« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
Opera may be coming to Bethlehem!
Home to "America's Music Festival", Bethlehem is missing the diversity offered by Opera music.
Okay, so you don't care for Opera. That's okay because if the proposed SteelStax project goes through there will be much more than opera. The opera singers will be joined by young aspiring ballerinas, high school filmmakers and musicians on the cusp of stardom. All performers will have a place to showcase their talents.
ArtsQuest, PBS-39, and WLVT-TV are planning on building the $49 million performing arts and broadcast center as part of the Sands BethWorks Casino project. ArtsQuest will occupy the old Bethlehem Steel Electrical Furnace facility.
If you do enjoy opera, you can expect to be treated to four productions a year.
Buying your first home? It's NOT as easy as driving down the street and calling the phone number on the sign in front of a house.
A home is an expensive purchase! You need to know what you are getting into before signing a contract. What is it really going to cost you? Can the deal fall apart and still cost you money? Does your credit score affect your mortgage payment?
These are all worthwhile questions that should be answered before moving forward.
As a Lehigh Valley Home Buyer, the typical closing costs consist of:
Depending on how the contract was written, the total cost to the buyer will vary. Regardless of whether or not the home is purchased, the cost of inspections will not be reimbursed to the buyer. Inspections are always considered a loss to the buyer but THEY ARE intended to protect the buyers best interest.
There are also many mortgage plans to help the home buyer that does not have a lot of savings. In this situation, the buyer can place an offer with a request for the sellers to assist in paying the closing costs.
If a home buyer has a good credit score many possibilities are available.
In anticipation of businesses that may be attracted to Bethlehem due to the building of the casino, the city has ammended the zoning laws. Specifically, massage parlors, pawn shops, and cash-checking operations will not be allowed within 5,000 feet of the new casino.
The zoning amendment confines shops of this type to a south-side section of Bethlehem which already has similar services.
A few weeks ago Hellertown amended it's zoning for adult oriented businesses and Fountain Hill is also considering some zoning changes.
Although Bethlehem welcomes the Casino and the large development it will create, hopefully the rest of the city won't suffer as a result.
Price is a definite factor in marketing your Lehigh Valley home to sell. A properly priced home will sell relatively fast and typically results in a better contract with respect to all the other terms. An over-priced home tends to sit on the market and then finally sells with the price or terms more favorable to the buyer.
Three main factors affect a home sale:
price the house itself location
There is nothing you can do about the location. The neighborhood, school district and other factors are beyond your control.
So, the items you do have control over are the price and what shape the house is in. As a home seller, your attitude with how these offset each other is important. If you are going to ask top price for your home, then it should be in "top showing" shape.
A fresh coat of neutral paint and new carpets work wonders in putting a house on the market in a position to sell at a higher price. These two items also probably have the highest return value. Walking into a freshly painted, newly carpeted house definitely appeals to buyers.
If individual rooms of the house are considered, then by far, the kitchen and bathroom are the most important. New appliances, counter-tops, and cabinets make a large difference in the kitchen. A bathroom with "dated" tiling or tiles in need of repair is a definite negative to the buyer. The buyer looks at these areas of a house as costing a lot of money and work to update.
The more positives a home buyer experiences when viewing your house the better the possibility of an offer that is acceptable by both the seller and the buyer!
As a home seller, you need to weigh the costs of any possible repairs/upgrades to the increased return on the asking price of your house. If the house is in need of work, the buyer will probably notice it and take it into account if making an offer.
I've stated consistently that in general Lehigh Valley home prices are going up. Overall, the statistics prove this to be true.
Having said that, the days of an agent showing a potential home buyer a house or two and making an offer are over. The prices may be going up but houses are staying on the market longer.
As a result, a home buyer has many more houses to choose from. It is becoming common to show a buyer 8 or 9 houses and then a few days later get a request to see another group of 8 or 9.
So, what is really going on in the Lehigh Valley real estate market? This is what I see:
- Home buyers have more to choose from, are reading the news about the real estate market, and believe that they can make very low offers. Most of these are rejected but every once in a while a really good deal, for the buyer, gets accepted.
- Home Sellers are slowly realizing that the appreciation on their house in 2006 was not 10-20% like it might have been in the previous years. Sellers are being forced to drop their price to the "correct" price. This does not mean that prices have decreased. It means that sellers are being forced to sell at the correct market value.
- New Home Builders are offering more incentives (hardwood floors...etc) and even dropping their prices to attract home buyers
What does it all mean? If a house is priced correctly it still sells relatively fast. It doesn't give a home buyer the ammo needed to make that low offer and put the seller into a situation where they have to accept it.
Even if a home is only on the market a short time, a home buyer may wish to make a low offer. If the home is priced correctly, the agent can show the perspective buyer the comparable properties to justify the price and hopefully present an offer that can be accepted by both sides.
After some debate, Bethlehem Township has agreed to fork out $900,000 for two new fire trucks. The Bethlehem Township Fire Company and the Nancy Run Fire Company will each receive one new fire truck.
The commissioners also voted unanimously to bid out a new rescue/pumper truck to replace the aging Nancy Run pumper truck which has been in service for more than 30 years.
Some of the debate centered around all the new residential construction that is going to take place along the route 33 corridor. With this strong growth, there is concern that another fire department may be needed. It is also this growth that had some of the commissioners wanting to keep the purse strings tied until it could be determined if the money might be needed for other projects.
Although $900,000 seems like a lot a money, if your house was on fire, I believe you would want the firefighters to have the best equipment available.
Opus Land Development is planning on building a 531,000-square-foot warehouse in the Lower Nazareth Industrial Park. Bethlehem Township Commissioners are concerned about the local traffic. The new warehouse will put an additional 800 trucks daily on the local roads.
The only entrance to the park is Brodhead Road. To offset the traffic concerns, Opus plans to contribute up to $750,000 to cover renovations to the roads.
Bethlehem Commissioners declined any intial recommendations.
Interested in Lehigh Valley real estate marketing statistics? Want to see if home sale prices have gone down or up in a particular area?
The home sale statistics for every municipality in Lehigh Valley have been added to:
www.LehighValleyHomesOnline.com
The Lehigh County and Northampton County pages show detailed statistics for 2006 and the individual municipal pages show the stats for 2004 thru 2006. These statistics include new construction as well as resale homes in Lehigh Valley.
With the population growth in the recent years that has occured in Nazareth, the elementary schools, specifically Lower Nazareth, are getting overcrowded. The Nazareth school district serves the municipalities of Nazareth, Lower Nazareth, Upper Nazareth, Tatamy, Stockerton, and Bushkill. Since 1990 to 2005, the population of these municipalities has grown by 29%.
These areas are served by three elementary schools: Lower Nazareth, Bushkill, and Shafer
Seven years ago, Lower Nazareth had almost half the student body as Shafer so they started accepting students from Upper Nazareth (normally served by Shafer). In the same past 15 year span, Upper Nazareth has grown in population by 56%. The result was that over the years Lower Nazareth Elementary had to add three modulars each containing two classrooms in order to meet the needs of the student body.
The long term solution is a plan to add a new middle school to house 7th and 8th graders. For now, redistricting is being done to add new incoming students to Shafer (Shafer Elementary is physically larger than Lower Nazareth) and a request is out to Tatamy families asking them to voluntarily move their children to Shafer. No students who are currently attending Lower Nazareth will be forced to move. Bushkill Elementary will not be affected by the redistricting.
Five Can't Miss Tips for Brightening Your Bath
Buying a Home? New Construction Offers Many Benefits
