Category Archives: Franklin County

Central Ohio High Schools Highly Rated

Posted on 05/10/2012 | Leave a comment

The American Institutes for Research worked with U.S. News & World Report to rank schools relative to how those students performed based on the state’s average, how the schools are preparing students for college, and how minority/low-income students perform vs similar students in the state. They did this for 20,000 high schools around the nation.

Five of the central Ohio schools were ranked within the Top 10 in the State. Nine were ranked in the Top 25 of the State. Here are their rankings:

American Institutes for Research School Rankings
School Ohio Rank National Rank
Bexley 2 120
Dublin Jerome 5 156
Olentangy Liberty 7 216
Upper Arlington 9 244
Olentangy 10 256
Olentangy Orange 16 393
Dublin Coffman 17 410
Dublin Scioto 22 583
New Albany 25 659

Bexley, Upper Arlington, Dublin Coffman, Dublin Scioto and New Albany are located in Franklin County. The remaining schools are in southern Delaware County.

Read the complete Columbus Business 1st article

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Schools, Surveys

Tagged , , , , ,

1 Qtr Home Sales Results for Central Ohio

Posted on 04/09/2012 | Leave a comment

Enough days have passed since the end of the first quarter, that I can now look at the real estate home sale results. Generally the results are pretty positive when compared with the 1st Quarter 2011. Most school districts realized an increase in the number of homes sold, and many also benefitted from higher average prices as well. Remember, when considering higher prices, that doesn’t mean that any given home will receive more money, it merely means the average of the prices the buyers CHOSE to buy was higher. In a way, that can be good since it may indicate that buyers are in better financial positions when they finally decide to buy.

1st Qtr Home Sales *
School 2011
#		 2012
#		 %
Chg		 2011
Avg $		 2012
Avg $		 %
Chg
New Albany 52 54 +3.8% $411,688 $449,190 +9.1%
Dublin 72 96 +33.3% $340,516 $352,136 +3.4%
Olentangy (Rt 23 west) 74 74 0.0% $381,090 $345,315 -9.4%
Olentangy (Rt 23 east) 56 81 +44.6% $288,849 $300,727 +4.1%
Big Walnut 32 24 -25.0% $236,814 $261,066 +10.2%
Worthington 66 99 +50.0% $237,233 $225,191 -5.1%
Westerville 113 110 -2.6% $213,378 $202,877 -4.9%
Buckeye Valley 16 23 +43.7% $297,196 $223,175 -24.9%
Hilliard 115 105 -8.7% $212,216 $192,141 -9.5%
Marysville 34 33 -2.9% $190,209 $159,350 -16.2%
Delaware 36 60 +66.7% $142,931 $149,411 +4.5%

* Data does not include homes sold as REO, foreclosure or short sale.

→ Leave a comment

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

Tagged ,

Delaware County still leads Ohio’s population growth

Posted on 04/07/2012 | Leave a comment

Copyrighted Village at KinsaleDelaware County’s growth has slowed since the early 2000′s but it’s growth is still the best in Ohio according to Census Bureau data released this week. The average rate between 2000-2010 was 4.7%. The current rate is 1.8%. Between July 2010 to July 2011, Delaware County added 3,103 people. The southern half of the county continues to be the most popular with new home buyers locating around Powell, Lewis Center and Galena/Hoover Reservoir areas.

The seven counties in central Ohio had growth that kept the State from actually losing population. Only one county – Madison – lost population. The other counties in central Ohio grew …

  • Delaware – up 1.8%, from 175,238 to 178,341
  • Franklin – up 1.1%, from 1,165,789 to 1,178,799
  • Union – up 0.8%, from 52,370 to 52,764
  • Fairfield – up 0.5%, from 146,381 to 147,066
  • Licking – up 0.3%, 166,727 to 167,248
  • Pickway – up 0.3%, 55,810 to 55,990
  • Madison – down 0.1%, 43,444 to 43,401

You can read more in The Dispatch regarding other findings in the Census data.

→ Leave a comment

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

Tagged ,

Our Tax Rates Keep Going Up … Surprised?

Posted on 03/09/2012 | Leave a comment

Every year after the local property tax rates are published on the Auditor’s web site, I update a tax graph that compares the various rates for nearby school districts. I frequently get questions or requests from readers regarding these graphs.

Well, I just updated the graph again and this year there were some noticeable changes in the districts’ relationships with each other. Most noticeable is that the top tax rate is now approaching $100 (that’s per $1000 of assessed value). For all prior years, New Albany had the highest tax rate by far. Now the Hilliard district is higher than New Albany’s. There are other changes as well. For comparison, view the graph I posted a year ago to see how much things have changed. View 2011 graph.

2012 Tax Rates by Central Ohio School District

2012 central ohio tax rates by school district

Click to enlarge. Note that the base is at $20 not $0

NOTE: On March 6, Westerville approved a school levy. I doubt that the increase of that levy has been incorporated into the Auditor’s web site data at this writing.

→ Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , , , ,

Ohio economy on its way back!

Posted on 02/07/2012 | Leave a comment

This afternoon the Ohio Governor, John Kasich, gave his State of the State speech. I made a point to watch it since Ohio, like many states, is trying to work its way out of hard times. Although the speech was one hour – twenty minutes long, the time went by quickly as he is a dynamic, energetic speaker – that doesn’t use a teleprompter or prepared speech.

Under our previous Governor, we had lost 400,000 jobs and had an $8 million deficit. In year one, our budget is now balanced – no small task. Plus, Gov Kasich has worked very hard to retain businesses or lure new businesses to help grow jobs.

Our unemployment rate is now down to 8.1%. As Gov Kasich noted in his speech, Ohio is #1 in the Midwest for job creation and #9 in the Nation. Before he took office, Ohio was #48 in the Nation.

It was recently announced that Honda (a big employer here) will be making their snazzy new Accura sports car here. Plus, Jeep will be expanding their operations in Toledo. In his speech, Kasich mentioned many other successes as well. It’s all very exciting and should help homeowners, home buyers, and the job market for 2012.

Watch a video of Kasich’s speech

Read similar articles:

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Central Ohio, Franklin County

Tagged , ,

Columbus Makes the “Easiest & Hardest Cities to Find a Job” List

Posted on 01/24/2012 | Leave a comment

Yesterday Forbes.com released a report of the Easiest & Hardest Cities to find a job. Columbus made one of the lists … can you guess which one?

The report considers 4th Qtr job listings for salaries over $50,000. The cities were ranked per the number of jobs per 1000 population. The parenthesis below represents the (jobs/1M).

Easiest Places: San Jose (130); Washington DC (89); San Francisco (54); Boston (53); Baltimore (52); Raleigh (50); Seattle (42); Columbus (38); Atlanta (36); Minneapolis/St Paul (35).

Hardest Places: Riverside, CA; Miami; Louisville, KY; Orlando; Las Vegas; San Antonio; Los Angeles; Virginia Beach; Salt Lake.

Read the entire Forbes article

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Central Ohio, Columbus Ohio, Franklin County

Tagged ,