Urban Living Center

New-home sales skyrocket
Sales of new homes jumped 27 percent for the month of March, fueled in part by the homebuyer tax credit and better weather.
Sales of new homes surged 27 percent last month, bouncing off the previous month’s record low and blowing past expectations as better weather and government incentives boosted sales.

The Commerce Department said Friday that new-home sales rose in March to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 411,000. It was the strongest month since last July and the biggest monthly increase in 47 years.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a sales pace of 330,000. February’s results were revised upward to 324,000, but remained an all-time low. Sales had been especially weak over the winter, partly due to bad weather in much of the country.

The median sales price was $214,000, up more than 4 percent from a year earlier but down more than 3 percent from February.

The new-home sales report reflects signed contracts to purchase homes rather than completed sales and thus gives economists a feel for how many buyers were out shopping for new homes in a given month.

It is likely capturing consumers who are trying to qualify for federal tax credits that will expire at the end of this month. The government is offering an $8,000 credit for first-time buyers and $6,500 for current homeowners who buy and move into another property.

To qualify, buyers must have a signed contract complete by the end of next week and must complete the transaction by the end of June. Nearly 1.8 million households have used the credit at a cost of $12.6 billion, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

The rise in new-home sales was seen nationwide. Sales grew a whopping 44 percent in the South and 36 percent in the Northeast. They also rose about 6 percent in the West and 3 percent in the Midwest.

The number of new homes up for sale in March fell 2 percent to 228,000. At the current sales pace, it would take nearly 7 months to exhaust that supply.

Tolbert Preparatory Academy (TPA) is a new college preparatory high school founded through a partnership between Lee A. Tolbert Community Academy and Expeditionary Learning Schools with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The school opened with a 9th grade class in the fall of 2007 and will enroll both 9th and 10th grade students for the fall of 2008. We will add one class per year until 400 students are enrolled. The school employs technology, cooperative learning, critical thinking, and real-world application of knowledge to immerse students in an ethos of service and team work that will prepare them to become entrepreneurs and leaders in the community.
At it’s opening in 2007, TPA essentially had no art program in place. There was a part time art teacher but no dedicated curriculum or work space. It wasn’t until the fall of 2008 when Wesley King came onboard as the school’s art instructor, when the art program came into existence. With no teaching background, Mr. King with support from family, staff and administration, has created a full blown art department where kids are not only learning art techniques, history and famous artists, they are also learning life skills and exploring community issues and how to address them. During the 2009-2010 school year students have had 2 major opportunities to exhibit their talents during “Curriculum Night” at TPA. Both events garnered overwhelming response from parents and teachers.
A large percentage of Mr. King’s 61 students have limited artistic experience and have grown into full-fledged artists and critical thinkers; able to produce thought provoking work while being comfortable within their own abilities. This means they can create without the anxieties of comparing themselves to some who are more experienced. At the same time, they are willing to push themselves to the next-level (whatever and wherever that is for that individual) to achieve what they originally could not. The TPA art department focuses primarily on the fine arts.
Their goal is to create a digital art department where students learn graphic and web design, page layouts, lettering and creating online portfolios. They cannot do this without computers dedicated solely to the fine art department where students can come to class and each sit at a laptop or desktop and work with the instructor and get hands-on experience that will prepare them for real-world applications and even turn some students into future graphic and web designers.
That is one of the reasons for putting together this amazing art show plus, to showcase some of the most creative and skilled works to ever come out of the urban core. These pieces represent our world seen “Through Urban Eyes”.