The moral of this story is simply that whenever you move to a new city, any city, you should familiarize yourself with local laws. It’s just a good idea. Also, if you’re a Realtor who works in the area, you should know them. While this has less to do with housing ordinances and more to do with pets, it’s an important personal enjoyment issue.

I was contacted yesterday by a couple moving here from Ontario. After several emails back and forth I had a pretty good idea of what they were looking for and where they might enjoy living. I found out what they like to do when not in their house and among the things they enjoy are their four show dogs.

We went over a few Columbus neighborhoods and had a general outline of what will work and what won’t work. One of my suggestions was Bexley – mostly for the housing stock. I was very surprised when my client quickly wrote back that, “Bexley has a 3 dog ordinance so that would be out of the question since we have four dogs.”

A three dog ordinance. I had no idea but here it is in black and white and it’s not just dogs but ..

618.20 MAXIMUM NUMBER OF DOGS AND CATS PERMITTED.

(a) No person shall keep more than four dogs and cats of which not more than three may be dogs, excluding puppies and/or kittens less than six 2009 Replacement months old, in any single-family dwelling, or in any separate dwelling unit in a two-family or multifamily dwelling within the City. “Dwelling” and “dwelling unit” as used in this section, include the lot or parcel of land on which the house or building containing the dwelling unit is located, and all other structures located on the lot or parcel.

(b) Any person who violates or fails to comply with this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree. A separate offense shall be deemed committed each day during or on which a violation or noncompliance occurs or continues.

Now I, of course, had to read the city ordinances and find out for myself what else I might not know in regard to animals in the City of Bexley.

One nuance that immediately comes to mind is that it’s a bit of a pain to put out “Open House” signs in Bexley as the Bexley Police department will confiscate them if they’re on city property – not allowed.

What else though? Well a quick run through of ordinances outside of the normal and in the vicinity of the pet one above found the following,….

• No person shall dye or otherwise color any rabbit or baby poultry, including, but not limited to,chicks and ducklings.
• No person shall keep or harbor any animal within the Municipality which makes repeated and successive sounds, for a period of more than fifteen minutes, audible off the premises on which such animal is kept.
• No person shall Keep animals, other than cattle, poultry or fowl, swine, sheep or goats, in an enclosure without wholesome exercise and change of air, or feed cows on food that produces impure or unwholesome milk.
• No person shall keep or harbor any animal or fowl in the Municipality so as to create noxious or offensive odors or unsanitary conditions which are a menace to the health, comfort or safety of the public.
• No person shall permit a dog to go or be upon any part of Jeffrey Park or Commonwealth Park, except a dog accompanying a blind, deaf or mobility impaired person and displaying a registration tag issued pursuant to Ohio R.C. 955.011.
• No person shall keep any kind of pigeon within the City other than pedigreed homing, highflying or air-performing pigeons.

So, if you’re moving to Bexley and you’re excited at the prospect of taking your dog to Jeffrey Park every morning, think again.  Speaking of dog walking, you should probably know that section 618.22 states that, “Disposal of animal fecal matter (is) required.”

The radio has been blasting the NAR release concerning July year-over-year drop in sales to the tune of around 29% all day long in conjunction with bits of an interview with the National Association of Realtor’s economist who said, in a nutshell, that inventory is very high and if the economy doesn’t continue on an upswing and the Country reaches 10% unemployment (officially) then the so called ‘housing recovery’ could be in jeopardy.

You know the adage, “As Columbus goes, so goes the country.” ? Well, according the Columbus Board of  Realtors, although the first half of 2010 saw home sales increase up to 39 percent over 2009, July saw a decrease of 28.6 percent in sales.

The ‘natural readjustment of the Columbus Real Estate market’

“The expiration of the homebuyer tax credits created incredible activity last spring,” said Sue Lusk-Gleich, President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®, “so we’re not surprised by the natural readjustment of the market over the last couple months.”

Year to date Columbus Real Estate sales are still 11.4 percent higher than last year

There were 1,468 homes sold in July compared to 2,047 sales in July of 2009. However, year to date sales (January through July) are still 11.4 percent higher than last year.

Central Ohio’s inventory is on the rise with a nearly 12 percent increase in the number of homes on the market last month compared to a year ago. Almost half of these16,626 homes are listed for $150,000 or below and 2,980 of them are condos.

In addition, last week marked the ninth straight week that 30-year-fixed mortgage rates have met or set a new record low, according to Freddie Mac.

“The increase in inventory is an indication of homeowners wanting to take advantage of the low interest rates to move up,” said Lusk-Gleich. “And these are ideal conditions for investment and first-time buyers as well.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a geek about mapping and home search solutions. The more intuitive the better. Cool factor is nice too. A while back, I wrote about Realtor.com’s new iphone ap and called it the best home search ap for smart phones on the market.
While following a Real Estate conference in San Francisco today, I followed a link and found this….it looks like it could get much cooler.