Posted on March 25th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Downtown, Historic Homes / Buildings
If you’ve never been there or if it’s been a while, you might consider taking a couple minutes sometime to go inside the Old State House building downtown at the corner of Capital and Washington Streets. The architecture and features inside are truly remarkable. This view is from the interior of the south wing, the part of the building that has the enormous skylight…which seems ahead of it’s time for 1888 when it was built. The marble columns, incredibly detailed woodwork and period light fixtures are amazing. You feel like you’ve gone back in time the moment you step inside. Funny how a building can actually do that.
Posted on March 21st, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Nature
The Sun and the tilt of the Earth align in perfect harmony today. It’s the Spring Equinox. Today, the angle of the Earth in relation to the Sun is balanced…meaning the Earth is not tilted more away from nor toward the Sun. Days and nights are of equal length. This happens twice a year, the other time being the Fall Equinox in September. Days now increase in length until about June 21st when they start going back the other way again.
Something comforting about the balance in the universe. Seems to put our petty differences in their place don’t you think?
Longer days and warm weather for a long while. We’ve earned it after this last winter.
Posted on March 20th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Real Estate Perspective
I saw a presentation locally earlier this year by a well-meaning and experienced real estate professional, who was summing up the residential market for last year to a large audience of people. Among other things, they presented facts about the number of homes that sold and explained how the average price of a home that sold in Indianapolis declined somewhat. Since I follow these numbers myself, it wasn’t a surprise. But what did surprised me was the leap in logic when they equated the drop in average price as a decline in the average value of homes. Average sale price and average value are two different things altogether. Average price is figured by adding up the sale price of all homes that sold and dividing by the total number of sales. And yes, that did go down. But it doesn’t logically mean that the average value went down. It just means the mix of homes that sold changed with more lower price homes selling which brought down the average. If a larger number of expensive homes had sold, the average sale price would have been higher.
I really don’t think anyone really knows if home values went up, down or stayed the same here in central Indiana. On a case by case basis, some did and some didn’t. Truthfully, the market was definitely slower the last couple years with less homes sales, but that’s because a lot of people stayed on the sidelines to ride out the uncertainty and the media frenzy surrounding the “recession”. I frankly don’t think the downturn in the economy would have been half as bad if the media had just been more even in their reporting.
And now, here they go again. I was amused today by a report on the radio reporting now about a new wave of buyers now going after too few properties on the market…with offers from multiple parties bidding up the sale price over asking price. Where do they dig up these stories? I just know it’s not like that for most buyers or sellers. The truth is, even in the worst of times the last couple years, the market was still a good market. But lately, it’s improving. Even more expensive homes are selling more often than before. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
Posted on March 18th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Just for Fun, Sports & Recreation
As tournament play unfolds now on our television screens and newspapers, I can’t help but think about the talk we’ve seen and heard lately about expanding the current 64 team field to 96 for the NCAA Basketball tournament. Since the NCAA national headquarters is here in Indianapolis, it’s local news, and so we get the full discussion in the sports section every day. It’s pretty transparent that a move like that would be mostly to gain more revenue rather than improve the tournament.
If they really want to expand the field and increase revenue, then why not include all 347 Division One teams? I’m sure there’s a way to adjust the brackets so the math would work. Maybe top seeds could have bye weeks? Lowest seeds would play a couple more games than they would now to reach the final four. A true national champion. Just think what the size of the brackets would be. And talk about increasing revenue…With a huge number of slots available, winning the office pool would be really lucrative then.
Posted on March 17th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Downtown
It was such a nice day with bright sun, warmer temps and clear blue sky…so after wrapping up some business downtown today, I decided to take advantage of the weather to go for a walk. At one point I found myself on the pedestrian bridge that links the Indianapolis Zoo & White River Gardens with the rest of the White River State Park areas. It was hard to believe there was snow covering everything a couple weeks ago.
The view of the skyline from this vantage point is a good one. Looking closely, the Capital Dome and the top of the Monument on the Circle are hiding in the mix of buildings on the left. The rounded shape of the Arts Garden is straight ahead. If this picture were taken 18 months ago, the royal-blue shaded J.W. Marriott hotel would not have been there at all. Now it’s the most visually dominating structure of all in the southwest downtown area. This whole area has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. This pedestrian bridge itself is a perfect example of that. In it’s previous life, it was part of west Washington Street carrying vehicle traffic across White River. Washington Street was re-routed to create the space that is now White River State Park.
Posted on March 16th, 2010 by Richard. Categories: Nature
As the amount of sunlight increases a little bit every day, the tale-tell signs of Spring begin to appear this time of year here in central Indiana. Crocuses are some of the first to celebrate the passing of winter with their delicate display. It’s been a year since they last appeared so it rekindles their memory and delight of knowing that Spring has finally arrived. We made it to the other side.
Funny but if you saw and believed the weather predictions for today, you would have prepared for an overcast and cloudy day. But it turned out a little different. (How unusual…they hardly ever get it wrong!) Warm and sunny with medium-blue sky and a few big puffy white clouds here and there. A good day to make up any excuse to be outside as much as possible.
