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. …
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 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…
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…
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…
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,…
New data show major rebound in both commercial and residential construction led almost entirely by multifamily and single family development. Developers and builders started construction on the highest number of single family homes and apartments since July 2008. Multifamily rose 10% in October 2012 to an annualized rate of 285,000 units. Single family building application…
Columbus and Central Ohio October home sales were up for the tenth consecutive month with sales of 1,990 up 24.8 percent from October 2011 according to the Columbus Board of Realtors. Average price was $163,764, which is a 10percent increase from last October. New listings were up 12.1 percent, putting the current unsold inventory at…
Prices are still trending upward. Homes prices in the Columbus and Central Ohio area are up from same month last year with an average price of $169,413. That’s up 8.1 percent over September 2011. 1,859 homes in Columbus and Central Ohio sold during September 2012, which is 2.5 percent increase over August 2012. Year to…
What I have been experiencing over the last two or three quarters in regards to triple net or absolute net, single tenant retail seems to be reality according many in the industry, including Mark Heschmeyer of CoStar News. Where are all of the net leased retail opportunities? There’s been strong activity over the last 18…
Reis Reports announced that the 126,022 unit Columbus / Central Ohio multifamily market vacancy rate had fallen to 6.1 percent by the end of the second quarter 2012, which is the latest quarter we have numbers for. That’s down 30 basis points over the prior quarter and down a whopping 190 points from second quarter…
Single tenant, net leased retail has continued to gain strength as an asset class. With an economy barely growing, one could wonder why is triple net and absolute net retail as strong as it is? Given what else is available as a safe investment, it’s no wonder net leased retail is doing well. Ten year government…
The news is good again. Homes prices in Columbus and Central Ohio are up from same month last year with a average price of $178,766, which is up 6.4% over the same month last year. 2,326 Central Ohio homes sold during August 2012, which is an 12.3% increase over August 2011. Year to date home…
The National Association of Realtors sums it up pretty well in the attached August 2012 Commercial Real Estate Outlook when they opine that the economy has gone on vacation. That’s pretty much how I would describe it too. True, the triple net or absolute net, single tenant, national investment grade credit tenant retail is still…
Great news: homes prices in Columbus and Central Ohio hit their highest in five years with a average price of $186,781, which is a whopping 10.3% higher than July 2011. The higher priced areas saw the biggest gains, which is even better news in my opinion. 2,096 Columbus and central Ohio homes sold during July…
The multifamily segment of commercial real estate continues to strengthen in spite of new supply coming on line according to Randyl Drummer of CoStart news. Demand still far outstrips demand. For the sixth consecutive quarter, the National Multi Housing Council Quarterly Survey of Apartment markets showed improvements across all four indices. The indices measure supply,…
There’s continued good news for the Central Ohio market as homes sales were 2,429 for June 2012, up 18.1% from the 2,056 for June 2011. Sales for the first half of the year were 10,473, up from the first half for 2011 at 9,507. Median price was $155,250, up 15% from $135,000 in June 2011. …
I’m not saying that we’re quite back to pre crash levels of pricing but we’re getting there. Given the general malaise in the American economy with job growth, GDP growth and most other indicators, it’s surprising that the commercial real estate recovery has been as strong and broad based as it has. It didn’t start…