Is your community in a growth or decline stage??

Question

I just posted a message in our blog about communities in decline or expansion, and wanted to see what our members think of their own communities.

Where do you live, and is your community growing or declining?

Also - What factors are you considering besides jobs??

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Bristol, CT

I'd say in general the average house price has come up significantly in the past 5 yrs in this town and the surrounding towns.  The average is being bouyed up by the large homes being built in developements in this town and other surrounding towns.  What was once nearly worthless farmland (nothing being grown in this state of merit) is now populated with homes ranging in price from $250k-750k.  The average price of existing homes went up a ton with the rest of the country, in my neighborhood gains of 50%+ were seen in the past 2-3 yrs.  This has tapered off and cooled down some with rising interest rates but the prices are still hanging up there some, maybe up 30-40% from 2-3 yrs ago.

Also, Bristol is home to ESPN HQ.  They are constantly growing and with their growth comes higher paying jobs.  Our retail is really picking up as well, once Walmart came to town the main road in town started getting more traffic and subsequently a lot of shopping plazas were revamped.  Retail jobs don't pay that well but more jobs are always helpful.  Also better tax revenue in town which always helps and many small businesses seeing greater profits.

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Orlando, FL

The market has slowed down from a fever to fast and seems to be leveling out there last year I had clients buying homes brand new for 400k and selling them this year for 900k-1m! that being said you can still get a lot of house compared to some parts of california and vegas.

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I live in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire.  The economy still is pretty strong here, although there are not many major employers in this area, so when there are rumors of the Portsmouth shipyard closing, there is always a panic, followed by a rather sudden increase in homes being placed on the market.  Overall it hasn't affected the prices of Single Family homes though.

The prices from last year are still rising, although somewhat slowly compared to previous years.  The time on the market has increased greatly though.  Homes used to sell on the same weekend they were listed, now homes sit on the market for months with no offers.

This area has grown quite a bit, most of seems to be from folks in Massachusetts who want to live a little more in the sticks and can afford quite a home for around $400,000.  The addition of a commuter rail from this area to Boston a few years ago has really helped to push along the market.

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I currently live in Provo, UT, but have spent the majority of my life in Brigham City, UT, which is about 50 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Over the past 5 years or so, Brigham City and the surrounding towns (mainly Perry and Willard) have seen a huge increase in the number of homes. On Homepages.com, it lists Brigham City as having a 21% Year Over Year Population Growth. I know in Perry, where I actually grew up, housing developments and projects are becoming part of the norm now. Where the city used to be a few houses with many fruit orchards...it's now the opposite. Just in my neighborhood - we built our house 15 years ago and we were the fourth house to be built in the neighborhood - now there are 50+ houses plus condos at the bottom of the street. And that's just one neighborhood - and every part of the city is experiencing the same. It's really quite amazing the rapid growth - and because most lots are now either 1/4 or 1/3 acre lots, and ours, as with most of the "older" homes are built on 1 acre lots, our homes value has nearly tripled.
I wish, as do my parents, that we would have invested in real estate when we first moved in....we would be sitting pretty if we would have.

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Some areas here are in a decline, because of the high incidence of mortgage fraud over the last 5-6 years or so. It has made rehabbing in the inner-city more risky because of the difficulty getting solid appraisal values when trying to refinance-rent afterward. 
However, there has been so much growth in the outlying areas (if you are familiar with Atlanta, I mean areas outside of I-285 which encircles the city) because of the crazy pace of building subdivisions. 
I think the best growth opportunities going forward will be lease-options or Owner Financing the Spanish-speaking population that has grown tremendously over the last decade here. Atlanta today reminds me of what was going on in L.A. in the 60s-70s.

Luke Chan · Answer

Wow sweet site, I now have it bookmarked  :groovy:

Dick Green · Answer

Glad you can use it.  I just stumbled accross while surfin for material on the topic.  ....

Dick Green · Answer

There's numerous factors involved in the Houston economy.  Houston's overall real estate market is strong.  The influx of evacuees has had a strong effect on the rental and the crime market.  Many landlords, like myself, that jumped on the Help The Victims Campaign, are displeased with Fema feeding rent checks thru a straw.

The Mayor's office has growing scandal about the mis-appropriation of funds, making it even harder to obtain credible information pertaining to the Fema Program.

Crime in the Southwest has increased dramatically.  I'm talking about bodies being chopped up and people being shot in drive-thru lines at Mc'Donalds. I think this will only be a short-term negative affect as some residents of southwest Houston head to the hills.

That said, Houston still has a very efficient Real Estate Market operating on a approximate 15% ratio. The proposed Metro Rail Expansion Plan and migration towards the inner-loop has spurred some major investment.  New Highrises, Fourplexes and Townhomes are going up every.  Historic areas like Memorial, Tanglewilde, River Oaks, Heights ect...are still strong.

In the North.....the proposed expansion of Inter-Continental Airport has caused stagnant growth in as many as 6 to 10 different communties as homeowners wait in limbo wondering whether or not they will have to drink the imminent domain Kool-Aid.

I actually live north of Houston in Conroe.  Now you know the rest of the Story.

p.s.  I thought this post felt a little like work  :beer:  so I joined this site  incase there were anymore similiar projects.http://www.knowledgeplex.org/index.html

Luke Chan · Answer

I live in Norfolk County, MA (Near Boston).  The population here grew around .5% in the last 5 years (650k-653k).

As for Real Estate, prices are beginning decrease, and some people can't sell their houses for the over-inflated prices they used to be able to sell them for. :violin:

Personally, the house I live in was appraised at around 900k in 2004, but dropped about 50k since then (Still, my parents bought it for 350k in 1991).

Maybe in a couple of years the real estate market will be ripe (I have no idea) :groovy:

Dick Green · Answer

Our community in Conroe, Texas seems to be doing well.  My house has appreciated 40 to 50g in the last nine months.  It should go up even more during the upcoming summer months.