Central Ohio Home Sales Growing

Central Ohio home sales growing

(April 20, 2011) Central Ohio home sales in March outpaced the previous month by almost 32 percent bringing the total number of homes sold during the first quarter of 2011 to 3,678 according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.

The 1,487 homes sold last month was 31.8 percent higher than the previous month’s sales of 1,128. Year to date sales of 3,678 lag 2010 by 7.9 percent, but are still 6.9 percent ahead of the 2,178 homes sold in the first quarter of 2009.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we still have to keep in mind that 2010 home sales were significantly impacted by the second set of home buyer tax credits, offers Rick Benjamin, 2011 President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. “By comparison, March closings are actually 9.3 percent higher than homes closed in March of 2009 when the first round of tax credits was available.”

In addition, 2,512 homes were put in contract last month touting an 11.5 percent increase over the 2,252 contracted sales in March of 2010.

Homes in central Ohio this year have sold for an average of $143,773, down 3.7 percent from the average sale price in 2010, but up 3.8 percent from the average sale price in 2009. The average price of a home sold in March was $144,975, up 2.1 percent from the previous month ($140,770).

The number of homes listed for sale last month (3,886) dropped almost 22 percent from the previous year (4,972) bringing the total inventory of homes available for sale in central Ohio to 14,370, down 22.3 percent from one year ago. “Home sales follow the simple economic concept of supply and demand,” adds Benjamin. “When the supply is higher than the demand, the product, in this case a home, is subject to sell for less. So a decrease in inventory is a positive for our market.”

“The other positive is, of course, last month’s drop in unemployment to 7.6 percent - the lowest point since January 2009.”

There were 2,280 homes listed for sale in Franklin County last month. The surrounding counties of Delaware and Licking saw 316 and 302 new listings respectively.

Click here to view the March 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, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Champagne, Clark, Hocking, Licking, Fairfield, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingham, Perry and Ross Counties.

For more information about the central Ohio housing market, visit www.ColumbusRealtors.com/stats

To view commercial properties for sale or lease in central Ohio, visit www.COCIE.org.

To view residential properties for sale, visit www.terrypenrod.com.

Business First: Short North home shops banding together

Business First - by Dan Eaton

Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 12:33pm EDT

Story is here: Short North home shops banding together | Business First

The Short North’s furniture and home decor retailers knew they had a budding shopping district, but now they’re making it official. Fourteen stores in the niche have pooled their resources to create Home On High, a joint marketing effort to promote the diverse home goods offerings in the area.

“There’s a lot going on here,” Tim Friar, owner of Grid Furnishings, said. “We should be talking about it in a different way rather than individually.”

Grid is one of six new furniture and furnishings businesses to have opened in the area in the past year. The mix includes stores selling new and consigned furniture and home goods in a variety of styles from antique to modern.

The initial focus of Home on High is promoting Sunday shopping, which Friar said is one of the best sales days for several of the retailers.

“The Short North is easier to navigate on a Sunday,” Friar said. “We obviously love people coming down any time in the week, but Sunday is a great day to start with. People are able to go out and leisurely look around.”

Each of the 14 stores is contributing financially to the marketing effort, which will include some advertising, promotions and the creation of a local shopping guide.

Friar said they are working on a promotion for May designed to get customers into the shops of all 14 participants. Shoppers would collect a stamp for each store visited and completed entries would go into a drawing for gift certificates or other prizes.

---

HRC: Former Republican Solicitor General Will Defend Discrimination for House Republican Leadership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 18, 2011
Michael Cole-Schwartz

Former Republican Solicitor General Will Defend Discrimination for House Republican Leadership

Speaker Boehner goes to great lengths in hiring Paul Clement to defend DOMA

WASHINGTON – Today the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, strongly criticized the House Republican leadership for taking on former Republican Solicitor General Paul Clement as counsel to defend the clearly discriminatory and unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court. Clement served under President George W. Bush as the government’s lawyer before the Supreme Court and currently works as a partner at the firm King & Spaulding.

“Not only are House Republican leaders defending the indefensible, they’ve brought in a high priced attorney to deny federal recognition to loving, married couples,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Speaker Boehner appears ready to go to great lengths, and the great expense of a high-power law firm, to try to score some cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples. King & Spaulding were not required to take up this defense and should be ashamed of associating themselves with an effort to deny rights to their fellow citizens.”

Earlier today, Speaker Boehner released a letter he sent to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in which he endorsed a right-wing plan to defund part of the Department of Justice because of the Obama Administration’s thoughtful analysis that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.

“With such a high-priced lawyer, it’s no wonder the Speaker is grasping at straws in order to justify spending taxpayer money on defending discrimination,” said Solmonese. “Next he’ll probably call for slashing Education Department funding because kids might learn it’s unconstitutional to discriminate against certain groups of people.”

According to a March 2011 poll conducted by HRC and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, 51 percent of voters opposed DOMA and 54 percent opposed the House Republican’s intervention in cases challenging its constitutionality.

“With the American people clamoring for leaders to deal with the economy, voters are no doubt scratching their heads wondering how a boondoggle for right-wing lawyers is going to help their pocketbooks,” said Solmonese

With the House intervention in this case, a number of important questions remain unanswered by House Republican Leaders:

· There are as many as nine lawsuits in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA. Will House Republicans intervene in all of these lawsuits?

· Now that the House has retained Clement, has a conflict and ethics check been conducted? Will the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group be consulted on strategic decisions related to the litigation?

· How much taxpayer money will this all cost?

· What will the House argue in defending DOMA? Will they go back to Congress’s 1996 arguments for passing the law – that it is necessary because marriage equality is “a radical, untested and inherently flawed social experiment” and contrary to the “moral conviction that heterosexuality better comports with traditional (especially Judeo-Christian) morality”?

· The Justice Department stopped defending DOMA because they concluded that laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation should receive a higher level of scrutiny by courts. Will the House Republican leaders disagree? If so, will they argue that gays and lesbians have not suffered a long history of discrimination? That sexual orientation is somehow relevant to an individual’s ability to contribute to society, when they have four openly-gay colleagues? That gays and lesbians can change their sexual orientation, a position at odds with every major psychological organization? That gays and lesbians are politically powerful, ironically in defending a law passed by Congress specifically to disadvantage them?

· Do they think they’ll win, especially given that in two DOMA-related cases in Massachusetts, a federal judge appointed by President Nixon has already found Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional even under the lowest level of scrutiny that gives great deference to the legislature?

· Apart from these cases, will Republican House leadership do anything to address the inequalities that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face?

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.

# # #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 18, 2011

HRC to Law Firm King & Spalding: Defense of Discriminatory DOMA Law is “Shameful”

Standing up for discrimination is a stain on firm’s reputation

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today called the decision of the law firm King & Spalding to take up the House Republican leadership’s defense of the Defense of Marriage Act a shameful stain on the firm’s reputation. Earlier today it was revealed that firm partner Paul Clement would represent House leaders in their quest to preserve discrimination against loving married couples.

“The firm of King & Spalding has brought a shameful stain on its reputation in arguing for discrimination against loving, married couples,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “No amount of taxpayer money they rake in will mitigate this blemish on the King & Spalding name.”

Reports indicate that Clement’s hourly fees could top $1000, making his role in defending DOMA a pricy proposition. In fact, it has been reported that Clement received a $5 million signing bonus at the firm, showing just how expensive this kind of representation is. Given that there are as many as nine lawsuits in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA, the bill to taxpayers could reach the tens of millions of dollars.

“Now we know why Speaker Boehner signed on to the right-wing plan this morning to strip money from the Justice Department to defend DOMA. The price tag for this elite representation is going to be staggering and he’s got to try and find the money somewhere,” said Solmonese. “This move is a jobs plan solely for high-priced lawyers bent on defending discrimination.”

King & Spalding had most recently scored a 95 percent on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index – a measure of a company’s workplace policies and practices as they relate to their LGBT employees. On the firm’s own website they even promote their LGBT diversity initiatives: www.kslaw.com/About-Us/Diversity/LGBT. Last month, HRC sent a letter to the nation’s largest law firms urging them not to take up DOMA’s defense (http://bit.ly/fConJn). Noting that the legal sector has the largest number of top-scoring companies in HRC’s corporate ratings, Solmonese wrote: “It is critical that your organization not undermine that laudable record by representing the House in its defense of this discriminatory and unconstitutional law, which denies loving gay and lesbian couples the fair and equal treatment that they deserve from their federal government.”

“In taking up DOMA’s defense, the firm is aiding and abetting an effort to score cheap political points on the backs of same-sex couples,” said Solmonese. “King & Spalding was not required to take up this defense and should be ashamed of associating themselves with an effort to deny rights to their fellow citizens.”

Many unanswered questions remain with the news of King & Spalding’s involvement, including:

· What will the price tag be for this defense and will the House pay the full rate of the firm’s services? If the House pays a discounted rate, how does King & Spalding explain to its clients and LGBT employees that it is subsidizing the defense of this a discriminatory law?

· Will House leaders or the firm disclose the terms of the contract?

· The firm is registered to lobby on Capitol Hill and has spent millions on lobbying efforts. Could the firm be taking this case as a way to garner favor with House leaders for their clients and what kind of ethical conflicts does this raise?

· Does the firm have internal guidelines that prevent it from taking cases that defend the second-class status of some citizens? Were the guidelines followed?

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.

# # #

Columbus Dispatch: Arena District growing less reliant on sports teams

The story is here

Clippers up to bat, but neighborhood scoring own runs

Saturday, April 16, 2011 03:06 AM

By Marla Matzer Rose and Tracy Turner

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Columbus Clippers baseball is back, something that will be welcomed today by fans of the game and the Arena District businesses that cater to them.

Bars and restaurants will be glad to get a new influx of customers following a Blue Jackets hockey season that came to a disappointing end a week ago when the team failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But baseball isn't the only boost the maturing district is getting. Office buildings are filling up and new ones are on the way, while housing options also are on the rise.

"It's been a huge boost to the area. It can't be considered anything else but a benefit," Don Antrim said as he walked to his office about lunchtime. "I'm in the Arena District all the time, if not at work, then at its restaurants.

"I think it's great for Columbus and a strong draw to bring people down here."

Arena District developer Nationwide Realty Investors recently announced plans to build a headquarters for Columbia Gas to open in 2014, bringing 650 more workers to Nationwide Boulevard and Neil Avenue.

The district also will gain a few hundred more residents this year, thanks to Nationwide's nearly completed Flats on Vine apartment complex. Nationwide's 250-unit Arena Crossing apartments, built several years ago, have remained fully leased, said Brian Ellis, president of Nationwide Realty Investors.

"We probably have more interest in office space in the Arena District now as we ever have," Ellis said. "More than anything else, office workers drive activity in the Arena District. The bulk of people (patronizing businesses) come from the more than 5,000 office workers we have in the Arena District now."

With the number of office workers and full-time residents on the rise, the Arena District isn't as dependent on sporting and other events as before. But even so, there's no doubt they remain very important.

With hockey gone, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant has noticed a drop in business, said Emily Schwamburger, assistant general manager.

But bar and restaurant operators are encouraged because more people who get to know the district through an event are returning on nights when nothing big is scheduled.

"Once people get down here, they see what's out here, and we get them to come back," Schwamburger said. "We're picking up more business."

Since the opening in 2009 of Huntington Park, which seats 10,000, the added traffic from baseball fans and those who attend the park's concert series has been "huge," said Adam Lantis, general manager of Boston's The Gourmet Pizza restaurant.

Business at Boston's, one of the closer restaurants to the park, has doubled as a result, with new and repeat customers. It also helps if the Clippers, now the Cleveland Indians' triple-A affiliate, are winning.

"The better (the Clippers) do, the more people come out," Lantis said.

Being in the Arena District alone doesn't guarantee success. This week, Arena District staple O'Shaughnessy's Public House was closed by the state because of tax problems.

Ellis said Nationwide expects a new tenant in the space by the end of summer. Nationwide's partner in the Arena District, owning a 20percent stake, is Capitol Square, the real-estate arm of The Dispatch Printing Company, publisher of The Dispatch.

Another important market for Arena District venues is the meeting and convention business. That should increase with the completion of the new convention-center hotel, Columbus Hilton Downtown, at Nationwide Boulevard and High Street next year.

The Arena District is a big selling point for groups looking to meet in Columbus, said Brian Ross, vice president of sales for Experience Columbus, the city's convention and visitors bureau.

"The Arena District is within walking distance for many of the groups staying and meeting here, and it's an energetic, diverse place," Ross said. "The added residential population is important, too. When groups come in to visit, they want to see the locals supporting the businesses. They may wonder what's going on if a place seems dead during the week."

Caitlin Davis said she spends weekends in the district even when there are no hockey or baseball games or other special events.

The draw: restaurants and bars that are "good places to hang out for happy hour with your girlfriends," the London resident and Downtown worker said as she sat on a bench near the jumbo TV screen on Nationwide Boulevard.

"I'm down here all the time," she said.

mrose@dispatch.com

tturner@dispatch.com

HRC: Delaware House Passes Landmark Civil Unions Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 14, 2011
CONTACT: Michael Cole-Schwartz | michael.cole-schwartz@hrc.org
CONTACT: John Rago | info@equalitydeleware.org

Delaware House Passes Landmark Civil Unions Bill

Bill Providing Critical Family Protections Moves to Governor Who Has Pledged to Sign

WASHINGTON – Today, The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, and Equality Delaware, Delaware’s statewide coalition of LGBT advocates, congratulates the Delaware House for passing civil unions by an 26 to 15 vote. The bill now goes to Governor Markell for his signature.

“Today, we celebrate a victory for all Delaware families who will have the tools to protect themselves in good times and in bad," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "We look forward to Governor Markell signing this bill into law and thank Senator Sokola and Representative George for their leadership on this bill, and Equality Delaware for their tireless dedication."

“We are tremendously proud that the Delaware House as passed civil union legislation,” said Equality Delaware President Lisa Goodman. “The fact that the Delaware General Assembly passed civil union legislation on the first attempt is a great testament to how far public opinion has come on equality issues. This is a great day for equality in Delaware.”

SB 30 will allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions giving them all of the rights, benefits, and obligations of marriage under state law, but would not allow same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses. Religious institutions may choose not to solemnize civil unions.

Delaware will be the 8th state to offer civil unions or comprehensive domestic partnerships. After the bill is signed into law, it will take effect on Jan. 1, 2012. Currently, five states have laws providing an expansive form of state-level relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples, without offering marriage. California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington provide same-sex couples with access to almost of all the state level benefits and responsibilities of marriage, through either civil unions or domestic partnerships. Earlier this year, the governors of Hawaii and Illinois signed into law civil unions bills. Couples in Illinois can begin applying for civil union licenses on June 1, 2011 and in Hawaii couples can begin applying on Jan. 1, 2012.

Same-sex couples do not receive federal rights and benefits in any state. For an electronic map showing where marriage equality stands in the states, please visit: www.HRC.org/State_Laws.

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.

Equality Delaware is a coalition of Delaware advocates working to ensure and promote dignity, safety, and equality for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Delawareans.

# # #