Category Archives: Surveys

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 The voters repealed the bill and now with many school levies having failed, schools and local governments are looking for ways to cut expenses to meet their budgets.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

Tagged 2011 Ohio School District Rankings, Business First newspaper, Delaware City School Teacher's Salaries, Delaware OH city schools, Schools spending per student

Good News On Central Ohio’s Unemployment Rate

Posted on 10/25/2011 | Leave a comment

September unemployment rates are out and Central Ohio performed slightly better than the State as a whole. Five of the eight counties in Central Ohio fell in September. Rates FELL in Franklin (7.7%), Fairfield (7.4%), Licking (7.8%), Morrow (8.2%) and Pickway (8.9%). Delaware remained FLAT at 6.3%. Rates ROSE in Madison (8.7%) and Union (7.7%).

The September rate for all of Ohio is 9.1%, but the rate FELL for 73 of the 88 counties. Delaware was one of six counties having a 7% or below rate.

Click to enlarge, then click again

This graph shows the number of unemployed people in Delaware and Union Counties. Between 2000 thru 2008, the rate of unemployed people was at or below 5% which I believe is considered “OK” for the economy. Then in 2009 the rate spiked and increased again in 2010. For Delaware County, even though the rates hovered between 3-4%, the number of unemployed increased but so did the population of Delaware County during those years, as the southern portion of the county grew tremendously.

Employed vs Unemployed for 2010

FRANKLIN COUNTY: in 2010, 573,600 were employed, 53,500 were unemployed, 8.5% rate.
DELAWARE COUNTY: in 2010, 85,700 were employed, 6,600 were unemployed, 7.1% rate .
UNION COUNTY: in 2010, 23,700 were employed, 2,200 were unemployed, 8.4% rate.

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

Tagged Delaware County, Ohio unemployment, Union County

Richest Communities in Central Ohio

Posted on 09/20/2011 | Leave a comment

American City Business Journals, a parent to Columbus Business First, compiled a list of the richest communities. In Ohio, New Albany came in 2nd, Powell is #11, and Dublin is #13. Indian Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati, was #1.

The measurement was the percentage of the population with household incomes over $150,000. Just under half of New Albany’s households have household incomes over that amount. Powell had 36% of households earning over $150,000 and Dublin had 35%.

Read more here. Plus you can search a database for other cities.

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

Tagged central ohio real estate market news, Columbus Business First, Dublin Ohio, New Albany Ohio, Powell OH 43065, richest communities in central Ohio

Does your REALTOR® look like this?

Posted on 09/14/2011 | Leave a comment

Realtor giving keys to home buyer The Columbus Board of Realtors® recently conducted a survey of members to determine what we’re like. Nearly 22% (1190) of the members answered the survey.

We’re Old or maybe “aging gracefully”

32% are 60 or older. 30% are in their 50′s. 20% are in their 40′s. Only 17% are below 40. Older agents have often owned multiple homes themselves, giving them more experience in the whole home-buying-owning process which can benefit clients. The financials of being in this business (see below) are tougher for a younger person since they may not have the reserves saved to meet monthly budgets when no homes are sold.

We’re Well Educated

52% have a college degree or higher. 40% have some college or an associate degree. Working with a well-educated agent is important when managing the legal language of contracts and mortgage financials, plus an understanding of economical influences and marketing principles is equally important. If the number of agents with a college degree seems high to you, keep in mind that real estate is often a second career for many, which explains the age distribution also.

We’re Women & Married & We Work Full-time

59% are women. 75% are married. 79% work full-time meaning they don’t have other full- or part-time jobs. Working with a full-time agent is very important! If an agent is working another job they probably can’t take phone calls or respond to emails to manage your sale or purchase. As a full-time agent, I can tell you it’s very difficult to work a transaction with a part-time agent.

The Source of our Income

Only 53% of us rely on real estate commissions for our primary source of income. Given that 75% are married, a spouse’s income (and often their benefit package) is important. Some agents own rental property in order to have some regular income when houses may not be selling well. A lot of agents have retired from corporate careers and are benefitting from those pensions. I personally don’t know of any agents who are living solely off of their commissions, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some.

We practice what we preach

91% of us own our own home. As the CBR article said, what’s up with the 9% who don’t!

Local, local, local

I don’t know how these stats compare to other parts of Ohio or the Nation. These responses were only from the Central Ohio area which comprises the counties surrounding the Columbus metro area.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Realtors®, Surveys

Tagged central ohio real estate market news, Columbus Board of Realtors®, Realtor survey

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

Tagged 2010 census data, central ohio real estate market news, ratio of children under age 18

Delaware County 2010 Census Data Released

Posted on 03/11/2011 | Leave a comment

The 2010 Census data is out for Delaware County. The county remains the fastest growing county in the state, increasing by 58.4% since 2000. During those 10 years, the population increased from 109,989 to 174,214.

The growth was not evenly distributed throughout the county, however. As I’ve reported here before, the growth and the density is primarily in the southern portion of the county. The new Census confirmed it. The areas in the county with the highest population increases are shown in the map below. Essentially all the area in the lavender box are the high-growth areas.