Grand Opening of Planet Donuts Sweetens Up Westtown

I approached it with glee today, total glee! We have a new retail establishment in my neighborhood and to sweeten the pot, it's a donut/ice cream shop! Planet Donut and Ice Cream, at 119th and Lorain, opened for business on Thursday. The Grand Opening weekend is featuring a car show, live music and a much appreciated sun-filled sky.

The owners, Mike and Angie, decided on this location because, according to Angie, "they wanted to bring some life back to the neighborhood." Amen to that! Mike is from the neighborhood, Angie grew up in Parma. They are personable people and I say welcome to the neighborhood!
At one point this building was a used car lot; Angie and Mike said it was a temporary service more recently. The East side of the building is a spacious dining area with cable TV and wi-fi service. I can see myself frequenting it on my way to or from work.

Today I purchased some ice cream (which I sampled already: raspberry!). It's Hershey's ice cream, and they offer a nice selection.

The bakery was a surprise. Owner Mike says he has a bakery off premises. I brought home two different types of jelly roll: one chocolate and one 'regular' sprinkled with crushed pistachios. There were many other items to try but let's face it, I have to fit into my clothes. So the bottom line is, it's a bakery too! They offer shakes, banana splits (!!), cappuccino, cakes, bagels, etc.

We chatted about the fact that the Variety Theatre will eventually be reopened and that will also bring life (and customers for them) to the neighborhood. This is a great start.

I'm posting this early enough so that you still have time to visit this afternoon, check out the antique cars at the car show, take in a little music, and meet Owners Mike and Angie on Grand Opening Weekend. Peace Out - 3C

Do you read the newspaper on the porch or on line? Do you read it at all?

The future of newspapers in print form is much discussed, but when someone as insightful as Joel Achenbach tackles the issue I take note. Have to love the title: I Really Need You To Read This.

I still read the paper but I do it on line. I admit, I do not read the PD regularly; many of my fellow bloggers remind me weekly why I don't by some of their, uh, colorful nicknames for it. But I do read the WS Journal and the Washington Post is my home page. What do you read? Do you agree with Joel?

He asks at the end of the article to comment on his blog. You can, that would be great....the POST also allows comments on articles...I find myself doing that often as well....

What's wrong with the PD? How can they sit back and look at the POST and the WSJ, and just about any other newspaper from an area with a population larger than 100k and their on-line presence is fabulous...compared to the PD, especially.

There are some great Plain Dealer reporters -- I'd read them more regularly if it was on line, because I'm just not liking the print version....what do you think? Peace Out - 3C

Cleveland Real Estate News: Yearly Comparisons For Homes Sold, Lakewood and Rocky River

I have been crazy busy this week, but promised more stats and thought this might be useful. I picked two communities with sold housing stocks and thriving business communities: Lakewood and Rocky River. These are going to be statistics of homes sold for each year 2004-2007 (again, home stats cover homes listed with area brokerages). These combine single family homes, town homes, condos; these stats cover January through August 17th of each year.

Rocky River:

2007 188 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $244,002

2006 194 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $241,095

2005 189 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $231,815

2004 205 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price $245,043

Lakewood:

2007 84 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $281,433

2006 87 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $255,672

2005 344 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $185,018

2004 327 Homes Sold
Average Sale Price was $182,533

In both communities the sale prices are higher but the numbers of homes sold are lower. Lakewood has quite a jump in average sale prices. I'll be very curious to see what the stats look like for the next six months; will the volatility in the lending market affect these communities? What about foreclosure rates? I guess we can stay tuned.

Cleveland Real Estate News: Getting A Mortgage Safely

You've all heard the news (since it's all over the media) about Countrywide, one of the Country's largest providers of mortgages. They are scrambling to avoid bankruptcy. I have to tell you, it is still possible to get a safe mortgage loan and that is the only good news in this mess. Brian Brady is one of the top thinkers, in my opinion, in the mortgage industry. I'll let him tell you about this. Here are solid points of advice from America's Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker. I am dead serious, this is great advice. He's writing it for Realtors® but it can tell you what to look for as you search for your loan. Peace Out - 3C

Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Real Estate News: Brecksville and Independence Half Year Sale Statistics

Independence and Brecksville are adjacent communities so it seemed appropriate to do a comparison of home sales since January of this year; six months of stats for homes sold by area brokerages:

Brecksville:
81 single family homes sold
23 condos sold

The homes sold ranged in sale prices from $78,000 for a bank owned home to $1,375,000.00 for a new construction luxury home. The averages look like this:

• 2,906 square feet
• 4 BRs, 2 Baths and 2 car garage
• Average sale price was $310,649
• The average amount of days on the market for these homes was 71
• Average cost per square feet was $110

***There are 77 single family homes on the market as of today, in Brecksville, and 34 condominiums.

Independence:

20 single family homes sold

They ranged in price from an estate sale at $142,507 to $650,000. The averages:

• 2,399 square feet of living space
• 3 BRs, 2 Baths and a two car garage
• The average sale price was $285,047
• The average number of days these homes were on the market was 94
• The average cost per square foot was $119

There are 48 single family homes listed for sale currently, with area brokerages. (There are no condo stats for Independence)

Independence had a smaller inventory of homes for sale than Brecksville, and traditionally Independence is a popular designation neighborhood for home sales (lower taxes). These first six months did see Brecksville with a higher average sale price; the price per square foot was higher in Independence, but close. Peace Out- 3C

Don't Buy Anything If You Don't Have Money -- What a Concept!

Big hats off to fellow Active Rainer Cheryl Johnson for digging up this SNL video.....I remember it, I laughed, poignantly. You really need to watch this for the perfect financial philosophy! Thanks, Cheryl. Peace Out-3C

Cleveland Real Estate:Two Good Reads From Other Bloggers

I read two posts this weekend that I definitely want to pass on to everyone....the posters are not in NE Ohio but what they have to say applies to every state and all of us. Both of these bloggers are real estate professionals whom I respect tremendously and whose work I follow.

First, George Souto is a mortgage lender from Connecticut He wrote a post on zero down mortgages and what is fact and what is fiction about them in our current market. I definitely suggest you read this.

Next, Linda Davis (coincidentally, also from Connecticut!) has a story about a listing she had that just went under contract. She understands about pricing listings; she understands a lot because she is a broker who has been in business for about 30 years. So check out her post to get some great insight into what is important when you want to sell your home. Peace Out - 3C