Real Estate Information

The Cincinnati Museum Center was recently recognized for its outstanding service to our community.  It was named one of 10 recipients of the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service.  We should be exceedingly proud, as that is the nation's highest honor for museums and libraries.  Along with the award, they will receive $10,000.  They recognize the institutions that win for outstanding social, educational, environmental or economic contributions to their community.

Additionally, Forbes Traveler Magazine recently ranked the museum as the 17th most visited museum in the nation, with 1.3 million people visiting each year.

Walnut Hills High School is a Cincinnati City Public Schools college-preparatory high school serving over 2,000 students.  The school was recently named to the U.S. News and World Reports list of the best 100 high schools, ranked at #65.  These top schools received the coveted Gold Medal Award. This honor is particularly exciting for the school, since many of the other schools in the top 100 were private institutions.

Walnut Hills High School serves grades 7-12.  Its admission is based upon scores on a standardized test.  All those admitted must pass both the math and reading portions of the test. The school has a "classical format," requiring all students entering in seventh or eighth grades to take three years of Latin.  According to their curriculum guide, they offer more advanced placement courses than any other school in the country.

Walnut Hills High School's motto, "Sarsum ad Surrum" which is Latin for "Rise to the Highest," is appropriate for the concept and quality of the school.

You may be asking about the methodology used by U.S. News and World Report. Their research starts with the basic premise that a great high school must serve all its students well and be able to produce measurable academic outcomes.  They analyzed high schools throughout the nation, primarily using data from Ohio state proficiency standards for the 2007-08 school year.  They were looking for schools where students were performing better than statistical expectations, factoring in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

The final step in the process attempts to evaluate college-readiness performance, using Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate test data.  Based upon the number of students who took the tests and the percentage that had passing scores, the school was then eligible for selection into the top tier of schools.

Other local schools that made this listing with its poverty-adjusted performance index are: Bronze Awards to Clark Montessori High School, Fairfield High School, Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School and St. Bernard-Elmwood Place High School and Honorable Mention to Indian Hill High School and Wyoming High School.

Business Week has evaluated the globe's premier design schools. They selected the University of Cincinnati's School of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning's master's degree program as one of the top 30 leading international programs.

They believe that the curriculum nurtures creative techniques in business and that the business leaders being trained will serve as global game changers.  UC's Master's program requires that all students take mandatory classes in strategy and research methods in addition to electives in science, engineering, business and technology.

The program operates the Live Well Collaborative that researches and conducts partnership projects with corporations, focusing on the needs of America's aging population.   Business Week recognized the School's future innovators as well as design thinkers and leaders.

Men's Health Magazine has chosen Cincinnati as one of the top cities in the country when it comes to being charitable.  Their study looked for cities who were the most philanthropic. 

They factored in charitable donations that were given online through an organization called Convio, software used by nonprofits.  Then they looked at donations given to Goodwill in December and the amount collected by the Salvation Army's Red Kettle Campaign.  Finally they calculated the number of toys donated to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.

Men's Health Magazine then ranked 100 major U. S. cities on their charitable spirit during the holiday season for the December 2009 issue.  Being fourth is no small feat! Madison, WI, Richmond, VA, and Seattle WA came in ahead of us, with Austin, TX immediately behind.

We should be proud of this ranking and work to improve it in this economic crunch.  My vote goes to the Neediest Kids of All for a local charity in need this year and the Heifer Project for an International charity.

This year's theme at Krohn Conservatory is Lucia's Garden, inspired by Swedish holiday traditions and celebrations. Specific fun activities will be another train display, hundreds of poinsettias and a tree decorated with hundreds of handmade ornaments collected from park volunteers all over the area.

December 11-January 3 - Outdoor Live Nativity Display

December 15-16th - Know Theatre will present The Brother's Grimm stories with Jacob and Wilhelm and their sister Charlotte. 5 PM Do you remember their famous tales?

Community Gardeners Alert!  The Civic Garden Center has been informed that it is one of the agencies to receive cutbacks from the City of Cincinnati budget for 2010.  The funding supports, in part, 2 full-time staff members who implement the Neighborhood Gardens and the Youth Garden Programs.  Overall, $40,000 will be lost by the organization.

The Civic Garden Center has been the leader in the field of community-based Gardening and Urban Agriculture.  For 28 years they have sponsored self-sufficient community-based projects. 

Currently, there are 44 active garden projects used by 650 gardeners in the Neighborhood Gardens Program.  That outreach extends to over 2000 community members and 17 neighborhoods...quite a record.  Even more importantly, the residents who do the work donate over 1500 pounds of food to pantries, senior centers or their families, teaching them to demonstrate sharing and caring.

The Youth Education Gardens work with six children's gardens, in under-served areas with large populations of needy children.   Those areas are Race Street, Pendleton, Over the Rhine, East End, Northside and Walnut Hills.  There are also six school programs.  While this teaches the children much about food and where it comes from, I think that its main benefit may be in teaching them to work hard for a goal.  Plus, they are being nurtured by loving adults.

What do these gardens do for our community?  First of all, they clean up otherwise abandoned lots and allow neighborhoods to take pride in that work.  The city is saved the cost of maintaining those empty lots and community safety improves when there are healthy neighborhood activities.  It has also been proven that property values improve when homes are close to these gardens.

Intrinsic to the concept is the embracing of human differences and diversity while promoting equality.  The neighborhood builds strong lasting values and relationships.  And, our environments are improved at the same time.

What can you do?  Again, contact your City Council men and women and ask them to find cuts elsewhere.  These gardens create healthy places for adults and children to work together, grow food and create beauty.  As the Civic Garden Center says, "Neighborhood Gardens do not only grow vegetables and flowers, they grow community!"

Happy Holidays with the Pops - December 11 - 13                        

The Cincinnati Pops will be presenting four shows full of uplifting song for the holidays at the decked-out Music Hall. Featured will be the African Children's Choir, the May Festival Youth Chorus and School for the Creative and Performing Arts Chorale and Children's Choir. The well-known soloist N'Kenge will also perform.

The African Children's Choir was first formed after an idea emerged from a UN relief worker's service. Its 21 members are from Uganda and range in age from seven to twelve. They are specially trained in music, tour the US for 3-4 months visiting 200+ venues, and are then guaranteed an education through high school in return.

Since the beginning of the Children's Choir, more than a dozen schools and children's homes have been established using the funds collected from their concerts. Currently more than 7000 children are being served in countries throughout Africa.

Shows will be on Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Saturday and Sunday at 3 PM. A special family show (shorter) will be held on Saturday, preceded by a Party of Note that starts in the Music Hall Ballroom at noon.

This market analysis for the area of Forest Hills School district includes the areas of Anderson Township and Newtown.  The entire area has been used to give you an adequate look at the areas that attract buyers to the Forest Hills Schools.  So what were the influences on the area in November and how did it fare compared to last year?

The historic extension of the Homebuyers Tax Stimulus and the expansion to include homeowners who have owned their properties for at least five years has changed the outlook for real estate.  Economists had predicted that the improvement in home sales might decrease as soon as the rush to get in on the $8000 stimulus expired.  Will it now?

As we chart new territory, it will be fascinating to see how sales respond when we can look at December's numbers.  Since the holiday season is typically a slow time in the real estate year, will buyers get a head start on collecting the $8000 tax credit for first time buyers or $6500 for those selling and buying? 

Good numbers were attributed to abundant inventory of homes, low interest rates and the push to close prior to the original Homebuyer Tax Stimulus deadline.

Currently the area has 330 active listings on the market, compared to last month's 359 homes.  There are 58 pending sales.  The average home sold in 115 days. If you use the last year's number of sales and compare it to the number of active listings, there are approximately  8 months of inventory on the market. The National Association of Realtors indicates that six months of inventory is a balanced market.

This market analysis for the area of Sycamore Schools includes the areas of Montgomery, Blue Ash, Symmes Township and sycamore Township.  The entire area has been used to give you an adequate look at the areas that attract buyers to the Sycamore School district.  So what were the influences on the area in November and how did it fare compared to last year?

The historic extension of the Homebuyers Tax Stimulus and the expansion to include homeowners who have owned their properties for at least five years has changed the outlook for real estate.  Economists had predicted that the improvement in home sales might decrease as soon as the rush to get in on the $8000 stimulus expired.

As we chart new territory, it will be fascinating to see how sales respond when we can look at December's numbers.  Since the holiday season is typically a slow time in the real estate year, will buyers get a head start on collecting the $8000 tax credit for first time buyers or $6500 for those selling and buying. 

Good numbers were attributed to abundant inventory of homes, low interest rates and the push to close prior to the original Homebuyer Tax Stimulus deadline.

Currently the area has 242 active listings on the market, down from last month's number of 266.  There are 45 pending sales.  The average home sold in 125 days. If you use the last year's number of sales and compare it to the number of active listings, there are approximately  6.8 months of inventory on the market.  Looking only at the number of pending sales to active listings, a more robust market would be anticipated. The National Association of Realtors indicates that six months of inventory is a balanced market.