Dec. 4, 2015
Ocean City Today
Business
Page 45 REAL ESTATE REPORT
Holiday shopping includes looking for new homes
SUBMITTED PHOTO/OCEAN CITY TODAY
Dough Roller owner Bill Gibbs recently presented a $15,000 donation to the Worcester County Education Foundation. Pictured, from left, are WCEF Chairman Todd Ferrante, Worcester County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jerry Wilson, Gibbs, WCEF Vice Chair Greg Shockley and Worcester County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Lou Taylor.
County financial reporting lauded for exactitude
By Brian Gilliland Staff Writer (Dec. 4, 2015) In the realm of financial auditing, the best opinion is no opinion at all, and Worcester County’s auditors, TGM Group of Salisbury, didn’t have much to say about the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report produced by the treasurer’s office and released Tuesday. “This is the holy grail of all things finance in Worcester County,” Phil Thompson, the county’s chief financial officer, said. “Since the crisis, there is an increased emphasis on forecasting. This is a good tool to evaluate county processes.” TGM auditor Chris Hall emphasized that the “unmodified opinion,” delivered by his agency was perhaps the most important achievement of the entire 163page document, available online through the county’s website: www.co.worcester.md.us. Hall gave the example of the total real and personal property revenue variance, where the county estimated in the fiscal 2015 budget to bring in $117,933,052 but actually brought in $117,963,356 according to the report — a difference of See WORCESTER Page 47
Dough Roller’s Gibbs donates $15K for digital conversion Worcester Co. Education Foundation seeks private funding for school tech
(Dec. 4, 2015) Dough Roller owner Bill Gibbs said he knows the value of excellent schools and great education and has always been a strong supporter of education. Gibbs explained that each year he watches young employees who shine, work hard and enjoy their job while others Bill Gibbs struggle. “More often than not, the kids who struggle have not had the benefit of a really good education,” he said. Recently, Gibbs presented a $15,000 donation to the Worcester County Education Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) established in August 2014. The WCEF was established to provide a perpetual funding resource to ensure every Worcester County student could have equal access to a world class education, enable them to function in today’s digital college environment and to
compete in a new, emerging job market. Gibbs mentioned the hundreds of high school and college students he has employed over the years and how easy it is to identify the confidence, self-motivation and other attributes in kids who have experienced a good education. “Every child and every community deserves the benefits that come from having great schools,” he said. “It’s one of the best investments any of us can make in our community.” “The first focus of the WCEF is to assist our county schools with digital conversion by accelerating the purchase and distribution of digital learning devices, so that every child K-12 has equal access to a world class education,” WCEF Board Member Lisa Challenger said. Gibbs said he was proud to support such a worthy cause. “One thing I’ve noticed is that the most prosperous communities tend to be those that invest in their education system,” he said. “I’d like to see our kids given the best education possible because it all comes back to us.” Visit www.wced.foundation to learn more or to donate.
By Lauren Bunting Contributing Writer (Dec. 4, 2015) Realtor.com recently issued an article with the headline wondering “When is Housing’s Black Friday?” in an effort to determine how the holidays affect the housing market. The findings show that the slowdown in online house-hunting activity is short-lived, lasting only during the week leading up to Thanksgiving, but returning to normal after Black Friday. It compared realtor.com traffic data on Thanksgiving Day 2014 with an average day in 2014’s fourth quarter, and identified states where house-hunting activity appeared to be the most or the least. Virginia was one of the states “least impacted,” Maryland was in the list of “neutral” states, but Delaware was in the list of states “most impacted” by a dip in house-hunting activity by the Thanksgiving holiday. Realtor.com looked beyond Thanksgiving and found that based on 2014 figures, the true “Black Friday” for the housing business is Dec. 28, and Dec. 24 was the slowest. This finding usually holds true year to year, as we see an increase in activity during the week after the Christmas holiday through the new year, when people have time to search for their dream home and are possibly looking to make a change. Additionally, a busy time of year for online house-hunting is July 6 – another holiday break when people have time to search for property. The report shows that overall, the spring market offers, “the best combination of inventory and value – more homes go onto the market, but prices have not yet thawed.” The next-highest online traffic pointed to the fall, after Sept. 1. Besides the major holidays noted above, there is one more holiday that showed a slow-down in home-searching activity – Valentine’s Day. Lauren Bunting is a licensed Realtor/Associate Broker with Bunting Realty, Inc. in Berlin.