Diamond Dwellings

Real Estate News Category

Big League Dreams another step closer to Lilburn…

Posted By Lane Bailey on November 5th, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

Over on my LilburnDwellings blog a few weeks ago I wrote about Big League Dreams possibly coming to Lilburn, GA. At that time, the city was thinking about spending $450,000 (refundable, according to the City) for a feasibility study from Big League Dreams regarding building a facility here in Lilburn.

Last week, the City approved the feasibility study based on a market study conducted by BLD. According to the market study, Gwinnett is ripe for their type of facility. However, there seem to be some problems that I see in the study… running counter to the goals of the facility. The most glaring is that the City of Lilburn wants to bring people here to eat in our restaurants and stay in local hotels, but according to the study, the vast majority of users will be from within Gwinnett County. Another item (that I didn’t see mentioned in the study) is that there aren’t many hotel rooms or a variety of restaurants within the city limits… where it would increase tax revenue.

There is more information here on the Gwinnett Daily Post.

I think that there needs to be a LOT more public input before the city commits to $20,000,000 for one of these facilities. And I think that there need to be some studies done apart from BLD… they have little risk, they would build the facility, but the city would pay for it, then BLD operates it… and charges the city to do it. Even if it falls radically short of expectations, BLD can still profit.

Big League Dreams in Lilburn? (lilburndwellings.com)

from LaneBailey.com

Lilburn, GA Market Report, September 2010

Posted By Lane Bailey on October 28th, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

Market stats for Lilburn, September, 2010, indicates that there are 443 properties on the market (as of September 30th). Overall, there is about a 9.8 month supply of properties. Lilburn is actually mid-pack among cities in Gwinnett County. Absorption Rates had been improving since March, until September. In fact, in March there was 15.3 months of inventory.

In the sub-$200k arena, there are 273 listings, with about an 7.7 month supply. This represents most of the sales in the market area, and reflects the same improvement in inventory levels, continuously since March. And, one other thing to keep in mind is that sales were strong compared to September 2009 (32 v 25).

Between $200k and $400k, there are 146 listings for sale, and about 19 months of supply. This segment has also been getting stronger each month since March, until this month. There were only 2 sales in September 2010, compared to 11 last year.

From $400k to $600k, there are 20 homes on the market. The absorption rate is around 15 months. There was one more sale in September 2010 (1) v September 2009 (0) as this year, but there were no sales in this segment in May, June or July this year. Last summer was much stronger overall. With just a few sales, just one or two can make a huge difference.

Above $600k, there are 4 listings, but too few sales to have any sort of reliable number of months of inventory. There has been one sale in the last three months, but prior, there had only been a few other sales in 2010 (January, March and August). One of the listings is 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.

Lilburn, GA Market Report, August 2010 (lanebailey.com)
Big League Dreams in Lilburn? (lilburndwellings.com)
Gwinnett County Schools Get $1M Scholarship (lanebailey.com)

from LaneBailey.com

Gwinnett County Schools Get $1M Scholarship

Posted By Lane Bailey on October 19th, 2010

: Image by lane.bailey via Flickr

It was announced today that the Gwinnett County Public School system was awarded a $1,000,000 scholarship grant from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. The $1,000,000 will go out as scholarships to needy students within the district.

Gwinnett took the top honors because of their high standards of performance for students regardless of race. They beat out Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and Socorro Independent School District and Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, for the award. The award is for districts that show the most gains in student performance and closing minority achievement gaps.

Something else that should be kept in mind is that the GCPS has done this on a budget that is quite austere compared to some other local districts, such as the City of Atlanta Schools. GCPS spends under $9,000/student, yet achieves better results than the City of Atlanta, which spends over $12,000/student.

Another feat that GCPS should be proud of is that they have achieved a high school graduation rate of 84 percent and 90 percent of those graduates go on to college or other post-secondary training.

I’m not a huge fan of public education (I’d like to see vouchers), but it is obvious that the Gwinnett County Public School system is doing some things correctly… and that they would be able to compete if there were vouchers in the district. In fact, I think that many parents in adjoining districts would try to get their children into GCPS if they had the opportunity.

And don’t forget that Lilburn, GA is home to two of the best performing groups of schools in the Gwinnett system, Parkview and Brookwood. I happen to know of a few homes for sale in the area… ;^ )

Ga. School District Wins $1M Broad Prize (huffingtonpost.com)
Welcome Arcado’s new Principal, Penny Palmer-Young (lilburndwellings.com)

from LaneBailey.com

Lilburn, GA Market Report, August 2010

Posted By Lane Bailey on September 30th, 2010

: via Lane Bailey

Market stats for Lilburn, August, 2010, indicates that there are 481 properties on the market (as of August 31st). Overall, there is about a 9.6 month supply of properties. Lilburn is actually one of the better performing cities in Gwinnett County. Absorption Rates have been improving since March. In fact, in March the re was 15.3 months of inventory.

In the sub-$200k arena, there are 292 listings, with about an 7.8 month supply. This represents most of the sales in the market area, and reflects the same improvement in inventory levels since March. And, one other thing to keep in mind is that sales were VERY strong compared to August 2009 (38 v 25).

Between $200k and $400k, there are 162 listings for sale, and about 14.3 months of supply. This segment has also been getting stronger each month since March. However, there were only 9 sales in August 2010, compared to 13 last year.

From $400k to $600k, there are 22 homes on the market. The absorption rate is around 22 months. There were exactly the same number of sales in August 2009 (3) as this year, but there were no sales in this segment in May, June or July. Last summer was much stronger. With just a few sales, just a sale or two can make a huge difference.

Above $600k, there are 5 listings, but too few sales to have any sort of reliable number of months of inventory. There has been one sale in the last three months, but prior, there had only been a few other sales in 2010 (January and March). Two of the listings are above $800k, and there is no market activity in the last 12 months for that range…

I have a page dedicated to Lilburn Market Data.

Big League Dreams in Lilburn?

Posted By Lane Bailey on September 9th, 2010

: Image via Wikipedia

The City of Lilburn is mulling over a plan to bring a ‘Big League Dreams‘ sports complex to the city. It would be located near US29 and Indian Trail-Lilburn Rd.

The plan is not without controversy, and the company is not without its detractors. And it isn’t cheap… the cost is expected to be $20M+ and the company has a history of going well over their initial estimates by the time construction completes. And that won’t likely be for 2+ years…

The Gwinnett Daily Post had an article the other day about it, and mentioned that there will be an agenda item about it on the September 13th City Council meeting.

What do you think? Is this a cool plan for Lilburn to revitalize itself? Or is it a boondoggle?