IF YOU GO
The 2007 Parade of Homes runs Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next from 1-6
p.m. each day. It will feature homes around the Jackson metropolitan area.
Admission is free.
By Julie Goodman
jgoodman@clarionledger.com
found at clarionledger.com
Frank Pucylowski, a builder and developer with JFP &
Co. in Ridgeland, said one of his Brandon homes, which will be part of the
parade, features a mahogany front door with beveled edge glass. It has a brick
fireplace and an octagonal island in the kitchen.
He says the smooth stovetop is easier to clean and
accommodates a trend toward easier living.
"We all have a much busier lifestyle so people really
look for things in the house where they don't have to spend all their time in
the house," he said.
The 1,761 square-foot house in the Provonce subdivision is
going for $194,000, a price bracket targeting teachers, police officers,
firefighters and others who make about $25,000 to $50,000 and may be looking for
their first home.
Pucylowski, also the president of the Home Builders
Association of Jackson, which is running the parade, said the event has drawn 88
builders this year. There will be 29 homes in Hinds County, 57 in Rankin County
and 72 in Madison County.
He said more modular homes are also coming on the market.
David Smith of David Smith Builder Inc. in Ridgeland, who
builds in Rankin and Madison counties, has one home in the parade this year.
He said there is a slow trend in the area toward buying
homes that are energy efficient, although builders still seem to cling to the
"newer, fresher, decorating" flourishes.
"I think more consumers are wanting to see houses
built 'green' just because of where our country is today as far as fuel
consumption," he said. "But I don't think the builders are quite there
yet."
Smith, vice president of the association, said he is
building some energy-efficient homes, despite their higher costs. "But it
absolutely can drive the cost of the house down as far as an operation
standpoint."
That trend is going to have to be buyer-driven in
Mississippi, he said, for it ever to take off. "We're kind of the last to
get everything."
As far as design trends, he said he is ready to move on
from the usual Acadian-style homes.
The housing market here doesn't appear to be as rocky as
it does in other parts of the country, said Cheryl Bullock, CEO of the Jackson
Association of Realtors.
Comparing figures from January with early May with the
same period in 2006, Bullock said the total number of houses sold did not drop
in Hinds County. That total went from 880 last year to 899 this year. But she
said the county is seeing a lowered average list price, going from $139,416 in
2006 to $122,316 this year.
Madison County's house sales dropped from 507 to 457.
"But on the flip side, in 2006, it was taking 91 days average to sell a
property and this year, it's only taking 81," she said.
Rankin County is showing longer time in days its houses
remain on the market, going from 70 to 80.
"We are seeing a bit of a slowing, but we still have
great interest rates, it's just a perfect time to be in the market
looking," she said.
"I wish I could tell you that it was booming, but
stable, in what I hear in the national press, is probably a pretty good place to
be at the moment."
A look at a couple of smaller building projects and the price list of
modular homes
found 2 June 2007 at Punta
Gorda Herald
All kinds of groundbreakings are happening around here lately, including the
event center/ eventatorium, Charlotte High School and, upcoming, the Punta Gorda
Housing Authority apartments.
Lost amid these mega projects, two smaller ones have also been recently
completed; the Isles Yacht Club activity/fitness center opened last month and
Bob and Cate Peterson's workforce house should be receiving its certificate of
occupancy any day.
The IYC activity/fitness center was a by-product of Hurricane Charley. It
started life as a modular, known as the bridge building, and served as the main
clubhouse while the club was building the magnificent edifice looming over the
intersection of Bal Harbor Boulevard and West Marion Avenue.
Upon moving into the new clubhouse last December, the bridge building was
converted to house the dock master's office, a library for visiting boaters,
bathroom and laundry room facilities for visiting boaters, a billiard room, two
multi-purpose rooms and a fitness center.
I don't do any cruising myself, but the IYC has put what was a temporary
building to good use as a facility for visiting boaters. The library room even
has Internet access for visitors who want to check the weather or download
e-mail.
And the members -- they ended up with just what they asked for, based on a
membership survey taken in fall 2005.
The 1,200-square-foot fitness center has six aerobic machines, five
strength-training machines, two treadmills, two training bicycles, one
elliptical trainer and one stair stepper and some free weights.
The machines are is high quality; the strength equipment provided by Batca
and the treadmills and bikes by Vision Fitness. All the machines sit on a
comfortable and quiet rubberized floor. On the walls, to occupy your brain while
you're exercising your body, are flat panel TVs with an FM transmitter beaming
your program of choice to your earphones.
Classes -- aerobics, yoga and Pilates -- at the new fitness center are well
attended, according to Johnnie Holt Sloan, the club's publicity chair, and the
women have really taken to a water aerobics class in the pool just outside the
fitness center.
The billiards room, which houses a high-quality rosewood and slate table
donated by member Bob Spencer, is proving equally popular. He's giving lessons,
and Sloan said, "We're getting a mixed bag with the billiards; 50 percent
men and 50 percent women."
Sloan said of the members' attitude toward the new center, "Everybody is
really pleased with it. My only regret is that it opened when everybody was
taking off (going north) from here."
Over at the corner of Cooper and McKenzie, the Petersons had a quiet little
celebration May 15 to mark the near-end of their attempt, as private
individuals, to build a workforce housing unit.
The house was basically complete at the time, minus appliances, sod and some
trim work, and the Petersons should be proud.
The house is attractive, modern and feels spacious. It has a gorgeous front
porch fronting on McKenzie and is way better than the drafty little plywood and
wallboard miniature that was my first house.
I've written a couple of columns over the past six months about the
Petersons, who are both passionate about the need for workforce housing and
active in the Hibiscus Housing Trust, and their attempt to see if individual
citizens can help solve our area's affordable housing problem.
While their house turned out great, their noble experiment turned out to be
unworkable, according to Cate, and not one they would want to repeat.
"I believe the only way to keep costs down is with a land trust,"
she said. "Our original concept of making a small profit and reinvesting it
and getting other people to do it didn't work."
Peterson pointed to the cost of the land and impact fees as the major
culprits that brought the list price of their house to $179,000, well above
their original target and and even more above the $125,000 to $150,000 range
that many houses in the county, if not Punta Gorda proper, are selling for.
The Petersons' Realtor, Kim Weger, of RE/MAX Anchor Realty (941-639-1376),
after pointing out the superior, modern construction of the Peterson house, said
buyers looking to purchase an affordable home, shouldn't let that higher price
dissuade them.
She said a number of grant and assistance programs, with minimal paperwork,
are available to make homes in that price range more affordable to buyers. Net
incomes in the $900 to $1,000 range are generally adequate to qualify.
But Weger also pointed to two other costs that are major roadblocks to buyers
in this price range.
"Taxes and insurance are killing us," she said. "Taxes are
$2,000 and insurance $3,000, around $300 or $400 a month. That's the biggest
hurdle."
E-mail Gordon Bower at
pgherald@sun-herald.com.
By GORDON BOWER
“There’s so much inventory out there that the buyer can pick and choose,” said Susan Sirles Fidler, a Realtor at Re/Max 10, Oak Lawn. But she cautioned, “The stuff that’s almost free is almost free because it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to put it back together. It’s not buyer beware as much as buyer be smart.”
