Here is what the Board had to say about last month’s numbers. Note the bold orange quote from the Board President about contract failures…

“Home sales in central Ohio home have exceeded 2010 for the last four months according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. The 1,543 homes sold in October marks an 8.6 percent increase over the 1,421 homes sold in October of 2010. Home sales in September were up 16.6 percent compared to the year before.

Year-to-date, home sales (January through October 2011) are only 2.1 percent behind 2010 and closing the gap.  Homes put in contract last month (1,379) were up 46 percent from a year ago making October the sixth straight month of increased contracts.

“The number of homes put into contract have been up for the last several months,” said Rick Benjamin,2011 President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.  “However, contract failures – cancellations caused largely by declined mortgage applications or failures in loan underwriting from appraised values coming in below the negotiated price continue to be a problem for central Ohio buyers.”

Total housing inventory at the end of October fell 23.3 percent to 13,827 existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.1-month supply at the current sales pace, up from an 8.7-month supply in September.

The average sale price for single family homes and condominiums year to date is $157,327, down 2.4 percent from homes sold January through October 2010.

“Affordability conditions this year have been the most favorable on record since 1970,” said Benjamin. “As mortgage interest rates continue to remain low, more first time home buyers, investors and move up buyers are being drawn into the housing market.”

Click here to view the October sortable housing market report by area.”

Click here to view the entire central Ohio Local Market Update.

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware,

Fayette, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Athens, Champaign,

Clark, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingum, Perry and Ross Counties.

WASHINGTON – April 7, 2011 – The federal government may or may not shut down after Friday. Lawmakers have drawn a line in the sand and, as of today, it appears they won’t reach agreement by the current deadline of budgeting. However, that could change. Or lawmakers could agree to extend the budget by only another week or two to give themselves more time to negotiate. Or lawmakers could surprisingly pull out a budget agreement at the last minute.

If the government does shut down, it won’t impact all federal programs equally. A specific impact depends on whether the agency is privately funded, semi-separate from the government, and other factors. Even insiders aren’t sure what will happen if the government shuts down.

However, the National Association of Realtors issued a list of likely scenarios on how Realtors may be impacted if the federal budget fails to pass:

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
FHA cannot offer endorsements for any new loans in the Single Family Program and cannot make commitments in the Multi-family Program in the event of a shutdown. FHA will maintain operational activities including paying claims and collecting premiums. Management and marketing contractors managing the REO portfolio can continue to operate.

VA Loan Guaranty Program
Lenders may continue to process and guarantee mortgages through the Loan Guaranty program.

Flood Insurance
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) would not be impacted by a government shutdown.

Rural Housing Programs
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s field staff is not considered essential personnel, and only essential personnel continue to work during a government shutdown. As a result, the people who typically issue conditional mortgage commitments, loan note guarantees, and modification approvals will not be able to do so, and lenders will not receive approvals during the shutdown.

However, a lender that already received a conditional commitment from the Rural Development office may proceed to close those loans during the shutdown. A conditional commitment, good for 90 days, is given to a lender once a USDA underwriter approves the loan. If a commitment was issued, funds were set aside at that time, and the lender may still close the loan at its leisure.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
The Government Sponsored Enterprises will continue operating normally, as will their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back over half of all mortgages originated in the U.S.

Treasury
No official word as of yet, but the Making Home Affordable program, including HAMP and HAFA, may not be affected since the program is funded through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which is mandatory spending and not discretionary.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Should the federal government shut down, the IRS cannot process federal income tax returns or issue refunds. If a buyer expects a refund and hopes to use it toward a downpayment, the closing may have to wait.

© 2011 Florida Realtors®

Great Architecture at the newly refurbished Southwood Elementary

Every once in a while, I will have a buyer who specifically is looking for a home that has Columbus Taxes but is located in an area where the children go to a School System that is not Columbus– for example, Westerville, Hilliard, Dublin.

As I write this, there are at least 135 such schools actively for sale. One nuance that some would-be homeowners might miss is that the school assigned to some of these areas might be the poorest performing school in that suburban district. The paranoia regarding Columbus Schools is sometimes just that but this decision ensures that there will be these pockets around town for years to come.

“…On May 4, the seven-member Columbus Board of Education voted 5-1 with one member abstaining to pass a resolution saying that the board will allow the Win-Win agreement to automatically renew at the end of the month.

The Win-Win resolution puts to rest speculation that Columbus might have pulled out of the 24-year-old agreement, which could have put in jeopardy the ability of some newer areas of Columbus to continue being part of nine suburban school districts.

In an effort to cut costs, Superintendent Gene Harris instead proposed that the board eliminate 92 percent of its high-school bus stops next school year, meaning those students would have to get to the nearest school building to catch a bus. ”

To Cut Costs, School Board May Eliminate 92% of High School Bus Stops…..

“At its next meeting in two weeks, the board might decide on the proposal to reduce the number of high-school bus stops to 120 from the current 1,466.

Although the state requires bus stops to be no more than a half-mile from the homes of students through eighth grade, there are no rules for high-school students because districts aren’t required to bus them, Vargo said.”

Read more from the Columbus Dispatch here.

The Original Clintonville Charmer. 79 Acton sold in 1996 for $145,545

You’d be amazed how often I read the remarks on a new listing, check out the history of the listing in the Columbus MLS, and find the EXACT same remarks the previous agent used. It’s uncanny. Sometimes the remarks are in the entirety, sometimes it’s most of the old remarks with a few fresh ones thrown in or maybe it’s simply an obviously borrowed phrase from a past listing.

The whole idea simply proves my point about how unoriginal and lazy many real estate agents are — and I’m not even talking about maximizing views of the home in front of potential home buyer’s eyeballs (i.e. marketing).

Every once in a while you find a phrase that sticks through the years. “Clintonville Charmer” is one in particular. It was in the description of a home that came on the market today in the 500 block of Acton and it got me thinking about how over-used some descriptive phrases are in the Columbus MLS, “Charmer” being one of them.

The phrase Clintonville Charmer has been used to describe a home for sale in Clintonville 145 times since the inception of the modern Columbus multiple listing service. Most recently today. The earliest recorded use of the phrase seems to be on another Acton house -79 Acton Pictured Above- on the market 13 days in May and June of 1996 before selling for $145,545.

Anatomy of a Clintonville Charmer:

4 Active Clintonville Charmers averaging 1,728 sf listed at an avg of $154.25/sf

117 all time Sold Clintonville Charmers averaging 58 days on market and 1,455 sf

2 Clintonville Charmers that are in contract currently for $148/sf on average and both, coicidentally, on East Pacemont

I look at listings all day long and see some doozies. What descriptions of Columbus homes for sale have caught your eye over the years?

Robert Hahn wrote an article that appeared on Inman News recently that was ripe with 2010 predictions regarding the state of Real Estate in the country. It is a good read and I liked his take on many of the subjects.  Aside from mentioning the Jets not going to the Super Bowl, Hahn predicted that 2010 will actually see a worse housing market than 2009.

I get tired of reading rosey, pollyanna housing news from NAR and other sources and found Hahn’s prediction to be smart and potentially right on.  Of course all real estate is local and just the other day I posted a 2010 Columbus area market prediction of around a 12-15% increase over this year through April, but this is what Hahn had to say…

“A number of experts believe that the housing market will recover in 2010. Lawrence Yun, chief economist of NAR, recently said that the real estate market will rebound in the spring and summer of 2010. Strong sales numbers in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 have a lot of real estate people thinking that we have hit bottom, and that the market will rebound in 2010.

I don’t believe it. Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel recently presented at a meeting of Lucky Strikes Social Media Club, and suggested that the strong third-quarter numbers were the result of time-shifting of second-quarter demand, spurred on mostly by the first-time homebuyer tax credit program.

Add to that notion the fact that unemployment still remains high, with no sign of recovery on that front, at least from a private sector that is bracing for higher taxes, more regulation, a national health care plan, and the possibility of carbon tax. The extension of the homebuyer tax credit is surely a positive for the housing market, but unless the employment picture improves I can’t see the market rebounding in a real way.

And some knowledgeable folks (including the aforementioned Miller) believe that there are some 2 million-plus housing units in foreclosure that have simply not been released to the market yet for a variety of reasons such as moratoriums, overwhelmed staff at banks, and reluctance to write down the asset value. Maybe not all of that inventory will hit in 2010, but banks can’t keep deluding themselves and us.

So I’m predicting that 2010 will be actually worse than 2009 was. Call me a pessimist, and hope that I’m wrong.”

Click Here to See the Today Show Segment.

Sometimes, having a Realtor with a stellar web presence pays off.  While it probably won’t create a sale, and despite the objections regarding the color of the dining room and the potential addition of an eat-in table in the kitchen, today’s airing of my listing at 1224 Fair Avenue received almost a full minute on National Television with the kitchen onscreen for ten full seconds.

If nothing else, it was enjoyable for the Sellers and the publicity can’t hurt. It all happened because the Delicious Real Estate Brand is tech savvy, distributed well across the Interet and  because I work hard for my clients. If this sounds like what you’re looking for in a Realtor, call or email me.

And, for the record, I think a small table in front of the brick fireplace in the kitchen would ruin the aesthetic that the kitchen has worked so hard to achieve. Yes, the space is there and yes potential buyers could easily have some eat-in space in the kitchen should they so chose.

First time buyers could buy this 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in Old Towne East for around $250K

This afternoon President Obama signed the bill into law that will extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit to contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30.

I’m surprised that they left the two month window but I think it’s very smart. Still, even if it were this week, I would not try to buy a short sale property or a foreclosure that doesn’t have the deed in the bank’s name even with the 7.5 month leeway.

Here’s the best part–a tax credit for SELLERS. The bill creates a $6,500 credit for those who buy a home after living in their current house at least five years. That will apply to contracts signed by April 30 and closed by June 30. The current credit defines a first-time homebuyer as someone who has not owned a residence within the past three years.

The credit will be available only for the purchase of principal residences priced at $800,000 or less.

This is huge. If you have owned your Columbus area home for at least five years–and I believe you must have lived in the home for at least five of the last eight years–you too can receive a credit. I can’t envision a scenario where you could claim both sides of the tax credits unless it was something along the lines of you selling your home and then turning around and buying the next home in your new spouse or girl/boyfriend’s name who has not owned a home.

The bill will raise the adjusted gross income cap to $125,000 for single filers and $225,000 for joint filers. The amount of the credit currently begins to phase out for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is more than $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.

This is important. It opens the tax credit up to a whole new set of first time buyers who were not previously eligible and who could, conceivably, purchase a home with a little higher price tag that this year’s crop of first time home buyers weren’t even looking at.

Mobile post sent by JoetheRealtor using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3 ]]> http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/11/06/thoughts-on-german-village-homes-4-sale/feed/ 0 http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/10/30/city-center-demolition-creates/ http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/10/30/city-center-demolition-creates/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:52:52 +0000 Joe Peffer http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/10/30/city-center-demolition-creates/

Mobile post sent by JoetheRealtor using Utterli.  Replies.  mp3 ]]> http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/10/30/city-center-demolition-creates/feed/ 0 http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/10/29/columbus-public-schools-update-closings-awards-annual-report/ http://columbushomesblog.com/2009/10/29/columbus-public-schools-update-closings-awards-annual-report/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:14:35 +0000 Joe Peffer http://columbushomesblog.com/?p=1118

Click here for a link to both the Financial and Academic Annual Report for the Columbus City School District

The idea of school closings can terrify a community.  Many local neighborhood schools in the City of Columbus, however, are experiencing declining attendance.  No community wants to see a giant unused building in the middle of it where a school used to reside but the bright side here is that the district has a plan. In the end, I believe that the plan will benefit all Columbus City School students.

Any real estate novice will tell you that good schools are good for local housing and great schools are great for resale. At the same time, a re-purposed school building, as opposed to a vacant one, will benefit a neighborhood–maybe even more than the original school. My hope is that, aside from temporary housing for other schools, any of these schools that do end up closing can become active participants in the community in which they reside and in a fashion benefiting the neighborhood.

District to Make Good on Levy Promise to Close Six Schools, Community Informational Meetings Dates Announced

As promised to voters, the district is developing a new K-12 student assignment plan, which makes effective use of the school buildings through balanced enrollment, aligned school feeder patterns, and high-quality academic programming at every school.

With the guidance of the Columbus City Schools (CCS) Board of Education policy,3226.1, the district has also committed to closing at least six school buildings.

This BOE policy establishes specific criteria for building closure including such factors as student enrollment trends, ability to maintain feeder patterns, educational programs, capacity, safety and access, relocation, diversity, accessibility, age and condition, and other factors.

Following the task force’s final recommendations, community meetings will be held to gather public comment throughout November before a final vote by the board in December. Pending community input and Columbus Board of Education approval, a modified reassignment plan would go into effect in for 2010-11 school year.

Click here for upcoming community meeting locations and dates, as well as the most up-to-date information.

Six Columbus Schools Named as Schools of Promise

Six Columbus schools have earned the designation of Schools of Promiseby the Ohio Department of Education. It is the largest number of any district in the state. All public elementary and secondary schools that administer the Ohio Achievement Test and the Ohio Graduation Test and receive a report card rating were considered for the recognition. A total 134 schools were named 2008-09 Schools of Promise.

“Columbus City Schools (CCS) is committed to providing a strong system of learning support that includes academic rigor,” said Columbus Superintendent Gene T. Harris, Ph.D., adding that the recognition is an honor for all the students and the staff districtwide.

The 2008-09 honorees (and the number of years as a School of Promise) are:

• Alpine ES (1)
• Berwick ES (2)
• Centennial HS (4)
• Columbus Alternative HS (5)
• Eastmoor Academy HS (3)
• Fort Hayes Arts and Academic HS (5)

The ODE Schools of Promise program recognizes schools across Ohio that demonstrate high achievement in reading and mathematics for all groups of students, despite the fact that 40 percent or more of their students come from low-income backgrounds.

Students in these schools met or exceeded the state standard of 75 percent passage in reading and/or mathematics for the school year 2008-09, as well as the federal Adequate Yearly Progress requirement.

Click here to review the full selection criteria.