And you don’t buy homes for sale in Columbus in a vacuum.  Just like all real estate is local, regions tend to have their own economies. Just like the Columbus area housing market hasn’t crashed to the tune of the National real estate markets that make all the headlines and take over mindshare, the Columbus economy is vast and varied and weathering the storm better than you may expect.

I recently ran across a conversation that Walker Evans had with Dr. Bill LaFayette, the Vice President of Economic Analysis at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. They discussed a variety of topics related to the Columbus economy.

This is a great snapshot of the Columbus economy. If you’re moving or relocating to Columbus, Ohio, then  you may be surprised to hear about how important rail is to the region, or tourism.  Here is a small exerpt of this interview that touches on passenger rail…

WE: Being able to see some of these results from the shipping and commercial rail sector, do you think we could see some of the same types economic benefits from passenger rail service? We’re very close to seeing the 3C passenger rail systemstarting. Do you think we will see a similar type of benefit from personal transportation?

BL: Different but important. The benefit would be making it easy to get from Cincinnati to here, from Cleveland to here, which would be a big boost for our tourism market. Again, another sector that we may not give as much credit to as it deserves, we get a lot of tourism here. We have been cited as a travel spot. The Short North specifically has been cited in national and international publications. We have been in The New York Times travel magazine a of couple times, The Los Angeles Times and when SkyBus was flying, just about every city that SkyBus connected Columbus with sent a reporter here to ask the question, “why would in the world would anyone jump on a plane and go to Columbus?” And those articles were absolutely glowing, so we sell ourselves short, we definitely do. There is much more to see and do here than we often think.

WE: We posted links to a lot of those stories as they started to roll in due to Skybus. After they ended up folding, a lot of people were saying it was a total waste of time, waste of money, a waste of everything… but the amount of positive press on a national level that Columbus received out of the whole ordeal might have helped balance the equation in the end.

BL: Oh, it was definitely a positive. It sort of reminded the air travel community that Port Columbus is an available, accessible airport with capacity.

This is something I go back and forth on quite a bit.  Why use zip codes at all? It’s a rant I’ve posted about before. Zip codes are arbitrary and mean little and yet they can reveal a lot about a part of town.

That’s the key, a part of town, an area of the Greater Columbus Mega Picture.  Let’s face it though, if you want to buy a house in Bexley, you don’t really care how many homes are for sale in Berwick. Same with the Short  North. If you want to be where the action is, do you care about Harrison West? Of course you do, but you don’t care what’s happening in Milo Grogan and yet they all share the  same zip code. On the flip side, What if you DO want to buy in an up and coming area, you still want to keep track of the “better” areas surrounding to make sure your investment will continue to appreciate.

And yet, is it wise to completely ignore real estate trends in the areas immediately surrounding the location you plan to plunk down hundreds of thousands of dollars? Probably you should be aware of what is happening in Merion Village even if you strictly want to buy a home in German Village.

My solution? Quartiles. Divide the market into FOUR median price points and follow what is happening in the area you want to buy in. Read the rest of this entry »

In this post-analog age, aren’t you glad your Realtor is a Delicious Realtor ?  Smart, Engaged, Informed, adding value.

(Of course this is all tongue in cheek. The impetus behind this post was to check the laptop cam straight to You Tube option–an incredibly easier option than first recording on the laptop and then trying to upload a gigantic file to the net)