Brian Patton's Blog

As Alpharetta has continued its growth from a sleepy suburban town to a bustling technology city, the question of residential density has become a lingering question in the minds of citizens, and a flash point of controversy when developers show up for rezoning hearings.

I've heard some doozies in my time, but this is one that required some more study. The headline in Forbes caught my attention. It read, "Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar is Falling."

Of course, we've all heard on the nightly news, ad nauseum, that the real estate market has been declining during this Great Recession. But what do the numbers say? For that analysis, I've turned to one of the leading listing and research companies in Georgia, The CoStar Group. CoStar is a publicly traded company that also advertises properties under their "showcase.com" moniker. Their professional staff studies the numbers, analyzes, and creates quarterly reports for all types of commercial properties.

Anyone who has lived in the greater Atlanta area for any length of time knows about the transportation challenges facing the region. In an effort to address these challenges, a group of leaders from across the 10-county region has finalized a list of regional transportation infrastructure improvement projects with a total price tag of more than $6 billion.

Now it’s up to voters to decide in a referendum next July whether to

 

Here are some good tips from a friend of mine about buying beach condos:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiYJ_GjhGEQ

Here’s a glimmer of good news for the economy. An annual survey by a key bank regulator showed some signs that the nation’s banks are easing underwriting standards after three years of broad tightening of lending terms.

In today’s economic climate, small business owners and real estate investors are struggling to access the credit they need.

Since 1998, credit unions have been constrained by a cap that limits the amount of small business loans they can make to 12.25% of total assets. This limitation has restricted credit unions in providing loans to their customers.  However, the fight to ease this restriction is gaining momentum nationwide. Two bills, H.R. 3380 and S. 2919, currently before Congress are garnering bipartisan support.

As we near the midpoint of 2010, foreclosures continue to serve as a major drag on residential real estate in Georgia, keeping the market from breaking out of the doldrums.
These doldrums were reflected in the most recent home price report from the National Association of Realtors, which showed that the median sale price for existing single-family homes in Atlanta dropped 10 percent between January 2009 and 2010—from $116,300 to $105,100. This was the biggest drop among the 20 major metropolitan areas surveyed by NAR.

Have you ever wondered where the term “cash cow” comes from? Not surprisingly, it ties directly back to a dairy cow.
A dairy farmer takes pride in his best cow, which can produce as many as 10 gallons of milk every day. Milking the cash from the cow requires very little work from the farmer: All he has to provide is some good grass for grazing, a few food supplements and a little TLC and the cow will give the farmer milk (or cash) day after day, week after week, for years.