Posts tagged "local"

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.

Johnson City ranks 82 & Kingsport 83 on May report put out by the National Asscoation of Home Builders listing Improving Housing markets in the nation.

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.

Kingsport ranks 75th in a list of housing markets showing growth, according to a survey released today by the National Association of Home Builders.

schoolit:

Yesterday the House of Delegates in the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill that would allow Virginia to join the 25 other states to permit home-schooled students to play varsity sports at public high schools. 

Home-schooling has evolved into a more mainstream activity, up from 850,000 students nationally in 1999 to 1.5 million in 2007.  For students wanting to participate in sports that require large number of players, such as football, high school sports may be their only option.  Many parents of home-schooled students also feel that their children should be allowed to participate given the taxes they pay to support public education.

Certain high-profile athletes have publicized this issue. Tim Tebow, who is now the Denver Broncos quarterback, won the Heisman Trophy and two national championships at the University of Florida, and was home-schooled but competed for his public high school’s football team in Jacksonville, FL.
 
Opponents argue that home-schooled students could not be monitored by public schools in regard to academic eligibility, and others question whether or not it should be allowed to use public schools as an à la carte system:  if football is allowed, should school clubs, science projects, and homecoming events be open to home-schooled students also?

Question: Do you think that students whose parents have chosen to home-school them have the right to participate in athletics at public schools?

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.