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Columbus is on “Low Risk List” for falling prices according to a study done by PMI but the Columbus Dispatch says prices are sliding in some areas?   

 Help I am thinking of Wal-Mart commercials, though, some local neighborhoods prices are “sliding.”  … some popular Central Ohio suburbs may have sliding prices?  What are sliding prices? The ”sliding” is  happening in Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Powell according to the Columbus Dispatch article. 

Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch Article about Central Ohio’s  low risk for falling prices on houses - July 29, 2007 

Yeah!

Titled “Housing market seen as stable”  the article is subtitled “Central Ohio’s history makes huge price drop unlikely, analysts say”

Bill Evans president of Real Living HER is quoted in the Columbus Dispatch article.

“All these years, we’ve had fairly steady growth but not West Coast- or East Coast-style gains,” said Bill Evans, president of HER Real Living.

“When we have less-than-desirable economic times, Ohio’s housing market doesn’t suffer as badly,” Evans said.

Home prices are also expected to “slowly begin to rise in the next 12 to 18 months,” Evans said.

This is I believe the same PMI study as  Columbus Makes National Top Ten List on June 23, 2007  here on this lowly little blog…

There is a confusing paragraph after a quote from Don Haurin, housing expert and economics professor at Ohio State University in the Columbus Dispatch article.  Haurin is quoted:

  
“House prices in central Ohio have been among the most stable in the U.S., tending to rise at about the rate of inflation.”

The confusing paragraph says:

Even so, all neighborhoods are not equal. Some pockets of central Ohio, such as Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Powell, saw swift price increases during the earlier part of this decade and have since watched prices slide.

What does “prices slide” mean?  Whose information is that? There is no quotation marks.  Is that from Don Haurin or from the Columbus Dispatch reporter, Denise Trowbridges opinion based on something Haurin said about Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Powell?  

Does “prices slide” means:

Prices have not continued to increase at the rate they had previously?

Or
Price decrease are at a greater rate than the rest of the local market?

Or 

Something else?  

Should home owners in Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Powell  be concerned? 

Stay tuned… if you don’t like reading about real estate, take a few days break… visit some other Columbus blogs… there’s some good ones in my my blogroll.  

“Load up on guns
Bring your friends
Its fun to lose
And to pretend
Shes overboard
Myself assured
I know I know
A dirty word”

Those are the lyrics to Nirvana’s hit song ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ from the early 90’s.  

After making a CNNMoney.com list as one of the top US small cities recently Westerville made the news (at least locally) for two troubled teens plans to bomb, burn down and kill everyone in two unidentified local restaurants and St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church.

I read about “the plot” Thursday online.   I was Googling for Westerville and I saw a discussion  about “the plot”, which made me go find what the Columbus Dispatch had on the story.    

Wednesday in the Columbus Dispatch

I forgot all about the Westerville story until Sunday morning, walking into church. 

It would be real easy to get on the roof of St. Paul the Apostle Church.  I never noticed that before.  I wonder if teens have done it before.  Climbed up on the roof of the church. I am sure the planting pipe bombs idea was novel.

The Nirvana  song ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ was inspired by graffiti about the smell of a deodorant…  the song written by Kurt Cobain however was about teen age angst though, anarchy, rebellion.   I had heard that he did not realize there was a deoderant named ‘Teen Spirit’  until after the song was recorded….  Wikipedia has that story… including:

“The song was dubbed an “anthem for apathetic kids” of Generation X.”

The two boys were born about the time Nirvana recorded the song… The Wikipedia has files where you can hear snatches of the song, first as recorded by Nirvana, then a Tori Amos cover and then a Paul Anka recording of it… talk about generations.

There is no connection between the song, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, the group Nirvana and the Westerville boys.  ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ is just was a song that popped in my head at church Sunday morning.   That was not one of the songs the St Paul the Apostle organist played.

I’ve heard the lyrics to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ changed when Nirvana performed live and they were hard to make out….

“Police: Teens Plotted To Bomb Church | July 25, 2007″ - Channel 10 Slideshow of the story 

The boys families are members of St. Paul Church, one went to school at St. Paul (the school goes through eighth grade.)  I did not read the Thursday article in the Columbus Dispatch, which says the boys families belong to the parish. I read the Thursday Columbus Dispatch article on  Sunday night.  Thursday in the Columbus Dispatch

 ”Robin Miller, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus, said both boys and their families are parishioners at St. Paul’s. “

The  statement at church surprised me, it was hard to make it sink in, reading it in the Columbus Dispatch convinced me.   

Two kids reading about the plot on MySpace.com reported it to the police.   Whatever it was, a real plot or troubled teens trying to get attention the story is it was planned for August 2007.  Westerville is a great place… but like all communities there are troubled individuals, in this case teens.  Westerville is not Nirvana. 

Westerville and Gahanna in Top 100 US  Cities (Small Cities)

Westerville is a Great Place

A video about Westerville from Real Living HER. 

No not green fleas… just normal black or brown fleas.  Whatever color fleas are. The Ontario Canada remedy below sounds kinda green to me.  It sounds Green Buckeye (a Columbus blog) green to me, so I dedicate the Columbus green flea remedy to Tina of Green Buckeye. 

Joan Whitebook is a real estate agent in New Hampshire.  Joan showed a house that has a bad flea infestation.  She wrote an ActiveRain post looking for flea remedies (non harsh chemical flea remedies… maybe kinda green flea remedies)  entitled  ”THERE AIN’T NO BUGS ON ME”.  Joan’s post got this reply from Jo-Anne Smith in Ontario:

“Fleas can be gotten rid of without harsh chemicals. Keeping the place thoroughly vaccuumed is a start.  Another method is having a low pie plate or bowl filled with water and vegetable oil on the floor with a light shining on it. Leave the light on during the night. The fleas all hop over to the light and land in the dish and drown in the oil/water mixture. In the morning you find you have captured hundreds of fleas and in no time they are all gone.  Due to the life cycle and the eggs that are still hatching daily, the thorough vaccuuming may not have sucked up all of the eggs so you may have to repeat the pie dish routine a few times til all reproducing adults are gone and all eggs have hatched.”

I admit I am not green when it comes to flea irradication.  I personally believe in weapons of mass destruction or harsh chemicals when it comes to fleas but this oil, water and light method sounds like a neat science experiment to me. 

I have a flea story too.  It is my Columbus green flea remedy.   My friend Betsy had a horrible listing.  It was an estate.  The owner had, had a dog.  It stunk… it was a horrible house.  One day I went with her to check on something there… The house was  in the N. Linden area.  Nice street.  Nasty house.   After we did whatever we were there for I wanted to show her a house I had written an offer on the evening before that was in the Kenmore Park neighborhood.  My buyer,  his friend and I had been in the house the evening before. 

Betsy and I stopped, she saw the potential…  nice house.

We got back to the office and Betsy said there was a rash on her ankles.  It was not a rash it was flea bites and they were on our pants legs too.  We assumed they were from her horrible listing but when we scheduled an appointment to go back into the Kenmore Park home I had written the offer on we discovered otherwise. 

The house was one the listing agent / investor had bought and was in the process of refurbishing.  “No Problem…” the agent / owner would have it sprayed for fleas. 

We scheduled a couple of appointments after flea treatments where we all, listing agent, buyers agent, contractor, workers were to meet at the house to talk about issues … how to finish the remodel.  There were two such appointments I got to a couple of minutes late to find everyone running out of the house slapping themselves and picking off bugs.  The meeting would then be postponed while the owner and “his people” sprayed for fleas again.  

Picture all of” the gentlemen”  agent, buyer,  contractor, etc.  out on the front lawn picking fleas off one another.   I was glad both times I got there too late to join in all  the fun. If  an image of apes grooming one another came to your mind, you know just what it looked like when I drove up, not once but twice.  I could not find a photo of chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos or any other apes grooming one another, so here is one of the an orangutan laughing. 

This is the lucky orangutan who got to the meetings too late to get swarmed by fleas… same hair color too?  L’Oreal?

At some point the listing agent and ”his people” came to the conclusion that they would have to remove the dead raccoon from the chimney to get rid of the fleas. Wow… buyer and I never knew anything about a raccoon in the chimney dead or alive.

It worked. 

So there’s another green flea solution for you as well.   No harsh chemical bombs or sprays.  Remove the decaying raccoon carcass from the fireplace chimney and voila no more fleas!

The orangutan  photo  was found on Wikipedia. Photo credit: Malene Thyssen, www.mtfoto.dk/malene/  The copyright on the diagram of a flea drawn by Robert Hooke has expired according to Wikipedia.

The CNNMoney.com list of 100 Top US cities said of Westerville: 

Population: 37,500
Median home price (2006): $200,889
Average property taxes (2006): $4,409

Does the Meidan home price info come from Trulia? Trulia is a great place for people to find ads about homes.  Trulia is a real estate search.   Real Living HER has ads for our listings on Trulia.com  You can search for homes there, it is better IMHO (in my humble opinion) to search Real Living HER’s data base. A more complete list of properties.

Which “Westerville”  is the $200,889 median price on CNNMoney.com for?  The City of Westerville?  The homes with Westerville mailing addresses (zip codes 43081 and 43082)?  The homes within the Westerville School District? 

I believe the $200,889 is the homes with a Westerville mailing address (zip code.) 

I can’t remember the last time someone told me they wanted to buy a house in a zip code!  ”I am looking for a home in the 43081 zip code.  

Buyers say “I want a home in the Westerville School District…”  or the Worthingon School District or the Columbus School District ….   

If you look at the bottom of the write up on CNNMoney.com about Westerville you can search for Westerville homes!  The search is Trulia.com  What Trulia considers Westerville homes is homes with a Westerville zip code.  You can tell if you look at the map if you know what to look for.  Look at the markers for homes west of I-71.  Those homes do have a Westerville zip code.  They are in the City of Columbus and in the Worthington school district.  Nothing wrong with those homes except they have very little to do with the city of Westerville other than that’s where they go to pick up mail occasionally.

Addresses (zip codes) are a great way to narrow things down but the mailing address has little to do with the value of a home in Central Ohio in my experience.

A common way of advertising properties in Central Ohio is to say:

‘Westerville, Columbus taxes!” 

What that typically means is the house is in the Westerville School District, it is in the City of Columbus.  The buyer gets Columbus services NOT Westerville services. 

Which Westerville? The city of Westerville?  From the Columbus Board of REALTORS® MLS for Westerville corporation limit… the city of Westerville: 

Average square feet 2061

Average bedrooms 3

Average full baths 1

Average half baths 1

Average days on market 84

Average list price $ 221,673
Average sale price $ 216,205

Which Westerville? The homes with a Westerville mailing address? ….the zip code Westerville, 43081 and 43082? Some are Westerville, some are Blendon Townhship, some are Genoa Township… maybe other townships?  Some are in the city of Columbus. 

Average square feet 2224

Average bedrooms 3

Average full baths 2

Average half baths 1

Average days on market 96

Average list price $ 260,951
Average sale price $ 253,394

Which Westerville? Is the CNNMoney.com median price for the Westerville School District and Westerville mailing address (zip codes 43081 and 43082) townships:

Average square feet 2224

Average bedrooms 3

Average full baths 2

Average half baths 1

Average days on market 92

Average list price $ 250,926

Average sale price $ 243,698

What other homes are in the Westerville School District but do not necessarily have a Westerville mailing address (zip code)? Homes in the Village of Minerva Park, a vast number of homes in the City of Columbus, some homes in townships in Franklin and Delaware County which are within the Westerville School District.   

Which Westerville? Is the CNNMoney.com Westerville homes, homes in the Westerville School District regardless of zip code:

Average square feet 1996

Average bedrooms 3

Average full baths 1

Average half baths 1

Average days on market 88

Average list price $ 222,404

Average sale price $ 216,373 

Home price?  Is CNNMoney.com using just single family homes?  Does it matter?  Average sale price of a condo in zip codes 43081 and 43082 (mailing address Westerville) in 2006 was $ 154,720.   If the CNNMoney.com median is $200,889 for Westerville homes includes condos (they are homes) it would pull that median down… I am guessing the CNNMoney.com may just be single family homes. Who knows? Maybe if I read it cover to cover I can see what is apples and what is oranges. Median vs. Average is a whole ‘nuther discussion.

Westerville and Gahanna make the top 100 best cities list 

Westerville is a great place

City of Westerville website

Westerville Visitors and Convention Bureau Westerville School District

Am I going to do this same thing for Gahanna? (#96 on the list) on CNNMoney.com?  No way!  No offense.  I love Gahanna.  This was too much work for a blog entry though.

Median price for Westerville (City of Westerville) by month is on this entry on Discover Columbus from February 2007. 1/06 $181,000, 2/06 $180,000, 3/06 $199,000, 4/06 $195,000, 5/06 $197,000, 6/06 $218,000, 7/06 $199,000, 8/06 $180,000, 9/06  $220,000,10/ 06 $180,000, 11/06 $215,000, 12/06 $196,000

Westerville is a great town, a great suburb, a great city… heck it’s just a great place to live.  It is official.

Westerville is number 46  on the list of 100 Top US Cities in the US recently published online by CNNMoney.com 

The CNNMoney.com write up on Westerville, says:

“Half of the United States population is located within 500 miles of Westerville, according to city officials. A little closer to home is nearby Columbus, the state capital. “

CNN Money.com’s  statement “Half of the United States population is located within 500 miles of Westerville, according to city officials.”  ?  Well yeah, but that’s true of Worthington, Dublin, Gahanna, New Albany, Hilliard, Grove City, Upper Arlington, Grandview Heights,  Pickerington, Reynoldsburg, Powell, Gahanna… (all small cities) and Columbus?  

Half of the US population is within 500 miles of Central Ohio places that aren’t cities either like … Lewis Center.   Or villages like Riverlea and Minerva Park…

Congratulations Westerville! Westerville is a great town (I think of the Columbus suburbs as towns not cities…even if they are not really cities but just places like Lewis Center.) On the Westerville (City of )  website they note the honor from CNNMoney.com up and say Westerville is one of the 100 best towns in the US, they must think of themselves as a town too.  The Westerville Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has it on their front page too.  They say it is a list of “places.”

CNNMoney.com said of Westerville:

“Despite its small-town size, Westerville offers residents more than 40 parks and recreational facilities, as well as a wide variety of community activities throughout the year. “

Westerville is one of Columbus Ohio’s biggest suburbs…. population wise, land wise.      

A video about Westerville from Real Living HER. 

City of Westerville 

Westerville Visitor and Convention Bureau

The Westerville School District

Westerville and Gahanna in Top 100 Cities

Home pricing, the CNNMoney.com report got their pricing from Trulia.com I believe.  Stay tuned for the rest of the story.