At least for now I have the spot as sponsor for the city of Columbus on Localism.com I have mixed feelings about that. I am disappointed that with only two city of Columbus neighborhoods, Clintonville and Polaris, I got the City of Columbus for free. For at least a month the sponsorship of the city of Columbus is mine for sponsoring the most city of Columbus communities. Sad.

Sad.... also since I wrote this all but unless I repost it to my DiscoverColumbusOH.com it will be gone once someone with money and big ambitions notices they can sponsor three Columbus neighborhoods and get the City of Columbus sponsorship on Localism.com for free. Then what I wrote will be gone, gone, all gone... Nope it is here.

Without further adieu here is a profile of Columbus Ohio...

The city of Columbus Ohio is the 16th largest city in the United States according to the US Census.  Columbus is the largest city in the state of Ohio.  Columbus is the capital of Ohio. Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County.  Bits and pieces of the city of Columbus are in Delaware County and Fairfield County.  Little bits.

Employment in Columbus:

Government is a big employer in the City of Columbus. There are state and federal offices in downtown Columbus as well as city and county offices.  The Ohio State University is a huge employer in Columbus. There are five insurance companies based in Central Ohio including Nationwide with a huge presence on the north side of downtown Columbus. White Castle, Bob Evans and Max and Erma's restaurants are based in Columbus. Retailing giant Limited Brands is based in Central Ohio as are the Value City / Schottensteins stores. DSW is part of that company. Big Lots, Inc. formerly Consolidated Stores Corp. is based in Columbus Ohio. In 2008 Columbus was The Forbes.com Top 10 Up-And-Coming Tech Cities" List "No. 1: Columbus, Ohio." The Forbes.com article focused on Battele.

Schools

Schools in the City of Columbus include the Columbus Public School District and the South-Western City Schools.  There are city of Columbus neighborhoods that are in the Dublin, Westerville, Worthington. Hilliard, Gahanna -Jefferson, Canal Winchester, Hamilton Local, Plain Local (New Albany), Groveport-Madison and Reynolsburg school districts too.   

In addition to 'The Ohio State University',  Columbus is the home to Franklin University, Ohio Dominican University, Columbus State, Capital University Law School, Mount Carmel School of Nursing, and Columbus College of Art & Design.

Neighborhoods

Important neighborhoods in the City of Columbus include:

Downtown Columbus

German Village

Victorian Village

Short North

Brewery District

Arena District

Clintonville Beechwold Area

Polaris Area

Easton Area

The Discovery District

Franklinton

"The Hilltop"

Old Town East

University Area

The 315 Tech Corridor (part of the 315 Tech Corridor is in Clinton Township as well as the city of Columbus)

YOUR Columbus neighborhood

Why do agents from outside an area answer questions?

This example is from Trulia Voices.  The same thing happens on the ActiveRain site, I understand. Answering out of area questions for conumers. Why?

Trulia Voices Question and Answer:

"Q. Safe/Not Safe?
Company I work for is relocating to Easton in Fall of 08. I'm window shopping for a home in the area bordered by 270 / Agler Road / Sunbury / and McCutcheon. Don't plan to buy till Fall/Winter 08. EVERYONE is telling me that this is not a safe neighborhood. I've tried to find the truth or falsehood of this by looking at Columbus Police website stats, but can't get a clear picture. Any suggestions or advice?"

Answers...

Most of the answers simply said real estate agents can't steer you to or from neighborhoods. Most directed the consumer back to the police for questions about neighborhood safety.  Here's a novel answer from a Dayton area real estate agent (REALTOR.):

"A. Another way to get an idea of the area is to look at the Ohio State Department of Education Report card for the school district. Check to see if the school is rated excellent, effective, contiuous improvement or ineffective. No one wants to admit it, but there is a high correlation between excellent schools and higher socioeconomic areas."

Ohio Department of Education Report Cards - for all school districts in the state. I thought that told you about schools... not safety of neighborhoods???

Why would a Dayton Ohio area real estate agent answer a question about a Columbus Ohio area neighborhood, in the first place?  Why would you answer a question about safety of a neighborhood with an answer about school district?  Bias against cities? Bias against large school districts?  Race?

Map cluster of red dots - the area? - I identified the 2007 sales for the area identified by the consumer. I believe the homes area all in the Columbus School District, the largest Central Ohio school district.

Code Word

Can the Trulia Voices Q. Person afford a home in a "higher socioeconomic" area?  She's asking about the "area bordered by 270 / Agler Road / Sunbury / and McCutcheon."  It's convenient to work! Easton is in the open area just north of the cluster of red dots. Perhaps she's searched and found she can afford homes in the area she'd identified.  She is not asking about school district or the "socio-econonic" situation of the residents of the area.... she's asking if the area she's identified is a safe neighborhood.  She's just asking people who are not qualified or able to answer her question. The can provide her the place to get her question answered, the police.

Bias against big city school district?  German Village, Victorian Village, Clintonville, West Albany, Downtown Columbus, MidTown East and other expensive neighborhoods are in the same school district as the area identified by the consumer. Safe?  Check with the Columbus police department.

The Columbus Police are the source of safety information about neighborhoods in the City of Columbus.   Columbus Division of Police - looks like the area identified by the consumer is in precinct 7 in Columbus. The map of Precinct 7 breaks it down further. I believe 72 (car number?) is the area the consumer identified. "7th Precinct Community Liaison Officer 645-1407 "

Realty Times on 'Housing Group Targets Steering Via Schools' by Blanche Evans says of the National Fair Housing Alliance:

The Alliance says there is a growing tendency by real estate agents to use schools as an excuse to avoid certain neighborhoods when what they are really doing is steering."

Of course she's in Dayton Ohio not Columbus Ohio...

NOTE: Any comments disparaging ANY school district will be deleted, write your own blog post if you want to say something nasty about a school district.   

 

ActiveRainers if your city is a featured City on R.com Neighborhoods (list below) did you look to see what R.com is telling the public about neighborhoods and pricing your your market?  Accurate?

Realtor.com Neighborhoods- Including a video about Neighborhoods.

I wondered why Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit and Pittsburgh were not on the list of  "Featured Cities" on Realtor.com but one area with less than 3000 listings is.  If I may borrow a line from Sesame Street "One of these things is not like the others."  

Featured Cities on R.com Neighborhoods

Atlanta 

Austin   

Baltimore 

Boston  

Charlotte 

Chicago  

Columbus   

Dallas   

Denver  

Houston 

Indianapolis 

Jacksonville   

Kansas City   

Las Vegas

Los Angeles  

Louisville  

Miami   

Milwaukee

Minneapolis

New York 

Orlando

Philadelphia

Phoenix

Raleigh

Sacramento

San Antonio

San Diego

San Francisco

San Jose 

Seattle

Tampa

Thousand Oaks

Tucson

Washington D.C.

Did you pick out which one of those things is not like the other.  Do you think they did that one first?  R.com Neighborhoods is an "ALPHA" does that mean R.com Neighborhoods is not as advanced as BETA? R.com is rougher than a BETA?  Not as ready?

Maybe Ceveland, Cincinnati, Detroit and Pittsburgh are lucky they are not on the map.

Mainly R.com Neighborhoods is just real estate by ZIP code in Central Ohio. Buyers think I want to buy a home in Worthington or Dublin... or I want to buy a home in Worthington Schools or Dublin Schools.  Are they going to find a search that cobbles together distinctly different neighborhoods common only in ZIP code and find useful information?  I don't believe I have ever heard a buyer express I am looking for a home in 43085, or 43017.  ZIP codes in our area are bizarre, school district boundaries are irregular.  Giving consumers average pricing by ZIP code seems absurd to me. City services in Central Ohio are not uniform across a ZIP code.

Localism has a better list of Columbus neighborhoods than R.com does. R.com Neighborhoods are mostly cities, suburbs of Columbus like Westerville, Worthington, Dublin, Powell, Upper Arlington.  Grandview Heights made the list three times or maybe the third one is City of Columbus neighborhoods near Grandview Heights.  I know Trulia.com had a Grandview, Grandview Heights confusion going on early on too.  Not sure if Trulia ever  resolved their Grandview confusion.

Of course R.com hopes Realtors and ordinary people are going to build the neighborhoods for them. What is the incentive to do so?

I have found a bunch of bizarre things locally on R.com Neighborhoods. Parts of Powell in the wrong county.  Clintonville is in Summit County (the Akron area.) A "neighborhood" it is a city really in Hamilton County (Cinci area.)  Then there seem to be areas that were made up, bundled together and given names.  I wrote about R.com Neighborhoods on my other blog, ColumbusBestBlog.com a few times this week.

Where is Powell Ohio? R.com is way off on home prices, they are just using the 43065 ZIP code as a neighborhood.  The map shows Delaware County and Franklin County as Powell. 

What's Worthington? R.com has a lower than reality home price.  R.com is using the 43085 ZIP so saying the Worthington neighborhood includes some City of Columbus homes in the Worthington School District, but not all Worthington Ohio homes because many are in other ZIP codes.

Clintonville Neighborhood R.com identifies Clintonville as Summit County (Akron area) R.com used the Clintonville Beechwold areas plus all the surrounding smaller neighborhoods in the MLS area.  Or did they just use the Clintonville and Beechwold ZIP codes?

Clintonville Average Price Pricing is distorted.

 

Have you seen the new neighborhoods on Realtor.com  ?

What do you think of it? Nationally Realtor.com has 34 markets now where they have neighborhoods.  How does Realtor.com look in your market?  How is Realtor.com Neighborhoods the same or different than what ActiveRain intended Localism.com to be? 

Will you build neighborhoods for Realtor.com?  Do you think consumers will build neighborhoods for Realtor.com?

Realtor.com has 88 Columbus neighborhoods listed so far.  In Columbus Ohio some of what Realtor.com is calling neighborhoods  are cities (suburbs) and some are Columbus  neighborhoods.  As they say in the video, it's a wiki.  Realtors, community members can go in an define what neighborhoods are. 

Inman Video about Neighborhoods being introduced on Realtor.com and more...

Real Estate Video by - Real Estate Blogger

I looked at one Central Ohio area on ColumbusBestBlog.com  Worthington.  On Realtor.com the neighborhood they are identifying as Worthington is the Worthington ZIP code so it includes part of the City of Columbus, Worthington School District but not all of the Worthington School District in the City of Columbus, just the areas in the 43085 ZIP code.  

The average home price Realtor.com states for Worthington bears no resemblance to reality.  They say it has an average price of $199,900.  The average list  price for the area Realtor.com is identifying as Worthington is $234,926. It varies greatly between the part of the ZIP code that is in the City of Worthington and the part that is in the City of Columbus. 

The Average Rental Price for Worthington sounds crazy too but I have no way to check it out. 

Much of the neighborhood info on Realtor.com neighborhoods for Columbus comes from Wikipedia. One of the city of Columbus neighborhoods  on the  Realtor.com list is  Hungarian Village.  I have always wondered when I see Hungarian Village in the  list of neighborhoods  in the Wikipedia entry for Columbus Ohio if it is someone joking or if historically there was an area on the south end of Columbus where Hungarians settled and someone would like to see Hungarian Village designated a neighborhood.  Realtor.com gives a map of Hungarian Village and shows the  homes that are listed in that area.

Hungarian Village Neighborhood Map - Columbus Ohio

I know I searched the Columbus Board of Realtors MLS (multiple listing service) once for listings and could not find anything listed as Hungarian Village.  Columbus has a neighborhood named Italian Village and a neighborhood named German Village.  I have never heard of Hungarian Village in Columbus except on Wikipedia.  The neighborhood info Realtor.com has for Columbus all seems to be "Source: Wikipedia.org"

The Hungarian Village nieighborhood inrigues me... now this is outside of my area of expertise and I don't want to be Googlable for neighborhoods outside my area of expertise... but I believe I know some legitimate Columbus Ohio neighborhoods in the area that Realtor.com is identifying as Hungarian Village. Legitimate neighborhoods... I mean people say "I live in ____"  or "I want to buy a house in_______" or  "I have a house to sell in _____"

The price Realtor.com has as Average Rental Price for Hungarian Village seems crazy low to me....

Clintonville Ohio is a residential area on the north side of Columbus.  In the Real Living Story "Grandview & More"    Clintonville is the "& More." I scratched my head and said "huh?" when I first watched  the video...  The Real Living Story includes Grandview and the Grandview area... and Clintonville.  The part of the video dealing with Clintonville is about half way through and starts with the Whetstone Library in Whetstone Park in Clintonville. 
 
"Charming homes, trendy restaurants and the Buckeye spirit are plentiful in this area." according to the Real Living Story of "Grandview & More."  

"& More" will be called Clintonville from now on... or Clintonville / Beechwold.   

Buckeye spirit is pretty common all over Central Ohio.. but there probably are more OSU professors in Clintonville and Grandview because of the proximity of both  to the university. 

The charming homes part is definitely true of both Clintonville and Grandview. And Clintonville and Grandview  homes are roughly from the same era so that may be why the Real Living marketing folks lumped the two areas in one video... 

The "trendy restaurants" is much more true of Grandview because Clintonville is dry.  There are some great breakfast and lunch spots on High Street in Clintonville and Beechwold these days but you aren't going to go out for a steak and a bottle of wine in Clintonville... or even a brat and a draught of beer.  There is an Applebees at Graceland now, but is Graceland Clintonville?  Everything south of Worthington is "governed" by the Clintonville Area Commission. 

A Clintonville website says: A locally favorite debate: Where does Clintonville end and Beechwold begin?  Paul Bingle who served on the Clintonville area commission for a number of years is the author of that site. ' The Clintonville Portal' describes Clintonville as "Clintonville: A vibrant north-central Columbus (Ohio) community of 28,000 residents residing in  more than 80 differing subdivisions.  "Founded" in 1847."

Clintonville / Beechwold is an area of the City of Columbus. The Clintonville.org website also says:  

The purest amongst us proclaim that Clintonville is a state of (wonderful) mind and its is a community that encompasses many neighborhoods, including the Crestview, Walhalla, Dominion Park, Northmoor, Webster Park, Northridge, Overbrook, Rosemary Park, Indian Springs subdivisions, as well as the Beechwold subdivisions and the more than 70 other formally named subdivisions.  There is no right place to draw a line between the often discussed Clintonville and Beechwold neighborhoods - because there never was a formal boundary.  "Clintonville" is the combination of many neighborhoods.  There is no value in trying to separate the two halves of the community.

The party conversation will likely never end - in endless riddle discussion of the where the dividing boundaries are.

Whetstone Park in Clintonville including The Park of Roses is 136.28 acres. The Columbus Rose Festival is held the first weekend of June each year.   The Whetstone Branch of the Columbus Public Library is at Whetstone Park.  Clintonville is a walking community and a biking community with the bike path running along the Olentangy River west of Clintonville.

A yearly tradition is the Clintonville Homes Tour.  Hosted by and benefiting the Clintonville Community Fund, with the support of the North Area Real Estate Association, it's a public tour of  private residences on the Sunday after Labor Day.  The Clintonville Homes Tour has homes in Beechwold and Clintonville on it often.   

Paul Bingle's Clintonville Portal has items of historical interest that he has researched  

Often buyers will look for homes in both Clintonville / Beechwold (north of OSU)  and Grandview (south west of OSU)  because the homes are similiar in age and style but there are some differences.  Clintonville is in the Columbus school district.  Clintonville is a neighborhood or an area of neighborhoods.  Clintonville does not have hard and fast borders, as a city Grandview of course does.  When you leave Worthington going south there are Clintonville signs but not all consider the area north of Graceland as Clintonville...  or Beechwold...

Clintonville has an active Chamber of Commerce.  There is a lot of new businesses including restaurants and shops in Clintonville in just the last couple of years.  The very outdated Clintonville Commission website says:   Clintonville is a special community with its tree-lined streets, parks, ravines and rich history. Preserving the charm  and quality of life in Clintonville is a top priority of the CAC and presents many special challenges

The Clintonville Area Commission or "How Clintonville grew" again this is according to Paul Bingle on Clintonville.org 

"In late 1974, the City of Columbus created the "Clintonville Area Commission", designating its governance area (south: the Glen Echo Ravine, west: the Olentangy River, north: the City's border with the unincorporated Sharon Township and the City of Worthington, east: the Big Four Railroad).  Although the CAC's name includes the word "area" - as time passed, most residents within the geographical area of the CAC's oversight, including residents north of Clinton Township, believed that they resided in "Clintonville".  Thus the imaginary boundaries grew.

P.S.  Did Grandview look interesting?  I will cover Grandview separately....

 The Short North Columbus Ohio - Inman Stories - Real Living

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth?  A video about The Short North in Columbus Ohio, calls the neighborhood "downtown." While the neighborhood is urban,  The Short North is not downtown, it is just north of downtown, hence the name, 'The Short North'  ... a quick run for the police in the old days when it was not the place to be for galleries and restaurants.  The introduction of The Cap over 670 in the past year makes the walk from downtown to the Short North seamless.    

There are arches in the Short North today, but this picture is an old photo of Columbus with the arches, that were the reason Columbus was known as the Arch City. The video shows the modern (and hopefully soon functional) arches in The Short North

There are lots of colorful stories about 'The Short North' what it was like in the past, how it got the name, 'The Short North.'  I've blogged about events and place in The Short North throughout the year on my Columbus Best Blog.   

The Short North is one of the the neighborhoods mentioned in the Chicago Tribune Travel Section about Discovering Columbus recently.  Oct. 17, 2006 - "Discovering Columbus"

Jul. 1, 2006 - Doo Dah Parade -  A Short North July 4th institution.

May. 10, 2006 - A Scary Columbus Neighborhood The Short North is primarily commercial but surrounded by popular residential areas like Victorian Village and Italian Village.  The Short North is an urban neighborhood.  A neighborhood with a history. Yet there are nearby urban residential opportunities as well.   

May. 5, 2006 - Short North Gallery Hop  The Gallery Hop is the first Saturday of the month, rain or shine.... or even snow. 

Apr. 26, 2006 - Columbus One of Top 10 Big Cities 

People from all over Central Ohio visit the galleries, restaurants and special events in The Short North.