The Cincinnati based American Sign Museum is actively making a push to further develop research and understating of American Sign language. The plan calls for moving the museum into a new larger space in January 2012. Tod Swormstedt is the museum director and founder and thinks that with the city’s push to become a national center of innovation for CPG marketing, branding, and digital design Sign Language has a role to play.
Thanks to Urban Cincy for the coverage.
Over the past two years numerous Cincinnati developers defaulted on subdivisions and stranded homeowners with 1/2 finished communities. The primary cause is the slowed pace of new construction growth and the tightening of credit.
Cincinnati.com highlights a common practice that allows land developers to form LLC corporations to protect their interests so that in the case that the development fails they can still walk away without major financial loss.
Meanwhile the initial homeowners who purchased the first homes have to live in a partially finished subdivision with little prospect of seeing the remaining lots developed into homes. Vacant overgrown lots, they say, are having a negative impact on their home values making it difficult to sell their homes. One consideration when purchasing a home is how many open lots are there? This fact can have an impact on your home value for years to come if it is not built on.
According to an article in CNN there is an impending housing shortage. The recession has stopped, or delayed new home construction and purchases, but the demand will reemerge when the recovery comes. Unlike in years past, home builder may not be able to meet the demand as quickly.
The home builders have not been purchasing and developing land for building. In addition construction loans are very difficult to obtain, both factors that will delay the launch and completion of new homes. It looks like the home shortage will be most severe in areas already tight on land (New York, San Francisco) and less severe in markets with lots of extra inventory (Miami, Las Vegas).
The recession has had an impact on new home construction in Cincinnati. Homearama 2010 was even relocated out of the suburbs to Northside. A few local builders have gone out of business, and the ones that remain are facing increasing legislation designed to minimize environmental impact. As Cincinnati continues to grow and attract new residents we look to both our city master plans and local builders to create outstanding neighborhoods for our new residents.
Are you relocating to Cincinnati? Call me for information on Cincinnati neighborhoods and housing 513-518-1140.
When an investment corporation defaults, or walks away, from a property it is called a strategic default. When a home owner can no longer afford their mortgage they foreclose. Somehow there has been tremendous stigma placed on the homeowner that has to go into foreclosure, while large corporations face defaults with indifference. The Huffington Post and NPR Marketplace both look at the issue:
A group led by Tishman Speyer Properties gave up the 56-building, 11,232-unit Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan, turning the properties over to its creditors after defaulting on some $4.4 billion in debt. Wall Street Journal. The $5.4 billion acquisition in 2006 was the single biggest residential property purchase in U.S. history. It’s now worth an estimated $1.8 billion.
“We basically walked away from it,” said Clark McKinley, a spokesman for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System [CalPERS], one of several investors in the venture, wrote off its $500 million investment, McKinley said. “It’s underwater, anyway, so we’ve lost it,” he added. “We took our medicine, and we’re learning from it.”
Sadly lenders are fighting the stay off a mass of foreclosures. If homeowners start walking away from their mortgages en masse, there’s little doubt the housing market will collapse and take the economy with it. The New York Times has a list of proposals to help home owners reduce their principals. What is critical is that we need to reestablish stability in the market to prevent a second wave of the housing crisis.
In recent weeks major real estate developers have been walking away from properties because like many home owners, they are underwater on their mortgages. Tishman Speyer Properties gave up the 56-building, 11,232-unit Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan, turning the properties over to its creditors after defaulting on some $4.4 billion in debt.
What is frustrating to many home owners is that financial institutions are doing everything that they can to prevent Homeowners from foreclosing, while large developers are simply handing the keys back over to the banks when thier properties become too much of a financial liability.
RealtyTrac continues to track the increasing number of short sales and foreclosure and the problem continues to weigh down the housing market. As the economy slowly recovers it is my hope that the unemployment rate will drop and with it, the number of families facing foreclosures. The Federal Government continues to put pressure on lenders to modify mortgages through the Making Homes Affordable program, and the program is slowly helping to relieve pressure on families that qualify.
In order to attract more business development Symmes Township has established two community reinvestment areas to attract new businesses and construction projects. The commercial/industrial CRA property tax abatement is up to 10 years for new construction or renovation, with up to a 50 % exemption and a minimum $5,000 in costs. The residential remodeling and new construction CRA property tax abatement has a term of 10 years, with 50% exemption, and a market value cap of $100,000 on the improvement value. There is a minimum of $2.500 in costs for single family residences and a minimum of $5,000 in costs for 2-4 unit structures.
The CRA should bring new businesses to the township which will add additional economic diversity to the area. At the moment there are three business taking advantage of the program: ‘All About Kids’, Grand Sands, and Cornell Crossing. Apply for the Symmes Township CRA by following the link and completing the application.
Eminent Domain is a controversial issue which involves the government (local, county, state, or federal) condemning a person’s home so that the land it sits on can be used for the betterment of the community. Eminent Domain has been used to acquire land for the development of new highways, airport expansions, and other major public works.
However government has used Eminent Domain to secure land for private development of office buildings, and hotels. In Cincinnati we saw Eminent Domain enacted on a number of residents near the RookWood Commons plaza. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled on a case involving Pfizer and a local government enacting Eminent Domain to condemn and seize property for a research park. After 10 years of tax abatement and special treatment from the local government Pfizer has moved out leaving a blighted neighborhood where a strong community once stood.
The story represents the caution and care that government must exercise when using Eminent Domain for non-public works projects. When private developers create proejcts there is often the danger that they may abandon the project at any point in the development.
Price Sells Real Estate! If you price your property appropriately for the current market conditions your real estate will sell. NPR ran an article a few days ago that really highlights this point. last year the Miami, FL condo market was nearly dead. To many built and proposed condos, to few buyers, and prices that reflected the 2007 levels of nearly $400 sqf.
Move forward to today, Fall 2009, and condo buildings are selling out in 6-8 weeks … at $200 sqf. Peter Zalewski, a real estate broker who runs the Condo Vultures, explains that the Miami Condo market’s price reset has sparked interest in Latin American and South American investors. They seem to be cash buyers and feel that the current prices are a relative bargain.
The challenge that is preventing more buyers form purchasing is that financing is very hard to obtain in these new construction condo buildings. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are denying loan applications to well qualified purchasers simply because there is such an over-suply of units that reselling a unit could prove a dauting challenge.
The lesson we all need to learn here is that to sell real estate ANYWHERE you need to price it correctly for today’s market. If you are interested in a condo, or a home in the Cincinnati area contact me today!
Urban Cincy reported this morning that Mayor Mallory has selected the development company that will finance, plan, design,construct, operate and maintain Cincinnati’s Modern Streetcar System. The location of the streetcar would be on the northern end of the Downtown/Over the Rhine circulator which would head uptown from there. This is great news for Cincinnati Real Estate. The addition of a streetcar in Downtown Cincinnati is great news for Cincinnati Real Estate. The continual development and success of downtown will continue to attract the creative class, which could eventually lead to new businesses moving their headquarters to Cincinnati.
I had an opportunity to speak with a representative from Lucke Homes today at our weekly staff meeting. She provided me a list of tips for helping our buyers are educated on builders they are hiring. Here are some questions that you should ask your builder to determine how
1. Check with the Cincinnati Home Builder Association (HBA) to see if the builder is in good standing.
2. Are they paying their subcontractors on time?
3. Are they in good standing with the Better Business Bureau and do they have complaints filed against them?
4. Call the last 3 to 4 home owners for a reference regarding the on-time completion and quality of their last few home constructions?
5. Is the home warranty through the builder or an insurance company and does it follow HBA standards?
6. How many employees manage construction of your home?
7. Do they have an in-house selection center to make your choices?
8. Does the builder have a Service Department to service the home after construction is completed and you are living there?
9. Is the builder in good standing with the State of Ohio?
Remember that although there are real estate agents present at most new subdivisions, those agents represent the builder. It is important to have buyer representation when building a new home. Please remember that builders have already figured in a buyer’s agent commission so you will not be penalized for having a buyer’s agent. If you are in the market for a new construction home contact me Alison.Moss@Comey.com for a free consultation and representation.
