Bases are loaded on ‘eminent domain’

The ‘eminent domain’ issue blew up earlier this year when the Supreme Court ruled compulsory purchase powers could be used both to acquire land needed for public amenity construction and for commercial projects if these were in the public interest. The proviso was that state laws did not outlaw use of eminent domain powers for commercial projects.

Since the ruling these have been numerous objections while a number of states have indicated they will change their laws.
Now that the DC government has filed its the property, unless they can persuade a judge to rule the move unconstitutional, the owners affected have three months to move out.

In this case the Washington Nationals' ballpark is to be publicly owned and generate tax revenue for the community while the properties that need to be pulled down to make way for the stadium are commercial. The price the DC Government is prepared to pay is one of the sticking points, especially since developers have moved in and are offering premiums on land adjoining the proposed stadium.

• US sales of existing homes continued at record levels during September, ‘surging in some areas following Hurricane Katrina’, the Washington based National Association of Realtors has reported.

Total existing home sales – including single-family, town homes, condominiums and co-ops – were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.3m units in September, unchanged from August, but 7.2 per cent higher than the 6.8m of September 2004.

There have been ‘sharply higher home sales’ to people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, said NAR’s chief economist David Lereah.

’Ad hoc checks in markets such as Baton Rouge show existing-home sales rose dramatically from September 2004. Parts of New Orleans recorded a fraction of the year-ago volume, although some suburban areas are doing well’.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was put at just over £127,000, 13.4 per cent up on September 2004.

However Lereah believes the housing market is entering a period of transition. ‘The underlying fundamentals of the housing market are solid and sales will stay historically strong, but they will trend modestly down from current peaks. Masked by the data are early signs that housing is starting to wind down from a boom and will transition into an expansion – in other words, a soft landing’.