I drove through Highbanks Metro Park recently to take some fall photos for my photoblog at OlentangyLiving.com. I noticed a small sledding hill that the rangers have prepared for winter by putting straw bales in front of the trees and BBQ grills. One bale doesn’t seem like enough of a buffer to keep a sledder from going SPLAT!
If you live outside Ohio, don’t make fun of what we call a “sledding hill”. We take what we can get in our rather flat terrain. Google Map for Highbanks Park
Business First published an article on the 2011 School District Rankings as released by the Ohio Department of Education. Their website includes a searchable database for readers to look up their specific district or compare it to other districts.
Local Schools Rank Within the State
| Rank | District | Students | Index | $/Student |
| 40 | Dublin | 13,614 | 106.94 | $13,013 |
| 41 | Olentangy | 16,263 | 106.93 | $9,465 |
| 49 | New Albany | 4,191 | 106.63 | $12,249 |
| 124 | Hilliard | 14,945 | 103.53 | $11,398 |
| 138 | Worthington | 9,098 | 103.15 | $13,305 |
| 168 | Big Walnut | 2,797 | 102.35 | $9,261 |
| 175 | Marysville | 5,345 | 102.16 | $9,467 |
| 190 | Westerville | 14,105 | 101.92 | $10,890 |
| 226 | Bckye Valley | 2,344 | 101.10 | $9,938 |
| 266 | Delaware | 4,942 | 100.34 | $10,009 |
Salaries of Some School Positions
You can also search by school for the salaries that are paid by district. The highly controversial SB5 (Issue 2) was about helping local governments decide how to best spend their budgets rather than having the public sector unions dictate salaries, benefits and pensions. The voters repealed the bill and now with many school levies having failed, schools and local governments are looking for ways to cut expenses to meet their budgets.
Out of curiosity, I checked the Business First database for salaries for the school district I live in – Delaware. Delaware was a district whose hefty levy passed. My findings:
You might want to check YOUR district before the next election asking for more money from the voters.
Copyright © 2011. 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, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Surveys, Worthington Ohio
Tagged 2011 Ohio School District Rankings, Business First newspaper, Delaware City School Teacher's Salaries, Delaware OH city schools, Schools spending per student
I’ve been busy updating the Jan-Sep YTD Homes Sold data on my website and here on my blog. Check out the results for your favorite area:
If you want to buy or sell a home in one of these areas, give me a call for assistance.
The last Quarter of 2011 is upon us. What might we expect in the real estate market? I’m seeing a lot of price reductions as home sellers hope to get their home in contract this month. I’ve seen homes priced in the $200′s reduce their price by $20- 30K. The decreases are even heftier for higher priced homes. With interest rates hovering around 4%, if you’re ready to buy, now may be the time to act. Doing so will mean you can be in your new home by the holidays.
I pulled the numbers from the Columbus Board of Realtors® MLS system for seasonal sales for just the Olentangy school district area of southern Delaware County. I suspect other areas might be similar.
This first chart shows the average price of the homes sold Jan-Sep (green bars) vs Oct-Dec (orange bars) since 2006. It really illustrates the severity the downturn in the housing market had on prices. 2010 was propped up somewhat by the Gov’t Tax Credits which may have allowed buyers to afford slightly higher priced homes. Of course, 2011 has been a crazy year, so it appears buyers became a little more conservative with their spending.
Click graph to enlarge
Same type of info but the chart below illustrates the NUMBER of homes sold. The small percentage of homes sold in the 4th Qtr is the reason I’m seeing so many price reductions now as home sellers hope to get their home in-contract during October, knowing there is less chance of that happening during the holiday months of Nov-Dec or the snow months of Jan-Feb.
Click graph to enlarge
As for the number of homes currently for sale in the Olentangy area, there are 601 homes with an average price of $429,153. (Houston, we have a $100K problem!) Of those homes that are currently in-contract today, there are 135 with an average price of $348,618, which is closer to the average price of the homes sold so far this year. Historically, around 200 homes have been sold in the fall period so it’s likely there will be some disappointed sellers. Perhaps it’s time to sharpen the pencil.
Copyright © 2011. 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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On Wednesday I wrote an article about the recently released Ohio Schools Report Cards. I just updated the Tax Graph that shows the relationship of several school districts as per their property tax rates with an overlay of the recent ratings of the schools. All of the school districts that I normally cover in this blog are doing very well. Most notably, the Delaware school district improved from Effective last year to Excellent With Distinction for this year.
Click to enlarge, then click again to further enlarge
Each bar within the school district represents a taxing area within the district. Assessments are based on a dollar amount per $100,000 of assessed value from the county auditor (Delaware or Franklin Counties). Of course, property taxes are used for more than just schools, but school funding makes up a large portion of our property taxes.
To see how the school districts compared with last year’s Report Card ratings, read more here.
Call me if you have questions on interpreting the chart.
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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio
Tagged 2010-2011 schools report cards, Big Walnut school district, Buckeye Valley school district, central ohio real estate market news, Delaware school district, Dublin school district, Hilliard school district, Olentangy school district, Plain Local school district, real estate property tax rates, Westerville school district, Worthington school district
The new Report Cards for Ohio schools has been made public today. You can check your own school district at reportcard.ohio.gov for extensive details and explanation of the various grading criteria. The following are the new ratings for some local schools.
Delaware County
Franklin County
Union County
* Congrats to Delaware Schools for improving from an Effective rating to Excellent with Distinction!
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ANY GOOGLE-TYPE ADS SHOWN ON THIS BLOG ARE NOT SUPPORTED BY THIS BLOG. DO NOT CLICK ON THEM.
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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio
Tagged 2010-2011 schools report cards, Big Walnut school district, Buckeye Valley school district, central ohio real estate market news, Delaware school district, Dublin school district, Hilliard school district, Marysville school district, Olentangy school district, Plain Local school district, Westerville school district, Worthington school district
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Click image to read all the articles about my personal saga with the Emerald Ash Borer damage to my tree.
The Scotts Pro's Blog: Tips for a green thumb, plus, Lawn & Garden Q & A's.
Train & motivate employees to help them increase sales.
