Covington Living Today: August 2009

Way!!

This morning, I saw the first flock of geese flying south over my house, foretelling a change of seasons for Covington.  Autumn is my favorite time of year, bringing clean, crisp air, beautiful colored leaves against the backdrop of white antebellum columns, SEC football, and vampires.  Vampires?!?!

Covington has again been chosen as the perfect site for the filming of a new television series, The Vampire Diaries.  When writers and location managers visited Covington and saw the historic square, it was exactly what they had in mind for the fictitious town of “Mystic Falls, Va,.”  setting fo the series.

The teen-oriented series will share similarities with the highly popular “Twilight” movie series about a high school student who becomes infatuated with a mysterious classmate who turns out to be a vampire.  The CW web site describes the series like this:

“Elena Gilbert has always been a star student: beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends.  As the fall semester begins, Elena becomes fascinated with the mysterious new boy in school, Stefan Salvatore, and she has no way of knowing he is a centuries-old vampire.  While Stefan struggles to live peacefully among humans, his brother Damon is the embodiment of violence and brutality.  Now these two vampire brothers – one good, one evil – are at war for Elena’s soul in the small town of Mystic falls, Virginia.”

In addition to Covington starring as Mystic Falls, the series will also star Nina Dobrev, currently in the CW series “Degrassi: The Next Generation;” Paul Wesley, recently on episodes of “24” and “Army Wives;” and Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone Carlyle on “Lost.”  The show began filming in Covington in late July, and will be shooting at various times until around April.

Producers are very pleased with the way the show has progressed, and hope it will be picked up for a second season.  Michael Walbrecht, vice president at Warner Bros. Entertainment, is so pleased with the series progress and Covington’s involvement; he recently notified the city that he could be sending a couple more shows our way, according to “The Covington News.”

If you’d like more information about “The Vampire Diaries,” including a trailer and still photos, take a look at The CW’s web site at cwtv.com/shows/the-vampire-diaries.

Other movies and television series filmed in Covington include “A Man Called Peter, My Cousin Vinnie, Six Pack, Halloween II, The Dukes of Hazard, and In the Heat of the Night.”   After a long hiatus, Covington may be regaining its title as “Hollywood of the South.”

Film crew trucks loaded with cameras, lights, props, wardrobe and dressing rooms line Covington's historic Floyd Street during filmin of the new CW network TV series "The Vampire Diaries"

Here's my dinner for this evening...

Grilled chicken breast slathered in my own secret recipe, home-made BBQ sauce

Baked potato dripping rich butter and chives

Sweet corn directly from my garden

Topped off with a crisp tossed salad full of my juicy, red, home-grown tomatoes

And garnished with herbs from my kitchen herb garden

Now, that's so good, it'll make you slap your Mama!

Here’s a summary of what’s happening in the Covington and Newton County real estate market as of the end of July, 2009:

Homes in Covington and Newton County newly listed on the Georgia Multiple Listing Service during July totaled 246, down 34.9% from the same period last year.  However, pending sales in July were up by 32.8% over a year ago.  The reason is three-fold… July is historically a good selling season as families try to get resettled before school reopens, home prices remain depressed as opposed to last year, and mortgage interest rates remain low.

The average sales price of a home in our area in July was $113,323, down 17.5% from July 2008.

There remains a 9.3 month supply of homes for sale in Covington and Newton County.  We’re getting better, but a 6 month or lower supply is generally considered by Realtors® to be a “normal” market.  The absorption rate, or how long it should take to sell the number of homes available in a particular price range, stretches from a low 3.6 month supply in the $0 - $100,000 price range, to a 44.6 month supply of homes priced between $225,000 and $250,000, to a whopping 53.6 month supply in the range between $450,000 and $500,000.

New foreclosures coming on the market continues to be one of the largest problems in our local real estate market.  Even though sales of homes have improved recently, the numbers of foreclosed homes continues to add to our existing inventory and keep home prices depressed.  Today’s "Covington News" legal section contained 32 pages of new foreclosures coming onto the market… not an unusual occurrence.

There were 54 foreclosed homes which arrived on the market in July, bringing our yearly total for 2009 to 476.  Unfortunately, that keeps us about on track with 2008, during which we saw 790 foreclosures in the County.  Newton County was cited last week in the "AJC" as having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.  Unfortunately, that statistic does not seem to be abating.

Although we can’t compare Newton to our surrounding counties due to different urban and rural characteristics, population concentrations, median incomes, etc., it’s still interesting to note that Butts County had 7 foreclosures in July and 54 for the year to date, Henry County had 144 for the month and 884 year-to-date, Jasper County had 1 and 15, Morgan County 6 and 21, Rockdale County 46 and 318, and Walton County 51 foreclosures in July and 316 for 2009 thus far.

If you have questions or comments, or would like more detailed information on the real estate market in Covington and Newton County Georgia, just let me know.

This is not about Petula Clark’s great 1966 hit record, but rather an item on the 11Alive evening news broadcast last night which caught my attention…

A lady in Coweta County received a letter in the mail soliciting her participation as a “Mystery Shopper.”  All she had to do was cash the enclosed check and complete a paid shopping and evaluation assignment within a week of her acceptance.  

Now, this ain’t rocket science, people.  I know a couple of real “mystery shoppers,” and it’s an easy, legal way to pick up some extra pocket change… especially if you love shopping.  But the rub for the lady in Coweta County was that her letter… and check… were totally bogus.  She realized that a few days later when the bank contacted her and wanted their money back.  Cashing a bogus check for such a large amount was a felony, and she could go directly to jail without passing “GO!”

What caught my attention, however, was that I got an identical letter at my office address last week.

Sandra Stoke, Marketing Director of QuickFact Consumer Research in Calgary, Canada, offered me the opportunity to earn additional income as a “Customer Services Evaluator” in her company’s “fully paid program.”  And if I became “one of the select few to distinguish myself in the course of this program,” my job would become a “permanent part time position” paying me up to $150 per hour.  Heck, I can be pretty damned distinguished for that kind of money!  Here’s all Sandra wanted me to do:

• Cash the $2500 check

• Buy $50-worth of stuff at Wal-Mart (which I could keep), and evaluate their service

• Buy $50-worth of stuff at Gap (which I could keep), and evaluate their service

• Pocket my $300 training pay, and

• Evaluate the “effectiveness and efficiency” of Western Union’s Money Gram service by wiring the remaining money to my (unnamed) “assignment coordinator.”

So, let’s see…. I get $300 cash, $100-worth of Wal-Mart and Gap crap, and a permanent part time position paying me 150 bucks an hour!  (No doubt in my mind that I could “distinguish myself.”)  Wow!  What have I got to loose?  …. $2,500 hard-earned dollars, court costs, and 2 to 5 in the Newton County Detention Center!

Beware people!  If you hear from Sandra, don’t sign up, and don’t cash that check.  I don’t want to wave to you - mowing grass on the Covington Square in your orange jumpsuit - as I drive by.  It’s just another scam, and in today’s economy, an unfortunate sign of the times.

In today’s Covington real estate market, I’ve ceased being amazed at the attitude of the FDIC, some of our large banks, and alleged premiere mortgage companies.  They are continuing to do more to hamper a rapid recovery of our housing industry than they are to facilitate it.  And, they don’t really seem to care.

There are exceptions, naturally.  But, they are few. 

Several of our “local” banks, strapped with significant numbers of foreclosures, are making genuine efforts to reduce their inventory and bring things back to a more normalized market.  They have assigned special management teams to work on getting the foreclosed homes off their books.  They’re advertising, offering special agent incentives, good interest rates and special financing packages to qualified buyers.  Most importantly, they always are available to talk with agents.  But, the “big guys” are another story…

In the past couple of weeks, my associates and I have been involved in two situations which have become all too typical.  One involves the FDIC, and the other a large bank/mortgage provider, who shall go unnamed.  I won’t even disclose the names of the horses which pull their stagecoach.

In the first situation, a local bank foreclosed on a number of new homes in an upscale Covington neighborhood and was making every effort to sell the homes.  In fact, they had several under contract when the FDIC stepped in and assumed control of the others.  My associate had a qualified, pre-approved buyer who had found one of the remaining homes to be their “dream.”  But when the agent called the local bank to present her offer, she was told that the FDIC had assumed control of the remaining homes, there was no one she could talk to at the FDIC to make an offer, and even if she called and left messages, no one would call her back.  “The FDIC has its own procedures for dealing with its inventory,” she was told, “and don’t seem to be in a hurry.”  The homes may be re-listed with an agent in four to six months, but until that time, there’s nothing you can do.”  The result… a confused, frustrated, inconvenienced buyer, a frustrated Realtor®, and another new home remaining in inventory, deteriorating, blighting the neighborhood and ready to be vandalized.

In the second situation, my associate made an offer on a foreclosed home listed for $256,000.  Her buyer's offer of $205,000 was the highest of three which came in at essentially the same time.  However, several days later, the listing agent called to tell her that the asset manager for the mortgage company which owned the home had decided they would get more for it by selling it at auction.  Last weekend, my associate bought the home for her client at absolute auction for $140,000.  My associate had a very happy, satisfied client, but she got paid much less than her effort was worth.  And, I hope the asset manager got thrown from the stagecoach.  He probably didn't...

But, I’ve ceased to be amazed!