Category Archives: Delaware Ohio

Articles about Delaware Ohio

Do you REALLY know where you live?

Posted on 08/09/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

Searching the Internet for homes for sale in Delaware County by zip code can be a mistake. Likewise, trusting any housing stats that show the info by zip can be very misleading. Why? Because the boundaries for the zips in Delaware County have no relevance to municipalities or school districts or general geography.

The first home I purchased was located in Franklin County, in the Worthington School District, with a Dublin phone exchange. The property taxes were based on the city of Columbus with Columbus police, fire, trash and snow removal. My MAILING address was Powell 43065. Essentially, I wasn’t sure where I lived.

At that time, I inquired as to why I had a Powell mailing address since Powell is in Delaware County. I was told that it was due to the mail routes (and zips) being set up when the land was rural. They told me that Worthington wasn’t set up to do mail delivery to farm land properties.

ZipMap
Click map to enlarge

So fast forward to today to see how strange the zip codes are for southern Delaware County. I’m not sure how these zip boundaries were determined but since the area was farms until recent years, I suppose it has something to do with rural carrier routes. Even then, I don’t understand why 43015 (Delaware, orange area) extends all the way down to Powell Rd, west of Rt 23. Why doesn’t 43065 (Powell, lavender area) go straight to the east with Rt 23 as its border?

Another issue is that these zip areas contain multiple school districts. For example, the 43065 Powell zip contains portions of 4 school districts (Olentangy, Dublin, Worthington and Buckeye Valley). Because home sales/prices differ within each of the four school districts, it would be misleading to provide you with the data using only the zip code. A similar problem exists for the Galena zip code (43021, teal area) and the Delaware zip (43015, orange area). These additional areas also have multiple school districts which aren’t aligned with the zip boundaries.The Lewis Center zip code, 43035 is a little “cleaner”.

This “mess” is why I typically report sales by school district. First of all, doing so provides larger geography, making the reports a little easier to understand. Home buyers are “generally” a little more familiar with school district areas, and even if they don’t have children in school, they know that their property taxes will be impacted (high or low) by the levies from the schools.

The next time you see a real estate agent or a newspaper reporting on housing sales or prices, try to determine what they are using for their search, otherwise you’re apt to be misled.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Galena Ohio, Home buying process, Home prices, Homes, Homes for sale, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools

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10 Years of Home Prices in Central Ohio

Posted on 07/11/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

I’ve prepared a 10-Year chart for several school districts that shows the yearly change to the average price of the homes sold between Jan-Jun each year. This provides a good visual that illustrates how even though prices are improving, they haven’t yet caught up to earlier levels.

When sellers meet with a Realtor® to discuss pricing their home, often the agent will tell them that they can’t sell for a price higher than the price they paid for the home IF the home was purchased 5-6 years ago. This is especially true for people who purchased new builds in the 2003-2007 timeframe. Due to the subprime mortgage meltdown, prices began falling and especially deteriorated in 2009 when so many people lost their job. For 2010, we’re seeing prices once again rise – which is good news for the economy – but they haven’t risen to the 2005-2006 levels.

I should be noted that these average prices merely indicate what the price was that buyers were paying for homes in that school district. It doesn’t necessarily mean the seller had to reduce their price by the same percentage, however, they may have had to price their home more competitively in order to appeal to a buyer. Another caveat is for districts with fewer sales, where the sale of one high or low priced home can make the data more volatile. (Big Walnut is an example)

Click to enlarge graph, then click again

NOTE: I’ve divided the Olentangy district to west of Rt 23 (PO) and east of Rt 23 (LC) because it is such a large district and there is such a difference to the average prices.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Home prices, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Worthington Ohio

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Helpful info for home buyers & sellers

Posted on 07/09/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

Real Living HER, Elaine Reese yard signPlanning to buy or sell a home and not sure what agent to select? I just updated the charts that show the Top 5 Real Estate brokers by some school districts. Naturally Real Living HER has the leading market share around the Columbus metro area, selling more homes to or for our clients by a wide margin in most school districts.

How do Real Living agents do it? They have the support and tools of a broker that has been recognized nationally as one of the most innovative in the nation. So, check out the results for your area, then give your favorite Real Living agent a call. Hopefully, you’ll call me. :-)

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Real Living HER, Realtors®, Realtor® selection, Sellers, Worthington Ohio

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2010 Central Ohio Housing Sales Still Showing Strength

Posted on 07/07/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

The first half of the year is now behind us. The Gov’t Tax Credit stimulus is kaput. We survived February’s wrath of 24″+ inches of snow. Low interest rates were maintained. Central Ohio real estate agents were busy selling houses. So how does the first half of the year look? Pretty good … pretty good!

Jan-Jun central Ohio housing prices 2010 v 2009

Click to enlarge graph

This graph shows a comparison of the average price of single-family homes sold during Jan-Jun 2010 vs 2009. I use data by school district since that is the easiest way to track sales here in central Ohio. Notice that most areas realized increased prices over last year.

  • The largest year-over-year increases were seen in Buckeye Valley (up 16%), Gahanna (up 14%) and Big Walnut (up 13%).
  • Healthy increases were achieved by Worthington (up 8%), the Powell portion of Olentangy (up 5%) and Westerville (up 5%).
  • Districts that were essentially flat were Marysville (up 3%), the Lewis Center portion of Olentangy (up 2%), Delaware (up 2%), Upper Arlington (up 0.6%), Dublin (up 0.2%)
  • Only two districts experienced a decrease: New Albany (down 2%) and Hilliard (down 3%).

SOURCE: Columbus Board of Realtors, MLS System. Jan-Jun average prices for single family homes that were entered into the MLS system.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Home prices, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Worthington Ohio

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Great News for Jan-Apr 2010 Housing Sales

Posted on 05/04/2010 by Elaine Reese| 1 Comment

WOW! Most agents were pretty busy in April as buyers hustled to take advantage of the gov’t Tax Credits that would expire the end of April. Lots of homes closed plus many more went into contract. Here’s the results for Jan-Apr 2010 as compared to 2009 for the number of homes sold in some of the school districts around metro Columbus.

  • Worthington SD home sales were up 35% vs 2009.
  • Hilliard SD home sales were up 32% vs 2009.
  • Buckeye Valley SD home sales were up 27% vs 2009.
  • Olentangy SD home sales were up 23% vs 2009.
  • Delaware SD home sales were up 9% vs 2009.
  • Dublin SD home sales were up 2% vs 2009.
  • Big Walnut SD home sales were down 9% vs 2009.

The white bars in the graph show the number of homes that are in-contract as of May 4, when I pulled this data from the MLS system. So the sales should remain strong for May as more homes go into contract during May.

Jan-Apr 2010 home sales

Click to enlarge graph

The housing sales shown above only include single family homes that were in the CBR MLS system. It does not include condos or new builds, unless those new builds were entered into the MLS system.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Worthington Ohio

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Home for sale on 5ac near Powell & Dublin

Posted on 04/14/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

If a typical subdivision is not for you, then you might just like this home nestled on 5 acres. It’s conveniently located  to Powell or Dublin employment, and is near the Scioto River marina at Home Rd. Just consider the many ways you can enjoy this huge yard. There’s even a path back to a clearing in the woods to enjoy nature. Plan on deer being frequent visitors.

The wooden windows allow plenty of sunshine into the living & dining rooms. The kitchen offers ample storage space with a view of the large backyard and woods behind. The laundry area contains overhead cabinets, a half bath and access to the large unfinished bonus room over the garage.

Near the front stairs is the owner’s suite with whirlpool tub, shower stall and walk-in closet. Upstairs are two bedrooms, each with two walk-in closets and a dormer window. Downstairs is a full, extra high basement with poured concrete & rebar built into the block walls.

This property is zoned FR-1 (farm residential) in Concord Twp. At the junction of Home Rd & Dublin Rd, go west to the third home past Concord Park. Per an appraisal, it has 2011 sq ft. SOLD for $300,000 in 1 day at 100% of list price. Google Map.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Elaine's Listings, Homes, Homes for sale, Uncategorized

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