Marching season is coming to an end... The St. Amant High School Golden Gator Marching Band will culminate the season in Lafayette, Louisiana on Saturday November 7, 2009 at the Louisiana Showcase of Marching Bands. The event will be held at ULL Cajun Field in Lafayette, Louisiana

Over 30 high school bands from across Louisiana come to compete. The first performance begins at 9:00am and the awards will be presented at 7:30pm. All day admission is only $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children ages 5-12, children 4 and under are free.

I heard someone the other day describe this event as "being like Drumline (the movie) only with more class". This is a pretty good description of the event. The best bands from the state come to one place to comptete for their bragging rights. Marching bands are surely different from what I remember so many years ago!

Good luck to the St. Amant High School Golden Gator band. You guys Rock!

Ascension Parish is booming these days, with its 6.7% unemployment over 2% lower than the national average, as new businesses going up all over town. If you happen to be one of the unlucky people who lose their job, you have to figure how to stay afloat until you return to work. If you have a mortgage, you want to save your home while taking care of your other bills too. These days, many households already have two wage earners, so if one loses a job, there is no one else who can jump into the job market to help out.

Ideally, you should have three to six months in savings to carry you over in case of emergency, but many people live paycheck to paycheck without this safety net. Finding a new job is often taking longer so having savings will not spare you from what every homeowner needs to do: develop a game plan for making it through till income returns to normal. When your income is down, you must the order in which you pay your bills, but every creditor feels like they should come first. You need to first pay your mortgage, insurance, utilities, and other necessities like food, followed by your car note, then your loans and credit cards. If you have no reserves, obviously you will have to modify the list.

When you income changes and you have having difficulty paying your mortgage, there are programs designed to help make it through and avoid what will happen if you cannot ultimately pay: foreclosure. Before you get to that point, it's good to ask yourself if you want to keep the home. You may realize that the maintaining the home always made things tight for you. Though the current real estate market can be challenging, you might consider selling. If you owe more on the home than it is worth, you may ask your Realtor® about selling it on a short sale, where the bank agrees to accept less than the loan value as full payment. In any case, the time you are off is a good time to prepare the home for sale in case you would later decide to that. Even though you might not be able to afford costly remodeling projects, you can paint and declutter - tasks you may have need to do anyway.

If you want to keep your home, you need to take advantage of available resources. This means contacting your lender (or an outside housing counselor who will do this for you). Your lender may be able to help you if you contact them early and agree to reduced payments, forbearance (where you don't have to pay for a short time), or a loan modification.

For some of these plans to work, you need some income. This may mean that you accept a job that pays less than what you were making but is enough to cover the house payment and your other basic expenses. There is no point of jumping through all the hoops to get a loan modified if you will default in a few months because the payment is still too high for you.

Some people who have tried to get help say contacting the lender is more than a notion. Though lenders say they want to work with customers, many distressed borrowers report that they can't reach them, don't hear back from them, or wait forever, only to be told that they don't qualify or that they should apply to the Federal Making Home Affordable program. This is why it is often a good idea to talk with a HUD-approved counselor who might be able to get in touch with your lender or at least help you explore other resources before foreclosure looms.

In trouble with your mortgage due to job trouble or any other reason? The State of Louisiana has many resources to help you. Want to discuss your situation with a knowledgeable Realtor®? Sandy-Ogburn-Sandlin and her Team can talk to you about selling your home at short sale. We can show the best homes in Ascension Parish, as well East Baton Rouge Parish or Livingston Parish.

Once you've decided to buy a beautiful Prairieville home, the big question is "How much house can I afford?"

You may already have a figure from the bank If you have gone to get pre-approval. This may be more or less than what you had in mind. It's only a starting point in your thought process. The perception is that bank puts the upper limit on what you can spend, but the lender may not take into account everything you need to consider.

How Much Can You Afford?

Some lenders use different percentages to figure out how should go for housing, but the most common guide to how much you can afford these days is based on the 28/36 rule. The means your housing should be 28% or less of your gross income before taxes, while your debt (not including your mortgage) should be 36% or less of your income. Based on an income of $60,000, you might be able to append about $1,400 a month on your mortgage, taxes, and insurance, but this would dip to $1,000 if you paid about $650 about for credit cards, car payment, and other loans. (Click here for a handy 28/36 mortgage calculator to compute how the 28/36% rule would work out for you.) Banks may use a magical formula based on your FICO score, but they are considering similar things: how your debt compares to your income.

With a household income of $120,000, your might be able to pay $2,800 for housing with no debt. What if your spouse is laid off? Do you have resources to help you make it for a while? What if one spouse wants to stay home with the kids? What if your salary stays the same but your other expenses keep increasing? Will you be able to handle increased energy costs if the home is bigger than your old residence? A mortgage you can technically afford can become a noose around your neck.

Bottom line, you need to be honest with yourselves. If you are saving for your kids' college or trying to keep them in private schools as well as number of expensive activities, a big house payment can cut off other life options unless your income increases.

Don't Sacrifice It All For Your Down Payment

You can reduce the amount of the loan and the monthly payment by putting more money down. It is a mistake to raid retirement funds ordeplete savings. Experts say you should have three to six months savings on hand in case of job loss, plus about 5 % of the purchase price of your home as a cushion for emergencies and repairs. In addition, you may need about 3-5% of the amount of the purchase price for closing costs and moving expenses.

The last thing you want to do is buy a house that develops a leaky roof six months down the road that you can't afford to fix. You are better off putting down less down payment - even if that means you buy a less expensive home or consider FHA financing, as that requires a smaller down payment. At this time, it seems like that an extension of the first time homebuyers tax credit is likely in some form, so you can probably plan on some assistance for either your downpayment or other move-in expenses.

Since home price and interest rates low, this is great time to buy an affordable house - but not to overextend yourself. Talk to Sandy Sandlin today about buying a Prairieville home Sandy's Team will give the most to date information about the status of the first time homebuyers credit, as well about the best properties in East Baton Rouge, Ascension, and Livingston Parishes.

This is a proud October for the 21 schools of Ascension Parish. As a whole the district was named the fourth best school system out of 70 in the state, while 17 of the 21 schools improved their individual performance.

The Ascension Parish district scored 105.09 in state performance scores. This score was the district's highest score ever and represents a 6.1% increase over last year. Superintendent Donald Songy praised the "exceptional commitment and expertise of ... teachers, administrators, and of staff" that resulted in this year's success and laid the groundwork for "a pattern of steady growth from year to year."

Further, he noted the "the level of growth this year.provides us with reassurance that the strategic initiatives set in place are producing results and fostering an improved education for all our students." Assistant Superintendent Patrice Pujol added that Ascension had moved to the top due to high level assessments aligned with the Districts' curriculum and teachers' instructional practices.

Particularly noteworthy are the achievements of these schools:

12.6 point increase- Lowery Intermediate School. For the second straight year, this school showed the larger improvement in the district and now has moved into the academically acceptable range.

12.5 points - Dutchttown High School

11.2 points - G.W. Carver Primary School

9.7 points - St. Amant Middle School

8.7 points - Galvez Primary

8.2 points - Donaldsonville High

7.6 points - St. Amant High

6.6 points - East Ascension High

6.3 points - Prairievile Middle

6.0 points - Dutchtown Middle

Seven other schools also shows great improvement, which qualified 17 schools to receive a Growth School Performance Score of 100 or more. For more information on the progress of the Ascension School District over the years, see www.apsb.org/schoolscores.

As noted in our previous blog Top Schools Districts Attract Buyers to Greater Baton Rouge Area, 10 years ago, the State of Louisiana set out to improve school performance state-wide. In 2009, nearly 80% of schools showed gains in their scores, while 43% met their growth targets this year vs. only 25% last year. Twenty eight percent of schools exceeded an SPS of 100; the percentage of schools with scores under 100 decreased from previous years. Additionally, the number of Academically Unacceptable Schools (AUS) fell from 90 to 55, or 4.3 percent.

This good news on school performance is one more reason why buying a home in Ascension parish is a great investment for your family. When buying real estate in Louisiana., contact Sandy's Team for the best properties in East Baton Rouge and Ascension Parishes.

Ascension Parish Real Estate Market Report

The data used in this report were extracted from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors MLS database. The data are presumed accurate but are not warranted.

As 2009 comes to a close the real estate market in Ascension Parish is continuing to resist the gloom haunting other markets in the country and is, in fact, showing signs of growth. The following chart shows monthly unit sales for the past several years. For September 2009, sales of previously owned homes exceeded sales in that market segment in both July and August of this year and approached sales in June 2009 which was the highest so far this year. While new construction unit sales didn't perform as well as the previously owned market segment for September 2009, it significantly outperformed new construction sales in September 2008. This is not surprising since both the new and re-sale market segments were hard hit by the devastation caused by hurricane Gustav last year. That said, new construction unit sales last month outperformed all other months in 2008 except for the month of July.

Using the average absorption rates observed so far this year, unit sales of the new construction market segment is projected to exceed 2008 levels. Unit sales for the re-sale market segment is projected to be only slightly less than that of 2008. Clearly, while less robust than the boom post-Katrina times, the real estate market in Ascension parish is showing remarkable signs of health despite the current difficulties we face in acquiring credit.

The next two charts show historical trends of average selling price and average selling price per square foot for both market segments.

We can see that in the resale market segment, neither the average price nor the average price per sq.ft. have changed substantially from 2008 levels. This indicates that the equity in our residential real estate investment has weathered the economic downturn quite well. In the new construction segment, however, we see a downward shift toward more affordable housing... a trend previously reported on toward smaller homes with fewer upgrades and amenities.

The next two charts show the absorption rates and inventory levels for the two market segments. In the new construction segment, there is only a 3.3 month supply of new homes overall. This is a Seller's Market. A Buyer's Market condition exists only for homes priced over $400K. The highest velocity of home sales exists in the $150K-$250K price range which accounts for 65% of all new homes sold this year.

The previously owned market segment shows the highest velocity of sales in the same $150K-$250K price range which accounts for 51% of home sales. In fact, home sales under $250K accounted for 73% of all homes sold. Overall, it is a neutral market with 6.4 months supply but there is a great variation in this figure as we look at various price ranges. Previously owned homes over $400K have sold at a rate of 1.6 homes per month. With 60 homes on the market, at this rate it will take more than three years so sell off this inventory. At the other end of the spectrum, homes priced under $250K are enjoying robust sales and it is a Seller's Market in these price ranges.

As always, I appreciate hearing from readers and I welcome any comments or suggestions for improvement that you may offer.

©2009 by Don Stern - All Rights Reserved

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