Top 5 Reasons to use the Franklin County Auditor website

I recently took a class where the Franklin County auditor and his staff spoke about all of the cool tools that Franklin County residents have at their disposal. I thought I'd share a few of my faves (5 to be exact)!

1-Current Levy Info
It's elections season and as tired of the horrible campaign ads we all are, you might actually be interested in what the passage of a levy would mean to your pocket book. The auditor's got you covered! Checkout the "current levy info" tab (after looking up your property)

2-The "Me & My Pal Drawing Contest (Dog Licensing)
A cool initiative to promote dog licensing (also done through the auditor) and is taking place at all schools in Franklin county. Maybe you and your child(ren) can work on a picture together. Any time spent with your children is time well spent, right? But if your children ARE your dogs and you need to license them with the county, click here to find out how.

3-Board of Revision-Sure we all think our property taxes are too high! But some property values really have decreased significantly compared to their assessed value. First, lookup the assessed value of your home . If you think there's a significant difference in value, either contact me to lookup comps, hire an independent appraisal to assess the value for you (~$300-500), or checkout option #5. If there is a significant difference, then go to the auditors site, then go to the "Your property" tab and click on Board of Revision. There is a TON of information to get you on the road to contesting your taxes. It's a lengthy process but worth it if your assessed value is signicantly higher than the homes value. You can file to amend your taxes with the BOR from Jan 1-Mar 31st of any given year.

4-Tax Estimator
If you're thinking of Buying a NEW home and need to figure out if you can afford those pesky taxes in the new area, checkout the tax estimator tool

5-Area Sales Activity
Referring back to #3. You can run a search of comparable sales in the area to give you a good idea of what your neighbors homes are selling for. It will give you square footage and a sold date but you'll have to look elsewhere for more detail.

Trying to keep the list short but you can also:
-Pay your taxes online
-Find out about the Homestead Exemption (a nice tax reduction for the 65 and up & the permanantly disabled)
-Translate your search into 50 different languages
-search for unclaimed funds

September Home Sales Statistics for Columbus

Home values continue to rise which is good news for central Ohio. The average sale price for the first nine months of the year is $161,204 up 7.4 percent from the beginning of 2010 according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.

There were fewer homes listed for sale last month than is customary for September. Over the last five years, there was an average of 3,710 homes added to the market during the month of September. However, last month only 2,997 residential homes were added to the already elevated inventory in central Ohio.

Although slightly lower than August, the total residential listings in September (16,728) was still higher than it’s been since August of 2008 when the inventory level rose to 16,975.

“Inventory levels had come down over the last year and a half – which is what we were working towards,” said Sue Lusk-Gleich, President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. “When inventory levels are too high, the increased competition forces some homeowners to sell at prices that are too low which in turn often affects the values of other neighboring homes.”

“In order to re-balance the market, we either need the inventory to decrease or the number of buyers to increase. And since the tax credit incentives brought many buyers into the market earlier than we would have seen otherwise, we have a smaller pool of potential home buyers to absorb the inventory now.”

“When comparing sales figures to the previous year, we need to remember that home sales have been elevated since April of 2008 due to the tax credits,” adds Lusk-Gleich. “Even so, sales are still up four percent year to date.”

Home sales across Ohio were down 20.3 percent in September but are still up 1.5 percent for the first nine months of the year. The average sale price in Ohio last month was $129,572, down 3.5 percent from last September. Year to date (January through September), the average sale price was $134,318 which is down four percent compared to the first three quarters of 2009.

Nationwide, existing home sales - which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops- were down 19 percent. Distressed homes accounted for 35 percent of sales in September compared with 34 percent in August; they were 29 percent in September 2009.

The median sale price nationwide for all housing types in September was $171,700, down 2.4 percent from one year ago.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to a record low 4.35 percent in September from 4.43 percent in August; the rate was 5.06 percent in September 2009.

Housing affordability is near an all-time record. Mortgage interest rates are almost half of what they were ten years ago and they’re about one-and-a-half points lower than the peak of the housing boom in 2005. At the same time, home prices are running about 22 percent less than five years ago when they were bid up by the biggest housing rush on record.

Click here for Ohio home sales statistics
Click here for the national home sales release

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Champagne, Clark, Hocking, Licking, Fairfield, Knox, Logan, Marion, and Ross Counties.

Source: Columbus Board of Realtors

Trick or Treat Nights for Central Ohio 2010

Call it Beggar's Night, call it Trick or Treat but definitely call it fun for the entire family! Here's a coupon to help you stock up on candy to pass out to the little kiddo's in your 'hood. Have fun!

Franklin County Trick or Treat Dates

• Bexley: 5:30-7:30 pm - October 29
• Canal Winchester: 5:30-7:30 pm - October 29
• Clintonville: 6-8pm - October 29
• Columbus: 6-8pm - October 29
• Dublin: 6-8 pm - October 29
• Delaware: 6:00-8:00 - October 31
• Gahanna: 6-8pm - October 29
• Grandview Heights: 6-8pm - October 31
• Grove City: 6-8pm October 29
• Groveport: 5:30-7 pm - October 29
• Hilliard: 6-8 pm - October 29
• Lockbourne: 6-7:30 pm - October 29
• New Albany: 6-8 pm - October 28
• Obetz: 6:00-8:00 - October 31
• Reynoldsburg: 6-8pm - October 29
• Upper Arlington: 6-8pm - October 29
• Westerville: 6-8pm - October 28
• Whitehall: 6-8pm - October 29
• Worthington: 6-8pm - October 29

Delaware County Trick or Treat Dates

• Galena: 6:00-7:15 - October 31
• Genoa Township (Westerville) 6-8 pm - October 28
• Lewis Center: 6-8pm - October 31
• Orange Township: 6-8pm - October 31
• Powell: 6-8pm - October 31

Fairfield County Trick or Treat Dates

• Lithopolis: 6-8 pm - Oct. 29
• Pickerington: 6-8 pm - Oct. 29
• Lancaster/Carroll: 6-7:30 - Oct. 29
• Baltimore: 5-6:30 - Oct. 31

Licking County Trick or Treat Dates

• Granville: 5:30-7 pm - Oct. 31
• Pataskala: 6-8 pm - Oct 29
• Johnstown: 6-8 pm - Oct 30

Madison County

• London: 6-8 pm - Oct. 30
• Plain City: 6-8 pm - Oct. 30
• West Jefferson: 6-8 pm -Oct. 30

This is a conglomerate of info. If you notice discrepancies or have updated dates, please comment below.