Carroll County Experiencing Real Estate Impact of Shale Boom
From NE Ohio Public Radio:
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Nestled in eastern Ohio at the heart of Carroll County, Carrollton Village is the kind of place where families pass down large farms over generations, and city folk come to retire from the urban life. The real estate market here has been pretty slow since the recession started a few years ago.
But ever since companies like Chesapeake and Rex Energy rolled their big rigs through town to drill for natural gas in the area, things have started to improve.
Clark: “I would say probably the summer of 2011 when the drilling started and then the pipeliners came, and then the small businesses involved with the drilling. That’s what really helped boost our market."
JoAnn Clark has lived in the area most of her life and sold homes for Cutler Real Estate for the last ten years. Clark says she’s seen a thirty percent increase in sales since May 2011. Data from the area’s real estate listing service shows median home prices are up more than one hundred percent in Carroll County since April last year.
But Clark says she’s noticed an even bigger increase in the rental market. She gets ten calls a week from subcontractors in the oil and gas industry looking for a home to rent.
Clark: “I see a lot of urgency. A lot of these guys have been staying in hotels, and they think that’s going to be fine, and then they get real tired of that hotel life. And they’ll call and they’ll say, don’t you have a house to rent? We’ll rent it tomorrow.”
Clark says the average three bedroom now rents for nearly double the rate of a year ago. Carrolton’s rental activity has increased so much, the village council recently passed an ordinance requiring landlords to register tenants with the income tax administrator. The mayor says that’s to ensure everyone pays their fair share for fire, emergency and other village services.
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