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I found this Trulia.com widget on a friend’s blog… MiOaklandCounty.com from Maureen Francis. Actually the widget the other Maureen created for her blog had to do with her market, Metro Detroit. She did a Trulia.com widget for communities in her market…

I wish I could make a Trulia.com widget with the a graph that compares a bunch of areas… it would be a lot of little lines on a graph…. I wish I could but I can’t. Trulia will only compare two areas (two neighborhoods, or two cities, or a city vs. a neighborhood.)

The Grandview Heights community on Trulia.com has always intrigued me. The widget shows Grandview Heights as a city of Columbus neighborhood and Grandview Heights as a city. Grandview Heights is a city. The ZIP code that Grandview Heights is in includes other cities.

All of our Real Living HER listings are advertised on Trulia.com but the properties on Trulia.com are not all the properties on the market.

You can use Trulia.com to look at homes in Grandview Heights (on the bottom of the widget.) Today (2-12-2008) Trulia.com has 10 Grandview Heights listings.  Trulia.com has 41 homes today listed as in the City of Columbus in the Grandview Heights neighborhood.  You can compare pricing and inventory on the widget.

Real Living HER’s (or most any local real estate brokerages) search should be more comprehensive than Trulia.com but I certainly like the Trulia.com widget…

Searching on the Real Living HER search on my website for Grandview Heights Homes:

Search Results - 15 Properties (City listed as GH)

Search Results - 18 Properties (City listed as G or GH)

Search Results - 148 Properties Found (ZIP code that GH is in)

Search Results - 58 Properties Found (searching for “Grandview” School District)

Search Results - 33 Properties Found (houses listed as Columbus for city with GH as school district)

Search Results - 30 Properties Found (listed as G or GH as the city and G as the school district.)

Search Results - No Properties Found (homes listed as G or GH in the Columbus School District.)

Grandview Heights

Grandview Heights City School District

Village of Marble Cliff (it’s in the Grandview Heights City School District too)

Real Living HER did a video about Grandview Heights and more. The “and more” in the video is the University area, Clintonville and I suppose Marble Cliff. To see the video or videos on other Central Ohio communities go to Watch

Out of the blue this week I had a question in my mailbox from an out of town real estate trainer / guru… about the branding of the brokerage I am affiliated with Real Living HER.

“What does the”HER” personify in the Real Living Brand?”

Personify from Merriam-Webster.com

” personify

Main Entry:

per·son·i·fy 

Function:

transitive verb

Inflected Form(s):

per·son·i·fied; per·son·i·fy·ing

Date:

circa 1741

1 : to conceive of or represent as a person or as having human qualities or powers

2 : to be the embodiment or personification of : incarnate <a teacher who personified patience> .”

Real estate is local….. Real Living HER is Real Living in Central Ohio.

HER is a person.  HER is a man, Harley E. Rouda Sr.  HER Realtors was the number one real estate company in Central Ohio for decades before Harley E. Rouda Jr and the Aveni family of Cleveland’s Realty One formed Real Living in 2002.  Real Living HER is the number one real estate brokerage in Central Ohio now. 

The history of Real Living HER says of the 1950’s:

“In central Ohio, an important event was under way, too. A visionary, Harley E. Rouda Sr., who embodied true American entrepreneurial spirit, ventured out into the burgeoning business scene to establish his own real estate company in 1956.

Rouda started HER Realtors in the basement of his home after working three years in the residential real estate industry. With a build-a-better-mousetrap drive and determination, he created a tried-and-true real estate model that has withstood the test of time.”

HER is pronounced H. E. R. not Her.

Local Real Estate brands…

King Thompson was a person…

The two biggest Century 21 offices in town bear the founders names…

Other Real Living brands franchise and company owned  across the US include:

Cleveland is Real Living Realty One

Some of the Dayton offices are known as Real Living Realty Services, others have

Colorado is Real Living Mountain Realty

Real Living NOW is in Connecticut

Real Living Premier is in Marion Ohio

Orlando Florida is Real Estate Solutions

Real Living Helios Realty is in Chicago Illinois

Real Living Southern Homes is in Tampa Florida

The Real Living logos have the Real Living name in a big circle and the local name in a small circle.  Real Living is based in Columbus (The Real Living logo does not have a local name… one big circle that says Real Living…. all of the brands above and more are Real Living.)

HER represents Harley E. Rouda Sr.  HER represents  his family, including his son Harley Rouda Jr. I am sure to people who have worked with agents from HER Realtors or Real Living HER the past 52 years HER personifies real estate in Central Ohio.

For January 2008…. home sales in some* Central Ohio school districts.

Many real estate agents around the country talk about “absorption rate.” It is the same thing as how many months of inventory there is on a TrendGraphix market report (posted to Discover Columbus monthly.)

Six months of inventory is a normal, less than six months is a sellers market, more than six months is a buyers market. Most of Central Ohio is a buyers market.

Absorption rate is the number of months it will take for the market to absorb the inventory on hand at the current rate of sales. Some agents do absorption rate by weeks… months works for Central Ohio.

January 2008 Absorption Rate by Schools

Big Walnut - absorption rate 32.25 months

Active - 129 Properties Found
Sold - 4 Properties Found
Average sale price $278,225

Buckeye Valley absorption rate 20.2 months

Active - 121 Properties Found
Sold - 6 Properties Found
Average sale price $266,500

Columbus absorption rate 14.1 months

Active -3465 Properties Found
Sold - 245 Properties Found
Average sale price $96,810

Dublin absorption rate 16.6 months

Active - 365 Properties Found
Sold - 22 Properties Found
Average sale price $354,056

Gahanna Jefferson absorption rate 16.6 months

Active - 300 Properties Found
Sold - 18 Properties Found
Average sale price $245,630

Grandview absorption rate 4 months

Active - 16 Properties Found
Sold - 4 Properties Found
Average sale price $281,000

Hilliard absorption rate 11.5 months

Active - 448 Properties Found
Sold - 39 Properties Found
Average sale price $202,361

Olentangy absorption rate 18.7 months

Active - 749 Properties Found
Sold - 40 Properties Found
Average sale price $327,440

Plain Local ( New Albany) absorption rate 18.1 months

Active - 254 Properties Found
Sold - 14 Properties Found
Average sale $373,605

Upper Arlington absorption rate 11.5 months

Active - 195 Properties Found
Sold - 17 Properties Found
Average sale $308,205

Westerville absorption rate 9.8 months

Active - 518 Properties Found
Sold - 53 Properties Found
Average sale $201,306

Worthington absorption rate 7.7 months

Active - 223 Properties Found
Sold - 29 Properties Found
Average sale $241,929

Sales by County (all school districts)

Delaware absorption rate 17.3 months
Active - 1523 Properties Found
Sold - 88 Properties Found
Average sale $283,511

Franklin absorption rate 13.2 months
Active - 7329 Properties Found
Sold - 554 Properties Found
Average sale $158,072

All over Central Ohio (all school districts, all counties) absorption rate 14.5 months

Active - 13181 Properties Found
Sold - 912 Properties Found
Average sale $160,716

Range to $3,500 to $2,750,000

One problem with TrendGraphix (used to create market reports on Discover Columbus) is it pulls the data by MLS area. Some MLS areas make sense, for example Worthington, the area it pulls is just the city of Worthington and the village of Riverlea. The problem is there are a lot of Worthington area homes, in the Worthington School District that are in the City of Columbus or Perry or Sharon Townships. With TrendGraphix there is no way to search and pull up graphs by school district.

Above is strictly properties listed in the Columbus Board of Realtors as single family homes.

Many but not all people look for a particular school district because it meets their families needs or they currently live in the district and just need a bigger home. What school districts are above*? Mainly those in the area of the north outer-belt… where I work. I work out of the Worthington area. City of Columbus school district, I work in the Clintonville area, the northeast and northwest parts of that school district. The Columbus numbers reflect the entire school district not just the north side.

Average Prices

Average prices don’t tell the whole story either, for example the prices for homes sold in the Buckeye Vally School range from $114,000 to $420,000. The price range of homes sold in the Columbus School District in January 2008 goes up to a $625,000 sold price.

When you think of leaving Central Ohio and moving somewhere warmer… or maybe sunnier… where do you think of? Florida? Arizona? Are the Carolinas warm enough for you? Someplace else? If you were relocating out of Ohio to someplace warmer where would it be.

It’s a poll! It’s anonymous… I can’t see who has left any responses.

ColumbusBestBlog.com had it’s first out of town guest blogger, Jim Hirschhorn from Orlando Florida the other day.

My asking people in Florida to guest blog was inspired by Phoenix AZ real estate blogger Jonathan Dalton who is making the rounds in Canada… Jonathan’s guest blogged in exotic spots like Saskatoon, Vancouver and Alberta (western Canada is exotic to me… well maybe exotic is not the word. It seems Canadians are finding Arizona appealing in many ways just now.

Retire to Florida? Maybe an early, early, early retirement! Or just moving south for the weather? I want to introduce an out of state “guest blogger.” Central Ohioans seem to love Florida, so I have asked some friends from Florida to guest blog occasionally on ColumbusBestBlog.com. According to the weatherman we’re going to get snow in Columbus tonight… so Jim’s timing could not be better…

Jim Hirschhorn of Real Living Real Estate Solutions wrote:

Central Florida is truly a melting pot of the country. I have been here about 10 years and it is almost comical when I meet new people and ask where they are from, it is rarely Florida! Having grown up in the Philadelphia area, I was used to the changing of seasons, the pretty leaves and sometimes harsh winters. My first year in Florida, I was stopped at a traffic light, in November, in a short sleeved shirt, and thought, this is pretty cool.

Florida, along with Michigan, California and Nevada have been the focus of the country with regards to foreclosures and the dreaded sub prime mortgage crisis. The only problem with this is that it seems that the media picks up the statistics that bring in viewers and readers. They forget to talk about all of the growth that Florida is experiencing. Central Florida, in particular, is attracting new industry with the Burnham Research Institute, a new University of Central Florida Medical School and a new Veterans Hospital. In Downtown Orlando, We recently approved a plan to build 3 new venues. The county Commissioners approved a billion dollar plan to bring a new sporting arena, performing arts center and renovation to the Citrus Bowl Stadium. Florida looks to double their population in the next 10 years.

We can’t forget about “The Mouse” as we call it. Disney World, Universal Studios and Seaworld/Busch Gardens are a huge draw, not only for visitors but also for career minded individuals of all ages. My friend’s father retired from a company after 40 years and now works at Disney and loves it!

It is, no question a great time to buy, especially in Central Florida. Prices have adjusted, mortgage rates are at all time lows and for those people that plan to be in a great city, Orlando is the one for you. Let’s be honest…our low temperature of 62 and high of 80 today should Make your decision a little easier.

For more information about our area, feel free to contact Jim Hirschhorn, Broker/Manager at Real Living Real Estate Solutions. I can be reached at 407-253-1377 or at Jim.Hirschhorn at RealLiving.com ;- )

Real Living Real Estate Solutions

Jim Hirschhorn, GRI
Broker-Manager, State of Florida

Real Living Real Estate Solutions, LLC
6401 Raleigh Street
Orlando, FL 32835

Thanks Jim!