Investing In Cleveland or as This Guy Puts it: In Your Own BackYard

I'm not an investment broker and I don't even play one on television. I'm in real estate! But this site, The Motley Fool, caught my eye. This post focuses on investing in NE Ohio and it is a good read! It talks about neighborhoods (Kamms, for example), and recommends Eaton Corp for it's leanness and long term stable growth potential. They cover a good cross section of info. My hats off to them for readability. Here is a quote from it (relating to investing in one of our signature areas, heavy metal)

"Metalworking mills may not be sexy, but they do get a lot of investor respect -- and with the massive and booming infrastructure markets in China and India, there's no shortage of buyers for their products. Cleveland is riding a wave of global growth right now, and it seems to be making the most of it. So I just have to break into song for a moment:
All the little chicks with the crimson lips go "Cleveland rocks! Cleveland rocks!"'

Who says reading about investing can't be fun? Check it out. And he/they are looking for input so comment away! Peace Out - 3C

Cuyahoga County Real Estate Sale For June 2007 - Includes Ohio City and Tremont

I have no idea how we have managed to already find ourselves at the end of June, but so be it. Sales in zip code 44113 are still intriguing; condos and town homes are continuing to be the top picks in this zip code. Here is what happened in June:

16 Properties had 'activity.' 3 of them are contingent, meaning they went under contract and have not closed yet. Of these three, all are attached dwellings (condos or town homes). The asking price for these three homes was $161,104, $184,900 & $204,750. (We won't know the sale prices until they close).

13 Properties Sold. 3 of them were single family homes. 10 of them were Condos/Town Homes. The Average Ask Price was $184,115 and the Average Sale Price was $179,408. The average price per square foot was $99. Again, since only three of these properties were single family homes, the average sale was for a 2 BR, 2BA unit with 2,272 square feet. And a two car garage.

There are a total of 174 homes on the market in zip code 44113. The breakdown is 92 single family homes and 82 condos. Some of the other stats interest me as well.

Of the 13 homes sold, none were sold for more $225k so I used that as a benchmark to do some sleuthing. There are currently 97 homes on for sale here with an asking price higher than $225k. I talk to myself (well I'm the only one here) and ask if maybe the price points are a tad high for the pocketbooks? Look at the average stats on these 97 homes listed for more than 225k:

Days on The Market: The 13 homes sold still averaged a bit more than three months. That's it. These homes have an average of 264 days on the market. And they are not sold yet. Most of these are gorgeous new construction homes so that explains a bit about this next stat, but still: there are some that have been on the market for more than 500 days.

The average cost per square foot on the sold homes was $99 yes? Well these homes average $182 a square foot. And the average square footage is 1,932, when the homes that sold for less money averaged over 2,000 square feet of space per home. My new mantra is lower price points please. Peace Out - 3C