Thursday, March 30, 2006

By SUE HAGAN

A nonprofit community housing organization is proposing that condos for homeowners of varying income levels be built on the current Barrett Middle School site at 345 E. Deshler Ave.

Rev. John Edgar, executive director for Community Development for All People, said his group is looking at the possible redevelopment of the six-acre Barrett property. The school, now in operation, will close in June as one of 12Columbus Public Schools slated to close before next fall.

Edgar emphasized that the concept is “extremely preliminary” and will “become a better plan after conversations” with community members and city officials.

He met with two Merion Village Association (MVA) board members on Monday, and plans to introduce the idea to the general membership at its April 5 meeting.

Elements of the concept are as follows:

# Preserve the historic part of Barrett Middle School, which was built in 1898 and was the original South High School, and develop it into condominiums or office space.

# Tear down the newer school additions, built in 1955 and 1965.

# Develop the open land into condominiums — 80 percent of which would be sold at market rate and 20 percent at prices affordable to homeowners who could afford a more modest mortgage. Subsidies would make up the difference.

# Work out a property trade with the school district, so the city would own the Barrett property and offer it for the project.

Admitting that there are a lot of “ifs” that would have to be resolved, Edgar said that City Council President Matt Habash has encouraged his group to pursue this.

He also said that, based on preliminary discussions, the Enterprise Foundation –a national organization that works with nonprofit groups onhousing issues — has indicated it might approve a loan for the venture.

Edgar said the profit from the sale of the condos would mostly be put back into the subsidies.

“This does nice things for income to the city if we talk about 50 to 70 families, with market rate folks who can afford the full amount,” Edgar said. “It also creates a shot in the arm for the business folks too, and continues to give the impetus for revitalization.”

Bob Leighty, MVA president, said the idea is intriguing.

“We are glad that Rev. Edgar is coming to the community early in the process, and we appreciate his interest in working to incorporate neighborhood ideas into their project,” he said.

“Barrett … is an historic and special place, and we look forward to the discussion about ideas for an appropriate redevelopment that respects Barrett’s educational and community history and sup- ports our diverse neighborhood,” he said.

Although conversations have not yet been initiated with CPS administrators, Edgar said he understands that the school district has no plans for the building.

“To have it stand vacant is a detriment,” he said. “If it’s vacant very long it will become an eyesore, it will be vandalized. And that is an incredibly attractive piece of real estate.”

Carole Olshavsky, CPS senior executive for capital improve- ments, was out of town and could not confirm district plans for the building.

Edgar said his idea has precedent and is working in other parts of the country.

“There are whole sections in the (Washington) D.C. area and in parts of Massachusetts … where developers have to promise that a certain percentage (ofhousing) will be available to people at or below 80 percent of the median income in the area,” he said.

He said a passerby “can’t tell from the street who has the condo that he paid $550,000 for, and who has one that was subsidized enough that it is affordable.

” … This creates a way to do upscale development that doesn’t price everybody out of the market. … We are being intentional about planning a new development where diversity is built in,” he said.

Edgar said he will try to build community support for the idea, including in German Village and Schumacher Place.

“Beyond that, we hope this idea will gain some energy and neighborhood groups across the city will see it as a model,” he said.

Community Development for All People is one of eight nonprofits approved by the city to develop affordable housing.

It is best known for the Free Store it has operated for seven years on the South Side; the store last year gave away $1.5-million worth of items, Edgar said.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

By RANDY NAVAROLI
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Two new condominium complexes could soon be going up on the North Side, one in Worthington and another near Polaris.

Village Communities Inc. is planning a 108-unit complex on a 17.5-acre site at 8074 Flint Road, north of Park Road.

State Street Realty is seeking permission to build up to 90 condos on 15 acres at 2150 E. Powell Road, north of Gemini Place. The development will be called The Lakes at Polaris.

Attorney Jill Tangeman, who represents both property developers, is currently seeking approval from the Far North Columbus Communities Coalition for the projects and for the required rezoning. The rezoning requests ask the FNCCC, the Columbus Development Commission and Columbus CIty Council to switch the two properties from a rural designation to a limited apartment residential district zoning.

“They seem to be OK with both of the proposals so far,” Tangeman said. She met with FNCCC officials on March 7.

FNCCC vice president Dan Province said the only problem he sees with either proposal concerns the Flint Road property.

“It’s a little too dense as it is. We’d like to see them adjust that,” Province said. “We’ve also asked them to do a traffic study for the area to make sure it won’t have a negative effect on traffic in the area.”

Province said the FNCCC supports the East Powell Road proposal as is. He said Tangeman will return to the FNCCC’s April 4 meeting to get its final approval for both projects before moving on to the Columbus Development Commission’s May 11 meeting.

Both the development commission and Columbus City Council must approve the rezoning requests before ground can be broken for the condos.

Tangeman said work on both projects could start this fall if she can get city council’s approval some time this summer.

She said the Flint Road project will be a one-story complex aimed toward senior citizens.

The East Powell Road complex will be traditional two-story townhomes.

Christ the King Church currently owns the East Powell Road property. The Worthington Board of Education owns the Flint Road site.

Stability reigns in central Ohio real estate
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Lee Stratton
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Sorry to burst your bubble, but there isn’t a housing bubble to burst.

Central Ohio homeowners — or buyers — who worry about getting burned by the oft-predicted bursting of a real-estate bubble can rest easy: Nothing is likely to go “Pop!” and wipe out a big chunk of owners’ home equity.

Local home values are not overinflated, according to a variety of national and local analyses.

Instead, local values are most likely to keep chugging along at a below-average rate of appreciation.

But Ohio’s lagging economy, an abundance of houses on the market, and increasing interest rates and energy prices could slow central Ohio’s real-estate market.

“That’s not a bubble bursting,” said Walt Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors. “A price bubble requires abnormal inflation.”

The Midwest, and Columbus in particular, has not had anything close to the annual appreciation experienced in Boston, San Francisco, portions of Florida and other areas of the Northeast and the West Coast. They have seen increases from 18 percent to 40 percent because there aren’t enough homes to meet an ever-growing demand.

The $177,978 average sales price of a single-family Ohio home in 2005 was about 4 percent more than the previous year, according to the Columbus Board of Realtors. That was far below the national average appreciation of 12.7 percent.

Central Ohio home prices have not escalated as much because of the plentiful supply of affordable homes and a demand dampened by a sluggish economy. Here are some indicators of why a real-estate bubble is unlikely in central Ohio:

• The cost of housing remains modest. The median selling price of owner-occupied homes (excluding newly built houses) in central Ohio last year was $152,000, about $55,000 less than the national average. Twenty other metro areas had median prices more than double that of Columbus. They include $446,500 in New York, $414,000 in Boston and $715,700 in San Francisco, according to the National Association of Realtors.

• Central Ohio is building homes faster than the population is growing. Between 1990 and 2004, central Ohio had a 31 percent increase in housing units and a 21 percent increase in population, according to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. Between 2000 and ’04, the area added houses at nearly twice the rate of population growth.

• Central Ohio has lagged the nation in the creation of new jobs, which can escalate prices. The U.S. average job-growth rate was between 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent in the past five years, while the number of central Ohio jobs declined nearly 1 percent.

• Homes remain affordable in central Ohio. The median price of a central Ohio single-family home is 160 percent of the median household income, compared with a national average of 230 percent. In the 20 most expensive metropolitan areas, the average median home price is 380 percent of household income.

• Mortgages eat up less of central Ohioans’ income. The average annual cost of a mortgage in central Ohio is 12 percent of the average household income, compared with a national average of 16 percent and a top-20 cities average of 30 percent.

• It’s easier to build in central Ohio than in some bigger growing markets. In the past three years, central Ohio builders have added more single-family houses than were built in metro areas with the highest prices and larger populations, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Columbus, with a metropolitan population of 1.7 million, added 31,458 houses. Greater Boston, with a population of 4.4 million, added 23,213; San Francisco, with 4.1 million people, built 24,760; San Diego, with 2.9 million residents, added 26,365 houses.

‘‘Even if there were a sudden increase in demand in Columbus, you can add to the housing stock. There’s room to build,” Molony said.

‘‘In Columbus, first-time buyers can start out in a single-family home. In places like San Francisco, it is more likely to be a low-end condo.

‘‘The hallmark of the Midwest is gradual increases in housing prices.”

Franklin County Auditor Joe Testa said examination of property values indicates long-term, predictable growth.

‘‘We don’t see any serious evidence to the contrary,” he said.

Several recent studies reached the same conclusion.

A 2005 analysis by the National Association of Realtors concluded that it would take mortgage interest rates of 17.2 percent coupled with a loss of 41,000 jobs to trigger a 5 percent fall in central Ohio home prices.

Interest rates are expected to remain below 7 percent this year, and Columbus is projected to have a modest increase in jobs.

The chances of central Ohio home values falling in the next two years are about six in 100, according to PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. That ranking places Columbus 45 th among 50 metro areas in terms of a pricefall risk.

In contrast, San Diego, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles are among a dozen cities with a greater than 50 percent chance of a price decline in the next two years.

‘‘Prices in San Francisco have been going up 18 percent, year for year,” said Beth Haiken, vice president of the PMI group, a mortgage insurance company. ‘‘Home prices have been increasing so much faster than income.”

Those metro areas have growing economies that continue to generate population increases even though land for new home construction is scarce and expensive, she said.

‘‘Markets on the coasts tend to be more volatile in their ups and downs. The middle of the country tends to be more linear, moving with income,” Haiken said.

Most predictions call for 2006 to be a national cooling-off period in housing, with about 5 percent fewer sales and an average appreciation of between 5 and 6 percent.

For central Ohio, that means homes likely will take longer to sell and may not fetch as much money as the sellers had hoped. But most homes will continue to appreciate in value from year to year, said Chris Reese, president of the Columbus Board of Realtors.

More than 14,500 homes are for sale in central Ohio, about 22 percent more than a year ago, according to the board.

‘‘It has turned into a buyer’s market,” Reese said.

Much of the unsold inventory is in new construction — including condominiums, she said. Houses priced at $120,000 to $140,000, and those between $200,000 and $250,000, supply the greatest number of for-sale signs, and the largest number of sales.

Despite the rise in inventory, 2006 should still set a record for number of homes sold in central Ohio when the final numbers are in, Reese said. January sales totaled 1,346, a 7.2 percent increase over the 1,252 sold in January last year. The average sale price last month was $172,267, a 2.6 percent increase from January 2005.

Too many houses and too few new jobs can lead to some price softness, said Molony, of the national Realtors group.

‘‘What results is a glacial pace of appreciation,” he said. ‘‘That is not a bubble.”

The ‘‘B” word is a stock market term that doesn’t apply to the housing market, said Haiken, of PMI. It aptly defines the 1990s boom-and-bust of high-tech stocks.

Aside from speculators who have been flipping condos in Florida, people invest in homes with the expectation of living in them for seven or more years, she said.

‘‘It’s not an investment that will pop instantly like a bubble,” she said.

Some metropolitan areas that PMI identified as high-risk are more like a balloon that that can inflate or deflate slowly without breaking, she said.

‘‘That’s how the housing market tends to work, even on the West Coast.”