General Membership Meeting
April 18, 2007
MINUTES
1. Rebekah Brock, Prestige Realty Group, gave an overview of the Whittier real estate market. There is currently a very low inventory of houses on the market in our neighborhood. Price per square foot in Whittier has been climbing, but days on market has also increased. Things that will positively affect our neighborhood are: Children's Hospital redevelopment, two new gifted and talented magnet schools, light rail popularity. Rebekah's advice was to keep the nice, historic details in your house; get involved with improving schools; and fight to keep your block nice and safe. More information can be found in this document provided by Rebekah.
2. Toni Iaccino Mettler, Coldwell Banker, gave a presentation on foreclosures. The main cause has been sub-prime lenders and borrowers. Whittier hasn't had very many foreclosures compared to the rest of the metro area. It is a myth that foreclosures are sold way below market price. At most, foreclosures are 3-5% below.
3. Jared Faris, Keller Williams, talked about new home sales in Whittier. He distributed photos and listings for some recent new house sales. The trend has been to build multiple story town houses.
4. Heather Heuer, Prestige Realty Group, talked about recent sales and trends in Whittier. She also discussed the value of various home improvement projects.
5. Dan from Westbrook Development presented their plans to develop the garage on the corner of 26th & Franklin. They are going to convert it into lofts targeted at the "creative class". There will be two interior garages with access from 26th. The interior height of the building is 16' 9". There will be several glass garage doors that can be rolled up if desired. They would like to keep the price around $300-350K. They haven't decided how many units, but possibly three at 2000 sq. ft. each.
5. Brief Announcements: Kiva is having their grand opening celebration on April 21st. We have begun planning for the Whittier House Tour. If you'd like to help with the tour, let Justin know (justinmarks@comcast.net)..