It all comes down to desirability and value. How desirable is the property? Sure, the square footage of the house and the lot size play a factor, but we’re all aware of the three “L’s” of real estate – location, location, location! Where the property is located has everything to do with the value or potential value of the property.
When talking to real estate professionals I’m always astounded by this truth. It’s interesting to say that it’s all about location because what that essentially means to your average homeowner is that it has everything to do with what surrounds your home. These are basically the things that are out of your control. But is it out of your control? Well, I don’t think it is. I think that the function of improving and maintaining property values stems from a community effort. Think about what attracted you to the location of your home that you live in now. It might have been the schools, it might have been the close proximity to your work, maybe the parks or maybe even the sidewalks in your community. Whatever it was, it was important to you and clearly, it had value. 
As elected officials and city staff members I believe it’s our job help maintain and improve our overall value. Today, I believe we’re working on that. To help soften the economic blow that has affected property values all over the country, we’ve done a number of things in 2009 and 2010 that I’m proud of. We’ve competed for and attracted several new companies to Rochester Hills. These companies have brought in total about 700 jobs to our city. With the support of our residents, we also passed our local roads millage renewal last month. The renewal will help maintain and improve our local roads, which clearly aids in increasing the desirability of our neighborhoods. We’ve continued to strongly fund our parks department which helped support a record year in attendance in 2009. We’re expecting to surpass that record this year.
It’s true that our city revenues are shrinking and to me that reality emphasizes the importance of good decision making. As a council member, I am keenly aware of the importance of protecting our investments and improving our three “L”s.
Nathan T. Klomp
