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Huber Heights housing market is exploding
Charles Simms Development is building over 70 new homes in Huber Heights.
After years of home building, some developers confess they’re having a tough time finding good sites to build. Not so much in Huber Heights. The city just keeps on going. “Business is booming, we are seeing a lot of development right now,” Assistant City Manager Bryan Chodkowski said, rattling off different proposals that have come before the city in the past year. Huber Heights’ 43,400 residents enjoy an average income of $69,000, and the 25-square-mile community has absorbed a good chunk of the region’s housing development, accelerating at a rapid clip since the 700-acre Carriage Trails development got off the ground in 2009. DDC Management with its 283-lot The Villages of Westport. SMSD Holdings LLC with its 180 apartments at Heathermere. “There are a ton of things in the queue,” Chodkowski said. That’s on display in the city’s halls and across its streets. Indeed, Dayton Realtors notes how quickly the market is moving — 682 homes sold last year, at a median price of $166,000. The city’s other major suburbs saw volumes rival that, but none with as low a median price. “A lot of gavels,” Mayor Jeff Gore remarked as he clanked the symbol of his office for the first of a series of proposals at a council meeting last month. Three developers sought to lay out visions for undeveloped land at different points in the city promising 368 homes between them, so they could gain approvals in the future.
Wright-Patt needs to find thousands of workers in coming years
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base needs the right employees, and it needs them soon.
That was the upshot of a conference Monday at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, meant to connect Air Force and Ohio education leaders on how best to build the Wright-Patterson workforce of the next generation.
Lt. Gen. Robert McMurry, commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, headquartered at the base, said just over 40 percent of the base workforce will be eligible to retire in five short years. And 55 percent of that workforce is older than 45, he added.
Base officials are quick to emphasize that not every worker who is eligible to retire will in fact retire right away. But McMurry said those twin statistics shed light on what he called “the problem.”
One way to put the problem: The base needs to fill 3,120 jobs in the next five years. “We’re going to need workers,” said McMurry, who oversees a center with more than 28,000 employees across the nation. “The other thing is, I’m going to need workers with skills …. We need a skills refresh.””
Huber Heights residential growth adding 530 homes, units
The sign proclaiming Huber Heights as America’s largest community of brick homes may no longer stand along Interstate 70, but its legacy lives on through masonry requirements for the booming residential market the suburban community enjoys.
More than 730 new homes have been constructed within Huber Heights over the past five years in five major developments zoned with varying brick requirements, according to City Manager Rob Schommer. He estimated that amounts to a $120 million investment into the city’s housing stock, which he described as “vibrant, diverse and strong.”
“We have paid special attention to making sure we are a community that people want to live in and have options regardless of what their needs are in housing – whether they're single; a small, beginning family; a large family; empty-nesters or seniors needing limited or full assisted living,” Schommer said. “Residents enjoy that small-town sense and feel of a little less hustle and bustle, but know that they're not too far away from it if they want to get into it.”
Dayton-area home sales, prices continued to rise in April
Both home sales and home prices in the Dayton region saw an increase in April, continuing the trends of 2018.
A report from Dayton Realtors found sales of single-family homes and condominiums in the Miami Valley totaled 1,457 last month, an increase of 3 percent from last year. Sales volume generated last month saw an even higher increase of 12 percent from April 2018, totaling $257 million.
Both average and median home prices went up in April, with the average sale price of a Dayton-area home increasing 9 percent from the 2018 rate to approximately $176,500. The median sale price increased to $150,000, a 7 percent jump from last year.
A healthy housing market is indicative of an overall strong economy.
The first four months of 2019 saw 4,473 homes sold, the exact number seen in the first four months of 2018, according to the report. Sales volume, however, continues to increase. Home sales in the Dayton region from January to April have generated $729.6 million, a 5.8 percent increase from the same time period last year.
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Dayton-area senior living community plans $9.2 million expansion
A Dayton-area senior living community will expand this spring.
The Carriage Trails Senior Villas will add 46 new affordable cottage-style apartments for residents 55 and over in the coming months as part of its second phase of development, according to a news release.
The Tipp City community — at 1000 Waterside Circle — offers high-quality affordable housing to seniors in the greater Dayton region. Carriage Trails' apartments include fully equipped gourmet kitchens, and the property also has a clubhouse with a business center and multipurpose community room, as well as on-site management and maintenance staff.
"Miller-Valentine Group is excited to further expand our portfolio in the greater Dayton area," said Brian McGeady, partner and president of Miller-Valentine Affordable Housing Development, in a release. "We look forward to having a long-term positive impact on all of the residents whom we will serve at Carriage Trails Senior Villas in the coming years."
