Living In Pike.com

This time we are looking at 208 new apartments. This new development was going to have 126 single family homes in addition to the apartments but guess what? There are no builders interested in building 126 homes at this location at this time.

The location? 7511 New Augusta Road. Just south of Eastbrook Elementary School and north of the Augusta Green neighborhood. Currently the property is home to Crooked Creek Golf Club and Midwest Softball.

Pike Township Schools bought the north 47 acres of the total 114. They would like to rebuild Eastbrook either just south of where it is now or further south on part of the 47 acres. Eventually they might build a new middle school on the remainder of the 47 acres sometime in the future. The other 67 acres would be for apartments and single family homes.

Since the apartments would be where some of the golf course is and since the single family homes would be where the some of the softball fields are there is talk that the softball fields may stay open another year or until they can find a single family home builder.

My take?…I am always leery about new apartments. The density of these apartments would be 10.96 units per acre on 18.981 acres. I have seen pictures of what the proposed buildings would look like. They remind me of Lakes of Georgetown at 62nd and Georgetown. I have several other grips. They will be adding 200 new cars of traffic to New Augusta Road just south of the school. I suppose you could argue that apartment residents could walk over to Georgetown Road and catch the bus. The entrance to the community is along side this monstrosity. A red trailer that has been sitting there for years. It would be much nicer if the developer bought this property (has been commercial use in the past – carpet warehouse) and turned the entrance into a park like setting (this property has been for sale). As a Realtor I like nice entrances to communities. This attracts buyers. My other big grip is that the high power lines go right through the middle of the community. For resale, this is horrible. Nobody likes to buy next to high power lines.

I don’t think this project will be stopped. I have attended several informational meetings on this project and the city seems to be OK with it. It will be interesting to see when a production builder will step up and be willing to build single family homes at this location.

Original Plot Plan – Click Here

Revised Plot Plan – Click Here

November 7th was a sad day for Pike Township Residents Association and myself. PTRA had asked me to do a presentation in front of the Metropolitan Development Commission to try and stop a new community from being built at the old YWCA location. I knew of many reasons why it was a bad idea and tried to express them to the commission. The southeast quadrant of Pike Township is very unstable in terms of property values and foreclosures. Until the area stabilizes you don’t want a new community in the area. Not only would it not help the surrounding communities but would likely depress the values of the new homes. Unfortunately the Commission only looks at “land use”. If there are houses all around the land, why not put houses there. It is very sad that the Commission takes a narrow view at zoning, but that is their charge. State statutes say that is the way they are suppose to judge it. I consider this a huge flaw in the zoning system.

There is one glimmer of hope…the zoning they received for the land allows for 75 homes OR the land can be used for religious use. There is a church that is interested in the property. They would use the existing YWCA building after fixing it up. Their plan includes neighborhood outreach, programs for children, daycare, and health center etc., something the area could really take advantage of. I am hoping that a deal can be made between the developer and the church. Otherwise I see a storm brewing.

Plot plan of the new development – Click Here

Commission presentation through Windows Media Player – Click Here Starts at 22:55

The federal government has been talking about helping home owners with their sub prime loans and loans that adjust every year. They have been asking banks and mortgage companies to bend and help out these people by working with them, adjusting their rates or not making the yearly adjustment to the interest rate. Well folks…

Read this

Pike has had it’s fair share of what I call recycled homes (Bank owned, HUD, VA owned and Pre Foreclosures). Right now over 1 in 5 homes sold today in Pike Township is a recycled home (22.32%). In June it was almost 1 in 4 homes (24.9%).

There is a bright side to this for buyers. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY!!! I can’t tell you how many bargains there are out there. Everyday I see houses that are under market value. Some may need a little work, BUT there are loans available that will include money for repairs. For the homes that need a lot of repair, investors have been buying them up. I deal with investors that are more than willing to buy a house, fix it up and rent it or resale it. They are getting some fantastic bargains.

To me it seems that house investing is a fairly new industry. When I started in the business, foreclosed on homes would sit on the market forever. Now investors are having bidding wars. If you are a non investor, you have to work quick. There are several communities in Pike where people are paying over list price just to win the bidding for recycled home.

The Pike Township Residents Association, Inc. (PTRA) is a non-profit organization that provides a forum for Pike Township neighbors to discuss regional and local neighborhood concerns such as land use, development, parks and recreation, transportation, schools, drainage and sewage problems, water supply, area beautification, etc. PTRA serves as an umbrella organization for local neighborhood associations as well as serving the needs of individual residents and businesses. PTRA meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:00 PM at the Pike Township Government Center ( 5665 Lafayette Road ) and this meeting is open to the public.

Typically at every meeting builders, developers and residents that want zoning changes or variances present their cases to the 20+ Board members. The Board can request commitments from the presenters. The Board will take a vote on the pitition. The vote is non binding but weighs very heavily with the downtown Zoning Commission who has final say.

Congraulations go out to Mr. Dan Kuznik, math teacher in the Pike Freshman Center. Last Thursday he was awarded 2008 Indiana State Teacher of the Year. A great honor for the Pike Schools System. From the schools news release;

Today, Dr. Suellen Reed, Superintendent of Public Instruction, visited the Pike Performing Arts Center to present the Indiana State Teacher of the Year Award to Mr. Dan Kuznik! Dr. Reed surprised Mr. Kuznik and the freshman family with the announcement at their annual ISTEP convocation.

According to an information release from the Indiana Department of Education, “Math teacher Daniel Kuznik knows that the essentials of education are commonly listed as curriculum, instruction and assessment, but he challenges himself and other educators to form strong relationships with students. This is why Kuznik was named the 2008 Indiana Teacher of the Year.”

Mr. Kuznik was selected to receive the honor by an Indiana Department of Education committee comprised of department personnel and external community and education leaders – including former teachers of the year. He was chosen from an initial pool of 53 public and nonpublic educators nominated by local superintendents across the state.

Superintendent Jones said, “I cannot think of a more deserving educator to receive this honor. Dan Kuznik is a committed educator who is passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of his students.”

“Mr. Kuznik clearly has the ability to connect with his students in an important way. The high expectations he sets for his students are a positive example for us all, and we are proud to have him representing us at the national teacher of the year competition.”

- Dr. Suellen Reed -

“Dan is one of those rare educators who understands and embraces the awesome responsibility of educating all children. His strength as a teacher is his ability to connect, interact and inspire his students to learn.”

- – Superintendent Nathaniel Jones -

Two months ago Pike Township Residents Association asked me to do a presentation on Pike Township Foreclosures. I was thrilled to do so because I have done extensive research. At the beginning of this year I put together a 30 page report called “Tim Lord’s Foreclosure Study for Pike Township, Marion county, Indiana 2006″. The study looked at the 275 houses that went through foreclosure and were resold on the MLS (Multi Listing System). That is where I get my data. I used 4 types of listed houses;

1. Bank Owned
2. HUD Owned
3. VA Owned
4. Pre Foreclosures

Why Pre Foreclosures? Because if they had not been sold as a Pre Foreclosure they would have ended up being foreclosed on and being Bank Owned, HUD Owned or VA Owned.

What is a Pre Foreclosure? Basically a short sale. A short sale is where you get the mortgage company to take less that what it is owed by selling your house under market value. Is it easy to do? In 25 words or less, NO! I have been involved in several of these transactions and it requires a lot of paperwork by the seller, a listing real estate agent who is determined to get the job done and a mortgage company that is willing to take less instead of taking the house through foreclosure. If a mortgage company takes a house through foreclosure it loses about 30 to 35 percent of the loan in expenses. By letting it sell short it only loses about 10 to 15 percent of the loan value.

What I discovered in the report was that the 275 houses (I call them recycled houses because not all of them went through foreclosure) out of the 1370 houses sold in Pike Township in 2006 represented 20 percent of the houses sold. That means that 1 out of every
5 homes sold in Pike Township in 2006 was a recycled home. Then I tested the data for 2007 and discovered that the percentage has gone up and will go up even higher next year. It may reach 30 to 35 percent before it drops. Why? I will talk about that in another posting. Right now I wanted you to see the year after year numbers.

Email me if you would like a copy of my study – tim@LivingInPike.com

After 11 months of being on hiatus I am back and hopefully with a vengeance. I thought this Blog would be easy to maintain in the beginning but I was wrong.

Last year I decided that I needed to put together a different type of Realtors real estate website. I had seen so many that appeared to be cookie cutter (they all look the same) and I wanted something different. After doing all kinds of research on Realtor websites, I came up with www.TimLordRealtor.com. It took 6 months of my free time but it was worth it. This Blog suffered. It was placed on the back burner.

Well, no more. I spent Labor Day weekend updating the software, updating some of the features and deciding which direction I am going to go with it. Some things will change and some things will remain the same. I have studied the log files of the Blog and determined what people were looking at and reading the most and will steer it more in that direction in the future. Change will take time. It won’t happen overnight

Buy the way…a lot of things have happen this year to the real estate market. Most people would think that the market is down because of property taxes and sub prime loan market. Well I am here to tell you that this is the best year I have ever had. In fact the last 2 months have been the busiest ever. It is a buyer’s market out there and I am here to tell you there are bargains to be had. Stay tuned and I will tell you more…

Letter to the editor – The Indianapolis Star
Our View: John Brown, Steve Jones, Isaac Randolph and Ross Reller

The Metropolitan School District of Pike Township is perhaps one of the most diverse in Indiana. The birthplaces of students represent 32 countries. This produces a rich environment that strengthens the educational experience.

Student achievement in most of the Pike schools continues to improve; attendance and graduation rates are well above the national average. The Indiana Department of Education recently awarded its highest rating of exemplary to Pike for 2005-06. Yet, unfounded rumors that occasionally plague all school systems seem to stick when it comes to perceptions about Pike because for some our rich diversity makes the worst seem more believable. And inaccurate perceptions can unfortunately be perpetuated by poor journalistic practices, such as when an Indianapolis Star reporter recently quoted a Pike High School student as saying that he typically witnessed multiple fights in the hallways on a given day. Had the reporter checked with other Pike students, their parents, teachers, school administrators, school board members or community leaders, he would have learned the real facts.

This is what you would find when walking the hallways of Pike High School on any given day: students who are involved in rigorous programs, such as our International Baccalaureate Diploma, or one of our many academic academies. Perhaps you would see performing arts students rehearsing for another award-winning performance, or athletes hard at work training for a winning season, or maybe Science Academy students preparing for national competition in robotics design and construction.

Pike High School offers a rigorous course of study, requiring 48 credits to graduate as opposed to the 40 required by the state. There are 22 options for Advanced Placement coursework. From the graduating class of 2006, 93 percent have gone on to enroll in institutions of higher education.

For the 2005-06 school year, Pike produced a remarkable 21 National Merit finalists, Commended Scholars or National Achievers.

To sum up, Pike Township schools, with all of their rich diversity, offer some of the finest educational and extracurricular opportunities in Central Indiana.

Is everything perfect? Of course not. Sometimes diversity brings challenges along with benefits. But this is life. And our students do not need textbooks to learn about the people of other countries, cultures, races, and religions. They learn this from each other, in student clubs, athletic teams, the lunchroom, the school bus and the hallways. This diversity reflects the real world.

Pike schools are committed to this type of diverse environment while providing the safest schools with the finest educational and extracurricular opportunities. Those are the real facts about Pike.

Brown is the father of a Pike High School student and the vice president of the Pike Township School Board; Jones is a Pike Township resident and a professor at IUPUI; Randolph is the father of a Pike elementary school student and the City-County Council member for District One in Pike Township; and Reller is the father of a Pike High School student and vice president of the Traders Point Association of Neighborhoods.

PIKE TOWNSHIP-TRAFFIC LANE(S)RESTRICTION

2720 West 62nd Street
6200N/1W
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for repair of gas leak from September 18th, through December 29th, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

9105 West 86th Street
8600N/1W
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for new service bore from August 21st, through November 30th, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

2815 West 79th Street
7900N/1W
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for service retirement from July 14th, through October 31st, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

6615 West 79th Street
7900N/1W
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for new service from July 12th, through October 31st, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

3110 West 79th Street
7900N/1W
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted to replace main from June 23rd, through September 29th, 2006.
(Citizen Gas & Coke Utility)

4751 Century Plaza Road
4300N/4700W
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for gas main installation from April 19th, through October 31st, 2006
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

4305 Georgetown Road
4800W/1601N
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for installation of gas lines from April 18th, through October 31st, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

4701 Georgetown Road
4800W/1601N
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for installation of gas lines from April 18th, through October 31st, 2006,
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

4900 Georgetown Road (4900 block through 5500 block)
4800W/1601N
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for installation of gas lines from April 18th, through October 31st, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)

4337 North High School Road
6300W/1N
There will be 1 traffic lane restricted for new service from August 29th, through November 30th, 2006.
(Citizens Gas & Coke Utility)