April 2015

Tool Box April 2015

Calendar of Events

2015

March 4 BOD Meeting April 1 BOD Meeting 14 GMM Meeting 28 - 29 HBAG Spring Meeting May 6 BOD MEETING 25 Memorial Day June 3 BOD Meeting 4 GM Picnic July NO BOD Meeting 4 Independence Day

East Metro HBA P.O. Box 2055

Covington, GA 30015

Prez Talk By Mike Smith

Greetings to everyone,

I don’t know about everyone else, but business is good for me. After talking with others at our April General Member Meeting it seams that things are picking up. Thank you to everyone that took time out of your day to join us for our last Meeting. It was great to see so many Builders there. I also want to thank our spon-sors Yellawood and Social Circle Ace. For everything.

We are in the process of finalizing our plans for our Next General Member Meeting that will be a Picnic. We want to invite you and your families to come . Also any of your employees that would want to come are more than welcome. It will be on Thursday June 4th from 6-8pm at McGarity park in Jersey. We will be grilling Ham-burgers and Hot Dogs. We are also planning to have some Door Prizes. Please con-tact Lyda , 770-786-3333 if you would like to donate anything to be raffled off.

We are also working on scheduling some CE Courses in June. Look for upcoming announcements.

Mike

April 2015

Local News TOOL BOX Page 2

TOOL BOX is published monthly by the East Metro Home Builders Association, P.O. Box 2055, Cov-ington, GA 30015, and is distrib-uted free of charge to qualified members and parties of interest in the local Home Building Indus-try. All rights reserved. Repro-duction of editorial or graphic content in any manner without the written consent of the pub-lisher is prohibited.

MISSION STATEMENT

The East Metro Home Builders Association represents its mem-bers by serving as the voice of the housing industry in Newton and Walton County. It interacts with the Newton and Walton County government to assure quality and orderly growth, pro-vide obtainable housing and maintain a favorable business climate. In addition, the East Metro Home Builders Association provides its membership with opportunities to grow profession-ally through peer interaction and educational seminars.

A Tool Box Publication

eastmetrohba.com

President….Mike Smith Vice President…..Tim Anderson

Treasurer/Secretary...Paul Courchaine Builder Director…. Bob Goucher Associate Director….Scott Neely

Associate Director ...Ken Ellington Executive Officer……..Lyda Beasley

ATLANTA (AP) — An emotional Gov. Nathan Deal has signed legislation that permits the use of medical marijuana to treat eight serious health problems.

In a ceremony in the Capitol attended by about 100 parents, children and legisla-tors, Deal on Thursday made Georgia the 36th state plus Washington, D.C., to le-galize the use of marijuana extracts for medical use.

The conditions are cancer, ALS, seizure disorder, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, mitochondrial disease, Parkinson's and sickle cell.

Deal told a crowd that "refugee families" that moved to Colorado so children could be treated can come home after the 30 to 60 days it will take the state to get ready.

He was hugged by families of children, as was Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, who au-thored House Bill 1 and has championed the legalization cause.

Veterans Memorial Highway unveiled

Covington already had a memorial to its veterans with the monument on the Square, but Tuesday it added another way to honor those who served while driving around town.

Covington Mayor Ronnie Johnston and members of the city council unveiled a sign designating Monticello Street as Veteran’s Memorial Drive, to honor all veterans from the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Air Force.

In remarks he made before pulling a plastic sheet off the sign Tuesday, Johnston said he was born at a time when there wasn’t the call to service for Americans as there was for the “Greatest Generation” and American men and women who served in Korea and Vietnam.

“It’s extremely important to me that we pay our due respect,” John-ston said. “I appreciate the sacrifice you made. I don’t ever take that lightly.

“The sign serve as a timeless re-minder and marker of the true he-roes we have in Covington.”

Georgia Gov. Deal signs medical marijuana bill

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State News Local News

In a standing room only council meeting Tuesday evening, the Monroe City Council made the long-awaited decision to close Boulevard. Councilmembers voted 5-3 to close Boulevard, a side street that sits alongside Monroe First United Method-ist Church and intersects with Highway 11. The decision comes at the request of First United church leaders, who expressed safety concerns regarding the street, and follows months of deliberation by the council and city staff concerning the merits of closing Boulevard. Council members Larry Bradley, Nathan Purvis, Lee Malcom, Nathan Little and Jimmy Rich-ardson voted in favor of the road closure, while dis-senting votes were cast by Denise Dixon, Rita Scott and Wayne Adcock.

City to close Boulevard

County puts brakes on plans to build porch onto Government Building

MONROE — Commissioners voted to table a proposal to add a front porch and airlock sys-tem to the front of the Walton County Govern-ment Building. The move is being proposed in part as the porch was included in the original design of the project before it was scaled down to make it more economically feasible. The effort is being also in part because it would expend the final dollars allocated for the building as part of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax ap-proved in 2001.

April 2015

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Where are Home Prices Headed?

Two major measurements of the rise in home prices show annual growth rates of 4.5% and 5.1%, respectively. Meanwhile, most mortgage executives and consumers believe that prices will con-tinue to rise this year, according to a recent national survey.

NAHB’s Eye on Housing reports that the latest home price index by the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that home prices rose by 5.1% on a 12-month seasonally adjusted basis in Janu-ary. This marks the 36th consecutive month of year-over-year growth. During this nearly three-year period, house prices have risen by 20.1%.

Similarly, the recent release from Standard and Poor’s (S&P) and Case-Shillerindicates that their measure of national house prices rose by 4.5% on a year-over-year seasonally adjusted basis. This is the 33rd consecutive month of year-over-year increases in the house price index. During this time, house prices have risen by 22.1%.

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller National House Price Index, year-over-year house price

April 2015

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News growth has slowed in recent months. Year-over-year house price growth peaked at 10.9% in October 2013. However, as Figure 1 below illustrates, annual house price growth was 4.5% in January 2015.

While most expect home prices to continue to rise, senior mortgage executives are more optimistic than the average consumer, according to recent data from Fannie Mae. The difference in the level of optimism about future house price growth largely reflects consumers’ view that house prices will likely stay the same over the year

As Figure 2 below illustrates, 62% of senior mortgage executives polled by Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey expect house prices to rise over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, one-third of senior mortgage executives expect house prices to stay the same while only 3% expect house prices to fall over the year.

According to the National Housing Survey, a representative survey of the general population that is also administered by Fannie Mae, 46% of consumers believe that house prices will rise over the year, but 41% believe that house prices will remain the same. Meanwhile, only 6% of consumers believe that house prices will fall.

April 2015

Doctor Drupe The Friday File: Contrary to popular wisdom and after controlling for socioeconomic sta-tus, persons that eat an apple a day are just as likely to see the doctor or have an overnight hospital stay as those that do not. Despite this heavy blow to the fruit-farmer-industrial complex, the research did show that daily apple eaters used slightly fewer pre-scription drugs, suggesting that an apple a day keeps the pharmacist away.

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Economics

To receive your weekday economic information, just drop Dr. Eisenberg a line at elliot@graphsandlaughs.net

Sales of vacation homes are skyrocketing. Last year a record 1.13 million vacation properties sold, an amazing 21% of all sales and up 57.4% from 2013! Part of this is due to Boomers buying second homes to eventually retire to, while part is being fed by strong gains in financial markets. Meanwhile, sales of investment homes fell 7.4% to 1.02 million and owner-occupied purchases were 3.23 million, 60% of sales.

http://www.nahb.org/MA

April 2015

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Curious Homes

The Curious n Connecticut