Our Greeter today was Ginny Sandoval, and she did a marvelous job.
President Mike Gschwendtner rang the bell at 7:30 A.M. to open the meeting. Rev. Jeff Kistler gave a very nice invocation that included a prayer for Joel Masiko.
Pres. Mike began the meeting having the members recite the Five-way Test with the fifth question, “Is it Fun?” We recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the U.S.
GUESTS:
Gail Micca, soon to be a member; Dave Dries, Spring Township RC; and Steve LaPierre, Emmaus RC.
Pres. Mike showed photographs starting with our Dec 11th Tri Cees concert that AW members sponsor here at Luther Crest. Then there was a picture of the recent snack packing at Northwestern. And Halyna Stegura sent a picture of AJ Henry and Dawn Costello. Then we saw a photo of the crowd at our Nov, 30th Thursday evening meeting. The funny picture was Ron Coleman’s Christmas shirt worn at the Dec. 3rd Christmas Party.
STUDENT OF THE MONTH:
Barbara Kistler introduced and gave the award to Sumedha Kanthamneni, AWRC’s Student-of-the-Month for December 2017. See separate article.
LOWHILL FOOD PANTRY:
Please remember that the Collection jar is at the registration desk for cash and check contributions.
SCHEDULE:
President Mike announces upcoming events at our meetings and a list of them appears on our website. A list of the appropriate contact information appears each week in the A-W bulletin.
P-E Jeanne Shipe said that this week we will be doing snack packing at Parkland H.S.
LUTHER CREST TRI-CEES CONCERT:
Barbara Kistler said that the Club funded concert of the Tri-Cees at Luther Crest on Monday, Dec. 11 was well attended by the residents and much appreciated.
SPEECH CONTEST:
Ginny Sandoval reports that the word is getting out and we are looking for participants.
THURSDAY EVENING MEETING:
TOMORROW, Thursday, Dec. 14 Dr. Oscar Muillo (brother-in-law of Randy Beitler) will be speaking on healthy aging, elder care and field questions. He is a specialist in geriatrics and is currently medical director at Kirkland Village for Saint Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem. Fellowship in the bar at 5:30 and meeting starting at 6:00 PM at Holiday Inn.
ANOTHER CHRISTMAS PARTY IS PLANNED:
Barb Kistler announced that the Entertainment Committee has arranged for the Thursday Evening Dec 28th meeting to be at Louie’s Italian restaurant -- 2071 31st St SW, Allentown, PA 18103 -- starting at 6 P.M.
AWRC TEE-SHIRTS, etc:
P-E Jeanne Shipe had samples on display and Gail Micca had order forms for us. Shipment is planned for January.
VOTE FOR 2017-18 OFFICERS:
Early in the meeting, Past President Dan Crane distributed paper ballots to the members, which were later collected and counted. There was a unanimous agreement to have the following AWRC Officers for RY 2018-19:
President Jeanne Shipe
President-elect Amir Famili
Treasurer Chris Blechschmidt
Secretary Joe Goll
Sergeant-at-Arms Mitch Huston
Congratulations and thank you to all.
NEXT WEEK:
Our Greeter will be Jennifer Stinson and the program will be John Scott, Foundation Chair, with an RI Foundation Update
Pres. Mike introduced our S-a-A Mitch Huston who conducted the raffle drawings. Also he collected some fines.
The door prize tote bag donated by Ginny Sandoval was won by Jerry Frank .
The $71 pot of the 50:50 was not won by Steve LaPierre’s ticket. SIX marbles remain.
HAPPY DOLLARS:
Al Lewis thanks the Tri-Cees for the lovely concert on Monday evening. He said that the crowd was twice that of last year.
Bill Palmer noted that Beverly and Dave Dries are celebrating 50 years of marriage next week.
Bill Weber said that the Tri-Cees concert was very good, and they were pleased to see George Ikeda there and in god health.
Bill also complimented Parkland H.S. for turning out such accomplished students.
Mitch Huston told a joke about Dan Crane and Donna at the Mall that got some laughs.
Bill Weber told a story from a few years ago about Sue shopping in Munich, Germany going from shop to shop, including a dry cleaners where she checked out other people’s clothes on a rack.
Jeanne Shipe said that they have met with the Whitehall Area RC folks and are working on getting food from Second Harvest for the Parkland Snack Pack program.
PROGRAM:
Our program today was AW Rotarian Ron Coleman, Realtor providing an Overview of the Current Real Estate Market. As a licensed real estate agent and REALTOR, Ron is constantly working to stay abreast of the latest developments in the real estate field to assure that his clients get the best possible deal - whether they are buying, selling or investing
Ron has 38 years of experience. His specializations are Buyer Representation, Commercial Real Estate, First-Time Homebuyers, Investment Properties, and Seller Representation in Allentown, Bath, Bethlehem, Center Valley, Coopersburg, Easton, Lehigh Valley, and Macungie. He is with Iron Valley Real Estate Of Lehigh Valley –Broker.
Ron showed and discussed a series of slides, many with trend curves or bar charts. The subjects were:
Lifetime Wealth at near All-Time High
Median Household Income - (Inflation Adjusted)
Annual GDP … Below 2% for 11 straight years
Sluggish GDP and Gap after Recession
($2.5 trillion gap … $7,000 per person)
Sluggish Business Spending -- Despite High Profit
Jobs -- (8 million lost … 15 million gained)
Unemployment Rate vs. Employment Rate
Jobs in Lehigh Valley
Average Hourly Wage Rate trend for Pitt, Phila, and LV
Renting Painful -- Rents Rising at 7-year high
Home Sales Rising -- Lehigh Valley 2016-2017
Closed Sales YTD … up 4%
Pending YTD … up 8%
Median Price YTD … up 4%
Inventory (October 2017)… down 27%
Days on Market …down 21%
Rising Home Price and Rising Housing Wealth
Homeownership Rate is Near 50-year low
Younger Households are Less Likely to Own a Home; too much college loan debt
Wealth Gap Between Young Adults (under-35) and Retiree (65+) widened comparing 1983 and 2013
Social Benefits to Homeownership:
Higher student test score
Lower juvenile delinquency rate
Better health outcome and higher self-esteem from having a sense of control in life
Increased charitable donations and volunteering
Local civic engagement
There are Terrible social results if foreclosure happens… therefore need sustainable homeownership
Inventory of Homes per Households -- (currently 1.5 homes for 100 households)
Single-family Housing Starts – Grossly Inadequate
Lehigh Valley Housing Permits are way down.
Borrowers Not Defaulting – Especially Veterans (Serious Delinquency Rate)
Mortgage Rates – Super Low with some at 3%. The “Fed” may raise lending rate by ¼ % today.
Ron said that right now it is a good sellers’ market, because of low inventory. Yet buyers are active because of the low mortgage interest rates available.
CLOSING:
We closed the meeting by reciting the saying “One profits most who serves best.”
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