In this first Week in Review series, we will do a quick rundown of the past week in Columbus.
First, in terms of development, we had a few updates. -The Market Tower project at the North Market has apparently gotten a new design. It’s gone from this-
To this-
The new design may actually be at least 40 stories instead of the originally-proposed 35. No official announcements on the height increase have been released, but I suspect we’ll be hearing something soon on this.
-The Gravity 2.0 project in Franklinton got its initial approvals from the neighborhood development commission, including approval on the 12-story tower, which has also gotten an updated rendering, seen below.
The recent housing market update January 2017 edition information comes from Columbus Realtors.
Note: LSD= Local School District, CSD= City School District. In both cases, school district boundaries differ from city boundaries.
Top 15 Most Expensive Locations By Median Sales Price in January 2017 1. New Albany: $535,000 2. New Albany Plain LSD: $397,450 3. German Village: $376,000 4. Powell: $354,950 5. Dublin: $343,600 6. Granville CSD: $330,000 7. Bexley: $325,000 8. Upper Arlington CSD: $319,500 9. Olentangy LSD: $315,000 10. Big Walnut LSD: $306,250 11. Dublin CSD: $271,500 12. Worthington: $270,000 13. Buckeye Valley LSD: $259,000 14. Sunbury: $253,000 15. Downtown: $243,750
Top 15 Least Expensive Locations by Median Sales Price in January 2017 1. Obetz: $80,100 2. Hamilton LSD: $80,100 3. Whitehall: $85,950 4. Newark CSD: $86,900 5. Lancaster CSD: $103,000 6. Jefferson LSD: $123,000 7. London CSD: $124,000 8. Groveport Madison LSD: $125,900 9. Reynoldsburg CSD: $125,950 10. Columbus CSD: $129,900 11. South-Western CSD: $131,000 12. Columbus: $140,026 13. Jonathan Alder LSD: $150,000 14. Minerva Park: $159,500 15. Grove City: $160,950
Overall Market Median Sales Price in January 2017: $160,368 Median Sales Price Change January 2016-January 2016: +$3,172
Top 15 Locations with the Highest Median Sales Price % Growth Between January 2016 and January 2017 1. Whitehall: +69.5% 2. Circleville CSD: +64.9% 3. Sunbury: +63.0% 4. Jefferson LSD: +53.5% 5. Big Walnut LSD: +44.1% 6. Canal Winchester CSD: +40.9% 7. Westerville: +29.8% 8. Westerville CSD: +27.3% 9. Powell: +25.4% 10. Pataskala: +24.0% 11. Olentangy LSD: +23.5% 12. Gahanna Jefferson CSD: +21.8% 13. Grandview Heights: +21.2% 14. Granville CSD: +20.0% 15. Pickerington: +17.7%
Top 15 Locations with the Lowest Median Sales Price % Growth Between January 2016 and January 2017 1. London CSD: -53.5% 2. Obetz: -38.3% 3. Hamilton LSD: -27.1% 4. Jonathan Alder LSD: -25.2% 5. Buckeye Valley LSD: -23.0% 6. Reynoldsburg CSD: -18.7% 7. Hilliard: -17.7% 8. Lancaster CSD: -17.6% 9. Grove City: -15.3% 10. Dublin CSD: -12.8% 11. Johnstown-Monroe LSD: -10.8% 12. Upper Arlington CSD: -8.5% 13. Newark CSD: -8.1% 14. Dublin: -7.1% 15. South-Western CSD: -6.4%
Overall Market Median Sales Price % Change January 2016-January 2017: +2.0%
Top 10 Locations with the Most New Listings in January 2017 1. Columbus: 829 2. Columbus CSD: 544 3. South-Western CSD: 136 4. Olentangy LSD: 122 5. Westerville CSD: 100 6. Hilliard CSD: 94 7. Dublin CSD: 89 8. Worthington CSD: 66 9. Dublin: 64 10. Pickerington LSD: 60
Top 10 Locations with the Fewest New Listings in January 2017 1. Valleyview: 0 2. Lithopolis: 1 3. Minerva Park: 2 4. Sunbury: 2 5. Obetz: 3 6. Johnstown Monroe LSD: 5 7. Jefferson LSD: 8 8. Jonathan Alder LSD: 8 9. German Village: 8 10. Hamilton LSD: 8 11. Northridge LSD: 9
Total New Listings in the Columbus Metro in January 2017: 2,002 Overall Metro New Listings % Change January 2016-January 2017: -1.9%
Top 10 Fastest-Selling Locations by # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale in January 2017 1. Obetz: 18 2. Sunbury: 21 3. Pataskala: 22 4. Jefferson LSD: 26 5. Gahanna: 28 6. Minerva Park: 28 7. Delaware CSD: 29 8. Bexley: 31 9. Hilliard CSD: 31 10. Pickerington: 31 11. Worthington CSD: 31
Top 10 Slowest-Selling Locations by # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale in January 2017 1. Dublin: 96 2. New Albany: 93 3. Dublin CSD: 82 4. Powell: 80 5. Granville CSD: 79 6. Olentangy LSD: 78 7. Downtown: 77 8. Grandview Heights: 76 9. New Albany Plain LSD: 68 10. Canal Winchester CSD: 67 11. New Albany CSD: 65 12. Upper Arlington CSD: 62 13. Circleville CSD: 61 14. Johnstown Monroe LSD: 61 15. Hamilton LSD: 60
# of Days For-Sale Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale Across the Metro Overall: 51.6 Change in # of Days Before Sale January 2016-January 2017: -22.0
Top 10 Locations with the Greatest % Decline of # of Days on the Market Before Sale January 2016-January2017 1. Obetz: -89.2% 2. Pataskala: -64.5% 3. Whitehall: -64.3% 4. Circleville CSD: -56.1% 5. Gahanna: -53.3% 6. Grove City: -49.2% 7. Delaware CSD: -44.2% 8. Bexley: -40.4% 9. Pickerington LSD: -39.7% 10. Worthington CSD: -38.0%
Top 10 Locations with the Lowest % Decline of # of Days on the Market Before Sale January 2016-January 2017 1. German Village: +161.1% 2. Worthington: +123.8% 3. Powell: +77.8% 4. Grandview Heights: +46.2% 5. Big Walnut LSD: +41.5% 6. Minerva Park: +40.0% 7. Jonathan Alder LSD: +37.8% 8. Canal Winchester CSD: +31.4% 9. Marysville CSD: +28.3% 10. Johnstown Monroe LSD: +27.1%
% Change for the # of Days Homes Remain on the Market Before Sale Across the Metro Overall: -29.9%
The US Census recently released demographic information for census tracts for 2015. Here are some quick maps for Franklin County for median household income.
First, median household income for both 2010 and 2015.
And the % change between 2010-2015.
As can be seen, a lot of the greatest improvements over the 5-year period were around Downtown, the Near East Side, North High, South High and around some of the higher-income suburbs like Upper Arlington and the New Albany area.
What the numbers suggest is that Columbus was performing at a middle-mediocre level in the first half of the 2001-2015 period, and has generally been performing significantly better in the latter half. In Ohio, Columbus is poised to become Ohio’s largest metro economy over the next few years.
Over the years, there have been endless claims about how the Columbus economy is dominated by jobs related to state government and OSU. These claims are usually made from other Ohioans complaining that Columbus has an unfair advantage and is mooching public dollars from the rest of the state to prop up the economy.
Let’s first address two points made: 1. That the number of government jobs is far above what they are in all other major Ohio cities, and 2. That overall, government jobs are becoming a larger slice of the metro economy.
The first claim is easy to look into. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, produces numbers every single month on job industry numbers by metro area. The most recent numbers are from June 2016. Here are the total government jobs for Ohio’s largest cities. Columbus: 162,600 Cleveland: 138,800 Cincinnati: 124,200 Dayton: 62,300 Toledo: 44,800 Akron: 40,600
So as to the first claim, that the total of government jobs in Columbus is higher than the other cities, that is true. As the state capital, this is no surprise. However, how dependent on government jobs is Columbus really versus those other cities? To find out, you have to divide government jobs by all total jobs within the metro. In June 2016, here was the percentage of the total.
Interestingly enough, Columbus is not the top government-dependent city. That spot goes to Dayton.
Now onto the 2nd claim- that Columbus is increasingly reliant on those government jobs. Let’s look at the % of total jobs that government jobs made up going back to 1990. The figures are for June of each year given.
So it does not appear that Columbus has become more or less dependent on government jobs over the last 26 years. Indeed, if there is any pattern at all, it appears that during economic downturns, the number of government jobs increase, and during periods of stability/recovery, government jobs decline. The early 1990s and late 2000s had high levels of governments jobs, both periods of recession. In June 2016, nearly 85% of the local economy was not government-related, not statistically much different than other Ohio cities.
Finally, let’s look at how total government jobs have changed since the beginning of this decade, 2010, by Ohio city. The figures are for June 2010 and June 2016.
So that brings us to the actual makeup of the Columbus metro economy. What are the industries that most people work for? What are the industries that have the greatest % of the total jobs? Let’s compare June 1990 and June 2016.
1990 Trade/Transportation/Utilities: 20.51% Government: 17.97% Manufacturing: 13.49% Professional and Business Services: 11.46% Health and Education: 9.41% Leisure and Hospitality: 8.63% Financial Activities: 8.26% Mining/Logging/Construction: 4.30% Other Services: 3.46% Information: 2.51%
2016 Trade/Transportation/Utilities: 18.37% Professional and Business Services: 17.11% Government: 15.30% Health and Education: 14.43% Leisure and Hospitality: 10.89% Financial Activities: 7.63% Manufacturing: 6.84% Other Services: 4.10% Mining/Logging/Construction: 3.75% Information: 1.57%
If anything, Columbus’ economy is actually more diverse in 2016 than it was in 1990, not less.
