For the second year in a row Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine has rated the University of Georgia in it's top 10 values for colleges and universities in the U.S. This year, UGA has been rated # 6. It joins 3 other colleges in Georgia on the list of Kiplinger's To 100 Best Values for 2009/2010.

To determine the rankings Kiplinger uses a combination of academic, cost and financial aid criteria for both in state and out of state students. Academics count for almost 2/3 of the ranking.

To read the full story, see the list of the top 100 and find out about the methodology used, you can go to Kiplinger's Top 100 Best Values in Public Colleges for 2009-2010.

Athens, GA has also been rated one of the most affordable college towns for retirement by TopRetirements.com as well as one of the most affordable college towns overall. Athens itself has a current average price of about $161,000.00 while the greater Athens Area, which includes Watkinsville, Oconee County, Oglethorpe County, Madison County and Jackson County has a current average price of about $185,000.00.

For more information about real estate in the Athens, GA area, or, if you are looking to buy or sell real estate in the Athens Ga area and surrounding counties, please call me at 706-207-5290, or, you can click here to email me with any questions. To search for homes, land and other real estate in the Athens Ga area please visit my website, The Athens Real Estate Page.

The following charts show the month to month residential real estate sales volume of the Greater Athens Ga metropolitan area for the months of June through December 2009.

Chart 1 shows the trends for both the number of residential units sold and the average number of Days on Market (D.O.M.) for those units. December shows a decrese in the residential home sales volume. This should not come as a surprise. There was a rush to close sales by Nov. 30, 2009 to qualify for the first time home buyers tax credit, which has since been extended. Additionally, sales seasonally decline duringthe winter months. The

The total number of residential units sold in December was 92, down 24 units from November.  The average Days on Market, D.O.M., showed another increase to 220 days, the highest it has been during the 7 month reporting period. Sales should start trending upward while buyers try to take advantage of the extended home buyers tax credit, which now includes repeat buyers.

Chart 1:

The second chart is tracking both the average and the median price of residential sales in the greater Athens metropolitan area. The average price to $180,926.00 and the median price dipped to $135,000. While the average sales price remained virtually flat, the median price drop is significant. However, this can be attributed to the large number of purchases by first time home buyers who tend to purchase in the lower range of the market.

Chart 2:

The Greater Athens Ga Metropolitan area, for this report, includes Athens-Clarke County, Oconee County, Oglethorpe County, Jackson County and Madison County. All figures come from the Athens Area Association of Realtors® multiple listing service (MLS).

For more information about real estate in the Athens, GA area, or, if you are looking to buy or sell real estate in the Athens Ga area and surrounding counties, please call me at 706-207-5290, or, you can click here to email me with any questions. To search for homes, land and other real estate in the Athens Ga area please visit my website, The Athens Real Estate Page.

Yesterday Haiti sufferred a 7.0 earthquake. Thousands are dead. Up to 3 million people are estimated to have been severely affected by this event, homes destroyed, services interrupted, etc.

The private citizens of America have always been generous with their time and their money when such disasters have occured. I know that times here may be tough for many, but please, let's show the world that the private citizens of the United States are still the most compassionate, still the most giving when others need our help as the result of disasters like this.

Whether its, $5, $10, $25 or $thousands, please, give what you can.

You can donate to many relief agencies, like the American Red Cross. I will be donating through Americares, where up to 99% of donations goes directly to relief programs and not management or fund raising.

Please, give what you can. The Haitian people are desperately in need of our help!