How Does Lakewood Compare To The Top 100 Cities?
Moderator: Jim O'Bryan
-
David Lay
- Posts: 948
- Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2005 8:06 pm
- Location: Washington, DC
- Contact:
-
Stephen Eisel
- Posts: 3281
- Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:36 pm
a little subprime history (clicky here)
It wasn't until the mid-1990s that subprime lending began to gain traction: Rising interest rates in the mid-1990s led to declining origination volumes and intense financial competition in the prime market. Furthermore, the endorsement of the beginning of subprime securitizations by Wall Street firms and the willingness of investors to buy those securities represented an endorsement of this product segment, and provided impetus for expansion.
According to Inside B & C Lending, subprime originations grew from $35 billion to $125 billion between 1994 and 1997, and a number of...
-
Justine Cooper
- Posts: 775
- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:12 am
- Location: Lakewood
-
Stephen Eisel
- Posts: 3281
- Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:36 pm
-
Stephen Eisel
- Posts: 3281
- Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:36 pm
-
Kate McCarthy
- Posts: 481
- Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:25 pm
- Location: Lakewood
Bryan,
Thanks for the thread rescue.
I am afraid none of these cities compare to Lakewood. They lack a Bryan, Jim, Sharon, Justine, Stephen, Todd, Shawn .... just a small part of all our eclectic neighbors that make this a great place to live. And that is a quality that is difficult to bottle, market, explain.
I wonder if this crisis in mortgage lending may change they way people look at housing. I think of housing as a home. Not a commodity, certainly an investment, but an investment that has more layers than "I bought it for 129 put in 15 and flipped it for 175." It's an investment in community, in neighborhood. The commodity that is my neighborhood is without a doubt priceless.
Thanks for the thread rescue.
I am afraid none of these cities compare to Lakewood. They lack a Bryan, Jim, Sharon, Justine, Stephen, Todd, Shawn .... just a small part of all our eclectic neighbors that make this a great place to live. And that is a quality that is difficult to bottle, market, explain.
I wonder if this crisis in mortgage lending may change they way people look at housing. I think of housing as a home. Not a commodity, certainly an investment, but an investment that has more layers than "I bought it for 129 put in 15 and flipped it for 175." It's an investment in community, in neighborhood. The commodity that is my neighborhood is without a doubt priceless.
-
dl meckes
- Posts: 1475
- Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:29 pm
- Location: Lakewood
-
Stephen Eisel
- Posts: 3281
- Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:36 pm
-
Justine Cooper
- Posts: 775
- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:12 am
- Location: Lakewood
-
Jeff Endress
- Posts: 858
- Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:13 am
- Location: Lakewood
Had an interesting experience over the weekend. I was attending a wedding reception and had a delightfull conversation with two guests, one from Northern Va., outside of DC, and another from Rochester. They were both astounded by the ease of getting around. The guy from DC has a 70 mile commute, which is NOT unnusual. And the traffic is horrible. He couldn't believe that it only took him 15 min. to get in from Hopkins. Loved the neighborhoods, driving through Lakewood to pickup people. ANd couldn't believe the typical prices on the homes.
The guy from Rochester was equally impressed. Mentioned that Cleveland had all the big city ammenities, Museums, Sports, Etc., but had all the advantages of a small town. Both were blown away by our waterfront.
Jeff
The guy from Rochester was equally impressed. Mentioned that Cleveland had all the big city ammenities, Museums, Sports, Etc., but had all the advantages of a small town. Both were blown away by our waterfront.
Jeff
To wander this country and this world looking for the best barbecue â€â€
-
Shawn Juris
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:33 pm
Jeff,
I couldn't agree with you more on the ease of commute and the great asset of being a lakefront community.
In terms of what I thought was the impetus for this thread is anyone looking at the same thing that I am? As I look at the Money comparison, I find a number of items that should be of concern (educational stats, job growth, property taxes and purchasing power). I'm unclear on what the numbers represent in terms of if they are of the county or specific to Lakewood. Maybe the problem is that it's the wrong tool to answer the question how does Lakewood compare to the top 100 cities. I did find it to be an interesting ranking. Didn't realize that the two cities in NC I have family at were rated so highly and their cost of living seemed far more attractive than I had thought.
On the second link which seems to have generated far more discussion, I find it concerning that Lakewood is one of only 3 cities outside of Cleveland proper that made the list. Regardless of what caused the foreclosure problem, we're feeling it here. To me these statistics don't seem to justify the rah rah responses about how great we are, they seem to bring into focus where works needs to be done.
Furthermore, I don't see how anything there makes a case for detaching from Cleveland. Granted our Crime statistics and number of eldercare facilities stack up very well and we clearly kick butt in the number of bars within 15 miles. But colleges, movie theaters & museums are not located here but rather in other cities. Seems odd to want to separate ourselves from those places that contribute to the positives of living here.
I couldn't agree with you more on the ease of commute and the great asset of being a lakefront community.
In terms of what I thought was the impetus for this thread is anyone looking at the same thing that I am? As I look at the Money comparison, I find a number of items that should be of concern (educational stats, job growth, property taxes and purchasing power). I'm unclear on what the numbers represent in terms of if they are of the county or specific to Lakewood. Maybe the problem is that it's the wrong tool to answer the question how does Lakewood compare to the top 100 cities. I did find it to be an interesting ranking. Didn't realize that the two cities in NC I have family at were rated so highly and their cost of living seemed far more attractive than I had thought.
On the second link which seems to have generated far more discussion, I find it concerning that Lakewood is one of only 3 cities outside of Cleveland proper that made the list. Regardless of what caused the foreclosure problem, we're feeling it here. To me these statistics don't seem to justify the rah rah responses about how great we are, they seem to bring into focus where works needs to be done.
Furthermore, I don't see how anything there makes a case for detaching from Cleveland. Granted our Crime statistics and number of eldercare facilities stack up very well and we clearly kick butt in the number of bars within 15 miles. But colleges, movie theaters & museums are not located here but rather in other cities. Seems odd to want to separate ourselves from those places that contribute to the positives of living here.
-
Bryan Schwegler
- Posts: 963
- Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:23 pm
- Location: Lakewood
Shawn,
I don't think anyone is saying there isn't work to do. Just that we're not doing too shabbily, especially given the consistent negative view of Lakewood that you and some other posters continuously are sharing.
There is always room for improvement, that's true of any city. But compared to the average, we're doing better already which gives us a great place to start.
I don't think anyone is saying there isn't work to do. Just that we're not doing too shabbily, especially given the consistent negative view of Lakewood that you and some other posters continuously are sharing.
There is always room for improvement, that's true of any city. But compared to the average, we're doing better already which gives us a great place to start.
-
Shawn Juris
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:33 pm
Not sure how it's negative to look at a number that indicates a position significantly behind the leaders and be honest about it. Where in those rankings and statistics do you find us to be above average; the number of bars and eldercare centers? Even the big one which was the crime statistic doesn't seem to add up when you look at it further. If the average # of property crimes for the top cities was 206 then where are the cities that have more than 206 incidents? Was it just one city that had 2000 incidents in a 2005? Each of the ones that I opened had about as many as Lakewood did which to be clear can mean that we are as safe as the average top cities in their ranking but let's not get carried away.
If we're really going to look at that report and ignore a negative job growth, dramatically lower performance on the educational indicators and a poor indicator for the cost of living adjustment, then please pass the kool-aid. I am clearly not getting enough of it here and must obviously be unjustifiably negative to not see these numbers as a positive and instead see them as a reason to fight regionalism and scream about the corrupt political system.
Maybe no one is saying that there isn't work to do but other than the ranting about partisan politics, the common response seems to be rah-rah, we're better than the rest, we won! Forgive me for being the one that looks at the scoreboard and recommends that we better start working harder in practice.
If we're really going to look at that report and ignore a negative job growth, dramatically lower performance on the educational indicators and a poor indicator for the cost of living adjustment, then please pass the kool-aid. I am clearly not getting enough of it here and must obviously be unjustifiably negative to not see these numbers as a positive and instead see them as a reason to fight regionalism and scream about the corrupt political system.
Maybe no one is saying that there isn't work to do but other than the ranting about partisan politics, the common response seems to be rah-rah, we're better than the rest, we won! Forgive me for being the one that looks at the scoreboard and recommends that we better start working harder in practice.
-
Kenneth Warren
- Posts: 489
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:17 pm
Shawn:
We’ve been down this road before. It’s about the context of performance – what a community can put up at the level of the competitive class, and how much it can put up given the hard knocks of sociology and shocks of political economy. It’s about the lure of upper middle class step-up communities, where families can afford to exert a more uniform competitive performance pressure on their kids.
It’s about facing up to where Lakewood really stands in the larger political economy of housing. It’s about recognizing the creative destruction of communities under the order of global capital and the evisceration of America’s industrial labor force, the makers in the mid-west.
These are not excuses; it's the actual context for performance.
That said, we get what we pay for in Lakewood, a city with a population of more than 50K at the median home price of $137,362, located in the depressed land of the makers (rather than the manic land of thinkers or traders).
We cannot be complacent about our lack of competitive advantage on the jobs-front. Nor can we be delusional about our will to compete.
Are we really interested in competing with the people residing in the land of the traders where the strive drive is in overdrive?
Yeah, you can point to numbers. You can wish all of us could rise to the competitive occasion. But I don’t really see the fire in the belly, the drive to cop the angle shaping up in the population at large, at least with enough force to get the region over the competitive traders preparing their children to pick our bones and clean our clocks.
Perhaps that’s what troubles you. Sometimes it troubles me.
But I’m still comfortable enough to serve a bit more kool-aid, though with a summertime crime stat swizzler stick, in that old Joan Roberts’s zone of “Lakewood – Good Enough For Now.â€Â
By the way, I am just back from the ferry to Fire Island where the kids of privilege were doing Kuma math problems on Sunday night in summertime, and Mommies were grading them.
Years back my upper middle class corporate friends all sent their girls to Kuma math. Now they are doing top tier colleges and corporate internships.
The east coast is the densely populated and congested - with many successful traders – that’s growth. It's a bit of a manic zoo, too. There are great little stores of various ethnic heritages supported by a growing population of legal and illegal immigrants that put upward pressure on housing prices.
Yesterday I spoke to the young man, 30, in the German Deli, married three kids, and with more on the way, because his wife does not want to use birth control. He said that while there are lots of jobs it was very hard to live in a land where starter houses begin at $550,000.
What is too easily overlooked in Lakewood is the “el cheapo†price of entry. That’s both good and bad, especially if the chaos, decadence and disorder of a low rent district overpower the middle class decorum and lawful order that shimmers in the blue lake.
We have to fight for the preservation of values, which is what we seem to do every now and then.
Take a look at these numbers. Would you like to be on the mortgage hook for any of those that are coming in higher than $300,000?
Take a look at the tax load. It's tough all over to pay for the basket of services that makes a quality community.
1. Middleton, Wis.
Population: 17,400
Median home price (2006): $290,269
Average property taxes (2005): $5,067
2. Hanover, N.H.
Population: 8,500
Median home price (2006): $428,329*
Average property taxes (N/A): N/A
3. Louisville, Colo.
Population: 19,400
Median home price (2006): $322,812
Average property taxes (2006): $1,986
4. Lake Mary, Fla.
Population: 13,200
Median home price (2006): $321,173
Average property taxes (2005): $2,419
5. Claremont, Calif.
Population: 35,900
Median home price (2006): $643,549
Average property taxes (2006): $2,834
6. Papillion, Neb.
Population: 18,800
Median home price (2006): $173,774
Average property taxes (2005): $3,071
7. Milton, Mass.
Population: 25,700
Median home price (2006): $527,670
Average property taxes (2006): $3,824
8. Chaska, Minn.
Population: 22,500
Median home price (2006): $272,932
Average property taxes (2006): $2,752
9. Nether Providence (Wallingford), Pa.
Population: 13,600
Median home price (2006): $309,319
Average property taxes (2006): $3,640
Lakewood
Median home price $137,362
Average property taxes
(2005) $2,489
Kenneth Warren
We’ve been down this road before. It’s about the context of performance – what a community can put up at the level of the competitive class, and how much it can put up given the hard knocks of sociology and shocks of political economy. It’s about the lure of upper middle class step-up communities, where families can afford to exert a more uniform competitive performance pressure on their kids.
It’s about facing up to where Lakewood really stands in the larger political economy of housing. It’s about recognizing the creative destruction of communities under the order of global capital and the evisceration of America’s industrial labor force, the makers in the mid-west.
These are not excuses; it's the actual context for performance.
That said, we get what we pay for in Lakewood, a city with a population of more than 50K at the median home price of $137,362, located in the depressed land of the makers (rather than the manic land of thinkers or traders).
We cannot be complacent about our lack of competitive advantage on the jobs-front. Nor can we be delusional about our will to compete.
Are we really interested in competing with the people residing in the land of the traders where the strive drive is in overdrive?
Yeah, you can point to numbers. You can wish all of us could rise to the competitive occasion. But I don’t really see the fire in the belly, the drive to cop the angle shaping up in the population at large, at least with enough force to get the region over the competitive traders preparing their children to pick our bones and clean our clocks.
Perhaps that’s what troubles you. Sometimes it troubles me.
But I’m still comfortable enough to serve a bit more kool-aid, though with a summertime crime stat swizzler stick, in that old Joan Roberts’s zone of “Lakewood – Good Enough For Now.â€Â
By the way, I am just back from the ferry to Fire Island where the kids of privilege were doing Kuma math problems on Sunday night in summertime, and Mommies were grading them.
Years back my upper middle class corporate friends all sent their girls to Kuma math. Now they are doing top tier colleges and corporate internships.
The east coast is the densely populated and congested - with many successful traders – that’s growth. It's a bit of a manic zoo, too. There are great little stores of various ethnic heritages supported by a growing population of legal and illegal immigrants that put upward pressure on housing prices.
Yesterday I spoke to the young man, 30, in the German Deli, married three kids, and with more on the way, because his wife does not want to use birth control. He said that while there are lots of jobs it was very hard to live in a land where starter houses begin at $550,000.
What is too easily overlooked in Lakewood is the “el cheapo†price of entry. That’s both good and bad, especially if the chaos, decadence and disorder of a low rent district overpower the middle class decorum and lawful order that shimmers in the blue lake.
We have to fight for the preservation of values, which is what we seem to do every now and then.
Take a look at these numbers. Would you like to be on the mortgage hook for any of those that are coming in higher than $300,000?
Take a look at the tax load. It's tough all over to pay for the basket of services that makes a quality community.
1. Middleton, Wis.
Population: 17,400
Median home price (2006): $290,269
Average property taxes (2005): $5,067
2. Hanover, N.H.
Population: 8,500
Median home price (2006): $428,329*
Average property taxes (N/A): N/A
3. Louisville, Colo.
Population: 19,400
Median home price (2006): $322,812
Average property taxes (2006): $1,986
4. Lake Mary, Fla.
Population: 13,200
Median home price (2006): $321,173
Average property taxes (2005): $2,419
5. Claremont, Calif.
Population: 35,900
Median home price (2006): $643,549
Average property taxes (2006): $2,834
6. Papillion, Neb.
Population: 18,800
Median home price (2006): $173,774
Average property taxes (2005): $3,071
7. Milton, Mass.
Population: 25,700
Median home price (2006): $527,670
Average property taxes (2006): $3,824
8. Chaska, Minn.
Population: 22,500
Median home price (2006): $272,932
Average property taxes (2006): $2,752
9. Nether Providence (Wallingford), Pa.
Population: 13,600
Median home price (2006): $309,319
Average property taxes (2006): $3,640
Lakewood
Median home price $137,362
Average property taxes
(2005) $2,489
Kenneth Warren