Friday, July 17, 2009

Is Elizabeth 'Falling Fast'?

Posted by Jarvis Holliday On 7/17/2009 No comments
Between going to a couple of networking events and a board meeting this week, there have been a few instances when this economic recession has been the subject of conversation. But that, unfortunately, has become as common as talking about the weather. The focus usually shifts from unemployment to budget cuts to the housing market. And it was the talks about the housing market that reminded me to post this link to an article I'd come across a few days ago.

Last week, Forbes.com published its list of "America's Fastest-Falling Neighborhoods," evaluating the 25 largest cities in the country to determine which neighborhoods experienced the biggest year-over-year price drops. To qualify for the list a neighborhood's median sales price had to be above $150,000 and have more than 10 sales.

Some of the neighborhoods that have been hit the hardest during the past year according to the list are: Greenwich Village in New York with a median price of $1.08 million, a 45 percent year-over-year decline; Glassell Park in Los Angeles with a median price of $225,000, a 50 percent decline; Greektown in Chicago with a median price of $212,000, also down 50 percent; and Penn's Landing in Philadelphia at $423,000 for a 51 percent decline.

Also making the list, which I found surprising, is Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood. According to Forbes.com, Elizabeth's median home value fell 37 percent during the past year to $272,000. It seems very odd that this neighborhood would've experienced such a sharp decline, but since the data is based on home values and sales from Trulia.com, it's likely that Elizabeth's data has been skewed by the decrease in condo prices.

This Victorian-style house in Elizabeth is representative of the character you'll find in the tree-lined neighborhood.

I just did a quick search on Trulia.com for Elizabeth and I found more condos for sale than single-family homes. Plus, many of the single-family homes were listed for well above $500,000 and are two or three times more than the $272,000 median price Forbes cites. Again, the Forbes position must likely be due to condos, which are the type of homes where prices had started to get out of hand in Charlotte.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of talking about the economy and am ready to hear some good news about it. At my board meeting last evening, one of my colleagues, who'd just come back the night before from a summit in D.C. that dealt partly with the economy, stated that the number of job losses per month has started to decrease. That should've been good news, except my reply was that there are now fewer people working to even get laid off.

Click here for the article on Forbes.com.

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