Category Archives: Schools

Ohio Schools Report Cards are out

Posted on 08/24/2011 | Leave a comment

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

  • Olentangy – Excellent with Distinction
  • Delaware City – Excellent with Distinction *
  • Big Walnut – Excellent
  • Buckeye Valley – Excellent

Franklin County

  • Dublin – Excellent with Distinction
  • Hilliard – Excellent with Distinction
  • Westerville – Excellent with Distinction
  • New Albany (Plain Local) – Excellent
  • Worthington – Excellent

Union County

  • Marysville – Excellent with Distinction

* Congrats to Delaware Schools for improving from an Effective rating to Excellent with Distinction!

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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

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10-Yrs of Home Sales Show That It’s A Buyer’s Market

Posted on 06/21/2011 | Leave a comment

Yesterday I posted a graph showing the average prices of homes sold the past 10 years. Today I’ve prepared a graph showing the NUMBER OF HOMES SOLD  in that same time period. This chart illustrates why there is so much concern about the real estate market and the need to improve the sales because the real estate industry supports jobs for many related industries.

2002-2011 # Homes Sold Jan May in central Ohio

Click to enlarge, then click again

You’ve probably heard Realtors® say that there are fewer buyers than there were in the early part of the 2000 decade. This chart certainly illustrates that. The bump-up in 2010 was due to the $8000 Gov’t tax credit for 1st time home buyers. Buyers had to be in-contract by the end of April to take advantage of that tax credit. Some of those contracts would have closed in May, thus driving up the sales for the Jan-May period.

Prices and interest rates have been declining in recent years, which should drive up the demand, but that’s not happening. The financial institutions began eliminating 100% financing and established tougher criteria for buyers to meet when seeking mortgages. Buyers had to begin having some down payment money and better credit scores. You can see this effect with the declines after 2007. This financing change impacted 1st time buyers the most and that’s likely why Hilliard and Westerville sales have declined so visibly as both suburbs are popular with 1st time buyers due to the average price of the homes. (See yesterday’s chart)

What should your take-away be from this chart’s info?

  • Buyers: If you have the funds, it REALLY IS a good time to buy.
  • Sellers: Competition is stiff so your home needs to be priced right and in top condition to appeal to the few buyers that are shopping.

View same data for AVERAGE PRICE OF HOMES SOLD

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 Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Hilliard Ohio, Home buying process, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio

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The Wheels on the Bus go round & round

Posted on 05/24/2011 | Leave a comment

Like other states, Ohio has a budget problem that our new Republican Governor is trying to fix. Discussions are taking place on revenue options for schools to prevent taxes from being raised to solve the budget problem. It’s been suggested that schools be allowed to sell ad space on the school buses.

If this occurs, I just know that Realtors® will be the first to buy ad space for the visibility throughout neighborhood homes. They’re the same agents who paste their face on park benches and grocery carts.

school busesA twitter person questioned why schools didn’t just purchase smaller buses, since we seldom see a bus full of kids except for teams and bands. That started me to wonder why the design of school buses hasn’t changed for eons. Even though our cars have changed drastically and become much safer, school buses still look essentially the same as when I was a kid.

They’re high-profile, not aerodynamic, and still use the hard brown seats without seatbelts. I don’t understand why they need to be so high unless it’s to allow people to stand up inside.

I wonder if buses could be downsized to a Hummer-like long vehicle like a limo? Since many schools pick up elementary kids separate from the highschool kids, they’re carrying fewer students each trip out. Maybe two of the Hummer-type buses could replace one typical bus at less cost with greater safety built-in. How important is it to stand up in the bus vs the potential cost savings?

Does anyone know whether there have been any challenges to the typical school bus design? Is there a perfectly good reason for the design to stay the same? Or has no one asked the question as to why this sacred cow remains unchanged?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Commentary, Schools, Transportation

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Olentangy school district has LOTS of kids

Posted on 03/21/2011 | Leave a comment

The U.S. Census Bureau data is interesting, but not always that surprising. The Dispatch published a map that shows the percentage of kids under age 18 according to the school district area in which they live. The caveat is that the child may or may not attend the schools in the district where they live (perhaps they attend a private school).

Statewide, 23.7% of Ohio residents are younger than 18. In Central Ohio …

Four school districts exceed 30%: Olentangy 32.8%; New Albany 31.9%; Pickerington 31.1%; and Canal Winchester 30.9%.

central ohio school map of students under 18

Click to enlarge, then click again

Young families typically seek to live in a district that meets their needs/wants for their offspring yet is affordable for their home budget. Too many or too few students has implications on the district’s budget. A high ratio of kids, like Olentangy, can put pressure on needing to pass levies to build new schools. A low ratio, like Columbus, can cause lack of support to pass levies if residents don’t have school-age children.

Read other articles I’ve written similar to this subject:

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Franklin County, Housing stats, Schools, Surveys

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Are you getting your money’s worth?

Posted on 02/07/2011 | Leave a comment

In Ohio, our property taxes pay a good portion of the funding for schools. That has been a hot topic politically for several years and the issue isn’t resolved yet. Of course, our property taxes pay for more than just the schools, such as police, fire, emergency services, libraries, etc.

For a number of years, I’ve provided readers with a graph of the residential tax rates for all the taxing areas within a school district. With every update each year, the tax rate increases. There are also significant differences from one school district to the other depending on the levies residents have voted on. How much a school has to spend can also rely on the number of homes, the type of property (upscale homes vs farm land) and the concentration of retail, office, and corporate businesses.

This year I added in the Ohio Dept of Education’s report card rating. As I was retrieving all the data, I thought that the higher ODE ratings would match the higher county assessed property values. As you’ll see on the chart, a district such as Buckeye Valley (mostly rural) seems to be “doing more with less” in that their ODE rating is the same as much higher assessed (taxed) districts.

central Ohio assessed tax rates per school district

Click to enlarge chart, then click again

Additional Stats
School District Graduation Rate 2010 Avg Home Price
New Albany 99.6% $429,398
Dublin 98.5% $331,705
Upper Arlington 98.3% $353,377
Hilliard 95.4% $197,642
Buckeye Valley 94.2% $205,342
Westerville 93.4% $193,447
Olentangy 98.1% $335,190
Big Walnut 97.9% $283,001
Worthington 95.5% $231,887
Delaware 91.5% $142,116

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, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio

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2010 – A Year in Review of the Housing Market

Posted on 01/06/2011 | Leave a comment

Updates on how we fared in 2010 for the central Ohio housing market have been completed. You can check your area, school district or subdivision here:

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

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