Cleveland Real Estate News

Do you own a small home or condo? You love it, but sometimes it’s stressful not being able to figure out how to store things, decorate appropriately, or fit everything you own into spaces. I feel that way about my home, even though I am basically glad I downsized.

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According to Case-Schiller, our local housing prices were down 7.3% over the past year. You can read the report (three page pdf) here. They reported that Nashville was an area that saw some growth, as did quite a few of the places they studied ). One of the keys to growth instead of no growth or loss is economic growth or stability, i.e., jobs.

I can’t help but think how allowing tax credits for the film industry would bring jobs here on a more regular basis. Oh well, that fight is not over yet.

Charlotte N.C. also saw a modest gain of 0.8%.  Here is a Business Week article weighing in on housing sales/trends. They correctly say that inventory has to come way down before we will see a real change. They also report (or David Blitzer of Standard & Poor’s Index Committee said it) that banks are being more pro-active in lowering prices to get rid of homes they own that are taking up huge amounts of this inventory.  I agree. I also think banks are cooperating with things like repairs and upgrades that would have been unthinkable to happen a few years ago.

According to Case-Schiller, Denver and Boston were the best performing housing markets in the month of June.

Back to inventory. Thought it might be useful to run through some communities and see how many single family homes (which includes some attached housing) are listed for sale currently:

Rocky River   240

Lakewood  379

Westlake  350

Parma  547

Brecksville  124

Cleveland zips:

44102   314

44111   184

44113   193

44109   243

44135   280

44105   367

44106   121

44108   192

44110   128

44115   29 (mostly condos)

Garfield Heights  474 (two years ago inventory was over 600 so it’s an improvement in this area)

Beachwood   81  (consistently low inventory; stable? also smaller than some other areas)

South Euclid   334

If there are any areas you would like to explore, let me know and I will be glad to write it up for you.  Peace Out - 3C

Update: thanks to @BrewedFresh on Twitter for pointing me to Bill Callahan’s latest. It’s apropos to link it here.  Great info on foreclosures in our area, stats for this year compared to last.  Check it out.

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Someone asked me if there was still a price bump for a seller if they are selling a completely restored 1850 era home or are buyers preferring newer construction now?  Of course there are variables, some people would kill for an old home with thick mahogany woodwork and brass appointments or a farm house with gorgeous plank flooring. And some people want brand new with the idea that there will be less work involved of them, at least for a while. But what I am looking for is your rationale.  After all, this is a blog and stats are stats but your opinion adds value.

If someone knocked at your door & said here is $250,000, no strings attached, the only caveat is you have to use it to purchase a home, which of the two kinds of homes would you choose, and why?

From Bob Villa’s website we get this plus a 2000 study on South Carolina homes (and yes that was 8 years ago):

Return on the Investment
“A National Register citation confirms a home’s historic significance, but the real worth may be realized in the stability and strength of the property’s value. A 2000 study of South Carolina home salesshows that homes in Columbia’s historic districts sold 26 percent faster than the overall market; while historic Beauport owners saw a whopping 21 percent greater sale price. In Rome, Georgia, properties in designated historic neighborhoods increased in value 10 percent more than similar properties without historic designation between 1980 and 1996. Studies in Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania corroborate the positive effect an historic district designation has on property values, with overall increases between 5 percent and 20 percent. The stability of property value appears to extend to owner tenure as well: There is a reportedly lower owner turnover within historic districts than in neighborhoods lacking that distinction….”

Bob Villa is talking about homes that have received an official historic designation (or neighborhood’s that have the designation). Since Ohio City has that designation, I decided to do some research on what has happened over the past year regarding historic home sales in Ohio City and Tremont.

First I asked the wizard in the computer to tell me about four bedroom homes with at least 1800 sq. feet. (I picked that as opposed to OC’s famous cottage parameters because it was closer to the stats the owner with the restored farmhouse disclosed to me). I got one sale since April 1, 2008. It was for a 1910 home on W. 41st Street, south of Lorain. 3,180 sq. feet of living space and five bedrooms. It was listed at $164,900 and wound up selling for $155,000. I even went back to January of 2008 to see if it changed the numbers but this is the only home sale that showed up.

I changed the parameters to 3BRs to see if I could pull up more sales. Four more homes:

1.  2,148 SF brick colonial on Bridge (across from Heck’s, beautifully, professionally redone). It was built in 1900. Listed at $285,000, it sold for $270,000.

2.  A 2007 built home on Brayton (near Starkweather and W. 10th in Tremont). I’ll call it a bungalow because it has a first floor master bedroom. 1,892 sq feet of living space, tax abatements, vaulted ceilings, stainless appliances, granite counters. You know the drill, the amenities which are pretty common now for newer construction. This was listed at $289,900 and sold for $307,167. (probably due to upgrades the buyers chose to include while it was being built.)

3.  2007 built Clinton Courts town house with 2,144 sq. ft, 3 Brs, 2Baths. The Ask Price was $299,000 and the sale price was $363,168. It has a wrap around porch, so it might have satisfied someone’s desire to have an older home while still having new construction plus the no maintenance exterior ’stuff’ of a town house.

4.  603 University, built in 2003, one of the row houses that overlooks the industrial valley in Tremont (near Bergen Village and W. 7th). This was a corner unit with a good view, and the ‘come to be expected’ third floor den/media room/ with a door leading to the deck for those great views. The asking price was $360,000 and the sale price was $350,000.

Remember, I used very specific parameters for the above stats. So what was the total sale info for homes in zip code 44113 between April 1st and September 1st 2008?

54 homes sold in total (single family).The sale prices were between $2,000 for a HUD owned 900 sq. ft. ranch on W. 20th built in 1900 and a resale Fries & Schuele town house for $360,000.

There are 193 single family homes for sale in zip code 44113right now.  Ohio City and Tremont have gone through the last few years without a ton of homes on the market, so the historic designation of a neighborhood probably filters into this fact. Now it’s also true that along with the historical aspect of these communities they are home buying designations in their own right, due to what’s available to do there and the vital community associations that have become an expected part of the thread of the neighborhoods.

There are six contingent sales homes under contract but awaiting inspections or mortgage finalization. There are 16 pending sales in this zip code, waiting for the title to transfer.

The average sale price for all 54 homes sold since April 1st was $164,849.

There is more to the story regarding historical homes and their value. I’ll do another post about that soon.

I really do want your opinions on what kind of house you would buy?

Would you pay more for a historically designated home than you would a newer home? Thanks - Peace Out - 3C

PS: If you go to this page on Trulia Voices, you can see how other agents responded to the question does having your home designated as historic impact the value of it?

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(This is kind of a journaling about my day on Tuesday. Sometimes I think the most common question I get after ‘how is the market now?’ is ‘just what is it that you do all day ?’ LOL. Maybe this can help flesh out that question)

It could have been  the rejuvenation I felt after having almost three full days off in a row…..I don’t even want to think about how long it has been since that happened. Regardless, I felt as if I accomplished a lot today. Even though I skipped my regularly scheduled Tuesday morning office meeting (I know, my bad lol). 

First, I checked out a few homes. Previewed two not on a brokers open but vacant (these were in West Park). Then I went to see a home at an actual Brokers Open on W. 42nd Street (Orchard Park). One of the Eco friendly homes built with an added enticement of very, very low fuel bills each month.  In case you’re interested, lunch was served -stromboli from Gypsy Beans. A little chicken, some mushrooms that gave it a nutty taste…all in all very, very tasty which is not surprising since Niki at Gypsy is one hell of a chef).

Then I headed to the office to make phone calls. Left messages for a few seller clients to see if they could update me on some of the projects we are working on.  I called one client in Fries & Schuele to let them know we have two showings tomorrow. Then I went through my planner to check up with a few buyers to see when they wanted to look at homes. 

I received a call earlier this morning from a gentleman who was inquiring about three different town house complexes, two on the west side and one on the east side. I made some calls for him and then got back with the information he wanted.  Now it was about two o’clock. I got on line to do some comp work - I have a woman who is out of town (California) and has a house to sell here. I have an appointment to go see it but needed to do some background work;  how many homes have sold around her home, for what price, what  were the amenities (bedrooms, sq. footage, etc), how many other homes are listed at the moment in that area and for what price.  And of course I checked the tax records to make sure she was listed as the owner (yes, this has actually been an ‘oops’ a time or two).  Now it was 2:15 pm.  She is not going to be happy with the sale prices over the past year and since she now lives in California, it might be an even bigger shock. I’ll see what transpires after I look at the home up close and personal.

I checked my emails again, had a response from a client who has an investment property listed with me. She provided details about leases and rents so I could be ready to present the information to any buyer clients.  I typed it into more of a spreadsheet form and printed it off. I called an architect building a few homes to get more details on his project.

Now it was almost 3PM.  I called a few people who had for sale by owner  listings.  Some were in areas where I have buyer clients looking to purchase, so I asked a few questions to see if I could better determine if my clients might want to see the homes.  I also spoke to a few other for sale by owner clients to see if I could be of any help.

Now it was a bit after 3PM and I wanted to cruise a neighborhood. (No, not that way!) I headed off to the Clifton Baltic area to see if there were any homes not listed for sale that might appeal to my client anyway.  This may sound odd but in reality, sometimes people don’t list because they think it’s not a good market time to list. But my buyer has specific needs and if I can find a house, even if it’s not listed, I’ll call or knock on the door and beg LOL.  I came up with about ten homes.

I came back to the office and looked each of the ten  homes up on line to find out more details about square footage (important to my client) etc. I’m going to pursue four out of the ten.

Now it was 4:30 pm and I went back to checking emails, made a few more calls. Then checked the computer listing service to see what new listings or price changes had ocurred today. It took about an hour for all of this to happen. I made appointments for home showings.  And before I knew it, it was 5:45 pm.  I had an appointment at six. I closed up shop at the office.

My appointment was wonderful, especially since it was at The Market Avenue Wine Bar  (yes, sometimes it pays to be me :-)  We got the skinny on the latest news. Talkies coffee shop had their last day over the weekend. The M A Wine Bar is moving to that location. They are hoping the work to prep the new space is done by the end of September so they can move in.  They will be fully operational at their current location in the interim, at least until the end of the month.

The evening was wonderful, my Wine Bar companion was delightful and informative and we pretty much covered a multitude of topics  about the neighborhood and houses etc. I think we left fairly close to 9 PM. As I was driving home I was taking in the evening; the weather was to die for, no?  Every day is different, especially if it’s a day when I’m showing homes or working on issues involving a home closing (like an inspection or title and mortgage details that need to be addressed). What’s really cool about my job is, sometimes I can hang at Edgewater Beach and make client calls with the best view in the world.  I get to go to all the neighborhoods and see what new businesses have opened, what homes are for sale. As for today, it was all good. Peace Out - 3C

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The first public meeting, er, dog and pony show, regarding the Convention Center/Med Mart issue was held tonight. I read both the WKYC report (which basically said nothing except it was held and between 40-50 people attended), and the Joe Guillen post about it on the PD site. At least the PD site quoted some of the comments made by atendees, but I’m still left with questions.

1. Was Robert Brown or someone from his office there to answer questions like, how many of us regular people commented on the Planning Commission website pages that showed potential sites for the Convention Ctr?  What did the people say who DID participate interactively?

2. Was their an explanation as to why the other sites were rejected?

3. The PD says part of the visual presentation went south because the technology failed. What was the basic premise in the dog and pony show?

Did anyone who blogs (or who reads this) attend the meeting? I’d love more information.

Interesting that several hundred people attended each of the RTA public hearings but it seems quite a few less attended this first meeting.

Next meeting is 5 to 7pm this Thursday at the Middleburg Heights Rec Center on Bagley Road just south of I-71.  Peace Out -  3C

UPDATE: thankfully I twitter (@clevecarole), because the PD twitted the times had changed for Thursday’s meeting. Now when I look on the PD site, it’s not on the front page!!!

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Come February we all might want to come back  and watch this again. Hattip to WKYC for whomever took this video of the Blue Angels part of the air show. Truly fabulous video.

I saw them three times this year but something tells me The Mather might be a good place to plan to be in two years when they come back.  I just wish the prices weren’t so high so more people could enjoy the air show at a place like The Mather or Burke itself. I’m the rebellious type so I was at Edgewater Beach three times and  today I walked the Detroit Superior Bridge while they flew. That was fun.

 Hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day. And another hattip to everyone who labors so hard day in and day out so we can have all the food, shelter and clothing we do in this Country.  Peace Out - 3C

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“…A record 25.8 million passengers took Amtrak in the last fiscal year. Ridership is expected to exceed 28 million this year, spokesman Cliff Black said.

More people are boarding trains across the country and not just in the traditionally successful Northeast corridor, he said. For example, ridership between Kansas City and St. Louis increased 57 percent last month compared with July 2007. The train between Oklahoma City and Dallas saw a 40 percent boost…”

 

While one could assume his stance on Amtrak would follow McCain to the White House if elected, “a change of heart is always possible,” Johnson said hopefully.

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