Image by mjp* via Flickr

In the sub-$200k arena, there are 240 listings, with about an 11.8 month supply.  Absorption Rates have been slowing since December, but sales were up slightly since March 2009.

Between $200k and $400k, there are 161 listings for sale, and about 27 months of supply. This segment has been getting weaker each month since at least November.  Sales were up by a couple of units in March, but so were listings.

From $400k to $600k, there are still 12 homes on the market. The absorption rate is still around 3 years,.  Of course, there is a seasonal dip around the Holidays and the pick-up isn’t until March and April.

Above $600k, there are 6 listings, but too few sales to have any sort of reliable number of months of inventory.  There have been two sales in the last three months, but prior, there had only been two other sales in 2009 (February and November).  Two of the listings are above $800k, and there is no market activity in the last 12 months for that range…

Lilburn is in Gwinnett County, GA, just outside of Atlanta.  As of the 2000 Census, there were 11,307 people in Lilburn, but that is only including people in the city limits, and there has been a lot of growth since 2000 in Gwinnett County.  It was incorporated in 1910.  Lilburn is home to Parkview High School, and also has students that the Brookwood, Berkmar and Meadowcreek clusters. It is also home to Killian Hill Christian School, Providence Chrisian Academy, St. John Neumann Catholic School and Parkview Christian School.  Possibly the most famous resident of Lilburn is General Beauregard Lee, a groundhog with a better winter prediction record that Puxatawnee Phil up in PA. Dominique Wilkins, formerly of the Atlanta Hawks also lives in Lilburn.

I have a page dedicated to Lilburn Market Data.

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One of the reasons that I embarked on my career in real estate is that I wanted to be able to spend more time IN the lives of my children.  And today has definitely been a rung in that ladder.  I volunteered to help the small kids with lunch at Arcado Elementary School in Lilburn, GA.

Basically, the kindergartners need a little wrangling as they go through the lunch line.  And it is kind of like herding cats… cats that don’t really know what they want to eat, but have a plethora of choices in front of them… and, since they are cats kindergartners, they can’t read.

Which led me to a few thoughts… 

First, though, let me quickly run through the options for today:

• Milk
• Skim Milk
• Chocolate Milk
• Strawberry Milk
• Water
• Orange Juice

• Peas
• Carrots
• Rice

• Applesauce
• Pear

• Peanut Butter and Jelly
• Veggie Wrap
• Veggie Burger
• Ravioli w/Roll
• Nachos w/cheese and meat

Basically, the kids had a choice to make in each one of those groupings.  And for a kindergartner, that is a LOT of choices.  So, while working lunch for the kids at Arcado Elementary School, the challenge is to get the kids to make a decision in a timely manner.  And a lot of the kids aren’t ready for that kind of pressure.

As Parents, we can fix that!

To start with, we need to train our children to be able to make good decisions. We can do that by allowing them to make choices (from approved possibilities) when we can observe them.  Let them pick what they want for dinner when we go out to eat.  Let them decide what they might want for lunch on the weekends.  Let them decide between good choices…  We don’t open it up to anything, but we will give some limited choices for our kindergartner to pick from.

The next thing we can do is to coach our kids.  Everyone studies for tests… why not help them study for this as well.  We sit down with our child each evening and talk about the lunch choices for the next day.  In the morning, while waiting for the bus, we try to talk about it again.  In both cases, it is a low pressure environment (some strange Mom or Dad isn’t asking the question while the line backs up).

In order to help accomplish the goals, you can reference Nutri-Cafe on the web.  I should mention that there are often choices that seem to show up in the line that aren’t shown in Nutri-Cafe, and there might be some that are in Nutri-Cafe that won’t be available at school… but at least it is a good idea.  Arcado Elementary School and other local schools might run out of, or have left-overs of, a specific item.

And one more thing…

Volunteering at school is a great way to see what your child’s day is like. You won’t be hovering (you will actually be pretty busy), so you can watch from across the room as your child interacts with peers.  It is a great way to help out the school, get a better glimpse into your child’s life away from home and to also see what challenges your child might face that you never thought about…  I know that I never thought about the issues my son could face in trying to decide about lunch.  I know that the Arcado Elementary School PTA would be thrilled to have the help… especially from us Dads.

from Lane’s ActiveRain Blog

Boosters…

I mean Bruster’s…

After a game at Parkview, a lap around the Mountain Park Park or even a hike up to the top of Stone Mountain, what could be better than a scoop from Bruster’s? Not much… Ice cream rocks! And getting it from the window, hanging out with friends and enjoying a waffle bowl with a giant scoop absolutely rocks.

My favorite location is the one of Five Forks Trickum Rd. It is less than three miles from the house, and right in the middle of so many things our family does. And the ice cream is SO good.

When my mother comes into town, there are two things she wants to do… a Braves game (she is now really liking the Gwinnett Braves even more that the Atlanta Braves) and a ride over to Bruster’s.

Each year when we go to the Parkview v Brookwood football game… Bruster’s is the stop after the game.

Honestly, it is our celebration… a scoop from Bruster’s.

In fact, it is one of Lilburn’s highlights. We love it here, and all of the great opportunities to have fun are why…

If you are looking for a home, I can center the search around Bruster’s, if you’d like…

;^ )

That has to be the most tired and over-used statement in real estate.  But there is a problem with it…  It kind of died as a truism.

The idea behind that statement is that homes in the right area could bring more money.  And that has always been true…  But there is a big donut hole in the theory…

People go to where they can get the house they want…

Even Clark Howard says that.  Look at the Gwinnett County market or the Atlanta area market.  Up until a couple of years ago, buyers would drive out from the center of town until they could find the house they could afford with the amenities they wanted.  Twenty years ago that was “way out” in Lawrenceville or Duluth.  Ten years ago that was Dacula or Buford.  Just a couple of years ago it was Loganville or Flowery Branch.  I would imagine that forty years ago it was Lilburn and Peachtree Corners.

But then last summer gas prices skyrocketed… there were shortages.  People started to look at their lifestyles and the cost of living 40 miles from Atlanta… and working close-in.  And there is a major cost… not just gas, but time as well.

That is one of the reasons my wife and I settled in Lilburn eight years ago.  She worked in Midtown and I worked near Northlake.  Later she worked near Perimeter Center… now she has clients in Midtown again.  She can make it all of the way to the Atlanta Station area in 20 minutes.

We also have to go the other way…  Garrett is playing ice hockey at the Duluth Ice Forum.  It takes about 20 minutes to get there.  And then there were the Thrasher’s Season Tickets… 30 minutes to Philips Arena.  My wife’s parents in Sugar Hill… 30 minutes.

We have found that this is an excellent location to get anywhere in Gwinnett County or into Atlanta easily.  We have at least three ways to get almost anyplace… so we can drive around the traffic.

The best part is that prices here are quite reasonable.  There are areas with homes under $100k that are quite nice.  There are luxury homes knocking on $1m.  There are loads of options in between.

And the other best part is the schools.  Lilburn is the Home of Parkview, and a few parts are severed by Brookwood.  These are a couple of the best clusters in Gwinnett County… and Georgia.  They have both ranked well for decades.

If this area of Gwinnett County sounds like someplace you’d like to call home, give me a call, Tweet, IM, email… whatever.  I know some great homes for sale here.

from LaneBailey.com

A few cars showed up this morning, but apparently the website and email list was pretty effective at getting out the word.

One of the cars that was there this morning was this beautiful Shelby GT500 clone.  Gotta love a 428 Cobra Jet.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

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Junior Achievement is a great program, and it would benefit the students to have access to this type of curriculum.

If you are a teacher at Parkview High School or Trickum Middle School in Gwinnett County, or an Administrator, feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll be HAPPY to put you in touch with the right folks at JA. They would LOVE to be involved here in Lilburn.

I am very proud to be supporting Parkview football, and the boosters.  Even though I don’t have a high school aged child (my oldest being just 4), we enjoy getting out to some games.

Take a look… drop by the blog regularly.  Comment.  Heck, we can even do lunch…

And thank you for stopping by.

Despite our best intentions, we didn’t get up to Parkview High School until almost 7:15. Since the game was scheduled to start at 7:30, we thought it would be ok… and if it weren’t for the fact that the average fan was parking no closer than Snellville (where everybody is somebody!), that would have been plenty of time. So, we saw people walking a mile away… and I was thinking that with a pregnant wife and a three year old, it wasn’t going to be much fun making that hike… twice… second time with me carrying both. But, after a few laps of some churches, other school’s parking lots, a soccer field and some side streets, we found a place to plop the ol’ minivan. And it was only 7:25…

So, we gathered up the supplies and began the trek. Little G-man could hear the band… and he was excited. As we got closer to the sound, he was asking more questions. After a few miles, we were within sight (ok, we had been walking about 10 minutes). This thing was big… I mean really big. We knew that there was a big rivalry, and we knew that it was the last game of the season before State Championship Playoffs, but this was big. The place was PACKED.

After getting in, we managed to find a seat in what I would describe as the Not Old Enough to be a Student section. I felt old… Gail felt old… Garret even felt old. The girls around us were young enough to give him a third look (note to self: I think the issues will start in about 8 years). So, despite the frantic activity in the kiddie section, there was an interesting football game going on. But, with the “Rush Hour on I-285″ traffic in the aisle next to us, we decided to seek other accommodations before half-time. My wife is a “recovering” band geek, so we had to be in a good position for the Halftime Show.

We abandoned the 70 pound crowd and made our way to the fence near the Parkview drum corps while they practiced. There are few things that can hold the attention like a drum corps. If they didn’t stop, he would stand there until Bob the Builder walked by and grabbed his attention away… or the Chik-fil-A cow… who just happened to walk by as the drum corps got ready to line up with the band.

My wife wanted a better perch, and we figured there was no better place that the area reserved for the band… they weren’t using it. Are you thinking that there was no way we would be able to stay there? Let me tell you, my kid is cute. Aside from the people that walked in front of us constantly, it was a great spot. But, there was still less traffic than in the NOES area. We knew we would have to abandon the area after the band was done on the field, but, the ex-band geek wanted a higher view…

So, we found a perch about halfway up the aisle next to the band. We had watched Brookwood HS’s band first, now it was time for Parkview to perform. Since the little guy couldn’t see, it was up on the shoulder time. There he sat for the next 13 minutes while the band marched… asking “what are they doing?” about every 30 seconds. “they are marching”… still the answer.

Good time. We really did enjoy the show. Garrett was having a serious ball. And he’d spotted a kid with pompoms. So, after the band finished up, we headed to the concession area… and the bathroom (pregnant wife, remember?) We found different pompoms. And the stand had one of the blue and orange ones left… scored for free for the cute kid. Hurry past the funnel cake booth… ok, we slowed down. the line was long enough that even the three year old didn’t want me to wait in it. Now, the search for a new spot, sans middle schoolers.

Woo hoo. We found a spot. This was next to the band, and slightly in front of the Angry Dads Yelling Out Plays to the Coaches section. That really isn’t as bad as it sounds. This was great. Short guy was enjoying the band. I could actually see that there was football going on. Wife was also enjoying the band. Short guy was people watching… when he wasn’t assaulting the guy in front of us with the pompom. then he got a Parkview football from a passing guy (seriously, the kid scored more than the Panthers…).

We knew that we needed to get out in front of the crowd. Pregnant wife and three year old were not up to sprinting for the minivan… me neither. So, with about 9 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, we made our escape. Ten minutes to get back to the minivan and we were off… after loading up. We just managed to beat the crowd out onto the road.

A quick stop into Bruster’s for ice cream… the kid was seriously good during the whole event… and back home.

It was a great night in Lilburn, Georgia. We got to watch two State Championship caliber football teams face off. We got to watch two great marching bands perform. If you want to be in either of these excellent school districts, give me a call. Or drop by my website and take a look at what is available.