YOUTH
SCENE
New year greeting
Ready for the eclipse?
DeKalb Schools Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green visited E.L. Bouie Elementary on the first day of school. 4
The SalemPanola Library on Aug. 14 will have sunglasses and projector kits to view the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, while they last. 6
Let’s Keep DeKalb Peachy Clean Please Don’t Litter Our Streets and Highways
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER
August 12, 2017
Copyright © 2017 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Volume 23, Number 15
www.crossroadsnews.com
Dedicated left-turn signal to make intersection safer By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
made the turn onto Thompson Mill Road. DeKalb District 5 Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson, who represents the area, said she heard concerns about the level of danger when turning left from Snapfinger onto Thompson Mill. “Although a left turn signal already existed at the intersection, there have still been a number of accidents when vehicles Mereda Johnson were making a left turn in front of oncoming traffic,” she said. “I am pleased to report that the intersection has
The intersection of Snapfinger Road and Thompson Mill Road in Decatur now has dedicated left-turn arrows to help motorists navigate the wide roadway. DeKalb County crews installed the new signals on Aug. 4, 23 days before the anniversary of a horrific Aug. 27, 2016, accident that claimed the lives of two members of the city of Lithonia’s prominent Woods family. Brenda Drucilla Woods, 69, and Kiman Woods, 44, the sister and nephew of former Lithonia Mayor Marcia Glenn-Hunter and former City Council member Barbara Lester, died at the intersection when their Toyota was t-boned by a Mercedes-Benz as they Please see THOMPSON MILL, page 2
Protected leftturn signals were installed Aug. 4 at the intersection of Snapfinger Road and Thompson Mill Road, scene of three fatal accidents since 2012.
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
South DeKalb houses selling like hot cakes Buyers paying over list, but low inventory hampering market
Within two weeks of listing their five-bedroom, three-bath home in Ellenwood, Larry and Kameelah Chase had 16 offers, all of them above their asking price of $178,000.
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Within a day of listing their two-story Ellenwood home for sale in early July, Larry and Kameelah Chase had four offers. Within two weeks, they had 16 offers, each of them above their listing price of $178,000. By the end of July, they had a contract for $183,000 on the five-bedroom, three bathroom house. Kameelah Chase said they were surprised and pleased. “It makes me feel that finally our home values are coming back in South DeKalb,” she said. The Chases are among a growing number of South DeKalb sellers who are seeing their homes sell above list prices, and quickly. “We have quality homes that families want to move into,” said Chase, a DeKalb County Schools STEMS teacher, Her husband, who works for mortgage company, said they knew the market had changed when 55 people showed up for the open house their Realtor Lucretia Ramsey hosted. Ramsey, owner of Ramsey Realty Service, reeled off other examples of recent sales she has made – all with multiple offers above list prices. “We are rising from the ashes,” she says. “We have demand again for South DeKalb. The buyers are back.” Ramsey says the turnaround in home Lucretia Ramsey values has been dramatic. “We began noticing it in March,” she said. Since then, Ramsey said it has become common to have five to seven offers above asking price on most listings. For example, she recently sold a Stone Mountain house that was listed for $199,000 for $204,000 within a day. She also had a four-bedroom, three bath brick-front ranch, also in Stone Mountain, listed for $185,00, that closed for $189,000 within 30 days; and a Waters Edge home purchased for $88,000 in 2009, that sold for $204,000. Ramsey and several other Realtors and agents active in the South DeKalb market now call it a sellers’ market. “We have more buyers than sellers,” Ramsey said, “Buyers are ready to buy but it’s taking them months to find a house.
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
We need more sellers.” Even with the current boom, property values have been slow to rebound in South DeKalb and lag behind North DeKalb and metro Atlanta. Still, this year’s reversal of fortune is noteworthy. Between 2009 and 2012, South DeKalb was ground zero for the foreclosure tsunami that hit DeKalb County and wiped out millions of dollars of real estate value. At the height of the foreclosure crisis in the summer of 2010, Georgia ranked eighth in the nation for foreclosures, and DeKalb County, with 13,903 foreclosed homes, primarily in South DeKalb, ranked third statewide for the highest number of foreclosed properties behind Fulton and Gwinnett counties. Since the 2007-2008 recession and the housing foreclosure crisis, Multiple Listing Service housing inventory has declined from 110,000 in 2008 to 33,000 currently. Realtors say the current short supply is helping home values rebound in South DeKalb. Keith Palmer, a Realtor with Palmer House Properties, said the lack of inventory is now threatening the housing comeback. “We need more inventory,” said Palmer, who has been selling real estate in South DeKalb for 18 years. “There is more demand than supply and if it continues, it will slow sales.” Palmer thinks the current brisk market is the result of
pent-up demand and an increase in consumer confidence. “More people are feeling more confident and they are ready to buy,” he said. He says the 30032 ZIP Code is selling pretty well. The Chases’ five-bedroom home, which has a partially finished basement, a nice deck built by Lowe’s, new flooring and a new roof, appraised higher than they expected. The couple, who has lived in the home for 10 years, are its second Keith Palmer owners. They bought it for $115,000 in 2007. Kameelah Chase said their closing price will be good for nearby homeowners. “It will catapult the values of other homes in my neighborhood,” she said. While metro Atlanta’s housing market is up 13 percent in the last two years, the Realtors say the South DeKalb market, which saw seen values plummet 50 percent during the housing bust, has increased 24 percent in the same period. They say the rebound is fueled by home buyers’ desire to be closer to the city of Atlanta and its interstates, and the values they are finding. Please see REBOUND, page 3