The Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl, Fulton County Chair Karen Handel and State Representative Mark Burkhalter of Alpharetta announced the opening of the Jones Bridge Road and Abbotts Bridge Road intersection October 20, 2006.

The contractor, C.W. Matthews, worked hard to finish well before the revised schedule of June 30, 2007. During the next few days before the traffic control and equipment are removed, workers will install the permanent striping, activate the turn arrows and time the traffic signals. Motorists are urged to use caution as they become accustomed to the new traffic movements. While drivers will have full use of the intersection, there will still be minor work left as the contractor completes the final punch list.

This is great news! Now let us hope that the intersection improvements at State Bridge Road and Jones Bridge Road finish early as well. I can see the day when our two mile, thirty minute trips that we now take in the area are slashed to only 25 minutes! Just joking (I hope). I am hopeful that traffic flow will be much improved. The local elected officials and local residents have done a super job staying on top of these projects and pushing them along. Thanks to all who helped and best wishes for stress free driving! Jeff

Come out and support the Cougars Saturday, October 21, 2006 at Roswell High School. Four of the Cougar squads will be competing. The 6/7th grade Jr. Cougars start at 9:30 and the 8th grade performance begins at 10:30. At the high school level, the junior varsity girls start at 12:30pm and the varsity performs at 3:00pm. These are fantastically talented young ladies that train very hard to perfect their routines. If you never have seen them before in action, you owe it to yourself to come out and see them in action.

The varsity squad is coached by Caren Hudson. She has led the Cougars for thirteen years and is flat out the best high school cheer coach in GA. They have won state titles four times and are coming off of a second place finish last year. Come out and support the girls as they aim to recapture the state championship.

I will also be at the big Northview and Chattahoochee varsity football game tonight, taking pictures as always. This is a big rivalry and should be a great game. Kickoff is at 7:30pm at Northview. See you there! Jeff

National Trends:

The National Association of Realtors report on existing home sales for August 2006 showed that that the median home price was $225,000, which is down 1.7% from a year earlier. This was the first year over year drop in ten years. To give some perspective, consider that in 2004 the median price was up 9.3% and in 2005 it went up 12.4%. Slowing sales has lead to an increase in the supply of homes. The August report showed 3.9 million homes on the market which represents a 38% increase from a year earlier. At the current sales pace this represents a 7.5 month supply of homes, up from a 4.7 month supply in August of 2005.

Alpharetta Trends:

Locally, total sales for August 2006 were down 18.8% compared to August 2005. The lower range (under $275,000) and mid range ($275,000-$600,000) of the market dropped 23.1% and 18.3% respectively. The best news was in the higher end (over $600,000) which sale saws drop only 4% from August 2005. Be careful not to misinterpret the sales figures for the over $600,000 market. While total sales were only down slightly, the supply of homes is up 23% from August 2005 to 13.1 months. The top end of the market is the toughest in which to sell a home.

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