1 hour ago, Htsguy said:

Does Cleveland code still allow front yard chain link fences (like shown above in this new construction)?  I thought all of this ugly front yard chain link you find in Ohio City is because it is grandfathered in but at some point the city came to its senses and banned it.

 

Chain link is prohibited in residential districts at least since 2001, but under CCO Sec. 358.04(C)(1) "The Board of Zoning Appeals may, however, permit a chain link fence if the Board determines that such fence is common in the immediate vicinity of the subject property."  Ridiculous, IMO, that unsightly and otherwise illegal, nonconforming uses are allowed to replicate themselves throughout a neighborhood.  But I have a feeling that most existing chain link fences were installed after the prohibition and lack a permit/BZA approval.  I'd think such unpermitted chain link could not be used as precedent for BZA approval.

11 hours ago, cle_guy90 said:

I agree.  Unless you know your buyer, you do not want to choose a floor that stylized.  Also, the photos make the house seem very dark and drab.  He might benefit from having a photographer come in and take photos because some of these realtors don't know how to present a house well.  Overall, impressive for 1 guy.

 

The house sold. 22 hours on marker

1 minute ago, YABO713 said:

 

The house sold. 22 hours on marker

Nice!  I will say the price for square foot was a great value!  

On 2/12/2021 at 7:27 PM, YABO713 said:

 

The house sold. 22 hours on marker

 

I would have bought the house at that price and then completely remodeled it. Again. The aesthetic choices were interesting, to put it nicely, lol.

On 2/12/2021 at 10:27 PM, YABO713 said:

 

The house sold. 22 hours on marker

It was a great price. He probably could've got another $75k.

9 hours ago, freefourur said:

It was a great price. He probably could've got another $75k.

 

Yeah from my understanding it sold well over ask. 

29 minutes ago, YABO713 said:

 

Yeah from my understanding it sold well over ask. 

Good for him. It looks like he did a thorough renovation. Hopefully he made a nice amount of money on the deal. These renovations can sometimes become money pits for people.

I really hope this hot market continues, my house in Gordon Sq is hitting the market tomorrow! 

3 hours ago, freefourur said:

Good for him. It looks like he did a thorough renovation. Hopefully he made a nice amount of money on the deal. These renovations can sometimes become money pits for people.

 

I heard he'd invested over $200k over 2-3 years, which is why I'm surprised he didn't ask for more. But I'm sure he still made a nice buck. 

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4402-Gifford-Ave-Cleveland-OH-44109/33345093_zpid/

 

So when I moved to Old Brooklyn in 2009, this lot was one of many bank abandoned houses on my street. It took the city/county/landbank a few years to tear it down, and now it's listed as a new build coming soon for $250k.

 

It's great to see positive momentum continue to spread on the near west side!

On 2/12/2021 at 9:27 PM, YABO713 said:

 

The house sold. 22 hours on marker

Great news...CLE needs as many resident taxpayers with paychecks as possible to offset the tax-takers.

 

These home rehabs/flips should be 15 year tax abated like new construction is. At least these well to do home buyers will spend some of their $$ in the city.  CLE needs to build its retail base to capture as much of this new $$ as possible.

Edited February 20, 20214 yr by CLENYC

2 minutes ago, CLENYC said:

Great news...CLE needs as many resident taxpayers with paychecks as possible to offset the tax-takers.

 

These home rehabs/flips should be 15 year tax abated like new construction is. At least these well to do home buyers will spend some of their $$ in the city.  CLE needs to build its retail base to capture as much of this new $$ as possible.

I believe that the rehabs are abated too. But it might be 12 years rather than 15. Honestly, it should 15 years for either.

3 minutes ago, freefourur said:

I believe that the rehabs are abated too. But it might be 12 years rather than 15. Honestly, it should 15 years for either.

Got it.  I actually thought it was 20 years in CLE until I checked. And yes both should be 15 years, if, in fact, “rehabs” are 12 years.  Restored, rehabbed CLE homes are just as important for the city as ground-up new construction as both attract buyers, some want the old original homes while others want the new ones...win-win for CLE.

^ I am mistaken. It looks to be 15 years for new build and rehab. 

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/CommunityDevelopment/TaxAbatement

4 hours ago, freefourur said:

^ I am mistaken. It looks to be 15 years for new build and rehab. 

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/CommunityDevelopment/TaxAbatement

Rehabs aren’t automatically abated. There are hoops they have to jump through and standards that they have to do to get them abated.

25 minutes ago, cle_guy90 said:

Rehabs aren’t automatically abated. There are hoops they have to jump through and standards that they have to do to get them abated.

 

Neither are new builds.  They both have to meet a variety of green building standards for energy efficiency.  The cost of building homes to the abatement standards is quite a bit more expensive, the insulation and windows in particular.

2 hours ago, cle_guy90 said:

Rehabs aren’t automatically abated. There are hoops they have to jump through and standards that they have to do to get them abated.

 

We moved in in 2018 and our abatement still hasn't been approved

31 minutes ago, YABO713 said:

 

We moved in in 2018 and our abatement still hasn't been approved

That’s crazy. I know a couple of people who flip houses and they don’t think it is worth it to go for the abatements. 

2 hours ago, cle_guy90 said:

That’s crazy. I know a couple of people who flip houses and they don’t think it is worth it to go for the abatements. 

 

The abatement was meant to encourage proper renovations of old houses. That means to the studs with new insulation and windows. And with walls opened up people typically redo wiring and water as well. Nobody flipping houses will be interested in the cost involved since it's not really what "flippers" do.

9 hours ago, YABO713 said:

 

We moved in in 2018 and our abatement still hasn't been approved

That's not cool. I've done five complete guts (substantial rehabs) and we've always had the abatement approved BEFORE the buyer had the home transferred into their name. 

Your builder and their green energy certifier should've made sure the app was already approved (or would be approved) before, or at time of sale. 
 

I might be able to assist if you'd like. 

 

Edited February 21, 20214 yr by Clefan98

On 2/17/2021 at 9:30 AM, Clefan98 said:

I really hope this hot market continues, my house in Gordon Sq is hitting the market tomorrow! 

Update: We were under contract after only 9 hours on the market. The offer we accepted came in at 15k over asking with no inspection or seller concessions! 

9 hours ago, YABO713 said:

 

We moved in in 2018 and our abatement still hasn't been approved

 
That is very slow. Ours took about a year on a new construction, although it was submitted and approved after yours. 
 

Have you checked in on it at all? 

11 hours ago, gg707 said:

 

Neither are new builds.  They both have to meet a variety of green building standards for energy efficiency.  The cost of building homes to the abatement standards is quite a bit more expensive, the insulation and windows in particular.

Very true about the insulation cost. One of the most time consuming tasks involved in the building process (rehabs only) is furring out every exterior wall stud from 4" to 6" to get the proper insulation thickness required for the green energy standards. 

 

 

Edited February 21, 20214 yr by Clefan98

Makes sense now why some folks object to discussing CLE crime, at least in areas where they have $$ at-risk in a hot market.

Edited February 22, 20214 yr by CLENYC

11 hours ago, gg707 said:

 
That is very slow. Ours took about a year on a new construction, although it was submitted and approved after yours. 
 

Have you checked in on it at all? 

Is a to-the-studs gut rehab priced higher than a “remodel” disguised and marketed as a rehab, if you know? 

1 hour ago, CLENYC said:

Is a to-the-studs gut rehab priced higher than a “remodel” disguised and marketed as a rehab, if you know? 

 

If something is not going to have the abatement, then that certainly hurts the property value, as far as I could tell when we were looking.  Not the case across the board, but the fuller gut rehabs also tended to have higher end finishes.  On the second point, I think that is caused in part by the fact that if a builder is putting the money into a new heating system, new water heater, insulation, etc. to meet the abatement requirements, they are going to end up needing to hit a higher price point, which then drives the choice to do more expensive finishes.

11 hours ago, CLENYC said:

Makes sense now why some folks object to discussing CLE crime, at least in areas where they have $$ at-risk in a hot market.

Very little crime in the part of the city I live and invest it, which is why 400k+ houses sell in less than a day and for over asking.

Edited February 22, 20214 yr by Clefan98

17 minutes ago, Clefan98 said:

Very little crime in the part of the city I live and invest it, which is why 400k+ houses sell in less than a day and for over asking.

Same here. I have lived in multiple different cities, and my neighborhood now is probably the safest urban neighborhood I have lived in. 

14 hours ago, Clefan98 said:

Very little crime in the part of the city I live and invest it, which is why 400k+ houses sell in less than a day and for over asking.

That’s great...but some folks won’t allow any crime discussion if it’s in their area and end up sending private angry and unhinged messages.  

If someone's doing something improper, you can report it to the moderators.  Otherwise, we should get back on topic.

1 hour ago, X said:

If someone's doing something improper, you can report it to the moderators.  Otherwise, we should get back on topic.

Hi..I did do that, it was Jan 13, the day I was suspended from the forum..I FWD the email.

 

anyway..back on topic.

Edited February 23, 20214 yr by CLENYC

Not sure if this thread is Cleveland specific or just greater Cleveland.  But anyway two cities I'm looking at moving to when I move back to the area is in a year or so are University Heights and Lakewood.  It's crazy watching that market heat up.  Many homes are selling above ask (and ask is greatly up from a year ago) and there is little inventory.  Right now single family realtor.com there are

 

University Heights: 56 single family homes, 17 that are not under contract

Lakewood: 55 sfh, 11 that are not under contract

https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/homebuilders-greater-cleveland-were-busy-2020-and-2021-looks-even-better
 

Good news about there being more houses built in cleveland. Knez homes seem to be everywhere yet here is a quote from him in the article.

 

"We don't have any finished product anywhere in the city of Cleveland that's not sold,"

 

Going along with the above, here is a nice write up by Michelle: https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/fierce-contests-scarce-homes-bring-long-awaited-recovery-parts-greater-cleveland-spur

Quote

Fierce contests for scarce homes bring a long-awaited recovery to parts of Greater Cleveland, spur soaring offers in others

Michelle Jarboe February 27, 2021 04:00 AM 

 

A record-low supply of available homes, combined with cheap debt, spurred swift sales and sharp price growth across Greater Cleveland last year. The residential real estate market is likely to remain a bright spot in a pandemic-stricken economy, thanks to strong buyer demand, low mortgage interest rates and soaring savings among consumers who haven't lost their jobs.

 

And not to toot my own horn, working in the Housing Dept (ok maybe a little):

Quote

In South Euclid, an inner-ring suburb, inventory has dwindled to less than one month's supply.

 

The bedroom community, battered by the foreclosure crisis like much of the East Side, is seeing more homes sell for upward of $200,000 and very few sales under $100,000, said Sally Martin, the city's housing director. Recent appreciation is prompting some landlords with single-family rentals to sell their properties to owner-occupants.

 

I was in a conference last week where Frank Ford from the Western Reserve Land Conservancy presented on the increase in sales prices and how uneven the recovery has been since 2005. Most of the west side of Cleveland, the west suburbs, and outer ring suburbs have fully recovered. Most of the east side of the city is still well below their peak though. Other than in University Circle and Central, prices are still very depressed on the east side. Notably though, Fairfax, Hough, and Glenville, despite still being down, saw pretty big increases over the last year. The east inner suburbs are a mixed bag. Shaker and University Hts have passed their previous peaks, but everywhere else is still down. South Euclid is very close to the previous peak, and saw one of the steepest price increases in the county last year - on par with Detroit Shoreway and Ohio City, which were the top two.

On 2/27/2021 at 9:53 AM, cle_guy90 said:

 

"We don't have any finished product anywhere in the city of Cleveland that's not sold,"

 

That’s insane. Most of Knez’s developments aren’t even in the “hot” neighborhoods. My mind goes immediately to the dozens of houses being built in Glenville and Fairfax. Most of those are $300,000 houses. This is either a huge bubble or a bunch of east side neighborhoods will be very different in 10 years. 
 

Who is buying these homes?

And there's a lot more development planned for Hough, Glenville, Fairfax and Midtown. So many things have not yet been announced yet. When they are and if they are looked at in total, I think we will all be amazed.

I was looking at this chart:  https://www.centerforcleveland.org/current-cle-projects#Summary by Neighborhood and Project Type  and was thinking there are so many residential projects around, and outside of Downtown and University circle, not really any commercial projects and then just read @KJP's comment immediately above.  Should we be encouraging--or should somebody be building--some commercial projects in the neighborhoods as well? Otherwise it seems imbalanced that we have only housing, housing, housing.  Or should we keep all commercial predominately only in the traditional areas (Downtown, Flats, Univ Circle, Midtown Corridor, etc.) and not build anything in other parts of the city like Hough, Glenville, Mt. Pleasant, Old Brooklyn, Cudell, etc.? Personally, I would love to see development everywhere. Thoughts?

1 hour ago, LlamaLawyer said:

Who is buying these homes?

 

In Michelle's article above there was mention of current Cleveland residents looking to upsize to larger homes. All of them stayed within the city, and there was mention of personal requirements for the new home to have a "City of Cleveland address." No preference to the neighborhood. Just being in the city is the hot thing now. 

To @Pugu's point above, I agree that there needs to be some mixed-use in walkable settings within residential neighborhoods. But now does not seem to be a good time for retail development. There certainly needs to be some accommodation made for them, such as for neighborhood-scale retail on street corners. Unfortunately many real estate developers and property owners have extremely high lease rates for neighborhood retail so they don't get the tenants.

2 hours ago, KJP said:

And there's a lot more development planned for Hough, Glenville, Fairfax and Midtown. So many things have not yet been announced yet. When they are and if they are looked at in total, I think we will all be amazed.

It’s. About. Time.

 

So much of the inner east-side had been hallowed out, yet there are still areas which have solid residential homeowners who have been in the neighborhoods for generations.

 

im looking forward to the rebirth of Hough, Glenville, Fairfax, and hopefully both North and South Collinwood in the near future. E. 185th is still pretty viable and is probably one of the only true commercial strips which survived for this long on the entire east-side.

3 hours ago, Oldmanladyluck said:

So much of the inner east-side had been hallowed out.

When would you say the east side reached peak holiness?

(Sorry. Couldn’t resist)

6 hours ago, KJP said:

To @Pugu's point above, I agree that there needs to be some mixed-use in walkable settings within residential neighborhoods. But now does not seem to be a good time for retail development. There certainly needs to be some accommodation made for them, such as for neighborhood-scale retail on street corners. Unfortunately many real estate developers and property owners have extremely high lease rates for neighborhood retail so they don't get the tenants.

I think Edgewater would be able to sustain a Murray Hill Market-type establishment. I'd really love to see something like that in Cudell, but I'm not sure what type of mixture of goods would allow that to even be possible. I do most of my primary shopping at Lucky's Market, but have been surprised how much I can do on foot from my house in Cudell if I reaaaaally try, though I have to rely more on CVS than I really want to, and the cost of trying to buy stuff at convenient stores is oddly high.

 

I would [selfishly] very much like a bakery/coffee shop/general store/market combo place right on Madison. I think it could work if it had the ability to capture through-traffic and also didn't alienate people who need some level of affordability. Potentially the new bus line on Madison would open up some opportunities.

Fierce contests for scarce homes bring a long-awaited recovery to parts of Greater Cleveland, spur soaring offers in others

 

Scott Heisel had been trapped in his house for more than a decade, pinned in place by a mortgage that exceeded the value of his three-bedroom bungalow on Cleveland's West Side.

 

Last year, the frenetic pace of home buying across the region finally gave him an out. In October, Heisel and his wife, Aubrey Welbers, sold their home in the Jefferson neighborhood for $113,000 — $9,500 more than Heisel, then single and in his early 20s, paid for it in 2006.

 

https://www.crainscleveland.com/real-estate/fierce-contests-scarce-homes-bring-long-awaited-recovery-parts-greater-cleveland-spur

Home prices are rising faster in cities than in suburbs and rural areas, Redfin finds, and Cleveland is one of the country's hottest markets

Scott Suttell - Crain's Cleveland Business - Mar. 4, 2021

 

"The Redfin real estate brokerage reports the median home-sale prices in urban areas nationwide are up nearly 16% from a year ago — and Cleveland is one of the markets with the biggest increase. The median price for homes in cities rose 15.9% to $292,263 in the four weeks ending Feb. 21, compared with the like period of 2020, Redfin says. Cleveland was No. 3, with the median price up 33.4% to $103,875."

 

 

Redfin Report: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/home-prices-in-cities-rise-16-surpassing-suburban-and-rural-price-growth-for-the-first-time-since-before-pandemic-301240469.html

^$103k for CLE seems low given what's been selling in the past four weeks....  would be interesting to see the Average East Side vs. Average west side within the city over the past x weeks, or by neighborhood.  But in any event, nice to see CLE getting positive news to drown out the #1 USA poverty city news.

Edited March 5, 20214 yr by Pugu

17 hours ago, Pugu said:

^$103k for CLE seems low given what's been selling in the past four weeks....  would be interesting to see the Average East Side vs. Average west side within the city over the past x weeks, or by neighborhood.  But in any event, nice to see CLE getting positive news to drown out the #1 USA poverty city news.

 

I'd like to see which areas were classified as "urban" for the study. The methodology says it uses the HUD designations from the 2017 American Housing Survey, but I couldn't find which parts of the Cleveland area that encompasses. I'm guessing it's all of Cleveland, plus some inner ring suburbs and maybe parts of others. The city itself is still far from reaching $100k, though there are massive differences between neighborhoods. Going off memory from a conference a couple weeks ago, the city was around $35, but alot of the west side was over $100k. University was the highest neighborhood, around $230k, but alot of the rest of the east side is still around $20k, rising to $50k when you get to the southeast neighborhoods. Detroit Shoreway and OC have had the highest percent rises over the last year. OC has been more expensive than Tremont for a bit now too.

I was not aware that Austin had gotten California expensive.

20 hours ago, mrnyc said:

 

 

welcome!

 

i had just posted that on the previous page -- it looks like somebody just put it up on youtube in september.

 

the aerials that start at 9:45 really dropped by jaw -- that intact warehouse district, not to mention how intact and dense all the rest was -- just wow.

My grandparents moved to Cleveland around this time so it’s kinda neat to get a glimpse into their world. 
 

1 hour ago, X said:

I was not aware that Austin had gotten California expensive.

 

It's interesting, because if you go on Zillow there are a lot of nice 2 br condos for sale in Austin, in nice neighborhoods, for around $200k to $250k. That's pretty cheap. But there's also a lot of houses for sale over $1 million.

https://www.thelandcle.org/stories/ohio-city-and-tremont-respond-to-calls-for-more-affordable-housing

Edited March 9, 20214 yr by downtownjoe