Median

A collision involving a pickup truck that became airborne killed an 18-year-old Baltimore County woman and left a Woodbine man in serious condition late Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 70 west of Mount Airy, state police said.Andrea Kelly Simonson, of the 1000 block of Homberg Ave. in Middle River was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the undercarriage of the 1987 Toyota pickup, driven by David Grant Hollinger, 31, of Woodbine, struck her 1998 Oldsmobile.State police said the truck was eastbound on I-70 and changing lanes when it collided with a Ford Crown Victoria driven by Joseph Grimes, 52, of Ellicott City, who was not injured.

The median price of an existing single-family home in the Baltimore metropolitan market rose to $128,800 in the third quarter of 1999, a 4.5 percent increase over the third quarter of 1998.Last year the median price in Baltimore, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors, was $123,300.The median is the midpoint, signifying that half the homes sold for less and half of the homes sold for more.The NAR reported that the national median price rose to $136,000 during the third quarter, up 4.1 percent.

Once again Kokomo, Ind., was considered the most affordable housing market in the final quarter of 1998, according to the National Association of Home Builders' Housing Opportunity Index (HOI).The HOI is a measure of the percentage of homes sold in a given market that a family earning the median income in that market can afford to buy.In Kokomo, which has claimed the No. 1 spot seven times in the last two years, 92.3 percent of homes sold in the fourth quarter were affordable for median-income households.

The median sales price of an existing home in the Baltimore area in the fourth quarter of 1998 fell below the national average and failed to keep pace with the national inflation rate, according to statistics released by the National Association of Realtors.Existing homes in the Baltimore area had a median price in the fourth quarter of $119,400 compared with $131,000 nationwide. The median is the midpoint, with half the homes selling for more and half for less.Existing-home median prices in the area rose from $117,300 in the fourth quarter of 1997 -- an increase of 1.8 percent.

Housing affordability reached its highest level after the National Association of Home Builders released its Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) for the first quarter of 1999.The HOI is a quarterly measure of the percentage of homes sold that a family earning the median income can afford to buy.Families earning the median household income of $47,800 were able to purchase 69.6 percent of the homes sold nationally.Rockford, Ill., ranked as the most affordable community in the nation with households earning a median of $52,600 being able to buy 93 percent of the homes sold in that market.

For the sixth consecutive quarter, Kokomo, Ind., topped all metro areas as the most affordable housing market, according to the National Association of Home Builders' second-quarter 1998 Housing Opportunity Index.The index is a measure of the percentage of homes in a market that a family earning the median income in that market can afford to buy.Kokomo scored a 93.1, meaning a household earning the area's median income of $50,800 could afford to purchase 93.1 percent of the homes sold in the second quarter.

Calling it dangerous and damaging, a handful of Elkridge community and business leaders rejected a plan yesterday to widen a one-mile stretch of U.S. 1, adding a center turn lane and a median strip between the Deep Run stream and Business Parkway.Officials from the State Highway Administration had hoped to gain the group's support before taking the idea to the rest of the community, but, when the meeting deteriorated into a heated argument, it was time to go back to the drawing board."We were hoping to reach a solution and go with this alternate, but we won't," said Bob Fisher, district engineer for SHA.That move was applauded by Kevin Doyle, vice president of the Greater Elkridge Community Association.

As sales of existing homes continue to rise, the same can be said for median home prices across the country.According to second-quarter statistics released last week by the National Association of Realtors, the median price for an existing home was $131,000, up 6 percent from the second quarter for 1997.The median is the midpoint in the price range. Half the homes sell for more, half for less.The metropolitan area with the highest median price was San Francisco, at $329,400.Regionally, the Midwest recorded the largest increase in median home prices in the second quarter; they rose 7.9 percent, to $114,000.

For those of you who can't afford your dream home in Baltimore, the National Association of Homebuilders has the place for you.Kokomo, Ind., was named the nation's most affordable housing market for the third quarter of 1997, according to the NAHB's Housing Opportunity Index of 195 cities.The rankings, which are based on marketing and survey data, measure the percentage of homes sold in a city in which a family that meets the median income for that city could afford to buy. Kokomo's median sales price was $69,000, 46 percent under the national sales price median of $127,000.

The vigorous market for existing-home sales apparently isn't showing any signs of slowing, causing the experts at the National Association of Realtors to change their forecast.NAR last week revised its estimate for this year's sales, saying it expects an increase of 3.2 percent to a total of 4.35 million units, which would be a record."Over the last year we have been making upward revisions in our forecast to the point where we now expect to set another record this year," said Fred Flick, vice president of economics and research for NAR.After two straight record-setting years, Flick expected a cool down this year.

The problem: An abandoned Ford Explorer has sat on a Park Circle median for at least two months. The backstory: Parking is tight along the 3400 block of Hilldale Place just north of Druid Hill Park, but resident Lillian Moore knew the red Ford Explorer had to go. Hilldale and Cotwood Place form a circle around a grassy median where two months ago Moore noticed the SUV - with its front fender wrapped around a tree. Since then, someone either pushed or pulled the Explorer to the top of the hilly median, but there it has sat with its dented fender but without license plates or other identifying information.

The Tax Foundation is out with its list of the most expensive counties for residential property levies. Amounts are for 2007. The highest, as usual, are the New York City suburbs, clocking in at a median annual tax of $7,000 or $8,000 per house. (Median means half the homes were taxed above those amounts and half below.) New York's Westchester County tops the list at $8,422. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois all have counties near the top of the rankings. The U.S. county with the least expensive median real estate tax is Apache County, Ariz.

No one would ever mistake the median strip of Interstate 95 for the Grand Canyon's breathtaking Indian Springs campground. Maybe an ancient Indian burial ground, what with all the carcasses of animals sacrificed to four-wheeled machines that menace mere feet away. Yet there's something wild and slightly adventurous about pitching a tent under the stars and having dinner by the glow of thousands of headlights. Maryland - that is you and I - owns the land between the northbound and southbound lanes of the artery that connects Maine to Florida.

A speeding car weaving between lanes on southbound U.S. 29 crossed the median south of Columbia and collided with a northbound car yesterday, sending both drivers to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Howard County police said an officer in an unmarked police car saw a 1993 Toyota Paseo speeding and weaving between lanes on U.S. 29 at 2:40 p.m. The officer tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver sped up, police said. As the Paseo's driver approached Rivers Edge Road, south of Route 32, the vehicle suddenly changed lanes, skidding across the grassy median and into the northbound lanes, where it was struck by a 2000 Toyota Camry driven by Joshua Jacobs, 39, of the 6100 block of Rusk Ave. in Baltimore.

Maryland's housing market spiraled further downward this past summer, registering the fourth-biggest drop among all the states as home sales fell nearly 30 percent from a year earlier. Despite the tumbling sales, the median sale price of existing homes in the Baltimore area managed to rise 1.7 percent in the July-September quarter compared with the same period last year, according to a National Association of Realtors report released yesterday. But Maryland's home-sales dive of 28.6 percent was more than double the 13.7 percent drop for the nation.

State police at the Golden Ring barracks were trying to determine the identity of a man who was killed when his car struck a tree in the median of Route 702 near the Baltimore Beltway in Essex early yesterday and burst into flames. Shortly after 5 a.m., a passing motorist saw a blue 2008 Toyota engulfed in flames on the northbound ramp of Route 702 leading to the Beltway and called police. Police said a preliminary investigation at the scene indicated that the driver had lost control of the vehicle on the ramp, entered the median shoulder and crashed into a large tree.

In his 18 years on the federal bench, Judge Michael B. Mukasey has issued more than 1,500 decisions concerning matters as cataclysmic as the Holocaust and as mundane as milk, beer and cigarettes. In his opinions, Mukasey comes across as intelligent, prickly, impatient, practical and suspicious of abstractions. He was quick to chastise and impose sanctions on lawyers who tested his patience or, worse, lied to him. He did not hesitate to rule against the powerful, including President Bush's uncle, or people with sympathetic cases but no claim to legal relief.

There are signs along a forlorn stretch of U.S. 40 on the west side that Mayor Sheila Dixon is trying to make Baltimore better, and I don't mean all the new trees, shrubs and stamped concrete planters in the median strips. I mean the 4-by-8-foot, city-sponsored placards with Dixon's name on them. "A cleaner, greener, safer and healthier Baltimore," they read on top. On the bottom, the signs give kudos to "Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Citizens of Baltimore." That's right: a great, big thank-you to the mayor seeking re-election and the taxpayers who paid for the signs promoting her. When the median work began months ago, the city posted large placards at either end of the project, so passing motorists would be aware of the beautification project.

THE PROBLEM -- A crossing signal at a downtown intersection doesn't give pedestrians enough time to cross the street. THE BACKSTORY -- Emily Hiller lives in Little Italy and walks along Fayette Street when visiting downtown. She keeps a brisk pace, unless one of her children tags along, but even when solo she complains that crossing President Street is a torturous task. The pedestrian signal, Hiller says, does not leave enough time to traverse seven lanes of traffic and a wide median strip.

A driver whose car crossed a median and struck a police cruiser in front of police headquarters has been released from Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The driver of the crossing car, LeeAnna Lynn Siegmund, 23, of Augusta Avenue in Baltimore was traveling north on Courthouse Drive shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday, police said. Her Pontiac Sunfire jumped the concrete median at Rogers Avenue, police said, and headed north in the southbound lanes of Rogers Avenue. Police said that the Sunfire hit Pfc. Ronald Mabe III's cruiser.