Liz Householder - TheSalemBlog

When you go to the poll at Town Hall in Salem, CT this election day, you will find Peter Sielman sitting at a small table in the hallway as you head to the main meeting room where the voting tabulators are. He'll be there to collect signatures and sign people up who are interested in seeing future Town Meetings online instead of in person.

To sign up, you'll need to give your name and email address, and fill out a questionnaire stating that no one other than you will use that email address to participate in a virtual town meeting. Then your name will be verified against the Registrar's official list.

Peter says the questionnaire is brief and should only take a couple of minutes to fill out. If you have any questions about how this actually works, he will be there to answer any and all of your thoughts, ideas, or concerns. The nice thing about a town like Salem is that we can try this on the smaller population base to see if it works, so we're a good "guinea pig"....

This sign was at the end of my street last year, along with others like it around town. I think it's a good point, and as the Moderator at the polling station in Salem this year, I guess I should be reminding people to vote.

More people tend to vote during a Presidential election, but it's true every year for whatever offices have candidates running. You can take a few minutes yourself to come to town hall and cast your own ballot, or you can let someone else decide for you....

If your voting in Salem, the polls are open on Tuesday from 6AM to 8PM. Bring some form of ID with you, and take a couple of minutes to vote!

The other night, I heard someone assert that there are three businesses in Salem who are, by far, the largest taxpayers in the town, and that I would probably never guess who they are.

Now that I know who they (supposedly) are, I bet you won't either. I'd have to do a lot of checking on facts and figures before I would say this was fact, but for what it's worth, here they are, in no particular order:

1. The New London Water Authority

2. Salem Farms Campground

3. Witch Meadow Lake Campground*

We have other businesses in town, and ones that are more recognizable, like Salem Country Gardens, but no one really contributes a lot to our tax base in as meaningful a way. It's a problem that we are wrestling with now - how to bring in businesses that won't impact the town and it's more rural character but will help the tax base and increase some services to residents. I just thought this was a pretty surprising concept, and one that most people probably don't realize.

*There's a third campground, near Gardner Lake, called Indianfield Campground, that doesn't appear to have the land base that the other two campgrounds have, therefore I haven't included it.

Now that the spring selling season is over, and we're heading into the holidays - and traditionally fewer buyers in the marketplace - I thought it would be a good time to take a look back and see what has actually sold in Salem this past season.

Right now there are 49 active single-family homes on the market in town. Since April, 17 homes have actually sold, and there's one under deposit. Now let's look at a couple of details: the price ranges of the homes actually sold this spring/summer, for one.

The most popular price range that resulted in a sale was in the $200,000 to $300,000 range - 6 homes, to be exact, closed in that range. A close second was the $300,000 to $400,000 range, with 5 homes selling. The least expensive sale was in the $100,000 to $200,000 range - one house - and the same statistic shows up in the highest range of $601,000 and above. Between $401,000 and $500,000 and between $501,000 and $600,000 were 2 sales each.

Now lets look at the style of homes that sold. Does it matter if you're trying to sell a raised ranch or a colonial? Apparently it does: of the sales in this same time period, twice as many colonials sold as raised ranches, capes or splits. But temper that by noticing that the largest number of homes actually for sale in Salem is usually a colonial, and it makes sense that more of those would also sell.

The last criteria is location, often as - or more - important than price or style of home. In Salem, there really isn't anyplace anyone would call "undesirable", although families often prefer a neighborhood setting to a home on a main road. Since we have a very small downtown, we're a community of suburbs. But there are popular neighborhoods, either due to price or style of home, in addition to being off the main roads. The least expensive home sold in Salem in the last 6 months was in the Horse Pond area, and was a raised ranch. The most expensive home sold was in Emerald Glen. The interesting part about this little statistic is that these two neighborhoods are right next to each other. Anyone who knows Salem probably knows why.

As for sale price vs. list price, let's be clear: all the homes sold in Salem have gone for within 3 or 4 % of their asking price. If you're thinking about selling right now, your best chance may be to come in within the $200,000 to $300,000 range, and you might want to think twice if you're hoping to sell for anything over $400,000, because that range just isn't moving in this market.

When: this coming Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 18

Where: Salem School, Salem, CT

Why: To benefit the Salem Free Public Library Friends organization

Starting Friday afternoon, you'll be able to choose from something like 20,000 books of every imaginable genre and age, including some rare books (usually, anyway) and they'll all be going for a few dollars each. The gym/auditorium at Salem School gets turned into a cavernous used bookstore, and the bargains are unbelievable. Arranged by subject matter, there will be paperbacks, hardcovers, a children's section, and DVD's, tapes, and other things, too.

Don't miss this! It only happens once a year, and I have always gotten at least one Christmas give there for someone on my list.