A Market's Value

In a post I did last month called Hello Neighbor, I talked about one of the uncontrollable aspects of real estate, that being who a next door neighbor sells his/her house to. Well in this post, I have to talk about another variable: when a business leaves a neighborhood.

Last week, one of the big supermarkets in Smalltown, Walbogs, closed down after many years in business. I rarely ever shopped there, but it was one of the main attractions to properties Alpha and Chi. Whenever I would write a Craigslist ad for one of their apartments, I would always say that it’s “within walking distance of Walbogs”. Being in close proximity to a supermarket is also good for property value. Now that it’s gone, everyone’s property value in the immediate area takes a hit and those that relied on Walbogs will have to drive over to the strip mall on Butterscotch Street. As I mentioned in earlier blogs, Butterscotch Street is NOT the kind of place one would enjoy driving through. Nothing but fake thugs and trailer hicks with nothing to do.

I don’t think the place will be vacant for long. Most of the people in the area are refugees that don’t have vehicles, and refugees bring an important amount of income to Smalltown through their food stamps. So the mayor held a press conference saying that something will be done, making a special mention of how property Alpha and Chi’s area has the highest concentration of refugees and that they need a place within close proximity to buy what’s needed. There’s already an offer made for the place so I’m hoping to see a new supermarket in there before winter starts. I’m just glad I was able to get Belle and Sebastian, the Africans, and the downstairs Indians all locked into one year leases before all this happened!