I volunteer for Junior Achievement, and I love every minute of it. I have a couple of 5th grade classes at a local Elementary School, and just started with a High School class, too.
This is one of my 5th grade classes… I’ll post up another later in the week. I jumped these kids with this. I literally pulled out my phone to capture the video in the middle of the lesson we were working on today. We had a lot of fun in the class, and the kids (especially off-camera) expressed how much they enjoy having new people come into the class to talk with them.
Last summer, Lilburn, GA, began a weekly Farmer’s Market every Friday from 4-8pm. Booths were set up on Railroad Ave., next the the Police Station and City Park. We made it out a few times with the kids to pick up some fresh treats… and see some neighbors. One of the things that makes Lilburn seem like a small town is that we run into our childrens’ schoolmates, fellow Cub Scout Parents, our neighbors and other folks we know in the community… seemingly everywhere.
It looks like the Lilburn Farmer’s Market will be back again this year. It should be starting around June 3rd. That is just me guessing, though…
If you’d like to live in a community like this, I’d love to help you find the perfect home for you. We have great people, great schools, and excellent access to all that the Atlanta area has to offer.
I love watching the news… but when they talk about the real estate market, I cringe. I like to hear the national numbers, but I also know that they are just a framework for a smaller discussion. Yep… a smaller discussion.
It matters what the overall market is doing, but it’s not nearly as important as what is happening in your neighborhood. It matters what is happening in Georgia, and the Atlanta Metro market, but not nearly as much as what is happening in your specific city. Real estate prices and demand react to specific local issues much more than to national trends. In fact, the national trend is just a compilation of local and hyper-local trends. What the national market does is create a headwind or a tailwind. That’s about it.
Here locally, we look at things like…
changing employment statistics
companies relocating into or out of the area
school performance and trends
tax burdens
quality of local governmental services
proximity to recreation and entertainment
ease of movement (commuting, shopping, etc)
As we see these things change, we see the market move in one direction or another. A prime example at the moment is the City of Atlanta schools issue. It is possible that the Atlanta City Schools could lose their accreditation. If that were to happen, it would drive down the price of most of the homes served by those schools. The price would be driven down because there would be a lack of demand on the part of buyers, combined with an increase in supply as sellers seek to move to districts without the same problems.
Gwinnett County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Georgia, below the national average. But there is also a tremendous overhead of foreclosure action. We also have one of the highest performance school systems in the region… and reasonably low tax rates.
The market in Miami or Las Vegas doesn’t have an effect on what is happening in Georiga, much less what is going on with real estate in Gwinnett County.
A few years ago this property was started. One home was built, along with the future clubhouse. The tennis courts were installed and the swimming pool was roughed in. Some of the streets had been laid, and many of the homesites had been prepped.
And that is how the property had sat for the last several years. It just wasn’t worth building out during the worst of the real estate meltdown.
Apparently that has changed now… Pulte has begun construction on the project again. The actually tore down the house that had been built onsite, cleaned up the entrance and begun building in more infrastructure.
It’s really nice to see activity on this project again.
Who would have thought that the largest Hindu Temple outside of India would be in Lilburn, GA? I live here and love this area, but I was surprised to find out that little tidbit.
When it was under construction, many of us were wondering what was going into the spot at the corner of Lawrenceville Hwy and Rockbridge Rd. There was a giant gantry crane and more concrete that one could almost imagine.
Before the temple was complete, hundreds of volunteers spent thousands of hours making everything perfect. As we toured it, we could see thousands of figures carved into the building, inside and out. EACH of these was polished to a gleam, by hand.
The temple is available for tours. It is well worth it to see.
