Athens, GA Real Estate Blog

Are you familiar with Energy Efficient Mortgages?  If you are an environmentally conscious home buyer or just interested in buying an energy efficient home to keep your utility bills low, then you should consider an EEM or "green" mortgage.  With an EEM mortgage, a home's energy savings is actually built into the mortgage and the buyer's debt to income ratios can be expanded so that they may qualify for a more expensive and energy efficient home.  For more information visit Energy Star's site:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=mortgages.energy_efficient_mortgages

It has been an exciting week for Prudential Real Estate.  On Tuesday it was announced that Brookfield Residential Property Services has purchased Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services.  This addition to Brookfield's existing residential real estate franchising and employee relocation businesses establishes Brookfield as the 2nd largest employee relocation provider and 3rd largest residential real estate franchise business in the world.  

Prudential Real Estate affiliates will continue using the Prudential brand.  Prudential and Brookfield will operate as separate networks under the same parent company (Brookfield Asset Management).

It will be business as usual here at Prudential Blanton Properties but we are excited about the opportunities that this association will bring.

This is a great video remembering the tragic events that happened 70 years ago today - never forget Pearl Harbor.

Looking to save money on your heating bills this winter?  Installing a programmable thermostat could be a great way to do it - watch this video from Home Depot to find out how:

This is such a wonderful time of year in Athens when there is an overwhelming sense of community.  There seems to be holiday events happening every day.  If you live near the Classic City here are a few events that are upcoming:

December 1 - Downtown Parade of Lights  http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/index.aspx?NID=2589

December 2 - "Overnight Christmas" @ the Morton Theatre  http://www.mortontheatre.com/

December 3 - Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa  http://www.athensindiecraftstravaganzaa.com/

December 10-11 Athens Symphony Christmas Concerts @  the Classic Center  http://www.athenssymphony.org/

On February 4, 2012 my Rotary Club will have the first ever Athens Rotary Plungefest at Lake Chapman in Sandy Creek Park here in Athens.  Participants will jump into the wintry water to raise money for 3 local charities:  the Foodbank of Northeast Georgia, the Red Cross of East Georgia and Shelterbox.  We could really use your help - click on the link below to donate or register to take the plunge yourself!

http://www.blueskycollaborative.com/athens/default.asp

Please take a moment today and give thanks to those who have sacrificed so much to defend and protect our freedom.

Last week the federal government announced that changes are being made to the HARP program (Home Affordable Refinance Program) which will hopefully make it easier to refinance at today's low interest rates.  Among other changes, home owner's may now be able to refinance no matter how underwater they are in their mortgage - previously you could not refinance if you were more than 125% underwater.  Watch the video below for more details:

http://youtu.be/RVNzS8exIqw

This is a good video from NAR with ideas on how to improve the housing market:

This is a good calculator from the New York Times which shows that compares buying vs renting a home:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html