When it comes to Ohio’s property value-bereft Southeast District, Athens County is, in effect, a diamond in the rough.
Spurred by interest groups and grant money, the county’s total valuation has increased in seven of the past eight years, despite its location in an otherwise stagnant region.
Even as the rest of the nation was experiencing the housing collapse in 2008, the county’s valuation increased more than 13.5 percent, according to reports from the Athens County Auditor.
“In Athens, we were kind of insulated from that for a couple of reasons,” Mayor Paul Wiehl said. “One is because we are in Appalachia, the housing stock never really went up. The speculation of flipping houses did not go up as well.”
Athens County Chief Deputy Auditor Dave Owen said the increase is likely due to construction and inflation but could be due to the increasing value of homes based on sales as well.
“If we value a house at $95,000 and you sell it for $100,000, other houses in the neighborhood will sell for more,” Owen said.
Groups such as the Buckeye Hills-Hocking Valley Regional Development District and Hocking Athens Perry Community Action work to improve businesses, properties and infrastructure in the region. As a result, they help to improve the property value.
“Hocking Athens Perry Community Action does weatherization, house improvements, and is the group that administers our CHIP grant,” Wiehl said. “They actually run the application and do a lot of the modeling in terms of the goals and strategies to be put in place to get the most effectiveness out of the grant money they get.”
The community action group has a home repair and rehabilitation program that helps homeowners fix problems with their properties as well as making sure they meet state standards, said Jeremy Boggs of Hocking Athens Perry Community Action. He added the group also has programs that deal with storm damaged homes.
The Buckeye Hills-Hocking Valley Regional Development District works more with improving businesses and infrastructure, Development Director Bret Allphin said.
He said improved infrastructure has a direct connection to increased property value.
“It makes a home or an area much more marketable, not only for residents but business as well,” Allphin said. “I think those things have a large impact on property value.”
During the last decade, the city of Athens has also found ways to improve property values through city development. It has used more than $19 million in federal grant money for community improvement projects, raising housing values in the process.
More than $2 million from the $19 million is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This money is mostly used for repair, though it is occasionally used for building new homes, Deputy City Auditor Ray Hazlett said. He added that repairing a home typically causes a positive effect on housing value in the area.
“Usually if a home gets improved and it’s in much better condition, it affects the houses around it and their value (also) increases,” Hazlett said.
— Sam Howard and Kate Hiller contributed to this story.
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