Monday, November 21, 2011
Central Ohio home sales were up again in central Ohio
Home sales in central Ohio home
have exceeded 2010 for the last four months according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. The
1,543 homes sold in October marks an 8.6 percent increase over the 1,421 homes sold in October
of 2010. Home sales in September were up 16.6 percent compared to the year before.
Year-to-date, home sales
(January through October 2011) are only 2.1 percent behind 2010 and closing the gap.
Homes put in contract last month
(1,379) were up 46 percent from a year ago making October the sixth straight month of increased
contracts.
“The number of homes put into
contract have been up for the last several months,” said Rick Benjamin, 2011 President of the Columbus
Board of REALTORS®. “However, contract failures – cancellations caused largely by declined
mortgage applications or failures in loan underwriting from appraised values coming in below the negotiated
price continue to be a problem for central Ohio buyers.”
Total housing inventory at the
end of October fell 23.3 percent to 13,827 existing homes available for sale, which represents an
8.1-month supply at the current sales pace, up from an 8.7-month supply in September.
The average sale price for
single family homes and condominiums year to date is $157,327, down 2.4 percent from homes sold January
through October 2010.
“Affordability conditions this
year have been the most favorable on record since 1970,” said Benjamin. “As mortgage interest rates
continue to remain low, more first time home buyers, investors and move up buyers are being drawn into the
housing market.”
Click
here to view the October sortable housing market report by area.
Click here to view the entire central Ohio Local Market Update.
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 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.
To view commercial properties for sale or lease in central Ohio, visit COCIE.org.
To view residential properties for sale, visit www.terrypenrod.com.
The Columbus Dispatch story is here
Saturday, November 19, 2011
AP: Gay soldier shares reaction to GOP debate boos
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press 11/18/2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Army Capt. Stephen Hill says he wasn't trying to score political points when he asked the Republican presidential candidates if they would reinstate the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.
He wasn't worried that his debate question, posed via a YouTube video recorded in Iraq, would generate boos or reveal his sexual orientation to millions of people, including his superiors and fellow troops.
All Hill was thinking about in September was his husband of four-and-a-half months, Joshua Snyder, in Columbus, Ohio.
Now that "don't ask, don't tell" has been lifted, he needed to know if the military would take the next step and recognize his marriage, or if a new president would try to force soldiers like him back into the closet.
"I was looking forward to the future and hoping everybody would realize we are soldiers first, always," said Hill, 41, an Army reservist who returned last week from his yearlong deployment. "I was hoping 'don't ask, don't tell' would be a distant memory for everybody."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Hill reflected publicly for the first time on his reasons for submitting the pre-recorded question for the Sept. 22 debate, as well as his reaction to the heckles heard around the world; the answer that former Sen. Rick Santorum gave to thunderous applause; and the outrage expressed on his behalf by, among others, his commander in chief.
With Snyder on the telephone, Hill watched the debate live from Iraq at 4 a.m. And this is what he asked: "In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was because I'm a gay soldier and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?"
Santorum replied that he would reinstitute the ban on open service by gay troops because "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military."
"What we are doing is playing social experimentation with our military right now. That's tragic," he continued. "Leave it alone. Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual."
Hill says the fact that he just outed himself on national television had barely registered when he absorbed the boos and Santorum's answer followed by applause.
"When the actual booing occurred, my gut dropped out, because my first inclination was, did I just do something wrong?" he said. "The answer, obviously, wasn't very supportive of gay people, and there was a lot of fear of how the Army would take the question."
He did not have to wait long to find out. At breakfast later that morning, the segment was playing on the chow hall television. Hill immediately tracked down his commander, who told him she had no problem with what he'd done but that she would need to run it up the chain of command. She later relayed the response.
"She said, 'What the military's most concerned with is that you are OK, because it's a lot of pressure on you and we want to make sure if there is anything we can do to help,'" he recalled.
President Barack Obama, about a week later, chided the Republican contenders for staying silent when several people booed an American soldier. Santorum said he had not heard the booing but condemned the audience members who did it.
What Hill remembers most was that a presidential candidate defined his marriage and military service in terms of sex. He holds that up against the times he hid Snyder's photograph because Army buddies were coming over to play video games, introduced his husband as his roommate or brother, and the legal vows they exchanged at the grave of Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, who was discharged in 1975 after becoming the first gay service member to challenge the U.S. military's ban on gay troops.
Snyder and Hill last month joined other same-sex military couples in suing the government for the same benefits as straight military couples, which the Pentagon denies them on grounds that federal law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
"This is not about sex," Hill said. "A special privilege is not hiding pictures in my house or God forbid, taking mortar fire again and not knowing if Josh will be recognized. I'm fighting every day to protect everyone's rights as human beings, and it seems counterintuitive for me to be fighting for those rights and not have them."
Friday, November 18, 2011
HRC Applauds Introduction of Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2011
Human Rights Campaign Applauds Introduction
of Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act
Legislation Would Ensure Federal Employees
Receive Equal Pay for Equal Work
"This bill embodies the simple principle that equal work deserves equal pay,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Thousands of LGBT people serve our country every day as federal civil servants, yet their families cannot receive the same important benefits that their straight coworkers’ do. This is not simply a matter of fairness; it is also a way to ensure that the federal government recruits and retains the best and the brightest. Last Congress, both House and Senate committees recognized those facts and reported out this legislation. It’s time for Congress to finish the job.”
Currently, fifty-nine percent of Fortune 500 companies provide domestic partner benefits to their employees. Many of America's leading companies, including defense giant Raytheon, IBM, Microsoft, Shell Oil, Walt Disney, Owens Corning, Citigroup, Whirlpool, Time Warner, and United and American Airlines offer these benefits. In addition, twenty-four states, the District of Columbia, and more than 100 local governments offer their public employees these benefits.
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.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Poliglot: California Supreme Court Says Prop 8 Proponents Can Bring Appeal
The story is here
The California Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, has told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the proponents of Proposition 8 do have standing to bring a post-election appeal. The Ninth Circuit will now take the appeal, Perry v. Brown, back under advisement and decide how it wishes to proceed on the question of whether the proponents have standing under federal law.
The court writes:
[W]e respond to the question posed by the Ninth Circuit in the affirmative. In a postelection challenge to a voter-approved initiative measure, the official proponents of the initiative are authorized under California law to appear and assert the state‘s interest in the initiative‘s validity and to appeal a judgment invalidating the measure when the public officials who ordinarily defend the measure or appeal such a judgment decline to do so.
The decision came about resulting from a request by the Ninth Circuit in the ongoing challenge to Proposition 8 brought by the American Foundation for Equal Rights. The case, in which the trial court judge struck down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional in August 2010, is on appeal before the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit appeals court sought to have the California Supreme Court assist it with the case by answering these questions about state law through the process of asking a certified question.
As the California Supreme Court found the proponents to have a "particularized interest" and "the authority to assert the State's interest," the Ninth Circuit could then now the proponents to have standing -- although the court need not do so. At that point, the appeal of the Perry trial court decision -- the "merits" decision from the trial court that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional -- could go forward.
Read the decision:S189476.PDF
Developing ...
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Outsports: Former MLS Player With The Columbus Crew Comes Out
Exclusive Outsports interview: Click here for our exclusive interview with David Testo. He talks about staying closeted, why he came out when he did, and his first gay relationship with a ‘Road Rules’ star.
David Testo, former MLS player with the Columbus Crew, has told the CBC that he is gay. He is the first former MLS player to do so. And his former Canadian team, the Montreal Impact, say they knew he was gay when they signed him. Part of Testo’s interview, translated from a French report:
"I’m gay, I’m gay. I did not choose. It’s just part of who I am. And it has nothing to do with the talent of a soccer player. You can be both an excellent soccer player and being gay. …
I really regret not having said publicly earlier. I fought with it all my life, my whole career. Living the life of a professional athlete and being gay is incredibly difficult. It is like wearing a secret in his bags but never yourself. It saps all your energy to you, in addition to having to perform, having to play."Testo played college soccer at the University of South Carolina and University of North Carolina. He went undrafted by Major League Soccer in 2003, which was a surprise to many. He eventually played in the MLS for the Columbus Crew. He’s played the last four years for the Montreal Impact, which joins MLS next year. Testo won the team’s MVP award in 2009.
Testo is the first former MLS player, and the first American pro soccer player, to come out of the closet. He also has the potential to finally break the lack of out active pro athletes in the big five leagues. While he isn’t with an MLS team right now, he is not retired. What’s interesting is that his team as of a month ago, the Montreal Impact, are joining MLS next season, but they dropped Testo in October after four years. Disappointing timing.
Watch an interview with Testo, who describes how difficult it has been living in the closet:
"It’s made me realize that life is so much greater than just soccer and winning and losing. It’s about the relationships you build with the people around you. In the end, when you’re laying down on your death bed, it’s not about how much money you’ve made, how many wins you have, any of that. You want to know those connections you had to people and the difference you made in people’s lives.
And I actually thank being gay for that. Because, hypothetically speaking, I don’t know who I would be if I wasn’t, but I know this has pushed me to grow in such a way I never would have dreamed."Find out more about Testo at his Wikipedia page.
Hat tip to Kevin Jesus.
Equality Ohio to Deliver 3,000 Constituent Postcards to Legislature Postcards to Demand Reform of Ohio’s Anti-Bullying Law
Equality
Ohio to Deliver 3,000 Constituent Postcards to Legislature
Postcards
to Demand Reform of Ohio’s Anti-Bullying Law
November 15, 2011
Columbus, Ohio -- On Tuesday, November 15, 2011, at 1:30 p.m., Equality Ohio is delivering over 3,000 constituent postcards to the Ohio General Assembly demanding comprehensive reform of Ohio’s anti-bullying law. The postcards were signed by Ohioans across the state this summer.
Current Ohio anti-bullying law does not include sexual orientation and gender identity; it lacks protections against cyber-bullying; and, it does not require the training of school staff on responding to bullying. Ohio House Bill 208 (HB 208), currently in the House Education Committee, and House Bill 116 (HB 116), currently in the Senate Education Committee, would amend Ohio’s anti-bullying law to provide a clear prohibition of all bullying including bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, create a definition of bullying that includes cyber-bullying, and require school districts adequately train educators on anti-bullying policies. Equality Ohio and thousands of Ohioans are urging the House and Senate Education Committees to make HB 208 and HB 116 a priority.
Attention has been focused recently on bullying because of the videotaped beating of a 15-year-old teenager in his high school class room for being gay. The attack occurred at Unioto High School in Ross County, Ohio, and was caught on camera as fellow class members watched one teen wait for the victim to enter the room, push him to the ground and continually punch him in the face. EO is also delivering 80,000 petitions to the Union-Scioto Local School District and holding a town hall on Wednesday, November 16th.
Equality Ohio Executive Director, Ed Mullen, explains the postcards and petitions are the voices of Ohioans telling their legislators that the time is now to keep our children safe in school. Mullen says: “Current law is ineffective and has not stopped rampant bullying and harassment in Ohio schools. These postcards and petitions are a message to our elected officials demanding comprehensive reform to Ohio’s anti-bullying law.”
Equality Ohio advocates and educates to achieve fair treatment and equal opportunity for all Ohioans regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. For more information visit www.equalityohio.org or give us a call at (614) 224-0400.
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