Daily finance had an interesting interview with Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Jeff Speck is an architect and city planner in Washington DC and served on the Mayor’s Institute on City Design. He also served on the Sustainability Task Force of the Department of…
Of the top 200 U.S. markets, Columbus ranked second with a score of 30, only behind Houston (33) and followed by Orlando (29), Charlotte (28) and Salt Lake City (28). The job creation score was created based on a survey of local employees with a question of whether their employer was adding or cutting jobs. …
The Columbus and Central Ohio MSA new and resale homes report show that the market remains strong and is getting stronger. Homes sales for the quarter were up 17.6 percent over first quarter last year and pending sales are up 19.3 percent. Median price at $135,000 for March was up 4.9 percent over the $128,650…
New High end apartments in the vicinity of downtown or the short north are commanding up to $3,000 per month. A wave of swanky apartments are coming online within the next 12 months with two bedroom unit approaching $2,000 per month, and townhouses and penthouses at up to $3,000 per month. The Wood Co. apartments…
Median price hits 56 month high, up 23.4 percent from March of last year. Much of that increase however, can be attributed to a big change in product mix as sales in higher priced neighborhoods have shot up and a sharp drop in lower end deals. A total of 20,581 new and resale houses sold…
For the second year, Westerville’s Uptown District will be awarding up to $15,000 in grant money per property for improvements ranging from paint, new windows, awnings to concealing rooftop wiring. Eight local businesses will be receiving grant dollars from the Westerville Industry and Commerce Corp., acting in behalf of the City of Westerville. $200,000 is…
The city of Dublin, Ohio has embarked on a grand project with this one so here’s an update on the progress. The project is moving along and the city is offering a quick look at what it could be. http://vimeo.com/61395284 The Bridge Street Corridor run along State Route 161 (Bridge Street) from Sawmill Road through…
The City of Westerville is looking at a plan to more effectively utilize the 1,100 parking spaces in the Uptown district. The plan is to create mid-block alleys and redesign the north – south alleyways. The north – south alleys could take some of the pressure off of State Street which currently gets jammed at…
DQ News reports that a total of 15,945 new and resale homes sold in February 2013. That was down .7 percent from the 16,058 in January, but up 1 percent from the 15,780 sold in February 2012. It’s typica for January and February’s sales to be about the same. Median price was down .3 percent…
A U.S. Tax Court decision from earlier this year, Adams v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo 2013-7, illustrates the importance of the investor / tax payer receiving a fair market rent for their investment property. In the above case the tax payer exchanged into a replacement property that was rented at slightly below market rents to the…
I continue to need corporate leased, triple net retail c-stores such as 7-11, Circle K, Get Go (Giant Eagle) or Turkey Hill (Kroger). Gas preferred on the triple net retail C-stores due to the accelerated cash recovery on the gas related equipment. Single tenant only. S&P BBB or better. This mean investment grade guarantor on the…
According to CoStar News, sales of commercial real estate in the United States reached $64 billion last year, which is the highest since 2004 and increased 22 percent from 2011. The price gains spread beyond multifamily into industrial, office and retail. Even commercial land showed signs of awakening mostly due to demand for multifamily with…
DQ News reported solid gains for the first month of 2013 with 16,058 new and resale homes sold in January. This number is down 20.8 percent from December 2012, but up 10.6 percent from a year ago, January 2012. It’s the highest home sales for a January in six years. The median price at $321,000…
CoStar News reports that new apartment construction at four or five times the national average for other types of commercial construction in certain markets will cause vacancies to increase. “Apartment construction has been on a tear in certain markets,” CoStar says. “With the inventory growing at more than four or five times the national rate,…
There were 22,915 homes sales for all of 2012 and that was up 15.5 percent from 2011. These are the best numbers since 2007. Average sales price was up 7.2 percent to $167,459 for 2012 and December was $158,898, which is up 7.5 percent from December 2011. Median price was also up 8.7percent to $144,500…
I traveled to Detroit for the North American International Auto Show last Friday and Saturday for the 2014 C7 Corvette unveiling. The production version of the Cadillac ELR was also introduced. This is Cadillac’s version of the Chevy Volt with more power and similar all electric range. Third major product introduction for GM was the…
Since this is the community where I actually live I thought I would post an update regarding activity in old uptown Westerville. The project at 7 & 9 N. State that my clients are working on is progressing nicely. The building was a disaster and has been gutted and rebuilt. The exterior is being restored to…
A total of 20,274 new and resale houses and condos sold in December 2012, which is up 5.1 percent from the 19,285 in November 2012 and up 5.3 percent from the 19,247 sold in December 2011. Sales were still 17.2 percent below the December average of 24,488 so there’s still room to grow. Median price…
There’s a lot going on around here aside from the I-70 / I-71 project. IF we have a mild winter as we did last year, it will get these projects moving along toward completion early in 2013 except for the freeway reconstruction. That will take a little bit longer. Columbus Commons, 600 Goodale, Harrison West,…
My home town of Westerville Ohio was named the fifth friendliest town in the United States according to Forbes and a Nextdoor.com. Westerville was the only town in Ohio to make the top 25. Some of this is attributed to the number of park, Westerville Community Center, 4th Friday celebration in the old uptown Westerville,…