Monthly Archive for September, 2008
It’s just a sign on the roof of a building, but it’s diagonally across the street from Wrigley Field (and, presumably, it’s legal) so it’s worth $350,000/year. That’s how much Anheuser-Busch was paying to maintain their advertising sign on it. This is in the news only because A-B failed to pay on time, so the corporation owning the building at 3701 N. Kenmore covered the sign. (Print editions of the story seem to have mislocated the building on Sheffield)
$350,000/year implies the sign, or rather the right to place it on that building, is worth something like $4-$6 million.
The County Assessor’s web site says that 3701 N. Kenmore is parcel number 14-20-219-026-0000 and has a total market value of $854,000 (The “assessed value” is $136,640). So if the right to place a sign is worth, say $4 million, even pretending that the building has no value at all, the assessment is far too low, only 3.4% of market value.
I want the Assessor to assess my house at 3.4% of the value of the right to put a sign on the roof.
Tags: Billboards, Cook County Assessor, Jim Houlihan, wrigley field
So far unlike other markets where the company does business, Silicon Valley land costs have not gone down
–Steve Wethor, western region president for homebuilder Taylor Morrison.
From Denver(!) Business Journal, Sept 12 2008
Tags: Silicon valley
A July 2008 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (covering 303 counties in Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) says that during 2001-2007 half these counties saw farmland prices more than double. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Dakotas, farmers, Minnesota
A report from Perth, in Western Australia, says that two sites capable of accommodating a total of 24 apartment units were recently sold for a total of $5.35 million. This would be $A222,917/unit, or about $184,000 US. The sites are in the Churchlands Green development which is said to “emphasize sustainable design principles.” The developer has published a list (small pdf) of single family lot sales prices, which it reports have ranged from $A525,000 to $A860,000.
Tags: Australia, development land, Western Australia
According to this article from voiceofsandiego.org, taxi medallions there have gone from $50,000 to $140,000 in the past three years. Only 995 cabs are permitted in the City, and drivers pay $400-$500 per week for a car with medallion. The article says some 650 drivers have petitioned to remove the limit on the number of cabs.
Tags: san diego, taxi medallions
This is of course no surprise, but what’s worth noting is that at least one “estate agent” seems to understand that it’s land value, not house value, that’s dropping,l per this article from the Telegraph. Brownfield sites (which to the Brits means any vacant site previously built upon, not necessarily polluted) are down 19.8%, and greenfield sites down 22.5%, in the first half of 2008. (via nowpublic)
Tags: residential land value, UK land value
A 5500 sq ft lot in Flushing, offered for $3.49 million, pays taxes of only $12,000/year according to this ad. That’s about 1/3 of 1%, if the value is at the asking price. Typical residential properties pay about 3 to 6 times this percentage of value, I think. The asking price works out to $634/sq ft., which seems like a lot for a site in an outer boro, altho I’m not very familiar with NYC land prices.
Tags: Flushing, Queens, undertaxed
According to this article from Binghamton Press, New York state landowners (or more precisely, I guess, the owners of mineral rights on the land) are getting “up to 18%” royalties on natural gas revenues. This is in addition to an upfront fee for the mineral rights themselves, in one presumably case amounting to “more than $2400/acre.”
Tags: gas, natural gas, new york state, royalties
Farmers will be paid $3.50 per metric ton of carbon sequestered. Actually the article doesn’t say “farmers,” it says “landowners,” but possibly in this area they are generally equivalent. “The carbon offsets to be purchased through this program will be the result of changes in farming and ranching practices instituted by local landowners as part of a Section 319 Clean Water Initiative…” I infer that they’re being paid for something they were going to do anyway. I have no ideas how much $3.50/ton is in terms of acres or labor hours.
Apparently the farmers are being paid to change their practices. Had they already been farming sustainably, would they still be eligible to be paid?
Source:
WFEC to sponsor State’s First Carbon Sequestration Pilot Program, Sep 3, 2008 2:08 PM
Tags: carbon sequestration, Oklahoma