There are currently 152 single family homes and town homes listed for sale in zip code 44113. The average listing price of these homes is $227,034 and $148 a sq. ft. of living space

There are 18 homes under contract. The average listing price of these recently ‘almost sold’ homes is $214,239 or $159 a sq. ft. Difference in the two above figures, but in this case, unlike other areas I have examined over the last two weeks, sq. footage space prices went up. Keep in mind, many of the town home sales could be first time sales on newer construction, so upgrades may have increased prices.

There have been 27 homes sold since October (last six months). The average sale price for the past six months is $167,548 or $113 a sq. ft. This is lower. What does it mean? Could mean broader inventory sold. Could mean higher sale prices are happening more recently.

The lowest priced home sold was a 1890 built victorian colonial on W. 44th street for $8000. The highest sale was for a brick town home in Tremont on W. 6th with ‘green construction upgrades’ and lots of square footage. It sold for $379,600. 

Peace Out – 3C

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?

44102

There are 330 active listings for sale as of today

There are 3 homes contingent or waiting for loans or inspections to go through.  (Actually two single family homes & a cool loft condo on W. 75th)

There are 49 homes pending or waiting to close. They range from a 784 sq. ft. house that was listed for $1,500 (!) to a $1,250,000.00 home on the Lake (quite a spread eh?)

There were 24 homes sold in April. They ranged from a 1,798 sq ft house which sold for $4k and a 4 bedroom home on Franklin that sold for $245k.  They also include a few of the Battery Park condos.

The average sale price for April was $46,344  and the number of days (on average) these homes were on the market was 36. (not bad!)

44113

There are 205 homes for sale as of today, in this zip code.

There is one contingentt sale listing, a Bergen Village (Tremont) town home.

There are 26 homes waiting to close or pending. They range from a $14,900 home to a $359,000 town home. Among these pending sales are condos & town homes in Bergen Village, Fries & Schuele and Stonebridge.

There were 6 homes sold this month.  They were on the market an average of 110 days only (not bad). They range from a 1700 sq ft home on W. 32nd that sold for $6,000 to  a $179,000 condo sold in Stonebridge.

There were 3 single family homes sold (all under $50k) and three condos/town homes sold. The average sale price was $93,532.

Peace Out – 3C   (Twinsburg & Solon coming later today, by request)

My last post dealt with single family home sale activity in March 2007. This is the condo side of the report, for the same zip code areas:

• Data includes condo sale activity through local brokerages and our computer system (MLS)
• Data covers condo sales from March 1, 2007 to the present

Rocky River 44116:

2 condos under contract

1 sold

Lakewood 44107:

1 condo under contract

1 sold

Cleveland’s West Side 44135 none under contract, none sold

Cleveland’s West Side 44111 none under contract, none sold

*Note: there are fewer condo communities in both of the two above zip codes

Cleveland’s West Side: 44102:

1 condo under contract

1 condo sold

Cleveland’s West Side: 44113:

3 condos under contract

1 condo sold

Peace Out – 3C

Update: here is an audio podcast of Mayor Frank Jackson explaining the significance of Walmart opting out of the tax abatement (ten year) available to them. The podcast is courtesy of Cleveland.com.
Peace Out – 3C

I was cruising around on my favorite Ohio Forum, and I saw a thread talking about condos and the housing market. Someone asked how condos and homes were appreciating in price. I realized I wanted to focus on condos and find out for myself. So this is the first leg of my search, comparing condominium sales in 2005 to 2006 for the Near West Side, which includes Tremont and Ohio City. There are quite a few condo complexes to choose from in this part of Cleveland. So let’s get started.

2005 : 95 Condos Sold. Sale prices were all over the map: $14,000 to $499,900. How long did it take for these condos to sell? An average of 212 days. The Average Ask Price was $242,338 and the Average Sale Price was $238,836. On average, the condos that sold in 2005 had 1444 Sq. Ft., 2 BRs, 2 baths and a one car garage. Next?

2006: 52 Condos Sold. Again, sales prices were all over the map: $25,325 to $459,740. How long did it take for these condos to sell? An average of 151 days (fewer sold, but the ones that did were on the market for a shorter time). The Average Ask Price was $213,663. The Average Sale Price was $213,515. Your eyes are not deceiving you, that is just barely $100 difference between the average price the sellers wanted and the price the buyers paid. On average, the condos that sold had 1374 Sq. Ft., 2BRs, 2 baths and a two car garage.

***The average price per square foot in 2005 was $178/Sq. Ft. And in 2006, $156/Sq. Ft.

Want to buy a condo in this area? There are 120 for sale right now. Peace Out – 3C

(photo courtesy of OhioCity.com website)

Here’s Luther Vandross Serenading A House Is Not A Home

While everyone basks in the glow of the new Steelyard Commons, a glitch has been discovered. Susan Vinella reports in the Plain Dealer this morning that the tax monies Cleveland was expecting from Steelyard Commons may not be there after all, at least for the next ten years. When you participate in Brownfield Remediation of a site, the State of Ohio allows you to receive a tax break for doing so. It’s not that this is a bad thing, but my immediate reaction is, how could our City Government not know this ahead of time when they are formalizing agreements to plan development projects? According to the PD article, Mitchell Schneider, the projects developer is working with the City to try to get some of the tax monies to the City. But many of the stores (Target, Walmart) are already on board with the abatement available to them. By the way, this money was earmarked for continued improvements to the Towpath and Bike Paths, among other things.I guess this adds to the discussion about the value of tax abatement to cities like Cleveland. In this case, brownfield remediation would be a smart reason to allow them. It amazes me that Cleveland could be blindsided in this way. I’m a layperson and if I am aware of tax abatement available for remediation then why would those hired to work on City Planning not be more aware? Shouldn’t this have been part of the negotiations up front? Again according to the Vinella article, Cleveland claims to have discovered the loopholes/ramifications of this issue ‘late last year.’ That means just a few months before Steelyard Commons is ready for business?

Peace Out – 3C

When I lived in Rockville Maryland I volunteered to put together a newsletter for my neighborhood. We were big on civic associations in Rockville, and they were not like homeowners associations. Most neighborhoods in my city had a civic group. We were called the Twinbrook Citizens Association(TCA), with about 1500 homes, a yearly party, lots of attendance at planning commission and council meetings, and monthly meetings. Here in Cleveland, if you are paying a monthly homeowners or condo fee, you have regularly scheduled meetings. But Tremont comes the closest to my experience in Maryland. They have block clubs, very active ones. I just read the best neighborhood newsletter I have read in years. which is what prompted me to write this blog. My shout out goes to the Tremont West Development Corporation(TWDC) for this 12 page newsletter, pointing out new businesses, restaurants, events, a yearly round up, updates on the Christmas Story House, reminders of Block Club and TWDC meetings. Tremont is a great model for neighborhoods around the City. The newsletter shows why it’s such a coveted place to live. If you read the newsletter you might just feel the energy coming through the pages like I did. Peace Out – 3C