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The Suffolk News-Herald

June 1, 2010
Housing Market Builds in Area
Developers: Tax credit caused spike

By Tracy Agnew

Suffolk’s housing market experienced a slight boom in the past few months, which local builders are attributing to a variety of causes.

Increased confidence in the housing market and a valuable homebuyers’ tax credit spurred an 83 percent increase in building permits in the first quarter of 2010, compared to the same period last year, developers agree.

“I absolutely think that the surge in new home activity has to do with the tax credit and the fact that it was expiring,’ said Ginny Cross, sales and marketing manager for Ashdon Builders, which is developing the Orchard Cove community near Interstate 664. “We saw surges to meet that deadline.”

According to a market report prepared by Suffolk-based Residential DataBank, 119 building permits were issued in the first three months of 2010, compared to 65 for the same period in 2009. Sales were also up slightly, to 101 in 2010 from 92 in 2009. Closings, however, went down, to 47 this year from 65 last year.

The homebuyer tax credits, $8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for repeat homebuyers, have now expired, except for buyers who were under contract by April 30. Still, builders began working months in advance to ensure they had inventory to sell to people looking to take advantage of the credit, said Sindy Clifton, senior vice president with Lawson Homes, which is developing October at Fairdowns in Suffolk.

“Certainly, we’ve started more homes in the last quarter than we had in the quarter previously because of the tax credit situation,” Clifton said. “We wanted to ensure we meet any demand that might occur because of that.”

The decline in closings also could be attributed to the tax credit, said Terry Gearhart, vice president for sales and marketing of Terry Peterson Residential Companies, the developer of the King’s Fork Farm community.

Because the tax credit initially was supposed to end Nov. 30 and did not get expanded until very near that date, Gearhart speculated that many buyers who would have entered the market this year did so last year, instead.

“We pulled a lot of people forward in the market,” Gearhart said. “They thought, ‘Why not buy now?’ What happened following that, largely predictable, is that we saw a pretty good relaxation in the market.”

Gearhart also noted the time of year has plenty to do with new home starts.

“There are two major seasons for home sales – in the spring and the fall,” Gearhart said. Three or four months before the season begins, he said, the number of residential building permits typically rises.

“For three years, our mantra has been ‘Live to fight another day,’” Gearhart said, noting that the typical housing market cycle is three years down and five years up. “This particular downturn has exceeded that…but I think we have turned the corner, and we’re seeing small signs of a modest recovery now.”

The market now has slowed down for a while, Clifton said, but it should pick back up soon.

“Traffic historically drops off this time of year,” she said. “Everyone gets busy with school concerts, winding the school year down. That’s a function of the time of year more than anything. Hopefully, we’re going to have a great June.”

The Suffolk News-Herald

January 24, 2009
New Rec Center Opens
A dream come true for former students

By R. E. Spears III

A ceremony at the new East Suffolk Recreation Center on S. 6th Street on Saturday turned out to be part celebration and part reunion.

For every teenager or twenty-something walking around and gawking at all of the spotless cardio-trainers and weight machines, there were three or four sets of graying African-Americans – some of them stooped over canes – huddled together and exclaiming in wonder at the transformation of a building many of them had last visited as teens.

Black and gold were the colors of the day, and “Praise the Lord” was a common refrain heard along the halls.

The event was ostensibly a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new recreation center, but it had far more significance for scores of those who attended.

“I’m still up in the air,” Amanda R. Rogers said as she introduce herself to a stranger. She graduated from the former East Suffolk high School in 1948 and taught English there from 1959 through 1965.

“I just can’t believe I’m walking these halls,” she said. “I’m so humbled.”

As they stood in one of those clean, renovated hallways, Rogers and others began to compare their histories in the building.

Even one are that the former schoolmates probably had hoped to avoid as students – the principal’s office – turned out to be a popular place to sit and look at photos and reminisce.

That office, at the front of the building, has been set aside as a mini-museum and will feature photos and memorabilia from the center’s former life as a school. The hallways also are decorated with old school items and photos.

“For us, this is a memory,” East Suffolk High School Alumni Association representative Marion B. Wright said during a ceremony prior to the ribbon-cutting. “It’s a legacy.”

Completion of the recreation center – and saving the old school – represent dreams come true for alumni, she said. “We see the hope and the promise come to be a reality.”

“This is a long-time dream coming,” Mayor Linda Johnson told the crown in the building’s new gymnasium. “It’s a meeting place, it’s a social center; it’s a new heart for the community.”

“What was once a dream today becomes a reality,” agreed Lakota Frazier, Suffolk’s director of parks and recreation. “This building has meant to much to so many people.”

Originally built in 1939, for 29 years the building was the high school for most of Suffolk’s black students. Among its graduates is Whaleyville Borough Councilman Curtis R. Milteer Sr., who recalled the hard work that went into bringing to reality the renovation of the shuttered school, which had stood vacant for 30 years.

“I want to thank the city and all of you for coming together and making this a reality,” he told celebrants on Saturday.

The new facility includes a fitness center with elliptical machines, treadmills, weight machines, free weights and more; an 8,500 square-foot gym for basketball and volleyball; a game room with pool tables and other games for children and teens; a computer room and wireless Internet access throughout the building; a fully operable and state-of-the-art kitchen and areas for classes for everyone from preschoolers on up to senior citizens.

The facility is intended for use by all Suffolk residents. Membership is $20 per year for adults and $10 a year for kids 17 and under. Fitness memberships range from $5 a month for seniors to $10 a month for other adults.

It is a place, Frazier said, “where we will create healthy families through play.”