $1,500 per

qualifying household through 2010.

The Investment Tax Credit, a 30% credit for

solar thermal and geothermal installations,

had a cap of $2,000, which has been removed.

Likewise, the law removes the $4,000 cap

on small wind turbines.

Source: Alliance to Save Energy

F.C. Tucker Emge Realtors Commercial division had the annual Sate of Real Estate Conference yesterday afternoon at the Center. The main emphases of the discussion were that the real estate market is local. Even tough we have seen price reductions the last year they are by far not as high as other markets. At the same time, Evansville has not seen the same increases as other markets.

Realtors discuss local market

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - With the credit crisis and falling home values what is the state of real estate here in our own backyard?

Hundreds of realtors gathered at the State of Real Estate Conference at the Centre Thursday night. It was an opportunity for realtors with different expertise to present how they think their facet of the market is fairing in the waning economy.

The bumpy economy has taken its toll on Tri-State commercial realty, especially after national chains have gone belly up and vacated their local stores, most in the newer shopping centers.

"We didn't really expect those to become available, especially since they were in brand new strip centers. High-end, high-dollar strip centers," said industrial and retail realtor Dannetta Hiatt.

But she says with more than a half-million people regularly heading into the Evansville area for shopping it will end up being a boom for Evansville.

"We always have an influx of people and I don't think that's going to change because of the smaller counties that surround," Hiatt said. "We've always been a test market. Evansville has always been a test market for retail and i think that will continue."

Another area realtors say is getting a lot of attention right now is the downtown area and some think it's about to make a big change.

"Busy, bustling, things happening all hours of the day," said office and redevelopment realtor Harris Howerton.

Harris Howerton says there's been a lot of interest there thanks to the announcement of the new downtown arena.

"There's going to be a lot of second and third floors used for residential and then the downstairs, what we will call common areas used for commercial, offices, retail and some eateries," Howerton said.

And when it comes to the Tri-State housing market realtors maintain their optimistic outlook.

Kevin Eastridge, president of F.C. Tucker Emge Realtors, says there isn't a surplus of inventory in our area but hopes President Obama's new stimulus package will help.

"If you buy a house and you're a first time buyer you get an $8,000 tax credit," Eastridge said. "If your tax liability for that year is less than $8,000 you get a check for the difference.

When it comes to last year's home sales the market was down 20 percent on the dollar figures compared to 2007.

Commercial realty experts anticipate continued growth near the new Wal-Mart in Newburgh this year and say Tri-Staters will see more value-added stores and restaurants like Dollar General, bulk stores, supermarkets and low- to mid-level restaurants.

Source: http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=9876285