Category Archives: Delaware County

Articles about “things” in Delaware County

A Decade of Home Sales in Central Ohio

Posted on 01/03/2012 | Leave a comment

The end of the year means it’s time to look back to see how we did in our local real estate market. Average prices of single-family homes “seem” to have turned the corner in most school districts – some moreso than others.

2002-2011 Avg Prices homes sold for Jan-Dec in central Ohio

Click graph to enlarge, then click again

The discouraging news is the severe downfall in the number of homes sold since 2009. The data for the years 2010 and 2011 includes only “normal” sales and does not include homes sold as a short-sale or REO-owned.

2002-2011 No Homes Sold Jan Dec in central Ohio

Click to enlarge, then click again

Having the real estate industry get back on its feet is critical to improving the employment rate since the NAR has calculated that one job is created for every 2-3 homes sold. Additionally, people need full-time jobs and decent paying jobs in order to afford a home. Gov Kasich has been laser focused to keep companies in Ohio or bring new businesses here. As such, the state’s unemployment rate has declined since he took office and that may be reflected in the uptick of the number of homes sold in 2011. Hopefully, we’ll continue to see number of homes sold continue to increase for 2012.

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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, Worthington Ohio

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NAR Reveals Housing Sales Lower Than Reported Due To Errors

Posted on 12/15/2011 | Leave a comment

This week the National Association of Realtors announced that the data they’ve been releasing on home sales has been flawed – mainly understated – by possibly as much as 20% lower than previously reported. They said they will recalculate the data going back to 2007. The national news/business TV shows have reported on this because it will mean the housing decline will be much worse than earlier thought. So be prepared when you hear more about it.

NAR indicated a problem with areas where an agent might belong to two MLS’s and posts their listing in both MLS’s. Denver and Colorado Springs were mentioned, but there are high population areas – East Coast – where an agent needs to belong to more than one MLS in order to capture all potential buyers. When that ONE house sells, its sale is recorded in both systems so the sale is overstated.

The NAR also said there may be a problem with new-builds being double counted since they sometimes are listed in the MLS but the builder reports the sale as well. We have that issue here, since builder spec homes are often placed in the MLS. Even if the builder hasn’t put the home in the MLS, the agent who sells the home can enter it in after the sale in order to record a sale for that agent. Again, this would result in double counting for any report that has obtained data from the builders as well as the MLS.

Our own local Board (CBR) often issues reports by zip code. I’ve previously written why that is not a good move because many of our zip codes cross school district lines. Home buyers tend to want to buy homes according to the schools. To illustrate how the data can vary, let’s consider Powell’s zip code – 43065 – which primarily is southwest Delaware County, but it also extends down into Franklin County in the Smokey Row/Hard Rd area. There is a wide difference in the homes and prices in the entire zip code.

For Jan-Nov 2011, in the entire zip code of 43065 (excluding short sales, REO’s, foreclosures, condos), there were 377 homes sold at an average price of $347,114. But if we view it by the four school districts found within the 43065 zip, here’s how the numbers shake out:

  • Olentangy SD: 265 homes at average sale price of $394,425.
  • New Builds in Olentangy SD: 8 homes at average price of $438,264.
  • Buckeye Valley SD: 43 homes at average price of $291,400. (mainly an area around & part of Scioto Reserve)
  • Dublin SD: 24 homes at average price of $285,285. (primarily Shawnee Hills and Summit View Woods in Franklin County)
  • Worthington SD: 45 homes at average price of $154,717. (Franklin County around Smokey Row/Hard Rd)

This is why I don’t use the NAR or CBR data for any of my reports on this blog. There are just too many misleading nuances. Real estate is local and if one doesn’t know about or understand the specific points of a given area, the public can really be misled.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Home prices, Homes, Housing stats, New home builders, Schools, Surveys

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Powell ranked #5 for Quality of Life in the Midwest

Posted on 12/08/2011 | 2 Comments

Powell OH 43065 welcome signLast July, I wrote that Powell is the Crown Jewel of Delaware County. According to an article in Business First, a group called On Numbers has analyzed 955 Midwest communities to rank them for “Most Favorable Living Conditions“. In determining a community’s ranking, the group considered: (1) healthy economy, (2) light traffic, (3) moderate cost-of-living, (4) impressive housing stock, and (5) strong educational system.

Powell received a rank of **5**!! Glad to know that others have recognized the benefits that we already know. Dublin was the only other local suburb to make the Top 10, and it was ranked 9.

Rankings of other local central Ohio suburbs:

Ranked 11 to 50: Bexley (36), Arlington (39), Worthington (47)

Ranked 51 to 100: Hilliard (60), Westerville (84)

Ranked 100 to 200: Gahanna (106), Pickerington (143)

Ranked 200 to 400: Grove City (305), Delaware (310), Pataskala (329), Marysville (356)

400 plus: Reynoldsburg (482), Columbus (650), Whitehall (916)

NOTE: I did not see New Albany in the list on Business First’s web site. I may have missed it, but am surprised if it wasn’t somewhere in the list.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Powell Ohio, Surveys

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Happy Thanksgiving to your family

Posted on 11/21/2011 | Leave a comment

thanksgivingThis is Thanksgiving Week AND it’s OSU-Mich week. If you’re in to shopping, it’s also Black Friday week. Since I’m one of those people who hate shopping, there is NO WAY I would ever go to a store on Friday.

My family has reached the point where we must coordinate Thanksgiving dinners around other grandmas, other in-laws and other “might-be-in-laws-someday”. Bottom line, this year dinner is at my house on Saturday – the day of THE GAME.

This week will be spent getting everything ready … cleaning and planning groceries. My cupboards and fridge are mostly empty throughout the year because I nuke my food. That means I must buy fresh stuff like flour, brown sugar and spices. My girls always check the expiration date because they know I don’t cook or bake anymore.

We don’t do turkey, but prefer a ham from City BBQ. They are so good, we inhale the whole thing. I am also charged with fixing scalloped oysters for my sons-in-law and myself. One of my sons-in-law is a great baker of pies (as well as a great BBQ cook) so his job is to fix a pecan pie or two. My daughters will be fixing the salads, candied yams, and of course, green bean casserole. Naturally there will be other snacks and goodies as well. Hasn’t it been estimated that at the typical Thanksgiving dinner,  people eat between 3,000-5,000 calories?

I’m sure this year the Thanksgiving prayer will include thankfulness that we have jobs, have roofs over our heads, food on the table and that we’re all healthy. Yes, like others, we have recent college grads that aren’t working in their profession and we have others that are working two jobs to pay all the bills, but so far we’re OK, and I’m thankful for that. The main thing is that we have each other. I hope your family can enjoy the holiday.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, OSU Buckeyes, Powell Ohio

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Sledding hill is ready … just needs snow

Posted on 11/13/2011 | Leave a comment

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!

Highbanks Metro Park, Lewis Center OH 43035

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

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Lewis Center Ohio

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Post election info. Read it and weep???

Posted on 11/11/2011 | Leave a comment

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

2011 Ohio School District Rankings
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:

  • 2 Superintendents: one earning $121,290; one earning $112,019
  • 1 Assistant Superintendent earning $109,535
  • 8 Principals with salaries between $109,535 to $77,411
  • 6 Assistant Principals with salaries between $78,584 to $69,673
  • 2 Directors earning $105,165 and $98,920
  • 3 Supervisors earning between $101,106 to $65,784
  • 12 Remedial Specialists with 5 earning in the $70,000′s.
  • 11 Counselors earning between $78,887 to $51,044
  • 291 Teachers with 66 earning in the $70,000′s; 66 in the $60,000′s; 57 in the $50,000′s; 53 in the $40,000′s; 39 in the $30,000′s; and 19 below $30,000
  • 30 Clerical workers earning between $60,377 to $20,106

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

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