HEBRON, Ky.
- The noise of jet aircraft from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport apparently hasn't deterred most prospective homeowners from buying in areas identified as noise corridors.
Since the Kenton County Airport Board began the purchase assurance program in April 1996 as part of a federally mandated noise mitigation effort, 105 houses have changed hands and another six sales are pending.
The board's noise mitigation committee released figures Monday that show the properties sold for an average of 94 percent of their appraised value and 95 percent of their list price.
''I think the important figure is the percentage of appraised value,'' airport deputy aviation director Dale Huber said. ''That figure is fairly consistent with what most houses sell for in this area, according to the real estate estimates.''
Houses that have sold or are being sold through the program range in appraised value from $60,000 to as high as $385,000. The average price is about $120,000. And while many are older homes in some of Florence's more established neighborhoods, a few are newer homes on the edge of the Oakbrook subdivision.
The FAA has outlined noise corridors around the airport, primarily to the south through Florence, where property owners may take advantage of the purchase assurance program.
The noise corridors are located at the ends of both north-south runways, and were created after the original runway was extended in 1995 and the new north-south runway opened in 1991, bringing some neighborhoods closer to low-flying jets on takeoffs and landings.
Under the program, the airport contacts homeowners that have recently been included in redrawn noise corridors and gives them three options: ignoring the program; keeping their house and having it insulated for sound at the airport's expense; or placing the house on the market through the program.
If the house doesn't sell within 120 days, the airport can buy the property at fair market value and then attempt to sell it.
Since the program began, the airport has bought 60 homes and resold 37 of those. The remainder have sold within the time limit. Last summer, Rosemary Robinson and her husband, Hugh, purchased a house on Claxon Drive in Florence, in a neighborhood located in a noise corridor.
''We had waited for two years for that house to go on the market,'' Mrs. Robinson said. ''We moved from another area in Florence, and the noise was the same there. That was never an issue for us. This was the house we wanted.''
''We've been very pleased with the way the program has worked,'' said Kent Dailey, a real estate broker for Re - Max in Fort Mitchell, one of several real estate companies selling houses in the program. Mr. Dailey pointed out that his firm ''has been selling houses in the noise corridors long before the program started, and not at reduced prices. Obviously, people were not concerned about the airport noise.''
Mr. Huber said the airport keeps records of how many times each property is shown, whether a purchase offer is made, and why no offer was made.
''Only 2 percent of the people contacted who had looked at a property and not made an offer said the jet noise was the reason,'' he said. ''In many cases it was because a house had outdated styling or it wasn't large enough or it just wasn't the right house.''
