Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Home Values

I moved here about six and a half years ago. I wanted to be on this side of Columbus for a number a reasons. I ended up choosing Pickerington because it was a great community and had very strong schools. I am sure there are a great number of people that did just what I did. If the schools deteriorate then people will choose not to live here and people like myself may choose to move on. Scenarios like this will defnitely effect home values.

Total Value


I think my decision whether or not to buy here is based on multiple factors. If I chose based on housing alone then I would say this is a buyers market and I could look for a pretty nice house that has been on the market for a year or so and make a low bid. I also know there are a bunch of foreclosed houses that are real nice that I could research to find the lender holding the bag and make an offer.

Another factor is the current state of our elected bodies and their inability or unwillingness to deal with current problems and look ahead. They seem more to be worried about their own political futures than our futures. So given the fact than I have no confidence in any governing bodies in the county I will have to take that into consideration. If I had confidence in them to the extent that I felt they truly understood the problems coming I may choose to locate here and be part of the solution in some form. I honestly don?’t believe any of them can see the big picture and how intertwined each body is with the others. Maybe I have had the luxury of being away for a while and given the better state of affairs where I was at I witnessed governing bodies working in unison towards a common future with common goals. They suffered as we are now a decade ago but finally were able to elect the right people to set things on a better course. I just don?’t see that happening here.

The biggest factor is what I want in a community is - It?’s all about me! Isn?’t that the truth? My kids are in the middle to junior high range in school. At most, I have 6-7 years before they move on that I need to assure them the highest quality of life I can during that time. I want them to have access to recreation facilities with a pool, biking trails, parks and rec events, etc. Our community has started down this path but can they continue? Will we be able to ride bikes from Sycamore Park to Pickerington Ponds in the next 6-7 years? Will my kids ever get to go to a community pool? Will they ever get to go to a teen center?

Will the threat of split sessions always be in front of them? Will we always have to scrutinize, prioritize and select only essential extracurricular activities that we can afford? Will we have to continue to have to deal with the racial issues in the schools? Will I have to choose between North and Central and what do I base that decision on?

Should my decision to live in the city or township relate to services provided by each? What does the township actually provide? Snow plowing? They are Home Rule but they won?’t exercise any of the powers granted.

Will my decision to even live in Fairfield County be based on the ridiculous actions of the county Republican Party? They seem to dictate too much of what happens here. Now that influence has spread into this city and township by the apparent cronyism of county Republicans and local Republicans. Do I have to become an ?“R?” and pledge allegiance to Ken Blackwell just to live here?

I?’ll cease this insipid rambling now. I am prepared to make an investment on behalf of my family. An investment of the highest importance. An investment in where we live. An investment in our future. I need to cautiously invest in only something I can see a return on with that investment. I think that until more and more of our elected officials get on the same page ?– that is the same big picture page, I?’ll take my investment elsewhere. They need to stop these little ?‘economic cooperation?’ dark alley talks and these paper township threats and look at how they all together can serve the community better and help rather than hurt each other.

For lack of a better term, let them begin new talks out in the open about Quality of Life Cooperation.


By Maverick

Ohh for Pete's sake

Mav, do you really think your whining out here is going to solve anything? If what you're contributing amounts to postings in this website stating the obvious then feel free to buy a house in Dublin or UA. I'm sure they have everything you're looking for and eutopia is only 25 miles away. If I wasn't already invested in this community then I wouldn't buy here.

Everybody that whines isn't willing to do anything about it.

Realtor

I am going to disagree with Maverick on a couple of points but agree on another. As a former realtor I will tell you that the biggest issue facing any community in terms of property values is the ratio between the number of buyers versus the number of sellers. In my fifteen years as a realtor I never heard anyone ask about the political make up of the county or the city. I doubt you would find the average citizen living in this community that can tell you the names of their locally elected officials including the school board members.

During my fifteen years selling real estate I did hear the question quite often about the schools. That was normally a young family and one from a much less impressive school district. However you also must understand that a high percentage of those moving to Pickerington or anywhere else for that matter don?’t have school age children. They could not care less about the schools.

As a Realtor, I liked to make the easy money of selling to people relocating to the Central Ohio area. First the high test scores on the state tests were an easy sell. Then with all of the mid to lower range home builders in the City many of these new people came from higher priced markets and I was able to simply drive them around on their weekend visits and show them and register them at the model homes sites in Pickerington and set back and let the builders sell this relocating buyer a new home (many times they were sold spec homes) and I was able to split the 3% commission with my broker. VERY Easy money.

What the local elected officials should realize is that in two years many of these new residents to the area would call me and complain about the taxes. They also were not that impressed with the schools. I will tell you many of my former clients moved to Liberty Union, Bloom Carroll, and even Lancaster schools to escape the high costs of taxes.

What became increasing hard for me was the fact that over a month or so I had grown to make new friends from out of town only to find a couple years later I had to tell them the bad news that their new house was worth less than what they had paid for it. Those that didn?’t need to move immediately and in many cases stayed. Those that had a large down payment or ones that had bought an existing home earlier and had the means to move did move. I will tell you that most large sub-divisions in Pickerington that are still building the existing homes are worth less than what the builders are selling the new homes for.

About five or six years ago the federal government started a FHA program of ZERO down payment for a home. To compete the private mortgage companies came up with other financing packages that were basically zero down and then the interest rates dropped to an all time low and then combine that with these builder buy down loans. People were buying homes that they really should not have been allowed to buy by the mortgage companies. However what the heck George W Bush was guaranteeing the loans. Some even offered interest only loans.


By YEA NAR