A perfect day for dragons.
These are a few photos I took this afternoon. More will be posted tomorrow.
Who won? I have no idea.
The average sold price for a home in the city of Oshkosh in August was $133,098. It sold for 95.8% of its listed price and spent 135 days on the market. This was a reduction of 25 days on the market from 160 days in July. The total number of residential sales in the city for August was 114 a drop of 56 houses sold from August of 2007.
Homes selling under $100,000 made up 33.08% of the homes sold in August, with homes selling between $100,000 and $200,000 making up 47..05%. Homes selling over $200,000 made up 18.01% of all residential sold.
Of the 114 homes sold in August 60% had 3 bedrooms and 55% had 1 bathroom.
Looking ahead into September, the city of Oshkosh had 1176 homes currently for sale. That number is down from the 1237 homes in inventory at the beginning of August and an inventory decrease of 72 homes listed in September of 2007.
Analysis:
The great news in this report is the large drop in the number of days homes are sitting on the market before selling. We carved off 25 days while holding on to 95.8% of list price. Our inventory is still down which might account for the drop in days on market, the fewer properties available the lower the days on market, maybe.
Each month we are seeing fewer homes being listed and a drop of 72 listings over last year is large. Perhaps many home owners are just holding on for the market to turn around and prices to increase again. The concern over this plan is just how fast or even if the market will rebound. We are lucky in Oshkosh to have not seen a real boom and are not now suffering from a bust, but we do seem to have been stricken with concern.
Our real concern should be credit constriction. The real worry on main street is loan denial. Many average credit buyers are not getting a loan than just a month ago would have been no problem. Until the credit squeeze is over the odds of a rise in inventory and sales are dim.
Seven years ago today I left politics, a career that started when I was 18 years old in the summer of 1981 as the volunteer director for Jack Watson, a candidate for the Governor of Georgia.
For more than 20 years I served many candidates in many positions, from the state house to the White House. The one commonality among all the candidates I chose to support was their long term vision and plans. None of them was looking for the immediate gratification answers. They looked ahead ten, twenty, fifty years to grapple with how to best lay the ground work for where we as a nation needed to be then.
How would the 21st century economy be different, what would be required of our military, our intelligence, what would be the new vital industries, how would we be effecting our environment, our water, air, food supply, how could we become energy independent, what would the challenges be in the year 2000, what would be the threats?
Just by asking the questions, the candidates I worked for looked beyond the politics of that moment and the easy platitudes that accompanied the perpetual campaign. I was proud to be a "flack, an op" or the other pejoratives that now accompany my old profession. I am still proud of the candidates I worked for and their battles in office and out to persuade other elected officials to plan long term.
On September 11, 2001 a knot formed in my stomach and remains there today. I know the candidates I worked hard for and believed in could, did and would make a difference if they were in office. I know the candidates I did not work for could, did and would make a difference now they are in office. However, the saddest part to me and why I knew I could no longer participate in my chosen career is that I also know that candidates I didn't work for, but did support also could, did and would make a difference. I was angry and so disappointed in the careless way they had thrown away twenty years of opportunity that would have PREVENTED what happened that day.
In the following seven years I continue to be angry and disappointed at what has followed. I am glad of my decision to leave the profession but I still look back.
In the subsequent years I joined the the corporate side of politics working on NIMBY issues which drove my interest in returning to my home and my looking inward to my own life and community. As I became more involved in my neighborhood I noticed a troubling trend of denigration towards Oshkosh's downtown communities. Our homes, schools and businesses were/are treated as less than.
This was a natural progression to my becoming a Realtor, a promoter of our downtown, our neighborhoods and our beautiful older homes.
There is still a knot in my stomach and it has a name, Osama Bin Laden. I still ask where is he and why has he not be caught? There is no excuse.
Thursday, September 11 appears to be a showdown day at the city council for the Near East Neighborhood revitalization program.
Council member Paul Esslinger has offered up three different ways to eliminate the program. Several organizations are lining up to weigh in and encourage those opposed to the program to tell the council just how awful they think it is and how unfair the the city inspectors are being when evaluating their properties.
I have heard it said more than once that folks on the east side would move to the west side if they had money.
My question to all of you is - what do you think?
When someone recently told me folks on the east side live there because they don't have the money to live on the west side, I got really annoyed. This is not just offensive, but truly stupid. Why would someone want to pit different parts of this community against each other?
As most readers know I live on the east side and I love it here. There is no better place to live in Oshkosh than the east side, but I would never denigrate someone who lives on the south, west or north side of town.
Now, as to the Near East Project. I think it is a great step towards helping the neighbors and neighborhoods in that community. There are a few property owners (yes many of them landlords) who do not take an active interest in maintaining their houses. Is the project perfect? What first step ever is perfect? Is it better than nothing - absolutely, and better than most of us who supported it in the beginning thought it could be at this stage.
There are rumors of mass intimidation, threats and reprisals by city staff of anyone who dares speak out against this program or their property citations. Rumors are easily propagated but difficult to believe without evidence. If people are being intimidated I hope they show up at the city council meeting next Thursday and testify.
I also hope those neighbors in the whole east side show up to stand up for our selves, our neighbors and our neighborhoods. Let's fill the council to show our support for the city's efforts towards making every street a neighborhood.
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