Thursday, October 23, 2008

Elephants and New Bus Line Roll Through Downtown Cleveland?!?!

We're Clevelanders. We've seen a lot of excitement in our downtown streets. Marathon runners, breast cancer walks, and even parades of people after Monday Night Football victories have recently roamed through Downtown Cleveland.

This week, however, two very exciting (and different) events call us to the streets of Downtown Cleveland. The first of which came on Wednesday, October 22nd, during the lunch hour. The circus is in town and brought this blogger from her office high above East 9th Street to street level for the celebration. If you looked at the picture you already know why! Read her blog here.
In addition to the elephants strolling through downtown Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland RTA opens it's new "Health Line" this weekend which includes a new dedicated bike lane down Euclid Avenue. A scavenger hunt will be included in the weekend festivities, which lead up to a free outdoor concert headlined by American Idol winner, Jordin Sparks. For more information, visit the health line website.

Friday, October 17, 2008

American Idol Winner to Perform at Free Concert on Mall B


The Euclid Corridor project, now appropriately called the "Health Line", opens on October 24-25th to celebrate the re-birth of Euclid Avenue. Headlining this public festival is American Idol winner, Jordin Sparx, who This project has been several years in the making, and has been the subject of great debate over the past three years.

Yes, yes, by now we know that the Health Line will connect University Circle to Public Square. We've heard about and/or seen the cool looking bus stations all along the route. We've even heard about how this is revolutionary, environmentally concsious, and so on... But, will we actually use it? Cleveland City Living decided to ask the people on the streets...

  • "We'd probably take it to go downtown for dinner after our shift [is over]" - Kathy & Monica from the Cleveland Clinic.

  • "I live in the Statler and work at UH, so it's great for me." - William (Downtown Resident)

  • "It's cool, but Euclid Avenue is still pretty much a ghost town." - Jessie (Downtown Resident)

  • "I've never really rode the bus before in Cleveland, just Chicago and places like that. Is that weird?" - Emily (Downtown Employee in Tower City)

The general feeling for the remaining posts is optimism for the publicity, excitement over the removal of the orange barrels, and surprise by the suburbanites on what Euclid Avenue is becoming. Most people, in spite of all our marketing efforts, still don't know about the 668 Euclid Avenue Building rennovation, the grand opening of Cadillac Ranch, or even the unprecedented growth on East 4th Street.

Ari Maron, partner at MRN (developers of East 4th St), told me that one day, Euclid Avenue will be the premier street in Cleveland. That day I was looking at abandoned buildings, panhandlers everywhere, paintings in the windows of abandoned store-fronts, and a dreadful streetscape. A great deal has changed since then and from the looks of it, Ari can probably say, "I told you so" in the near future!

Is Our Panhandling Population Shrinking?

It's not your imagination. The population of pan-handlers in Downtown Cleveland is down more than 40% over the past two years! This reduction can be largely credited to the hard working team at the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

On Friday, October 17th, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance will announce a new program to provide for the homeless called Generocity Cleveland. The press conference will be held in front of Old Stone Church (91 Public Square) at 1:30pm on Friday, October 17th. This initiative includes a new marketing campaign to reduce panhandling, new donation receptacles for people to give to the homeless and a new Mobile Services Unit designed to bring services to the homeless.

Generocity Cleveland is the result of a comprehensive partnership between the City of Cleveland, the faith-based community and Downtown property owners. This new program replaces the Alliance’s “Homeless Education Campaign”, which focused on reducing aggressive panhandling in Downtown. Last year’s campaign message; “Don’t Give Where It Can’t Help” encouraged people to donate to local service agencies rather than panhandlers. Since August of last year, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance Ambassadors have reported a 40% reduction in panhandling incidents. In addition, the Alliance has raised nearly $2,000 that has been used to purchase ID’s and medical supplies for the homeless.
Although the Homeless Education Campaign has been successful, Downtown Cleveland Alliance and faith-based organizations believed that an education campaign was not enough to help the homeless. Downtown stakeholders needed a more complete approach in order to meet both their goals of reducing panhandling and providing care and services to the homeless. Generocity Cleveland addresses both areas of concern through three united fronts: 1) marketing, 2) donations and 3) services.

Marketing: Generocity Cleveland’s marketing campaign replaces the Homeless Education Campaign message with a clearer and more positive message, “Change Where It Counts.” This message still encourages people not to give money to people on the street, but it also encourages them to give money by directing individuals to the new donation receptacles located throughout Downtown. The new message will be on posters and flyers throughout Downtown and will feature an image of the new donation receptacles that will be placed throughout downtown.

Donations: Downtown Cleveland Alliance recently purchased 30 used parking meters from the City of Cleveland to be used as donation receptacles, fifteen of which will be placed at strategic Downtown locations. The Alliance’s committee felt strongly that providing the public with safe donation locations throughout Downtown is the best way to divert funds from panhandlers (many of which are not homeless) to the organizations that serve the homeless everyday. It is not effective to just encourage people not to give to panhandlers, people feel compelled to give. These new donation receptacles allow people to still say no to panhandlers while giving much needed funds to trustworthy organizations that provide for the homeless. Donations are collected as part of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s Downtown Homeless Fund. They are used to give homeless people ID’s, birth certificates and other items necessary in order to get off the streets and get their lives back. This donation receptacle strategy is a successful model that has been used in similar cities such as Denver and Baltimore.

Services: Since the creation of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance (2 ½ years ago), DCA has employed a full time social worker to help the Alliance provide direct services to the homeless. Since many homeless in Downtown are “shelter resistant”, it has become necessary for the DCA to be as mobile as possible, in order to meet people where they are at. To better provide services to the homeless, Generocity Cleveland has acquired an old Paratransit vehicle, which has been transformed into a mobile service bus. This vehicle will allow DCA and its partners to better provide services to the homeless and even transport individuals to area shelters if they desire.


"Clevelanders' giving spirit never wavers when taking care of their brothers and sisters, regardless of times or economy", stated Joe Cimperman, councilman of Ward 13. “Generocity Cleveland will provide DCA and our partner organizations the means to continue providing services to the homeless of Downtown Cleveland,” said Joe Marinucci, President of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. “Providing for the homeless is crucial to building a Downtown that benefits all stakeholders.”

For more information on how you can help please visit http://www.generocitycleveland.org/ or call 216-736-7799.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Phoenix Coffee Opening October 14th on Residential Row in the Warehouse District


Prepare to be stirred at Phoenix Coffee's newest location, 1300 W. 9th St. in Downtown Cleveland. The store, which opens at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, October 14th, will exclusively serve French Press coffee, a bold and rich alternative to traditional auto-drip coffee. This won't be your regular grab-and-go cup of joe. Phoenix Coffee's French Press brews will take customers on an exotic journey to new aromas and flavors. It's an experience that Clevelanders can readily embrace in the cosmopolitan, yet comfortable, environment of the West 9th Street store.

"Customers can close their eyes, take a sip and imagine they're in Portland or San Francisco, then look around and enjoy the friendly, real, Cleveland-style personalities at Phoenix Coffee," said Sarah Wilson-Jones, CEO and "Superbarista" of Phoenix Coffee.
Local aficionados are ready for this unique coffee experience, Wilson-Jones added. "I think the cosmopolitan customer base around the West 9th Street area will appreciate being able to get French Press coffee on a regular basis, and will be willing to pay slightly more for such a distinctive product."
When it comes to French Press coffee, the difference is in the brewing process. Coffee grounds are in direct contact with the brewing water for about five minutes, and are then filtered through a mesh press, rather than a paper filter. "The coffee retains its natural oils, which are usually trapped in the paper filter," explained Liz Gelehrter, manager of the West 9th Street store. "This makes for a better, richer cup of coffee."
French Press coffee is meant to be enjoyed fresh and at an unhurried pace, which is why the West 9th Street store will offer cozy retro chairs where customers can savor their drinks and perhaps listen to a local band playing on the coffeehouse stage.

The new Phoenix Coffee location will also serve Melitta- style manual-drip coffee so customers can sample any of the store's exotic single-source varietals or artisan- blended coffees. Once customers sample a new variety of coffee by the cup, they're more likely to purchase a pound and brew it at home, according to Wilson-Jones.

Both the French Press and Melitta offerings will encourage customers to view coffee as an exploration, rather than simply as a daily necessity, Wilson-Jones added.

To promote the grand opening, and to support an eco- friendly community, the West 9th Street store will be giving away free coffee mugs on the first day of business. Customers of Phoenix Coffee's five other area locations are encouraged to bring their own mugs on October 14th as well. The goal is to not use disposable cups at any Phoenix Coffee store on that day.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Stone Mad Irish Pub

Perhaps I'm a popular patron at Cleveland's figurative home for optimists, "The Glass Half Full Tavern," but I'm thinking this place is pretty awesome. Please leave your comments below if you've had the pleasure of drinking or dining at Stone Mad in Cleveland's Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood.

10 Most Affordable US Cities to Own a Home

Guess who's #1. Go ahead, guess. Yep, Cleveland is!

Article by: Lauren Sherman, Forbes

Most Affordable Cities for Owning a Home The cost of buying and maintaining a home is pretty reasonable if you live in certain Midwestern or Southern cities, according to Forbes magazine's new report. To determine America's least expensive places to own a home, Forbes used data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey, released Tuesday. The survey reported the 2007 median monthly housing costs in the country's metro areas with a population over 65,000. Housing costs include monthly mortgage payments, real estate taxes, various insurances, utilities, fuels, mobile home costs and condominium fees.

Here are the top-10 cheapest cities to own a home (for more details on each location, watch the Forbes slideshow):
  1. Cleveland: $978 a month
  2. Columbus, Ohio: $1,060 a month
  3. Pittsburgh: $1,187 a month
  4. San Antonio, Texas: $1,216 a month
  5. Indianapolis: $1,232 a month
  6. Nashville: $1,256 a month
  7. New Orleans: $1,296 a month
  8. St. Louis: $1,299 a month
  9. Charlotte, N.C.: $1,336 a month
  10. Cincinnati: $1,353 a month

Thursday, September 25, 2008

New Bar Along Euclid Avenue Opens on October 9th

With one month remaining before the "Health Line" grand opening celebration, Euclid Avenue storefronts are beginning to populate with exciting new business. Cleveland City Living has already run stories on the new Cleveland Condos along Euclid Avenue being built at East 4th Street and East 9th Street, as well as the Nexus Cafe originally proposed at 515 Euclid Avenue. Today we prepare you to welcome "Cadillac Ranch" to the Downtown Cleveland nightlife scene.

Cadillac Ranch, a premier All-American bar and grille, will officially open at 200 Euclid Avenue on October 9th. While it's being advertised heavily as a bar, it also carries a full menu including steaks and burgers. This 24,000 square foot establishment will be one of the largest social venues in downtown Cleveland. With over 30 flat panel televisions, 9 full-service bars, and 1 mechanical bull, Cadillac Ranch is sure to continue the excitement of East 4th St. and bring some new life to Euclid Avenue near Public Square.


While we can't predict what will come of the new Euclid Avenue, it's exciting to consider that while so much of America has been challenged by economic downturn, Cleveland has continued to proceed with projects that are adding to our exciting and vibrant downtown community. Looking into the future, a great deal of promise is in store for downtown Cleveland. See you at the ranch!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Want to Live in Cleveland's Coolest Lakefront Neighborhood?

This video montage was put together with segments from the Detroit Shoreway Streetscape Groundbreaking Ceremony. The Detroit Shoreway along with the Gordon Square Arts District has become the fastest growing neighborhood in Cleveland! With housing developments such as Battery Park, The Belvedere, Lake Pointe, King's Terrace, the Villas at Waters Edge, and Saint Peter's on the Lake, it's easy to find places to live. Located just a couple minutes from downtown Cleveland and footsteps from Lake Erie, you'll find few places in Cleveland that can compare.



Don't forget to contact Scott Phillips with Real Living Realty One, to find your Cleveland Lakefront home. With tax abatements and discount financing features, many of his clients are paying less per month for their mortgages than they were for rent downtown! Call Scott today: 216.986.7716 or email scott.phillips@realliving.com.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Where Do You Grocery Shop?

It's almost comical that the first question people ask downtown dwellars is "Where do you grocery shop?" Seriously people, how many suburbanites WALK to the grocery store? For that matter, how many even have an OPTION of walking to a grocery store? This question is perhaps the most comical question I ever get asked when I'm introducing people to the concept of downtown Cleveland living.

That being said, we DO have grocery stores to walk to. Constantino's Market is perhaps the most popular along West 9th St. and the Avenue Supermarket at Reserve Square is the mainstay of the eastern downtown dwellars. Throw in the West Side Market and you've got a bountiful number of options for the 10,000 residents of the "walkable" downtown area.

We DO have some options that, dare I say, are suburban-style in Cleveland. What many people don't realize is that downtown residents still have cars. So, in a fashion almost identical to that of the millions of suburban residents, these urban hepcats jump in the car and head to the myriad of grocery stores within the city limits.

In previous posts we've discussed the amazing Walmart Super Center at Steelyard Commons and Dave's Supermarket in Ohio City & Asia Town. These stores are all within five minutes of downtown Cleveland. For the sake of this article, however, I'd like to focus in on the HUGE investment made in CLEVELAND for the new Giant Eagle on West 117th.

The new Giant Eagle, located at the West 117th exit of I-90 is the largest and nicest grocery store Cleveland has seen in quite a while. It replaces the two Giant Eagle locations that were much smaller and less than a mile away in the Clifton and Lorain Avenue neighborhoods. This Giant Eagle, located on the same lot as a 6-month old Target and the signature GetGo gas station, includes an enormous fresh produce section, multiple prepared food displays, a state liquor agency, and even has freezers in the pet isle for frozen dog treats! This 24-hour location is another testament to the trend of people moving back into the city. Enjoy it Clevelanders!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Make Way for New Townhomes!


Ground cleared this week for the new "Alley Townhomes" at Battery Park, making way for the team of builders to start construction. Four of these homes have already sold with five remaining. Occupancy is expected as early as the end of 2008 for the pre-construction purchasers!

These townhouses, pictured above, feature 3 floors of living space. The first floor consists of a 2 car garage and a finished "flex space" that can be used as an office, rec room, workout room, etc. The second level, with a wide open floor plan, includes a beautiful kitchen that opens up into a dining and living room area. As is the case with most new construction in Cleveland, these townhomes have open floor-plans on the second level that are perfect for entertaining. An elevated patio off the living room adds a special touch to these townhomes, and a half-bathroom finishes off the second level. The third level is made up of two bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a laundry closet and an optional spiral staircase to the roof, where you have the option of adding an enormous roof-top deck. These decks will overlook Lake Erie and the downtown Cleveland skyline.

All Battery Park homes come with a 15-year tax abatement and discount financing options. In many cases, the people buying these townhomes will be paying less on their mortgage than they were in rent!*

Call or email Scott Phillips Jr, of Real Living Realty One, for more information: (216) 986-7716.

*Mortgage rates and payment schedules are subject to bank approval and bank conditions. Contact your lender for your exact payment.

Construction Begins on Detroit Avenue Project


City officials, merchants and others today launched the transformation of a stretch of Detroit Avenue into a pedestrian-friendly district for shopping, dining and theatre-going with a ceremonial groundbreaking. The event was highlighted by performances by Cleveland Public Theatre and Near West Theatre, the two performance theatres in the Gordon Square Arts District (GSAD).

The $3.5 million streetscape conversion of Detroit from West 58th Street to West 73rd Street is the second of five core projects in GSAD, an emerging arts and entertainment destination in the heart of the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood and five minutes from downtown Cleveland. Plans call for widening sidewalks along part of the street, burying utility wires and installing trees, benches, public art and other amenities.

“When you hear DuPont Circle and SoHo, you know exactly what city they’re in. The same will happen with Gordon Square,” said Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone, whose Ward 17 includes the district. Zone said he had been working on the streetscape project since he came to office in 2002.

”This project will provide the Gordon Square Arts District with a unique identity that will offer people an experience that they cannot get anywhere else,” said Mayor Frank Jackson. “Each of our neighborhoods has its own special personality, and people will visit Gordon Square so that they can participate in the culture of this district.”

“You’re going to know you’re somewhere special,” said GSAD Executive Director Joy Roller. “And you’re going to know something hip and fun is happening in Cleveland.”

The streetscape transformation, which is expected to be completed within a year, is a city project, paid for in part with $1.9 million in city funds. The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency contributed almost $1.6 million in federal funds. Traffic will be maintained during construction, except for six working days when vehicles will be detoured at West 65th Street and Detroit; shops, galleries, restaurants and other businesses will remain open during construction. The city has chosen Terrace Construction Company Inc. as contractor for the project.

“The city recognizes that its contribution will help spur private investment in the Gordon Square Arts District,” said Councilman Zone.

Today’s event is the second groundbreaking this year for the Gordon Square Arts District — a name not only for the area but also for the unique collaboration of three Cleveland nonprofits behind it.

The collaborative work of the three organizations — Cleveland Public Theatre, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization (DSCDO) and Near West Theatre — is seen as a national model of how the arts can be used to stimulate economic development. GSAD’s plans, along with housing construction at nearby Battery Park and elsewhere in Detroit Shoreway, have already helped attract 24 restaurants, shops, galleries, studios and other businesses to the area since the beginning of 2006. In all, the Gordon Square Arts District is helping to infuse more than $500 million into the community.

GSAD’s core projects are expected to cost $30 million. Besides the streetscape design, they are:

· A $7 million restoration of the Capitol Theatre, a 1920s vaudeville and silent movie house at Detroit and West 65th, into a three-screen, all-digital art and independent film cinema. Groundbreaking for the restoration was in May, and completion is expected next spring.
· Renovation of Cleveland Public Theatre, which includes the oldest standing theatre building in Cleveland, at 6415 Detroit.
· Construction of a new performance center on West 67th Street, just north of Detroit, for Near West Theatre, a 30-year old community theatre.
· Surface parking for residents and visitors. A new parking lot and an expanded lot, both incorporating green parking technologies that will reduce storm water runoff and filter the water before it hits the city’s storm sewer system, are expected to be completed by next spring. Future additional parking is planned.

The three theatres will all be within a two-minute walk of one another and will form the nucleus of the arts district. Architectural drawings for the Cleveland Public and Near West theatres have been completed, and construction plans are being finalized. GSAD is seeking additional funding for these projects.

The streetscape design was developed by City Architecture Inc., environmental artist Susie Frazier Mueller and Michael Benza & Associates Inc. engineers. Work will include burying utility lines and installing new sidewalks and new lighting from West 58th to West 73rd streets. The lighting will match light poles at Battery Park.

The heart of the district will be between West 61st and West 69th streets, where plans also call for narrowing Detroit and widening the sidewalks to encourage pedestrian traffic and outdoor dining. The sidewalks, currently 8½ feet wide on the north and 10 feet wide on the south, will be increased to 13 feet wide on both sides; Detroit, which currently has four 12-foot driving lanes, will be narrowed to two 11-foot lanes and two 9-foot parking lanes. Approximately 60 Aristocrat pear and Valley Forge American elm trees will be planted, and free-standing public art, colorful curved benches, bike racks and a street paver pattern designed by Mueller will be installed along the sidewalk.

Space is planned for at least 10 pieces of sculptural public art. DSCDO will work with Cleveland Public Art to develop a public, juried process to solicit and select the art.
In June, City Council approved legislation sponsored by Zone making Detroit and Lake Avenue between West 48th Street and West 77th Street a Pedestrian Retail Overlay District. The designation is aimed at maintaining the economic viability of older neighborhood retail districts by preserving their pedestrian-oriented character.

Today’s groundbreaking ceremony, at West 65th and Detroit, featured performances by Near West Theatre and Cleveland Public Theatre. Cleveland Public Theatre’s Student Theatre Enrichment Program (STEP) performed a selection from “While I’m Here on This Earth,” and actors from Near West presented an excerpt from “West Side Story.”

Tours of the Capitol Theatre were offered after the ceremony, and merchants remained open and offered special promotions in celebration of the groundbreaking.

Along with Mayor Jackson, Zone and Roller, those speaking at today’s groundbreaking included:
· Joseph Craciun, funeral director at Craciun Berry Funeral Home, a longtime Detroit Avenue business.
· Robert Maschke, principal of Robert Maschke Architects and 1point618 gallery.
· Mueller, the environmental artist who designed the special paver work and benches that will be used in the district as well as the district’s logo.
· Jeffrey M. Ramsey, executive director of DSCDO.
· Paul J. Volpe, president of City Architecture, which designed the streetscape.

Honorary chairs of the Gordon Square Arts District capital campaign are Richard W. and Patricia R. Pogue, Albert B. and Audrey G. Ratner and Tom C. and Sandra S. Sullivan. Richard (Dick) Pogue is senior advisor at Jones Day; Albert Ratner is co-chair of the board of Forest City Enterprises Inc.; and Tom Sullivan is chair of RPM International Inc. Lawrence N. Schultz, a partner at Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP, is GSAD campaign chair.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Cleveland Air Show Highlight Film

This video was filmed entirely from the rooftop decks of Battery Park, in Cleveland. This development, situated on a bluff overlooking Edgewater Beach and Lake Erie, is right on the main flight path for the show. Living at Battery Park is like free tickets to the Cleveland Air Show AND the Fourth of July Fireworks in Downtown Cleveland.



For more information on buying your home at Battery Park, contact Scott Phillips at 216.328.2500 or via email at Scott.Phillips@RealLiving.com

Detroit Shoreway Streetscape Plan Begins

Mayor Jackson and many special dignitaries join together to break ground on the streetscape plan for Detroit Avenue that will re-shape Cleveland's near west side. Widening the sidewalks to make the more pedestrian friendly is one of the first goals. Burying utility lines is part of that as well, which will make room for functional art on the street. New lighting and street painting is also visible in the renderings.

This project, which has been years in the making, is the first step in the second phase of creating a "West-side Coventry" as many people put it. Luxury housing has already been built and sold, new restaurants have opened and are flourishing, and the Capitol Theatre is scheduled to air it's first show in April 2009. This streetscape connects these individual projects together.

The reinvention of Detroit Avenue will begin at West 58th Street (home of "Krazy Mac's, Latitude 41'N, and the Happy Dog) and will continue to West 73rd Street (just past the McDonald's, Our Lady Mount Carmel Church, and Craciun-Berry Funeral home.) The project may take as long as 2-3 years to truly complete, but noticeable changes will be visible by next Spring.

Friday, August 29, 2008

New Video Highlights Downtown Cleveland

To learn more about downtown living, email Scott.Phillips@realliving.com or call us at 216.986.7716.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Cleveland Leads the Housing Rebound

By Brian Louis and Kathleen M. Howley

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The good news in the worst housing slump since the Great Depression is that the market in Cleveland is recovering.

The Cleveland area led the nation for home price gains in April and May with an 18 percent jump in the lowest price tier of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index after values fell to levels last seen in 2000. The median home price was $117,500 in the second quarter, 15 percent higher than the prior three months, the National Association of Realtors said in a report today.

A housing revival in this city of 438,000 on the shore of Lake Erie may portend deeper drops in U.S. markets. Prices for entry level homes in Cleveland had to tumble 37 percent from a September 2005 peak to an almost 11-year low in March before enticing first- time buyers. That may be a sign that U.S. markets with the biggest price increases during the 2000 to 2005 boom have much further to fall before stabilizing, said David Blitzer, chairman of Standard & Poor's Index Committee.

``The areas of the country that saw prices go through the roof and then fall into the basement won't be the first ones to see an upturn,'' Blitzer said in an interview. ``It's more likely to come in a place like Cleveland or other Midwestern cities that largely missed the boom.''

Cleveland never experienced the big home-price gains of its coastal counterparts such as New York or San Francisco. Gains were more modest as Cleveland, like other cities in the Midwest, saw jobs in steel, automotive and manufacturing shipped overseas.

Foreclosure Crisis

Prices in the Cleveland area rose an average of 3 percent a year from 2000 to 2005, according to S&P/Case-Shiller data. Prices in the metropolitan New York and Los Angeles areas gained 15 percent and 23 percent, respectively, in that period.

Now that Cleveland is starting to recover, it may be leading other areas of the country on their way to finding a housing bottom, said Robin Dubin, an economics professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

``Cleveland was hit first with the foreclosure crisis,'' Dubin said. ``Other communities are just behind Cleveland and they will start to come out of it pretty soon.''

The May S&P/Case-Shiller index put Cleveland's highest priced homes, properties that sold for more than $182,000, back to 2003 prices, and the overall market back to 2002 levels.

Presently, there are 1,982 pending real estate sales in Cuyahoga County. The tide has turned, friends! Contact us to start your home search using MyRealLiving 2.0 today!

Our Memory of Stephanie Tubbs-Jones

This week Cleveland lost one our most inspiring and loving leaders- Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. Her political affiliation, relationships with presidential candidates, and stances on issues have nothing to do with the following post. In fact, those things had little to do with the value she brought to our communities.

Stephanie was an inspiring role model. Growing up in the eastern neighborhoods of Cleveland can be difficult. Just ask Troy Smith, who emerged from the Glenville neighborhood. Sometimes the most visible influences in the lives of our youth are drug dealers on street corners. Congresswoman Tubbs-Jones was an inspiration to our young children. She was a symbol of what hard work, perseverence and dedication could look like. She loved her community as it was, but always encouraged the generations below her to strive for more and stay away from the troubled paths.

I'll never forget the first time I spent with her. The setting was Troy Smith's Heisman Homecoming Celebration at Glenville High School. Stephanie spoke to a crowd of hundreds of children about the inspiration that Troy was to the community. She spoke of hard work, reaching for your dreams, avoiding short-cuts, and staying away from gangs. What impressed me so much was her ability to do all this without coming off condescending! She knew what these children were faced with and was able to address them as a member of their family and not a lector or random motivational speaker.

Stephanie was sincere. She loved her constituents, our city, our region, and especially downtown Cleveland. She had many conversations with me about the future of our region and how Downtown Cleveland was the hub that had to hold all our neighborhoods and suburbs together. She even hosted Cleveland City Living and its advisors at her office to discuss how her economic development team could help support our missions of promoting residential living in downtown Cleveland.

Cleveland has a tremendous void to fill right now. No one can ever truly replace Stephanie. My call to everyone is to do what Stephanie would want us to do in our city. Love the city. Respect your neighbors. Volunteer in the lives of children, especially those who need additional parental guidance and education. Most of all, live life with the enthusiasm that radiated from her no matter where she was. Stephanie always made sure that people felt her message of love. Thank you, Stephanie, for your time with us on Earth. We know you're smiling on us always.

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity! Now Hiring.


There's still time to become a Founding Member of the new Cleveland office of Real Living Realty One, Inc.

Have you dreamed of starting your own real estate office? Do you wish your company offered you a vibrant, exciting environment that made the work day fun and entertaining? Are you an entrepreneur looking for a career that offers the opportunity and education for long-term success and wealth? You've found it. Welcome to the Cleveland Office of Real Living Realty One, Inc.

Real Living Realty One, Inc. has been a part of Cleveland since it's founding as "Hilltop Realty" in 1953 by Vincent Aveni. For the past 55 years, our company has lived by three principles: FAMILY, INNOVATION, & RESULTS. These principles are the foundation that has grown us into a company of more than 4000 sales associates and 160 offices! Your opportunity with the Downtown Cleveland Center begins with these same principles.

FAMILY- Our company works as a family. As a founding member of our Cleveland Office, you will have the unique opportunity to share in developing the vision. As a family, we will create the policies, procedures, and standards that will last through the next generations of our industry.

INNOVATION- Real Living Realty One, Inc. already leads the way with real estate technology. Programs such as MyRealLiving 2.0 are innovative internet tools that help us retain buyers and communicate with sellers the way most people do in today's market- electronically. No other company can offer our present innovative foundation to you as an agent. We will not rest on our laurels, however. We continue to strive daily to increase our presence in today's cyber markets.

RESULTS- No company could succeed in any industry for 55 years unless it has a proven history of results. Real Living Realty One, Inc. has done more real estate transactions than any other company in Ohio since 1980 and looks to continue that trend as we continue to make advancements into the new age of real estate.

As a member of the RL-R1 family, you will receive unparalleled support stretching far above industry standards including:
  • Location- Over 140,000 people work in the walkable neighborhood of Downtown Cleveland. WE are the only residential real estate firm headquartered within this perimeter. Our new Cleveland Office fills up the top floor of the 800 West St. Clair Building above the Cleveland Chop House Restaurant in the Historic Warehouse District.
  • Our Website- Our website consistently raises the bar as the most user friendly and feature-rich page in the nation. It constantly rises to the top of search engine pages as well.
  • Your Personal Website- At RL-R1, we offer you a personal website, customizable with dozens of templates making your clients and prospects see the true professional in you. We help you ensure your website puts your best foot forward.
  • Listing Enhancements- Virtual Tours, Blogs, Community Tours, and room for dozens of hi-res photos ensures that your seller's needs will be reached through effective, thorough marketing.
  • E-Newsletters- Our agents love sending E-Newsletters, E-Cards, and E-Notifications for their newest listings, sales, and career milestones. As a member of our family you will be able to send frequent communications via email to your clients for free through the Real Living online agent center.
  • Traditional Marketing- We offer you our brand, which is recognizable on yard signs to your future buyers. We offer you discounts in the Plain Dealer and other print mediums that other companies can't rival. We also founded the free "Hotline" program allowing buyers to call a toll-free number and listen to a recording about the home they're standing in front of that you're trying to sell! We even offer discounts training on how to perform an "open house" properly. Our commitment to technology has not disregarded the traditional tools of the past century.
  • Real Living Magazine- A full color, monthly magazine distributed at grocery stores, drug stores, and various other locations across the region. Homes are sorted by city in alphabetical order, then by price (unlike other publications which sort by selling office.) Our magazine is convenient for your buyers and widely read.
  • Official Sponsor of the Cleveland Cavs- Ever been to a Cavs game and looked at the Jumbo-tron at center court? The Real Living Realty One brand and website float virtually during all Cavs home games exposing us to over 20,000 people per event!
  • Mobile Real Estate -Work from home- At RL-R1, we understand that you can't always make prospecting calls from the office, or work the standard 8-5 schedule. We've created an expansive internet portal (the Agent Business Center) that allows our agents to work from home without losing the capabilities they'd have in the office. Online forms, client database storage, and marketing statistics are constantly available to you 24/7 from any computer.
  • No Monthly Fees- If we commit to hiring you, we are taking responsibility for providing you the tools necessary to succeed. Commission splits cover the various expenses we incur on your behalf.
  • EDUCATION- Although our industry has been around for 200 years, real estate is constantly evolving. To help you stay ahead of the curve, we offer free year-round education to every member of our RL-R1 family. What's better? The central education center for our company is located IN OUR OFFICE- Real Living University (Real U.)

WOW!

An industry that's been around for 200 years. The opportunity to earn an income far exceeding a standard salary job. A company that's been supporting successful agents in Ohio for over 50 years. The opportunity to add: "Founded a successful real estate office in Downtown Cleveland" to my resume'. This truly is a once in a lifetime 0pportunity!

Let's face it, there's only so much you can learn from an internet article. So here's what we'll propose: email us and come on in for a cup of coffee to tour our headquarters and ask some questions. You just may find that this is exactly what you've been waiting for.

Call us at 216.986.7716 or email our expansion team today!

Real Living Realty One, Inc. is not responsible for the contents of this article. All articles on this page are always fully developed by Cleveland City Living.

Friday, August 15, 2008

The Feast in Little Italy

It's time for tens of thousands of Clevelander's to roam the brick roads of Little Italy. It's time for young men to smoke cigars, wear Italian golf shirts, and talk with their hands. It's time for 80 year old grandmothers and grandfathers to join together and drink some chianti while listening to Old Blue Eyes. It's time for the Feast in Little Italy!

I seldom use my website to make a personal reflection, but this is a unique opportunity for me to share with you, my thousands of loyal readers, an interpretation of one of Cleveland's biggest ethnic weekends- The Feast.

Little Italy, to so many, is perceived as a dining destination, a cigar smoker's haven, or even a place to take a romantic walk down century old brick roads. Yes, it's all of that (and more), but Little Italy has a true foundation often overlooked- Family.

Something people may not realize is that the same families have been operating out of those neighborhoods for as many as 90 years! Let's take a step back and think about that. One of the books I read in college about the hospitality industry expressed that a successful business plan for a restaurant is to sell out in seven to eleven years. So how on Earth do restaurants like Mama Santa's, Baricelli Inn, and my family restaurant, Guarinos, last that long?? I can answer for one of them- Family.

I don't know a whole lot about what happend from 1918 to 1996 at Guarino's Restaurant in Little Italy. What I do know is that Vincenzo Guarino lived above his restaurant (much like my grandmother, Nancy, does today) and operated his business as though it was his own kitchen table and wet bar. It began as a speak-easy during prohibition and gradually evolved into a Cleveland icon seating as many as 200 people during summer (with the expansive 125 seat garden patio.)

Guarino's was passed through generations of family, and while I vaguely remember my Uncle Sam Guarino, I know he'd be proud of my grandmother for keeping the place alive into its 90th year. She is now 73 years old and still unlocks the doors each day for business among her many responsibilities.
Guarino's, much like many restaurants in the neighborhood, is all about family. At any given moment, you'll have Nancy's children, grandchildren, and dearest friends working the floor and in the kitchen. I put in ten years at Guarino's, beginning as a cook at age 13, and I can assure you that even if you're not related to Nancy by blood, you become related to her through business. She, like many of the owners in the neighborhood, can unconventionally manage her business by firing you in the middle of the dinner hour, and then giving you a hug and kiss as you come back to work the next day apologizing- just like family. This, perhaps, is one of the secrets to longevity in the industry. Some of her employees have been there as many as forty (40) years.

Tens of thousands of people will come to the Feast this year. They will celebrate 100 years of Holy Rosary Church, 90 years of Cleveland's oldest restaurant- Guarino's, and of course the Catholic holiday that brings so many together this morning. When you're roaming the streets looking for cavatelli pesto, come on over to Guarino's, say hello to my family, and give Nancy a hug to honor her work that has kept Cleveland's Oldest Restaurant in business for 90 consecutive years. And for all you paisan reading this: Cent' anni!
written by: Scott Phillips Jr. - photos by: Doug Nagy

Friday, August 8, 2008

Bob Golic's Sports Bar to Open in the Warehouse District

Start growing out your mullets! Browns legend and "Saved by the Bell" resident advisor, Bob Golic is opening a sports bar in the Warehouse District. The former home of Synergy has been vacant for several months on the corner of West 6th and Lakeside Avenue. This location has had a history of failures including Flo prior to Synergy in the past 2-3 years.

Golic's vision, however, is better planned than his predecessors. For years, Warehouse District residents have longed for an authentic sports bar on West 6th Street, and now they'll get their wish. For upcoming details on Bob Golic's newest business venture, visit his website at http://www.bobgolic.com/.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Gateway Church to Open Downtown Cafe

Can a Downtown Christian Church really run a business? When you consider all the people and parts that make up the congregation, the answer looks to be "Absolutely!" Information is beginning to pour in about this future addition to Downtown Cleveland. No matter what your faith is, this is defintely a project worth supporting.

"Nexus" which means "a place of connection," is the vision of the Gateway Church lead by Pastor Alex Ennes. The video for the project is on YouTube here: NEXUS. The plans highlight a grand opening at the 515 Euclid Avenue Building, but the actual site remains to be finalized.

So what is this Gateway Church? Besides being a Christian church giving weekly services in downtown Cleveland (at Pickwick and Frolic), Gateway is a service based organization that supports our downtown. If you stroll down West 9th St. and see flowers that look brand new, trees planted where they never used to be, and hedges pruned where there used to be overgrowth, there's a good chance Gateway was behind it. The members of Gateway Church support the motto: Love :: Live :: Serve.

Live, refers to living in community- in this case Cleveland. Serve, refers to serving the city. Pastor Alex told me a while back that he believes people are better supported by each other and serve more freely when they live in highly concentrated communities. Our Downtown needed just that!

In just over a year, Gateway Church has become a staple in our downtown community. The concept for Nexus, while risky, is already supported by over $50,000 of capital, and this is just the early planning stages. If you'd like to help with Nexus, or if you're interested in the church itself, visit http://www.gatewaycleveland.com/ and fill out a contact form.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Battery Park Opens Sand Volleyball League


Battery Park, Cleveland's largest lakefront residential development, has officially completed installation of four sand volleyball courts along the northern perimeter of the community.Situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie and the downtown skyline, this park has already been recognized for its beauty by several organizations. Hermes Cleveland has begun a sand volleyball league with games held on weeknights, and Corporate Challenge is hosting a tournament at the park this month!


The views from the park are amazing, and they will be complimented by the new amenities sure to begin at the parks western border. The historic powerhouse building, pictured in the background here, is presently undergoing rennovations that will result in a fitness facility, a neighborhood community center, and a full service restaurant and bar with balconies overlooking the Lake Erie coastline, the downtown Cleveland skyline, and the new park!

Homes at Battery Park begin at $189,000 and the community is already flourishing in spite of the difficult times seen throughout the real estate market.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

How Many Condos Have Sold in the Avenue District?

This has been an enormously popular question over the past two years. How many people have bought condos at the Avenue District?


We heard the project wasn't going to sell at all and it would fold. Then we heard it was almost all sold. Next we heard that Nathan Zaremba was buying the condos himself to rent them. Finally, after two and a half years of guessing, we've heard the truth from the mouth of the sales manager- and it's GREAT NEWS!


After two and a half years of sales, Frank Lalli reports that the main condo tower of the Avenue District is about 60% sold! With 58 units in all, that equates to 35 sales with an average price around $400,000. Those numbers hardly tell the story though. Lalli told a group of several hundred Realty One Real Living Realtors on Wednesday that he's realistically sold the building twice due to people breaking their purchase agreements over the two year wait. Nevertheless, the Avenue District has risen into the city skyline in a big way!


In addition to the main condo tower near the Galleria, Zaremba has built 20 townhomes (with as many as 40 more to be built) near the corner of East 14th and Rockwell. These three story townhomes with roof-decks are 80% sold and presently occupied.


With 600-700 homes slated in the Avenue District over the next decade, there's clearly a great deal to look forward to and plenty of reason for Clevelanders to be excited. You can learn more about the Avenue District on their website www.theavenuedistrict.com.


If you're looking for a real estate professional who can help you buy your new downtown Cleveland home, contact Scott Phillips Jr, of Realty One Real Living, Inc.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Cleveland Among the Housing Markets Leading to Real Estate Upswing

Bottom's Up: This Real-Estate Rout May Be Short-Lived
By JONATHAN R. LAING

This real-estate rout has been more painful than prior ones, but it may be shorter-lived. Indeed, there are early signs of recovery.

A FEW YEARS AGO, AN ACQUAINTANCE SENT Wellesley College economist Karl "Chip" Case a T-shirt depicting a cartoon of a smiley-face house surrounded by soap bubbles, called "Mr. Housing Bubble." But it was the words captured in a comic-book cloud on the shirt that gave this otherwise goofy image its bite: "If I pop, you're screwed!"

The dark humor hardly was lost on Case, co-creator along with Yale economist Robert Shiller of the now-canonical S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. In pairing recent sale prices of U.S. homes with the prices those same homes fetched previously, the index is substantiating what every sentient American knows: The U.S. housing market is in a deep funk, probably the worst in 50 years, according to Harvard's respected Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Home prices are down nearly 18% from the market's peak, according to Case-Shiller, and inventories of unsold homes are at near-record levels. Foreclosures are mushrooming on "subprime" properties, or homes whose purchase was financed with subprime debt. Blowback from the crisis has left mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae (ticker: FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) financially strapped, while many other lenders lack the stomach -- or money -- to offer new mortgages. Noted market experts such as Pimco bond-fund manager Bill Gross and economist Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com predict the meltdown in housing will continue for many months, with home prices declining by 10% or more from today's depressed levels.
Yet, such pessimism appears overdone, based on much recent data. Sales of existing homes are showing tentative signs of increasing, while the plunge in prices likely is nearing an end. Total inventories fell in May to 4.49 million existing homes for sale, or a 10.8-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 11.2-month supply in April, according to the National Association of Realtors, in just one statistic emblematic of the nascent trend.

YES, THE SUPPLY OVERHANG still is humongous, but at least the numbers are moving in the right direction, as even Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson noted last week. Speaking at a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. conference, Paulson declared that "we are well into the adjustment process." Inventories of new single-family homes are down 21% from a 2006 peak, he observed, while "existing-home sales appear to have flattened over the past several months, indicating that demand may be stabilizing."

Still other numbers suggest prices are close to bottoming. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index for April, released just last month, showed the biggest year-over-year price decline yet, of 15.3%. Buried in the numbers, however, and widely ignored in the media, was the news that home prices actually rose, albeit slightly, between March and April, in eight of the 20 markets covered by the index (Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Portland, Ore., and Seattle). This was in sharp contrast to the readings for March, which showed prices falling in 18 of the 20 surveyed markets. Also, the pace of monthly price declines is starting to slow in most of the markets with negative readings.

"Other than Larry Kudlow of CNBC, none of the journalists who interviewed me after the latest release seemed at all interested in any of the positive developments," says David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Index Committee. "They seemed focused on the bad year-over-year number."

In general, transaction-based home-price indexes, including S&P/Case-Shiller, may be painting a bleaker picture of price trends than warranted. That's because subprime housing, though less than 10% of the total U.S. housing stock, accounts for a far larger share of current sales volume, owing to spiraling defaults and distress sales. In the San Francisco area, expensive homes ($721,548 and up) have suffered a peak-to-trough drop in price of only 10.7%, compared with low-priced homes ($473,711 and under), down 40.9%, and mid-range homes, down 28.3%, according to the latest Case-Shiller numbers. The surge in low- and mid-range sales has been sufficient to push average peak-to-trough prices down by 24.6%, despite the index's valuation-weighting.

Help for the housing market also may be on the way in the form of proposed congressional legislation that would allow the recasting of some $300 billion in troubled subprime mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration. The bill, which some have derided as a bailout, would demand sacrifices by both lenders and borrowers, and could help to ease conditions in the subprime market.

Of greater importance, a government takeover of loss-ridden Fannie and Freddie -- the subject of widespread speculation late last week -- would ease concerns about the continued availability of credit in the housing market. Fannie and Freddie, which buy mortgages from banks and repackage them into mortgage-backed securities, are the biggest source of financing for the U.S. mortgage market.

SURPRISINGLY, CHIP CASE, whose knowledge of the housing market goes back decades and is based on the voluminous collection of data, is among those who think home prices may be nearing a bottom. Case notes, among other things, that new housing starts fell to 975,000 in April from a peak rate of 2.27 million in January 2006, and that three declines of similar magnitude -- from more than two million to less than one million -- have occurred in the past 35 years. "Every time this has happened before, housing-market activity has rebounded within a quarter and caught experts by surprise," he says. "In many areas, particularly outside the overbuilt markets of Arizona, Florida and Nevada and the huge bubble market of California, home prices may well stabilize" and begin to recover before the end of this year.

Case acknowledges history might not repeat, as the U.S. could be on the cusp of a painful recession. Unlike the three prior dips of a million-plus starts -- in the first quarter of 1975, the second quarter of 1982 and first quarter of 1991 -- the latest slide was triggered by insensate speculation and suicidal lending practices rather than the traditional factors of rising unemployment and interest rates and slowing economic growth. Thus, he says, a protracted dip in the economy would temper his optimism, though the official measures of economic growth don't indicate a recession yet.

Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist of Wells Fargo's primary investment unit, expects home prices to steady by year end, with the pace of foreclosures slackening shortly. Most of the subprime debt at the center of the current crisis already has been written down by financial institutions, he notes, while many subprime borrowers who lost their homes are returning to rental units. "Folks who compare this home-price cycle to the one that occurred in the early '80s obviously have short memories," Paulsen says. "In the 1980s the economy was in a deep recession, mortgage rates were at 17% or more, and unemployment [was] hitting a post-Great Depression high of nearly 12%."

THE STEEP DECLINE IN HOME prices -- Case prefers to study the ratio of sale prices to per-capita income in various locales -- already has improved affordability. The change in such ratios varies by market, with Florida, Arizona and Nevada typically tracing short boom-and-bust cycles because any surge in speculative demand quickly is followed by overbuilding, due in part to the abundance of cheap land. The ratio in Phoenix, for example, has been reverting to a more typical six times home prices to income, after soaring to nine times in 2005 and '06.

Most volatile are popular metro areas, such as Los Angeles and Boston, where housing demand is high, along with restrictions on development. Los Angeles' affordability ratio doubled from 2001 to 16 times at the height of the housing boom, before dropping back to around 11. The Boston market never grew so frenzied, perhaps because it was far from the center of the subprime-lending business in Southern California, where an array of bad business practices flourished. Boston's housing-affordability ratio peaked at 12, and since has returned to a more normal nine times prices to income.

Building a New Foundation: The U.S. housing market typically begins to improve after housing starts have fallen by a million units or more, says economist Karl "Chip" Case, co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Case measures the affordability of homes in various markets via the ratio of home prices to per-capita income. Such ratios rose to excessive heights in recent years in many metro markets, but lately have reverted to more normal levels in cities like Boston and Phoenix.

For much of the country, particularly in the industrial Midwest, affordability never became a problem. In Detroit, for instance, a race to the bottom between home prices and per capita income left the ratio at under four times. Chicago's ratio likewise has been well-behaved, bobbing between five to seven times.

Now sales activity seems to be picking up. According to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, sales of single-family homes, condominiums, town houses and co-ops edged up 2% in May from April's levels. That might not sound like much of a jump, but May marks only the second month in the past 10 to have seen an increase. Much of the gain came from markets such as Sacramento, Las Vegas and California's San Fernando Valley and Monterey County, all regions where lenders were unloading large numbers of foreclosed properties. In Detroit, too, sales are soaring, albeit at median prices of under $30,000.

Cape Coral, Fla., a Gulf Coast city of some 170,000, has been depicted in the New York Times and Good Morning America as Foreclosure Central. Yet, in the past two months year-over-year sales have jumped more than 40% as a result of avid bargain-hunting. So-called 3-2-2-1s (three bedrooms, two baths, two-car garages and one swimming pool) that sold for more than $300,000 at the height of the boom now are being snatched up in bulk by investors for as much as 60% less, says local Realtor Tommy Lee. "I'm telling people to come on down and take a look, but only if you have pre-approved credit, because with gas prices where they are, I don't want to be running a taxi service," he says.

NAR economist Lawrence Yun is optimistic home prices will stabilize in the next five months and begin to recover next year, despite today's gloom and overly stringent lending standards. NAR officials typically are cheerleaders, but Yun advances some reasonable arguments to buttress his view. Home sales, he notes, currently are running at a pace of about five million a year, around the same level as a decade ago. Yet, the population has grown by 25 million in the past 10 years, and the U.S. has created 10 million new jobs. Though the rate of new-household formation requires the net addition of 1.6 million housing units a year, housing starts likely will remain below one million into next year, creating pent-up demand in the years ahead.

TODAY'S HOUSING BUST IS unique in U.S. economic history. It began in good, not bad, economic times, and has proven to be national rather than regional in scale, with markets around the country detonating like Chinese firecrackers between early 2006 and mid-2007.

With the benefit of hindsight, one can discern a concatenation of developments that made the latest cycle almost inevitable. In the aftermath of the 2000 stock-market bust and the 2001 terrorist attacks, and amid heightened fears of deflation, the Federal Reserve drove short-term interest rates to near-historic lows and flooded the nation's financial system with money. Cheap funding spurred a surge in home-buying, and drove the home-ownership rate to a peak of 69% of all U.S. households by 2004, up from 64% a decade earlier.

Prices in many areas began to go parabolic in '04, at the time the Fed began to raise rates. Affordability became a problem in some markets, and cash-out refinancings began to slow. On Wall Street, however, where the securitization of mortgages had become a huge profit center, the demand for new mortgage product was unrelenting. Mortgage brokers and other loan originators were also getting rich off the business, and thus were eager to oblige. By 2005 the mortgage industry had began churning out new "affordability" products that featured low "teaser" rates in the early years of a mortgage to keep monthly payments low. Long-sacrosanct down-payment and family debt-to-income requirements were jettisoned. Other products enabled borrowers to repay interest only in the early years of a loan, while so-called option ARMs added the unpaid portion of monthly interest to the principal balance.

Come 2006, many lenders were scraping the bottom of the barrel to find new borrowers, some of whom, by fibbing about their annual income and net worth, often with the connivance of mortgage brokers, secured "liar loans." As greed gave way to fraud, both borrowers and lenders came to believe that ever-rising home prices would cure any defects in the underwriting process.

All this helps explain the seemingly aberrant behavior of many homeowners once prices started down in 2006. Borrowers with 100% loan-to-value mortgages, particularly after including first and second mortgages and home-equity lines of credit, began defaulting, sometimes mailing their keys, or "jingle mail," to their loan servicers. Why keep paying, after all, once the value of a property has slumped below that of the debt against it? Better to live rent-free until the foreclosure notice arrives. Such behavior also was rampant in Texas in the mid-1980s, when the oil boom went bust.

Delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures hit the housing market with a rapidity and virulence unmatched in previous cycles, pushing total loans past-due and foreclosure rates to unprecedented highs. As a consequence, the current residential real-estate cycle has been front-end-loaded relative to past bear markets, which suggests the pain, though excruciating for many, may be shorter-lived than in the past. Early mortgage defaults have blunted the negative impact of subprime-mortgage-rate resets, which peaked in the spring, and are likely to curb the effect of interest-rate resets on option ARMs and other affordability products, expected to peak between 2009 and 2011. Many of these mortgages already are in the foreclosure pipeline, which will lessen the overhang of foreclosed properties in the future.

THERE ARE SIGNS THAT THE PRESSURE on home prices from foreclosures may wane in the months ahead, says Tom Brown of Bankstocks.com, who studied the performance of the dozens of subprime-mortgage securities that make up the ABX indexes. Precipitous declines in these now-infamous indexes, which track the value of the underlying securities, forced financial institutions around the globe to mark their own subprime assets to market, forcing many to write down billions of dollars, and seek new capital.

The performance of the ABX indexes covering the four crummiest subprime vintages -- those securitized from the second half of 2005 to the first half of 2007 -- shows that the rate of early-stage, or 31- to 60-day, delinquencies has been falling for the past six to eight months, says Brown, depending on the newness of the vintage. This is key, he adds, as today's early delinquencies are the raw material for tomorrow's foreclosures. Fewer delinquencies will eventually mean less of an inventory overhang in the housing market.

Likewise, Brown notes a decline in the percentage of early delinquencies that advance to later states. Both developments tell him the cumulative-loss assumptions on these mortgages made by both the credit-rating agencies and Wall Street could prove far too pessimistic.
One can draw a similar conclusion from the delinquency-inflow trends of other types of mortgages, be they loans backed by home-equity lines of credit or second-lien mortgages from the bubble years. Many have performed horribly, but the rate of inflow of new delinquencies suddenly has dropped in recent months.

An ebbing tide of new delinquencies strongly hints that the worst may soon be over for the housing market, at least in terms of burdensome supply. The pig, in other words, is well along the python's alimentary canal.

In hindsight, the housing bust hasn't been nearly as calamitous as depicted in the media, or as Wall Street's woes might suggest. Yes, people have lost their homes, but more than a few were mendacious mortgage applicants and mere speculators, who eagerly sought out 100% margin loans, only to fold just as quickly when prices turned against them.

It is important to remember, as well, that even after a steep drop in the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices, long-term buyers in the top 20 U.S. metro markets have seen their properties appreciate by 70% since 2000. Home prices often take five to 10 years to recover fully from severe declines such as this. But at least the available data suggest the scary dive in home prices soon will be over.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

New Affordability Allows First-Time Buyers to Rebound the Housing Market

On the path to a housing rebound
The pain that homeowners and homebuilders are feeling now is a sign that things are going to get better.
Courtesy of: Shawn Tully, editor at large, CNNmoney.com

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The news that housing starts have fallen to their lowest level in 17 years sounds like one more reason to be depressed about the shrinking value of your home. In fact, it's an almost certain sign that the path to a housing recovery is finally in sight. If prices are going to stabilize, let alone rebound, the United States needs to produce far more first-time home buyers than new houses. That's the only way to tame the glut of "For Sale" signs dotting front yards from the Inland Empire of California to the Gold Coast of Florida.

Builders constructed far more homes from 2002 until 2006 - the peak bubble years - than could possibly be absorbed by the normal growth in households. As a result, the market is now swamped with one million new and existing homes for sale that aren't occupied, and hence need to sell quickly. That's a multiple of the figure in most downturns, and it testifies to the duration and girth of the bubble.

"For the recovery to begin, builders need to eliminate the standing inventory of finished, unoccupied new homes," says Mike Castleman, founder of Metrostudy, which assembles sales data on four million subdivisions across the U.S. The massive overhang of unsold inventory has remained stubbornly high. Sure, builders cut back, but sales dropped just as quickly. Now that excess supply is finally beginning to shrink. In April, the number of new homes for sale stood at 456,000 according to the U.S. Commerce Department, still a big number, but 93,000 below the mountainous figure a year ago.

The return of the first-time buyer
The key player in any recovery scenario is the first time buyer. The housing market operates with a pronounced laddering or ripple effect. When entry-level buyers flood the market, they not only stimulate production of new homes, they purchase existing homes. Those purchases, in turn, allow the sellers to move up to bigger houses.

But when the first-timers are absent, the entire buying chain gets frozen.

Today, newbies are coming back. Why? For the first time in years, entry-level homes are affordable. Builders have slashed prices, and what they're building tends to be far smaller than the McMansions of the boom, selling for far lower prices. KB Home's average selling price dropped to $248,0000 in its February quarter, versus $267,000 a year earlier. In 2006, KB's basic model in Victorville, Cal., a former boomtown east of Los Angeles, took up as much as 3,800 square feet and sold for $328,000. Today, its stripped down offering goes for $220,000, at less than half the size.

So the first time in a decade renters can carry the mortgage payments and taxes on a new house for what they're paying a landlord. Call it the New Affordability.

Here's how the numbers play out: Single-family housing starts are now running at fewer than 500,000 a year. The normal demand for housing, based on immigration and household formation, is around one million units. We won't get back to that figure for a while because so many people rushed to buy homes during the boom.

But with first timers returning, sales should rise to almost 700,000 units by the end of next year, according to Bernard Markstein, senior economist for the National Association of Home Builders. That means sales will soon exceed new production by as much as 250,000 units a year.
That margin forms the foundation of the housing revival that comes in four steps.

Step 1: First, the return of first-time buyers will shrink the overhang of new houses for sale.
Step 2: Second, because so few new homes are being built, first-timers will start buying existing homes from owners who want to move up but have been trapped by the dearth of buyers. Their improved fortunes, though, come with a big caveat: The prices of new homes are now lower than comparably-sized existing homes. It's as if used cars are selling for more than new ones. That can't last. So move-up buyers are going to have to accept less than they had hoped to get for their current homes.

They'll get a big break as they trade up, however. Unless they bought at the height of the boom, they'll still sell at a profit. They can then use that equity to buy bigger homes at bargain prices. During the bubble, homebuilders started pushing up home sizes to 3,500 square feet or more. It's those behemoths that are selling for the steepest discounts today.

Step 3: Next, housing starts should start rising, probably next year. The increase, however, will be slow and gradual. For the next two years at least, homebuilders will compete ferociously with existing home sellers for customers.
Step 4: Eventually, the glut of existing homes will disappear as well. The excess of new-home buyers over new homes being built makes that inevitable. But the oversupply is so enormous that the healing process could take as much as three more years. Only then will prices in former bubble markets start rising again.

What could go wrong?
One event has the potential to slow or even derail the recovery: A sharp rise in interest rates. Right now, the first-timers are gorging on 6% loans guaranteed by the FHA. But rates may not stay there.

If they rise to 8% or higher because inflation rebounds, it would take a far bigger drop in prices to make new and existing homes affordable. The New Affordability is now in place. But if rates rise, we'll have to establish a New New Affordability - at even lower prices.

Scott Phillips Jr, of Real Living Inc, helped five first-time home-buyers buy homes this summer alone. If you're currently renting and interested in becoming a home owner, email Scott at: Scott.Phillips@RealLiving.com or call 216.328.2500.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Cleveland Home Prices Rise!

courtesy of Cleveland.com

Home prices in the Cleveland area increased in April for the first time in almost a year, with improvement across all price levels, according to data released Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index looks at existing single-family homes sold in 20 major markets, including the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor area. Nationally, the index dropped 1.4 percent from March to April. But the Cleveland-area index rose 2.9 percent, marking the first month-to-month home price increase here since May of last year -- and the biggest one-month gain in the 20 metro areas.

The index for lower-priced homes in Greater Cleveland rose the most -- 5.9 percent for homes under $114,448.

Homes from $114,448 to $182,222 rose 1.4 percent and homes over $182,222, 3.8 percent.
The Cleveland area was one of eight markets that saw higher home prices in April compared with March, though all saw declines compared with the same month a year ago. "Cleveland is one of the markets that has not suffered from the dramatic highs and the dramatic lows," said Maureen Maitland, a vice president at Standard & Poor's. "Their growth rates have not been as strong, and their decline has not been as strong, either, so it's a much smoother cycle.

"The downside is their overall growth has not matched some of the stronger markets. Cleveland has not appreciated too much above where it was 10 years ago." The Case-Shiller report shows that Cleveland home prices have risen 9.55 percent since January 2000, lowest of the 20 metro areas except for Detroit, where prices actually have declined since 2000. Increased home prices from March to April may not mean much, Maitland said. It's typical to see demand and prices rise as the Cleveland snow melts and people start home shopping.

According to statistics last month from the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service, the number of single-family homes sold in six Northeast Ohio counties increased by 10.1 percent between March and April. Carl DeMusz, president and chief executive of the multiple listing service, said this year's spring jump was particularly high and could have contributed to higher prices. But the prices also could reflect fewer sales of foreclosed properties, which banks typically sell at heavy discounts, he said. "There's a lot of dead wood out there that's starting to disappear," he said.

David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, cautioned against being too optimistic.
"I would not declare the whole show over and a great turning point or anything like that," he said - especially since the Cleveland-area home price index is still down 6.8 percent from where it was a year ago. Nationally, the 20-market index fell a record 15.3 percent in April compared with the year before. It was the biggest decline since the index began in 2000, topping the 14.4 percent record of March. The composite was pulled down by markets like Las Vegas and Miami, each of which saw drops of more than 26 percent compared with last April. Those markets had some of the fastest growth in 2004 and 2005, so they had the farthest to fall.

Only six markets had better results than the Cleveland area compared with last year, including Charlotte, N.C., which declined only 0.1 percent. Barbara Reynolds, president of Real Living Realty One in Cleveland, said she thinks low interest rates and prices have lured buyers back into the Northeast Ohio marketplace. She said she has seen "more people at open houses, more people writing offers and more people looking at properties."

Enzo Perfetto, a spokesman for the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland, hopes that increased values and sales of existing homes will lead more people to buy new ones. "We take reports with a grain of salt," he said. "I think everybody kind of has a cautious eye to the next report, but it's definitely a breath of fresh air to see a report in a positive direction for Cleveland."

Friday, June 20, 2008

Breaking Ground in July - UNIVERSITY LOFTS

University Lofts is set to break ground in July of 2008 adjacent to the Cleveland State University Campus. Part of the larger "College Town" vision, University Lofts will include luxury condominiums with 15-year tax abatements, discounted mortgages, and indoor parking. See the site plan below for details. If interested in living at University Lofts, please contact Scott Phillips, Realtor with Real Living, Inc., at 216.986.7716.


Zaremba to Attend Cleveland AIA Event June 26th

The Cleveland AIA Urban Design Committee Presents…
“The Developer Series”

The Avenue District
-Defining The Walkable Neighborhood-


Forum #2: Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm with social time beginning at 6:00pm

Venue: Cleveland AIA office, 1001 Huron Road, #101
Cleveland, OH 44115

** Reservations required as seating is limited **
Phone: 216.575.1242
E-mail: aiadocs@aiacleveland.com

** This program is worth 1 AIA Continuing Education credit **

Since 1920, Zaremba has been a trusted name in home construction. Zaremba, Inc. has partnered with the City of Cleveland to create several award-winning housing developments, including: The MillCreek community, Beacon Place at Church Square and WoodHaven.

Zaremba’s most ambitious project to date, The Avenue District, is a $300 million residential development in downtown Cleveland. With principles deeply rooted in product quality, customer service and architectural integrity, Zaremba continues its commitment to building neighborhoods that enhance communities and enrich the lives of its residents.

The Avenue District, is a $300 million walkable neighborhood in downtown Cleveland, broke ground in September 2006. The first phase, which is scheduled for completion in spring 2009, includes the construction of 54 lofts, eight penthouses and up to 9,000 square feet of retail space at the corner of East 12th Street and St. Clair Avenue, as well as 20 townhomes at East 15th Street and Rockwell Avenue.

For more information on The Avenue District please visit www.theavenuedistrict.com.