There’s a new post on the New York Times’ Economix blog by Harward Economics professor, Edward Glaeser, which gives a concise overview of Atlanta’s economic history and weighs in on the city’s future.

Though Atlanta has higher-than average unemployment and is suffering from the real estate market coma, Glaeser is still putting his chips on the ATL.

Yet there are three key reasons to think that Atlanta will weather this storm and continue to thrive.

First, Atlanta benefits from the fact that it is the dominant agglomeration in the region. The continuing vitality of large cities is a remarkable feature of our age and Atlanta benefits from that fact.

Atlanta also benefits from its business-friendly politics, which will continue to attract plenty of companies.

Finally, Atlanta also benefits from being highly skilled — something that outsiders too often forget.

Nearly 43 percent of adults in the city of Atlanta have college degrees, as opposed to 27 percent in the nation as a whole, and 41 percent in Boston. The figure is even higher in surrounding Fulton County.

Skills have long led to urban success, especially when mixed with large urban size.

Smart money never bets against the ability of a huge concentration of smart people to weather an economic storm. Don’t count Atlanta out.

h/t: Terminal Station

You know that home-sales chart from city-data that I’m always resurrecting?  You know, this one!

Well believe it or not, there’s a bit more to Decatur real estate than just a crummy mass-produced slide found in the bowels of the internet.

This evening from 5:30p-7p, Decatur residents and real estate agents, Terry Michel and Sean Dammann, are hosting a Decatur Real Estate Forum of area agents, residents and community leaders at Decatur’s Keller Williams office at 315 West Ponce to give an overview and discuss the health of Decatur’s real estate market.

While once an event geared exclusively to local agents from various realty groups around Atlanta, Dammann and Michel decided to open this quarterly event to the public and focus exclusively on the Decatur market as a service to their community.

According to Dammann, some of the questions to be answered during the forum include…

Read the rest of this entry »

From AJC’s Gold Dome…

Most local governments would have their budgets and audits posted on the Internet under legislation unanimously approved by the Georgia House on Tuesday. The obligation would apply to cities and counties with budgets of more than $1 million, said Rep. Ed Lindsey (R-Atlanta), the bill’s sponsor. The Carl Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia would post the budgets and audits on line. The cities and counties already are required to produce the budgets and audits. The goal, Lindsey said, is to allow citizens to have easy access to records on how their government is spending their money. It also will allow people with Internet access to compare the spending of their city or county to that of other governments, he said. The bill now goes to the state Senate for consdieration.

I like!  Of course, Decatur’s budget is already posted online.  As is Avondale Estates’. (pdf).  Not sure about audits.

h/t: Georgia Legislative Watch

Revenue & Technology Manager for the City of Decatur, Russ Madison, reports on the Decatur Tax Blog he’s finally gained some traction in getting Bank of America to resolve this “lost escrow check” issue…

After several phone calls between my office and Bank of America yesterday and today, I was able to open a formal “research request” with Bank of America’s tax department this morning.

One of their tax specialists informed me that he was submitting the request to higher levels within his department to research and reissue payment for the affected customers, with an estimated completion date of February 3. Bank of America should pay the penalties and interest, and the late payment would not affect their customers’ escrow accounts.

For those with mortgages at Bank of America, take note!  Robert just wrote this into the Oakhurst Message Board…

For any of you un-lucky enough to have both BANK OF AMERICA as lender and DECATUR your city, you may be getting a collection letter from Decatur saying you are delinquent on your property taxes even though you have been paying into an Escrow account with BOA that should have automatically paid your taxes with Decatur.

I was blessed with this letter today

After calling both Decatur and BOA lender couple times, here is what I found out:

Read the rest of this entry »

Have you seen this great, new home appraisals map/search feature on the AJC?

You type in your home address and it compares your 2009 home appraisal AND a previous appraisal with other residences in your immediate neighborhood.  (Note: you have to have an AJC sign-in to see appraisals for other properties.)  Also, it will provide a “return value” of the property if a homeowner appealed the 2009 appraisal.

A quick look shows me that we were one of just a few homes that received a lower appraisal in 2009 than 2008 (though that may be due to the County lowering our heated square footage space in 2009).  Five of 21homes in my area appealed their appraisals.

h/t: Political Insider

Karass and Macarolina recently requested a post where we could compile a list of passive and easy ways of earning free money for our respective schools.  A great idea!  So here ’tis.

Karass got the ball-rolling with the following suggestions.  I’ve added links where applicable.  Comments in parentheses are Karass’, italics are mine.

• Publix Partner Cards (best lucrative/ease of use ratio)  Can anyone find a link?
• Boxtops for Education (very popular with kids; also good L/EU ratio)  Clip box tops from a list of participating products, bring them to your school’s “box top coordinator’ and earn 10 cents a top!
• Target Red or Visa Cards (lucrative but less used) You must apply for a check or credit card.  1% of purchases go to your school of choice.
• Georgia Natural Gas True Blue Schools (very lucrative but few know about it) “Very lucrative” is right.  And easy!  If you’re already a Georgia Natural Gas customer, just pick your school of choice and they automatically donate $5 a month ’til the end of time!

• Campbell’s Labels for Education (less useful; yields prizes not $) Clip Campbells UPCs, mail them in, earn “great merchandise”.

Have other suggestions?  Tell us below and I’ll add them to this list!

Sobering figures from the Atlanta Business Chronicle…

The number of poor grew by 25 percent in suburbs from 2000 to 2008 — almost five times the growth rate in primary cities, the report found.

In 2008, Atlanta’s suburbs had a poverty rate of 10.7 percent, compared with 22.4 percent in the city of Atlanta. Some 95,484 people in Atlanta lived below poverty level ($21,834 for a family of four), compared with 519,521 in Atlanta’s suburbs. And 15.5 percent of poor people in the metro area lived in the city of Atlanta, compared with 84.5 percent in the suburbs.

What’s worse than living below the poverty line?  Living below the poverty line and having no choice but to gas-up and maintain a vehicle.

As has already been communicated via letter to Decatur First customers, and reported by the DNO, Decatur First Bank recently signed an order with federal regulators to raise more capital and reduce bad debt as the bank crisis continues to play out across the state.

Bank president Judy Turner recently commented to the AJC…

…the bank has been a conservative lender, choosing not to invest heavily in new home construction or subdivision development that got so many Georgia banks in trouble. But the economic downturn has hit its customer base hard, causing a spike in loan delinquencies.

“When people lose their job, they can’t pay their bills,” she said. “There’s just a lot of stress in the economy.”

DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis revealed his 2010 budget yesterday, which proposes an 11% increase in property taxes and cutting nearly 760 jobs.  From the AJC…

Ellis would reduce the spending side of the ledger by about $30 million. He wants do this by eliminating 360 ghost jobs that have been unfilled but remain on the books; and by offering early retirement. His budget is predicated on 400 employees taking the offer.  The proposal would allow staff to retire without penalty before the minimum age of 50 if they have worked at least 25 years for the county.

“We have no choice but to have a reduction in our work force,” Ellis said.

The Decatur/DeKalb tax gap continues to close.