News Update for 3/9/22

Sebring voters went to the polls yesterday and voted for new blood on their council. Top vote getter was Roland Bishop with 488 ballots – or 39-percent of the vote, challenger Terry Mendel was second with 394 tallies, or 31-percent.
Current council president Charlie Lowrance finished out of the running with 364 votes – or 29-percent of the 1,250 votes cast. Only 11-percent of Sebring’s voters made it to the polls.
Bishop has served on the council only six months, having been appointed to fill out the term of former councilman Curt Ivy, who moved out of the city. Mendel becomes the first woman in decades to sit on the Sebring council.

A new survey released by the Inspection Support Network shows only 19.7 percent of homebuyers in the Avon Park – Sebring Metro area are women. That’s below the national average of 21.4-percemt. According to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act statistics, 31.4-percent are men, with the rest of the houses purchased by couples or other entities.
Female loan applicants also have more modest accommodations, with an average $215,000 home loan compared to $245,000 home loans for men.