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Ashland real estate

December 16, 2009

Tags: Ashland Oregon, Business, Business and Economy, Canada, Late-2000s recession, Oregon, Real estate, United States
Posted in: Oregon

Despite a harmful global recession and construction freezes on properties around the world, Ashland real estate is still the target for some build-happy property owners.  While the current credit crisis and failing mortgage market make building a new home a bad idea at this time, the Oregon city is still seeing a steady amount of building permits.  The city is capitalizing on this trend by adding on an extra fee to those people seeking building certification and permissions.  Andrea Calcagno of the local television station KDRV reported on November 9, 2009, that real estate in Ashland continues to be developed at a surprising rate although “people who want to build a home or business in Ashland may soon be paying an extra dollar per square foot to the Ashland School District.”

The article claims that “If passed, the tax would be $1 for every square foot for residential building and .50 cents for commercial building projects.”  The Ashland School District says the money collected by the tax is predicted to be between $100,000 and $300,000 a year.  Similar rules and laws have already been implemented in forty-nine other districts in Oregon.  Accordingly, applications for housing permits are expected to decline one the law is put into place.  An indirect effect of this is an increased demand for Ashland homes for sale after construction of new homes begins to taper as the results of the additional fees come into full effect.

The Yahoo! Real Estate Market Snapshot updated on November 16, 2009, showed a slight decrease in the median price of homes for sale, down 1.9 percent to just over $429,000.  The price for foreclosed properties rose 2.2 percent from the previous month to just under $290,000.  These numbers are quite mild in relation to several other cities and areas in the United States that suffered much more over the same period.  Currently, experts estimate the worst of the recession to bottom-out some time in 2010, much to the relief of property owners and potential buyers alike.