Home sales remain elevated in Central Ohio

(Dec. 21, 2011) November marks the fifth consecutive month of increased home sales in

central Ohio this year after the first half of the year struggled to keep up with increased sales

from 2010 due to the home buyer tax credits. According to the Columbus Board of

REALTORS®, 1,406 homes sold in November which is seven percent more than the previous

year.

Additionally, the number of residential homes scheduled to close was up over 37 percent,

from 1,341 last year to 1,843 last month (November 2011).

“We’re finding that sellers recognize the challenges of today’s market and are realistically

pricing their homes to sell,” says Rick Benjamin, 2011 President of the Columbus Board of

REALTORS®. “Buyers are responding well to the pricing and, of course, the record low

interest rates. It’s still a great time to buy a home.”

Homes in central Ohio this year have sold for an average of $157,032, down 2.5 percent from

the average sale price in 2010, but up over five percent from the average sale price in the first

quarter of 2011. The average price of a home sold in November was $153,673, up 3.1 percent

from the previous month ($149,082).

The number of homes listed for sale last month (1,949) is 20 percent less than listings added

to the market in November 2010 (2,439). The total inventory of homes available for sale in

central Ohio was 12,675 at the end of November, which is down 27.5 percent from one year

ago.

As a result, the month’s supply, a measure of inventory that estimates how many months it

would take to sell the entire home inventory, fell 28.5 percent to 7.4, down from 10.3 last

year.

“A healthy months supply for our market would be around 6.5. So the decrease in inventory

is a positive sign of market recovery,” adds Benjamin. “Plus, based on the concept of supply

and demand, when we have too many homes on the market, homes are more likely to sell for

less.”

Click here to view the November sortable housing market report by area.
Click here to view the entire central Ohio Local Market Update.

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin,

Delaware, Fayette, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of

Athens, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingum,

Perry and Ross Counties.

For more information about the central Ohio housing market, visit

ColumbusRealtors.com/stats
To view commercial properties for sale or lease in central Ohio, visit COCIE.org.
To view residential properties for sale, visit www.terrypenrod.com.

Washington Blade - Study: Anti-gay groups far more effective than LGBT groups at soliciting cash

 

The story is here

According to a report released last week by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), American anti-gay groups are still far more effective than LGBT rights organizations at mobilizing their funding base.

The National LGBT Movement Report, which according to ThinkProgress‘s Zack Ford “analyzes the financial documents of 40 prominent LGBT organizations,” MAP estimates the number of individual donors to LGBT organizations only three percent of LGBT Americans.

 

The report estimates that most LGBT groups rely on just ten contributors for 45 percent of their annual income. The other 55 percent is made up of smaller donations. Ninety-seven percent of the estimated 8.7 million LGBT Americans decline to contribute to these organizations at all.

“There are many reasons for the relative dearth of donations coming from within our own community, but coming from the Midwest, I can tell you that many of our national organizations aren’t very well known in the interior of the country,” Interim Executive Director of Stonewall Democrats, Jerame Davis, told the Blade. “H.R.C., Stonewall Democrats, PFLAG, and Lambda Legal are the only organizations we heard from on a consistent basis in Indiana. Go ask your average Midwestern LGBT person to name even five national LGBT organizations; something tells me they wouldn’t get past number three.”

More alarming is that the ten largest openly anti-LGBT groups spend almost three times as much annually as all 40 of the LGBT groups measured; at $330.4 million versus the $126.8 million spent collectively. Multi-issue anti-LGBT organizations such as Focus on the Family, Heritage Foundation and Alliance Defense Fund had budgets dwarfing most LGBT organizations, assisted by smaller but more focused organizations like National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council and the Traditional Values Coalition.

ThinkProgress adds that many of the donors to LGBT organizations are actually straight allies, which may mean that the number of LGBT Americans contributing to these organizations is actually lower than the estimate in the MAP report.

 

 

The report surveyed 40 of the most prominent LGBT organizations in the nation from the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and Victory Fund, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and National Center for Lesbian Rights to smaller organizations like Log Cabin Republicans, SoulForce, the Trevor Project, and In The Life Media, and even some state-wide and local organizations like Empire State Pride Agenda, Equality California, and the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.

According to the report, Focus on the Family on its own out fund-raised all 40 LGBT organizations collectively.

Stonewall’s Davis believes that if organizations invested more time in creating a presence in ‘middle America,’ LGBT donors may be more willing to contribute.

“It has been a regular complaint from those in ‘flyover country’ that the national LGBT movement needs to focus more on the very clear and obvious lack of equilibrium in equality around the country,” Davis told the Blade. “The stark imbalance when you look at a state like Indiana vs. a state like New York makes it hard for folks in those states with less equality to believe the national movement is working for them. That turns off a lot of potential donors who are motivated to give, but feel they have few outlets to do so that will directly impact their daily lives.”

Some good news reported by MAP, however, is that most of the 40 organizations studied have turned their finances around from a 2009 low, with revenue exceeding expenses this year — contrasting with 2009 when expenses outpaced revenue — and most LGBT organizations report a general increase in revenue coupled with a general decrease in expenses.

LGBT organizations have also kept control of the cost of fundraising with only 11 percent annual expenses on average going toward fundraising at the 40 largest LGBT organizations, and the other 89 percent of expenses being split between programs & services (79 percent) and operations (ten percent).

Italian Village IN, Victorian Village OUT of new "Columbus" Congressional District

Click on the map to see other areas of Central Ohio and the State.

Italian Village and the Dennison Place "Circles" will be in the new District 3 

Victorian Village will be in District 15

(Currently held by Congressman Steve Stiver)  

 

Glee Video- "Let it Snow" with Blaine and Kurt

Glee - Let it Snow (Official Video) Blaine (Darren Criss) and Kurt (Chris Colfer)  

Columbus Underground: The Hubbard Apartments to Rise Over The Short North

The story is here

The northeast corner of Hubbard Avenue and High Street has been one of the most widely discussed plots of land here on Columbus Underground over the past five years. Originally proposed in 2006 as the home of the failed Ibiza condo development, the site is going through a change of ownership where local development firms Elford and Wagenbrenner are jointly working on a revised plan for the neighborhood. The Hubbard will be a five-story mixed-use apartment building with ground-floor retail and a public parking garage located in the back.

For more details on the project, we spoke recently with Mark Wagenbrenner, President of Wagenbrenner Development, and Mike Fitzpatrick, President of Elford Development, Ltd.  Click here for more

HRC Gives Consumers Information to Buy for Workplace Equality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 12, 2012

Human Rights Campaign Gives Consumers Information to Buy for Workplace Equality

 New scores in guide highlight best in class businesses with equal workplace practices for LGBT employees

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today released the popular guide to hundreds of American brands rated on businesses’ treatment of LGBT employees.  “Buying for Workplace Equality 2012” divides businesses and their consumer products into red, yellow and green categories based on their score on HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, a nationally recognized benchmark of LGBT inclusion.  The guide is available for download and viewing online at www.hrc.org/BuyersGuide.

“The holiday buying season is upon us and this year we again have the chance to send a message to businesses that we are watching,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “Fair-minded consumers who care about how a company treats their LGBT employees have a powerful tool in the Buying for Workplace Equality Guide. In this economy, when every dollar counts, it is particularly important for companies to see that LGBT inclusion is good for the bottom line.”

Companies’ updated scores in this year’s guide reflect the new, more stringent criteria standards that went into effect with the 2012 CEI, from which we derive these ratings.

This year, the LGBT community’s buying power is estimated at nearly $800 billion, according to research by Witeck-Combs Communications and Marketresearch.com. The research also shows the LGBT community is both savvy about companies’ inclusive policies and fiercely loyal to those companies who support LGBT workplace equality.

“This is our community’s chance to vote with our dollars and send America’s businesses a clear message that equal treatment of LGBT employees is good for the bottom line. Especially in today’s economy, equality is good business.” said Solmonese.

This is the seventh year the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has published the guide which has been viewed and downloaded more than 300,000 times at www.hrc.org/BuyersGuide.  The Buying for Workplace Equality iPhone application has also been updated and can be downloaded at www.hrc.org/iphone.

Additional background information on “Buying for Workplace Equality 2012”:

Buying for Workplace Equality is an annual publication of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation that empowers consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. The guide draws comparisons between products, services and retail outlets that consumers use on a daily basis. The ratings are based upon the HRC Corporate Equality Index, which this year rated 850 companies, including the entire Fortune 500. The CEI is the foremost method for businesses to evaluate their diversity and inclusion efforts toward recruiting and retaining LGBT employees, customers and investors — learn more at www.hrc.org/cei.

Categories: “Buying for Workplace Equality” divides businesses and their products into everyday purchasing categories, including:

• Apparel & Accessories
• Banking & Finance
• Food & Beverage
• Home & Garden
• Restaurants
• Technology

Ratings: Businesses and their products are divided based on their CEI rating into red, yellow and green sections so that consumers can easily determine which brands support LGBT workplace equality: 

• Green (80-100): Businesses/brands that receive our highest workplace equality scores.
• Yellow (46-79): Businesses/brands that have taken steps toward a fair-minded workplace and     receive a moderate workplace equality score.
• Red (0-45): Businesses/brands that receive our lowest workplace equality scores
• Italics:  Businesses/brands that have not responded to the survey despite repeated attempts and have been provided with an unofficial, estimated score based on publicly available information that has been collected.

HRC welcomes new relationships with businesses that have not responded to attempts to gather information on LGBT workplace policies and programs.

Featured Comparisons:
UPS 100 vs. DHL 15 (Estimate)
Nike 100 vs. Adidas/Reebok 15 (Estimate)
SUPERVALU 100 vs. Meijer 25
Nordstrom 100 vs. Neiman Marcus 15 (Estimate)

 Available via:
Web: www.hrc.org/buyersguide
iPhone Application: www.hrc.org/iphone

SMS Text: Text “Shop” and the name of a brand or business to 30644 and a score will be returned

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

Decade of Progress in Workplace Equality Chronicled in HRC’s 2012 Corporate Equality Index

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
December 8, 2011

Decade of Progress in Workplace Equality Chronicled in HRC’s 2012 Corporate Equality Index

 Change in Scoring Criteria Results in Enormous Advances for Transgender Healthcare 

  Read the CEI in .PDF or virtual publication format.
Download the CEI 2012 or Read the virtual publication.

or see it below

WASHINGTON – With no federal nondiscrimination law and limited state protections, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) has helped transform the American workplace for the better over the past ten years. Released today, the 2012 CEI chronicles the remarkable advances that have taken place on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality (LGBT) in the workplace since 2002. In the first year of the CEI, only 13 businesses achieved a top score. This year, 190 corporations, across industries, geographies and size, will receive a 100 percent score on significantly more stringent criteria, including 10 of the top 20 Fortune-ranked companies. As companies compete to recruit and retain the best employees and influence consumer choices, CEI ratings have redefined the norm for how all companies treat LGBT workers and their families. The result is that the lives of millions of LGBT Americans have been made exponentially better, public acceptance of issues important to LGBT people has soared and both public and private employers of all sizes have voluntarily adopted inclusive policies.

This year’s report’s findings:

• While the inclusion of sexual orientation in non-discrimination policies has become a standard since 2002, the addition of gender identity is now part of the policies of 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies for the first time, a growth rate of 1567 percent since 2002.
   
• The number of Fortune 500 companies offering domestic partnership benefits has increased by 76 percent since 2002.
   
• The greatest strides have come in area of transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage. As a result of new criteria instituted by HRC this year that is a requisite to a perfect score, companies offering comprehensive healthcare coverage to their transgender workers has increased to 207 from 85 last year and 49 in 2009. 

	2002		2006		2012
CEI Policies	Participants	F500	Participants	F500	Participants	F500
Sexual Orientation EEO	92%	61%	98%	88%	99%	86%
Gender Identity EEO	5%	3%	46%	25%	80%	50%
Domestic Partnership Benefits - Health	69%	34%	87%	53%	96%	60%
Transgender Health Benefits	0	n/a	15%	n/a	33%	19%

The CEI rates companies on 40 specific policies and practices, 32 of which are new or more demanding this year. To achieve a perfect score and the coveted distinction of “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality,” companies must have fully-inclusive equal employment opportunity policies, provide equal employment benefits, demonstrate organizational LGBT competency, evidence their commitment to equality publicly and exercise responsible citizenship.

Three years ago, HRC embarked on an ambitious project to raise the bar on its rating criteria so that a 100 percent score would reflect the ‘best in class’ practices of LGBT inclusion in the workplace. This year’s CEI tells a powerful story of American businesses working to meet that higher bar.

Beginning in 2006, the CEI credited participants if they offered at least one benefit related to gender transition. As a result, 487 companies or 79 percent of participants received credit for this category. In 2009, HRC informed companies that it would begin rating them in 2012 on equal health coverage for transgender individuals without exclusion for medically necessary care, to include sexual reassignment surgery. The fact that companies would be rated on this new criterion dramatically increased performance from 85 companies offering all of the benefits last year to 207 this year, a 144 percent increase. 

To support employers in their efforts to obtain healthcare coverage for their transgender employees, and specifically to address the gap between the current product offerings and accepted medical practice, HRC has launched an “Insurance Equality Task Force” which will engage and challenge the insurance industry to provide products their customers need to be competitive and that meet the needs of LGBT consumers. The task force brings together top CEI company representatives, insurance experts and other key stakeholders in a shared commitment to end discrimination against transgender individuals and to expand access to this coverage. The main objective of this task force is to facilitate the development and availability of health plans and insurance products that provide coverage of medically necessary treatment for transgender individuals in accordance with accepted medical standards.

A total of 850 businesses have been rated in the 2012 CEI, including the entire Fortune 500. Two-hundred seventy-seven Fortune 500 companies voluntarily submitted surveys; the remaining 214 were rated based upon publicly-available data. In addition, 65 Fortune 1000 companies, 134 law firms and 160 other companies voluntarily participated in the 2012 CEI. Voluntary participation in the CEI has doubled since its inception. In 2002, 319 companies participated; this year 636 companies have participated.

In spite of the fact that 77 percent of the American public favors the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, there are no federal laws barring workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Americans can also still be fired in 29 states on the basis of their sexual orientation and in 34 states on the basis of their gender identity. According to a November 2011 HRC/Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll, a staggering 87 percent of the American public believes that it is already illegal under federal law to fire someone for being gay and 78 percent believe that it is illegal under state law. 

“Corporate America is leading the charge for equality in the workplace,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “We commend the businesses that participated in the CEI.  They understand that LGBT-inclusive workplace policies are the right thing to do and good business practices.” 

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

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HRC Corporate Equality Index 2012 -