Tag Archives: central ohio real estate market news

Homes For Sale in Olentangy SD

Posted on 02/13/2012 | Leave a comment

It’s time to start searching for a home if you want to move by the end of the school year. I work mostly in the Olentangy school district area, and there are many homes available for buyers to choose. The following chart shows the number of homes for sale as of this afternoon. It changes all the time but this gives you a glimpse into the variety you’ll have to view. There are also many new home builders that will be more than willing to build your home from scratch. Some are starting to offer special deals, since the economy has impacted their business moreso than the resale market.

Zip # For Sale Sq Ft Avg $
43015 72 3590 $530,599
43065 154 3818 $505,680
43082 30 3394 $415,546
43021 49 3137 $359,076
43035 119 2728 $296,505

If you’re into luxury homes, there are 13 homes priced over $1 million with an average sq ft of 7883. All are located west of Rt 23 with most being in the various subdivisions along the Olentangy River between Powell Rd up to the junction with Rt 23 (south of Delaware).

If you’re ready to start looking, give me a call and we’ll go shopping. Remember, interest rates are rock bottom!

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Galena Ohio, Homes, Homes for sale, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio

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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

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Posted in Central Ohio, Franklin County

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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

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Posted in Central Ohio, Columbus Ohio, Franklin County

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Ohio Unemployment Rate Continues to Drop

Posted on 01/22/2012 | Leave a comment

Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped again for December, going from 8.5 to 8.1. That compares quite favorably to the 9.5 rate in December 2010 before the new governor, John Kasich, took office.

A year ago 560,000 people were unemployed. In November 2011, 496,000 were unemployed, and it further dropped to 469,000 in December 2012.

Per the report, the rate decline from 8.5 to 8.1 was the largest one-month decline in almost 30 years. Let’s hope the Governor continues his successes to bring or keep businesses here in Ohio which will certainly help our housing market.

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Posted in Central Ohio

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Delaware County Property Tax Bills Arrive

Posted on 01/17/2012 | Leave a comment

Did you receive your 2012 Delaware County property tax bill yet? I received mine today. Oh, yay!

Along with the invoice was a post card explaining that although the assessed value of our properties had decreased, our taxes may not decrease due to various levies being passed.

The assessed value of my property went down 9½%. The Auditors are notorious for referring to the “value” as market value. Market value is what a buyer will pay for your home. The Auditor’s don’t know what that price is because they’ve never been inside your home to know whether it’s in top condition or not. It’s merely an assessed value which they use to calculate what tax amount you’ll pay. Since I’m not planning to sell, I’m OK with a reduced amount for calculating the taxes.

Even though my assessed value declined, the amount of taxes I owe increased 7%. The lion’s share of my taxes go to the schools – to the tune of 79%! A huge school district tax levy was passed last fall, so that isn’t surprising.

Knowing what the school district pays-per-student, I seem to be funding the cost of one child even though I don’t have any school age children. Thus, to whoever’s kid I’m supporting … you’re welcome!

BTW, the bill is to be paid to the County by Feb 10.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Home prices, Homes, Schools

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Is Columbus in the “Technosphere”?

Posted on 01/09/2012 | Leave a comment

It is according to Forbes. Columbus has come a long way from being called a cow town – thanks to that OSU farm photo years ago – to now being suggested as one of the regions to watch in 2012 for technology growth.

Read the complete Forbes article

Here’s what Forbes said about Columbus (#4 heading, under Technosphere):

Unfortunately for the rest of California, and even more blue-collar Bay Area communities like San Jose and Oakland, high costs and an unfavorable regulatory environment will keep this bubble geographically constrained. Historic patterns, particularly over the past decade, suggest that as the core tech companies expand, they are likely to head  to business-friendly places such as  Salt Lake City, Raleigh and Columbus, Ohio, which have picked up both tech companies and educated migrants from California.

Recently Jerry Brown, the California Governor, appealed for more tax increases to assist their ailing economy. Governor Kasich tweeted that he welcomed California companies to come to Ohio where our business climate was now friendlier.

Having lived in central Ohio most of my life, and enduring the years that some media have made fun of us, I’m really proud to have this new designation from Forbes. How about you?

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Posted in Franklin County, Central Ohio, Columbus Ohio, Technology

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