For 30 years, Frank Malloy has been a presence in homes all across Central Georgia.
From high school football on Friday nights to being at the heart of news that matters most to viewers, Frank Malloy has been there.
Congratulations on Frank Malloy’s 30th year at 13WMAZ.
BY CODY RHODES
Word about several cases of flesh-eating bacteria has been spreading across Central Georgia, but it’s not necessarily keeping folks away from the water.
Some people at Lake Sinclair in Milledgeville on Thursday said they weren’t worried about the disease, while others said the scary news has made them think twice before getting wet.
Irma Ballard took a day trip to Milledgeville from Oxford, GA, with her husband, and she said the questions surrounding the disease worry her.
“Going in the water or not going in the water,” she said, “we have to find out where is this disease coming from and why we are getting this disease.”
Charles Allen of Dublin went fishing on the lake to test out his boat. He said he was careful not to get cut, but otherwise, he isn’t planning to cut down on trips to the lake.
“I’ve been coming out here since the mid-sixties,” he said, “and it’s not a real concern, you don’t have that many cases, but it is unusual to have four like we’ve had in the last few weeks.”
Candace Adorka 13wmaz.COM
| THOUGHT OF THE DAY: |
“A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.” – Jane Austen
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Freddie Mac released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook for May on Wednesday, pointing to the available data as an encouraging sign for housing and the economy in 2012-3.
The release details information gathered about economic growth and housing markets over the first quarter of 2012. Although not all of the data is positive, the outlook stated that the data for the most part “trend in the right direction.”
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported 2.2 percent economic growth in first-quarter 2012, a drop from the last quarter of 2011. However, the release pointed out that this was still higher than it has been for three of the past four quarters. The slower growth reflects less inventory accumulation and a fall in nonresidential construction. Personal consumption expenditures grew at a 15.3 percent annual rate, which reflects continuing strength in consumer durables.
According to the report, residential fixed investment (RFI) also contributed to economic growth, adding 0.4 percentage points. RFI mostly reflects new housing construction and remodeling expenses and has been a contributor to growth for four straight quarters, with first-quarter 2012 receiving the biggest boost in nearly two years. However, the release states that RFI remains weak for this stage of the economic recovery when compared with previous business cycles.
The Freddie Mac House Price Index (FMHPI) for the first quarter of 2012 suggested that home values may be at or approaching their bottom in many markets. At the state level, the index rose at least 0.5 percent in 13 states between first-quarter 2012 and fourth-quarter 2011, stayed about flat in nine states, and fell at least 0.5 percent in the remaining 28 states. This, combined with low fixed-rate mortgages, may result in a sales increase in 2012 relative to last year. The low FMHPI also bodes well for 60 and 90-day delinquency rates, which have both declined across all markets in recent quarters. However, they remain historically high.
Home ownership rates continued to fall throughout the first quarter despite the increased affordability of homes. The Census Bureau reported that the national ownership rate dropped 0.5 percentage points to 65.5 percent (seasonally adjusted) during the quarter, a level not seen since 1997. With foreclosure proceedings continuing, this number should continue to fall.
Freddie Mac’s first-quarter refinance activity reports showed that about 80 percent of borrowers who refinanced their mortgages either paid down their balance or kept it about the same. Loan deliveries under the enhanced Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) also picked up. The number of loans refinanced through HARP represented 20 percent of all refinance fundings at Freddie Mac, the highest share since HARP was created.
Despite the few shortfalls, the overall outlook is very good, according to Freddie Mac VP and chief economist Frank Nothaft.
“Taken together, the first-quarter data releases provide an encouraging sign for both the macroeconomy and the housing recovery,” he said. “While not uniformly positive, for the most part the data trend in the right direction.”
| THOUGHT OF THE DAY: |
“We all have more power and less control than we realize.” – Ann Ward Simpson
| FACT OF THE DAY: |
You cannot snore and dream at the same time. – Provided by RandomHistory.com
DSNEWS.com
Home prices for GSE-backed mortgages rose 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the previous 2011 fourth quarter, according to FHFA’s purchase-only home price index (HPI). Prices also showed a 0.5 percent increase from the year ago first quarter, and month-over-month, prices increased 1.8 percent in March.
The purchase only HPI uses home sales price information from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and includes more than 6 million repeat sales transactions.
“Consistent with other housing market indicators, theFHFA HPI showed stronger house prices in the first quarter, most notably in March,” said Andrew Leventis,FHFA principal economist. “Increased affordability and a somewhat smaller inventory of homes for sale are positively impacting house prices.”
FHFA also has an expanded-data HPI, which adds sales price information from county recorder offices and the Federal Housing Administration and includes data sampled from 45 million repeat transactions.
According to the expanded-data HPI, prices gained 0.2 percent quarter-over-quarter, and compared to the year ago first quarter, prices dropped 1.3 percent.
On a quarterly basis, 30 states and the District of Columbia saw prices increases.
The five states with the highest yearly increases based on seasonally adjusted data from the purchase-only HPI were Hawaii (10.3 percent), Washington, D.C. (9.8 percent), Iowa (5.7 percent), Florida (4.7 percent) and North Dakota (4.4 percent).
The states that saw the greatest drop in prices were Delaware (-7.65), Nevada (-6.88), Washington (-5.39), New Jersey (-4.01), and Illinois (-3.53).
Of the nine census divisions, the Mountain division posted the largest quarterly gain at 1.4 percent. All divisions posted quarterly increases except for the New England division, where prices fell 0.7 percent.
According to data from the purchase-only indexes, among the 25 most populated metropolitan areas, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas had the highest increase after posting a 2.4 percent quarterly gain. In Atlanta- Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia, prices dropped the furthest at 3.3 percent over the same period.
DSNEWS.com
New home sales rose 3.3 percent month-over-month in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000, theCommerce Department and HUD reported Wednesday. On a yearly basis, new home sales rose 9.9 percent. And, the good news did not end there. The months’ supply of inventory fell to 5.1, and while sales were down in the South, they were up in Northeast, Midwest, and West.
This report was followed by the National Association of Realtor’s existing home sales report released Tuesday, which showed the sale of existing homes rose 3.4 percent on a monthly basis and 10 percent year-over-year.
In comparison to the sale of existing homes, Paul Diggle, property economist with Capital Economics, said new home sales will still continue to lag behind the existing home sales market.
“New homes are still having to compete with discounted foreclosures and short sales,” Diggle wrote. “Moreover, we have started to hear anecdotal reports that homebuilders are running low on high-grade lots for development, which opens the possibility that starts, and thus sales, may pause temporarily if builders need to replenish land supply.”
Even though the new home sales sector is not expected to improve as quickly, there were still noteworthy signs economists pointed out for the market.
In an analysis, Patrick Newport and Michele Valverde, economists with IHS Global Insight, commented, “Not only were sales a bit higher than expected, the numbers for the prior three months were revised up. Sales for 2010 and 2011 were also revised, but only marginally. This market is unquestionably improving. Activity, though, is still less than half of normal.”
Capital Economics also noted that new homes are also being sold earlier in the construction process, with 58 percent of new homes sold in the previous three months un-started or still under construction.
“The rising share of new homes selling earlier in the construction process strikes us as
further evidence of the improvement in buyer confidence. After all, you’re unlikely to
buy a home if you expect it to be worth significantly less by the time it has been built,” Diggle wrote.
With the slight drop in inventory from 5.2 months in March to 5.1 in April, Newport and Valverde said, “Inventory may have hit or is nearing a bottom. This is good news, since re-stocking inventory to meet rising demand will give housing starts a small boost in the coming months.”
As for the future, IHS economists said they project sales to rise to 361,000 in 2012 from 307,000 in 2011, and they do not expect to see sales climb above 800,000 until 2015.
Today… Sunny with a very slight chance of sprinkles and highs in the upper 80s.
Tonight… Mostly clear with lows near 60.
Thursday… Sunny with a very slight chance of sprinkles and highs in the lower 90s.
Thursday Night… Mostly clear with lows in the mid 60s.
Friday… Mostly sunny with a very slight chance for afternoon storms and highs in the lower 90s.
Friday Night… Mostly clear with lows in the mid 60s.
Saturday… Sunny with a very slight chance of sprinkles and highs in the lower 90s.
Saturday Night… Partly cloudy with lows in the mid 60s.
Sunday… Partly cloudy with a slight chance for afternoon showers and storms and highs in the lower 90s.
Sunday Night… Partly cloudy with a slight chance for an evening t’storm and lows in the upper 60s.
Monday (Memorial Day)… Partly cloudy with a slight chance for afternoon showers and storms and highs in the lower 90s.
Monday Night… Partly cloudy with a slight chance for an evening t’storm and lows in the upper 60s.
Tuesday… Partly cloudy with a slight chance for afternoon showers and storms and highs in the lower 90s.
Tuesday Night… Partly cloudy with a slight chance for an evening t’storm and lows in the upper 60s.
Houston County’s slate of elected officials has gone all-Republican.
The last elected Democrat in the county, superior court clerk Carolyn Sullivan,. qualified Wednesday to run instead as a Republican.
Sullivan says she was a lifelong Democrat, but could no longer support the party’s agenda or President Obama.
“I’m concerned about the direction the country is going in, and I felt that if I put myself down as a Democrat, I would be supporting that,” she said.
She said she was particularly concerned about the nation’s inability to reduce its debt.
County GOP chairman Aaron Hufstetler says Houston County was predominately Democrat when he came to town in the 1980s, but the tide has gradually turned.
Hufstetler says all of the party’s elected Republicans qualified Wednesday morning, including judges, the tax commissioner, three county commissioners and Sheriff Cullen Talton.
He does not expect primary challengers for any of them.
He said Justin Tabor, who announced last year that he would run for sheriff, has apparently dropped out of the race and has not qualified.
We could not reach Tabor for comment.
13WMAZ.com
