Posts tagged "Bristol"

BHC 0512 BVsigns 01 on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Photo Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier

Bristol Virginia city council is working on the rules for signs around the City. The signage along Commonwealth Ave. is shown here.

A television music and travel series highlighting Tennessee is set for international broadcast beginning Friday.

“Music Voyager — Tennessee” takes viewers along Interstate 40, dubbed “the music highway,” from Bristol to Memphis. It is a four-part series representing the music of East, Middle and West Tennessee, and Nashville’s most prolific songwriters.

It will air on the BBC and elsewhere overseas. In this country, it is to air on Public Broadcasting Service stations beginning in April.
The series will also air on in-flight television programing for 13 airlines and be available in-room at several luxury and resort hotels throughout the world, according to the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development.

Virginia Main Street: Visit Downtown Bristol

neikirkimage:

Via Flickr:
Photo Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier

Bristol Virginia Mayor Ed Harlow, right, and Jeff Sadler, Virginia Main Street Program Director unveil the new signage during a press conference on friday. There are 25 downtown’s in the program.

The National Guard Armory is the new voting location for early voters in Bristol, Tenn.

Those who want an absentee ballot have until Feb. 28 to request a ballot.

Polling places:

• Sullivan County Election Commission Office
• National Guard Armory, Bristol, Tenn.
• Civic Auditorium, Kingsport

Polling dates

• Feb. 15-17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Feb. 18 from 9 a.m. to noon
• Closed Feb. 20 for Presidents Day
• Feb. 21-24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to noon
• Feb. 27-28 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A high percentage of foreclosures and a turbulent job market combined to drag down the Twin City’s housing market in 2011.

Sales of existing homes fell by about 13 percent in Bristol, Va., and 19.5 percent in Bristol, Tenn., compared to 2010, according to a new report from the Northeast Tennessee Association of Realtors. This marks the third consecutive year that home sales declined in the Twin City. Average sale prices also lagged behind 2010 levels.

By contrast, home sales increased in 10 of 11 East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia counties monitored by the realtors association. Sales increased in Johnson City and Greeneville and average sale prices rose in Johnson City and Kingsport. Only Sullivan County recorded a drop, falling 27 percent below the previous year’s sales volume.

“In this economic condition, individual housing markets are super local,” said Clarissa Brown, president of the realtor’s group. “Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City, Greeneville – conditions are all local. Looking at the numbers, there was a higher percentage of foreclosure sales in Bristol than most of the other cities.”

Foreclosures represented about 20 percent of sales in Bristol, Va., and 19 percent in Bristol, Tenn., compared to 12 percent in Kingsport, 11 percent in Johnson City and 23 percent in Greeneville.

There were 26 foreclosures in Bristol, Va., and 32 in Bristol, Tenn., last year compared to 58 in Johnson City and 49 in Kingsport, Brown said.

In Bristol, Tenn., 168 homes sold last year, bringing in $19.6 million. That’s 41 fewer than 2010 and 38 less than in 2009. On the Virginia side, 127 homes sold for a total value of $11 million. That compares to 138 sold the previous year. Figures are compiled from within city limits, not adjacent rural areas with a Bristol address.

“Foreclosures also put pressure on non-stressed home sales. They [foreclosures] can bring prices down,” Brown said. “Other factors can affect it. If there is job shock or people are uneasy about job security, they’re not going to be in the market for a home.”

During 2011, four major Twin City area employers – Touchstone Wireless, Pfizer, Exide and Bristol Compressors — announced more than 1,200 combined layoffs.

Last year, the average sale price of a home in Bristol, Va., was $87,158, and $116,578 in Bristol, Tenn., the report shows. Johnson City had the region’s highest average sale price at $210,826.

Matt Lavinder, owner of the Twin City-based Lavinder Development real estate firm, criticized the association’s report for being impacted by the sales of a few very expensive homes in late 2010.

“I prefer to use [cost-per-square-foot] as an evaluation because it takes into account the trend of larger houses selling,” Lavinder wrote in an email to the Bristol Herald Courier. “I also prefer using median (as opposed to average) so the numbers are not skewed by the multi-million dollar home sales and very low, distressed sales.”

According to Lavinder’s research, the 2011 median home sales price in Bristol, Tenn., was $102,000, or about $14,000 less than the association’s figure for average price. For comparison, the 2010 median price was $114,000, compared to the association’s more than $131,000 average sales price.

In December 2011, the regional average sale price was $149,367 compared to $143,930 in 2010 and $146,296 in 2009.

Home sales have been sluggish for several years, causing an unusually large inventory of available homes in the market, according to the report.

Sales in the greater Tri-Cities area improved markedly during the second half of last year after a slow start, according to the report. Home prices were at three-year lows in January, February, March and April. After that, the average sale price began performing with and – in some months – better than the 2008, 2009 and 2010 averages.

The association monitors eight counties in Northeast Tennessee along with Washington, Scott and Lee counties in Southwest Virginia.

Stumbled onto this information while trying to source information published by our local AP aggregator.

So in addition to the fodder that they printed… here’s a couple of points culled from the 2010-11 labour report from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Employment Security Division, Research and Statistics

• In Tennessee, the unemployment rate decreased in 56 counties, increased in 27 counties, and remained the same in 12 counties.
• Unemployment fell 0.1% to 7.1% in the Tr-Cities (Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA)
• Sullivan County currently has the 10th lowest unemployment rate in TN

While TimesNews.net did mention the 56 county decline, we think the other numbers are very important (and encouraging). NOT only to our region, but to Tennessee as a whole.

Saturday, in Bristol Virginia, a man died when a fire tore through his family’s home. Officials with the Bristol Virginia Fire Department say while there was a smoke detector, it apparently didn’t have batteries.

Firefighters have battled more than 19,000 fires in the state of Virginia, so far this year. In a report by the National Fire Protection Association, from 2005 to 2009, 2/3 of homes where there was a fire death did not have a working smoke detector.

Traces of chemicals that may disrupt hormonal and immune systems, including several personal care products, have shown up in the drinking water of six of 11 utilities tested across the state, according to a new report.