September Home Sales Statistics for Columbus

Home values continue to rise which is good news for central Ohio. The average sale price for the first nine months of the year is $161,204 up 7.4 percent from the beginning of 2010 according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.

There were fewer homes listed for sale last month than is customary for September. Over the last five years, there was an average of 3,710 homes added to the market during the month of September. However, last month only 2,997 residential homes were added to the already elevated inventory in central Ohio.

Although slightly lower than August, the total residential listings in September (16,728) was still higher than it’s been since August of 2008 when the inventory level rose to 16,975.

“Inventory levels had come down over the last year and a half – which is what we were working towards,” said Sue Lusk-Gleich, President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. “When inventory levels are too high, the increased competition forces some homeowners to sell at prices that are too low which in turn often affects the values of other neighboring homes.”

“In order to re-balance the market, we either need the inventory to decrease or the number of buyers to increase. And since the tax credit incentives brought many buyers into the market earlier than we would have seen otherwise, we have a smaller pool of potential home buyers to absorb the inventory now.”

“When comparing sales figures to the previous year, we need to remember that home sales have been elevated since April of 2008 due to the tax credits,” adds Lusk-Gleich. “Even so, sales are still up four percent year to date.”

Home sales across Ohio were down 20.3 percent in September but are still up 1.5 percent for the first nine months of the year. The average sale price in Ohio last month was $129,572, down 3.5 percent from last September. Year to date (January through September), the average sale price was $134,318 which is down four percent compared to the first three quarters of 2009.

Nationwide, existing home sales - which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops- were down 19 percent. Distressed homes accounted for 35 percent of sales in September compared with 34 percent in August; they were 29 percent in September 2009.

The median sale price nationwide for all housing types in September was $171,700, down 2.4 percent from one year ago.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to a record low 4.35 percent in September from 4.43 percent in August; the rate was 5.06 percent in September 2009.

Housing affordability is near an all-time record. Mortgage interest rates are almost half of what they were ten years ago and they’re about one-and-a-half points lower than the peak of the housing boom in 2005. At the same time, home prices are running about 22 percent less than five years ago when they were bid up by the biggest housing rush on record.

Click here for Ohio home sales statistics
Click here for the national home sales release

The Columbus Board of REALTORS® Multiple Listing Service (MLS) serves all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union Counties and parts of Champagne, Clark, Hocking, Licking, Fairfield, Knox, Logan, Marion, and Ross Counties.

Source: Columbus Board of Realtors

Home Stats Explained for July

Can you believe it's August already?! Housing numbers have remained pretty close to last months...except for the number of sold homes (do you think they went up or down?). We've got an 8.5 month inventory of homes on the market, which I would love to see reduced. Let's delve in...

Homes currently on the market increased 3%, which was a total of 409 more homes on the market now over last month. Since June's number fell by 12% that's still a 9% decrease overall for the past 2 months, which is wonderful. If you read last months article, you realize that this number has to continue to reduce in order for the demand to catch up to it (since active listings are the supply, of course).

Homes currently in contract stayed darn near the exact same #. The percentage didn't change but the # of homes in contract went down by nine. Interestingsly, all price categories saw a slight increase but the under $150K fell by 46 homes, which kept the percentage the same. Maybe that tax credit DID impact first time home buyers?!

Solds actually INcreased by 15%, which was the same amount that it had decreased last month. The fact that there were 15% more closings in July than in June was a bit of a surprise...but definitely a welcome one! I would imagine that some of these closings were still due to the tax credit closing deadline extension. Either way, for that number to have completely corrected itself is fantastic. Since the tax credit is now over and school is just around the corner, I do anticipate this number to start going down a bit but slow and steady would be a great way for this to happen. Either way, I'll be here to report the numbers to you. Until then, keep checking back here for some awesome news from Haley camp :)

Note-This is a snapshot of activity for Franklin, Delaware, Licking, and Fairfield counties as of 2-3 pm on Sunday, August 1st.

Stats Unaltered-Columbus Activity Explained for June

It's the first of the month! Which means I've been analyzing figures from the MLS on what's currently on the market, in contract, and sold. Not surprisingly, all of the numbers did go down (which, unfortunately coincides with the number of times my cell phone rang). As all of the media outlets from around the country have been reporting today, the sky is falling. Truly, this isn't anything to be surprised about (most people in the industry expected a lag after the tax credit deadline passed us by). Anyway, here's what the numbers look like for Columbus.

If you're unsure of what any of the lingo means and/or want to compare the numbers, check out last months blog

Homes currently on the market took over a 12% dive from last month. It's good this figure decreased but in order for demand to catch up with supply that number is going to have to drop quite a bit more. I attribute a lot of the decrease to sellers who were "testing" the market while the tax credit was still active and have pulled their listings since it expired...anyone else wanting to jump on that bandwagon won't hear me complain. All categories dropped by between 11-13% except for the $500K, where there was only a 7% decrease.



Homes going into contract reduced by nearly 35%. The biggest hit price bracket in this category was the $150-300K range, which went down by 39%, whereas the other home price categories saw around a 32% decrease. I think this has something to do with the overlap in price range (many first time buyers purchase homes above $150K as well as the number of first time sellers who sold and moved into this price range). When the tax credit ended, the remaining buyers who missed out and still purchased may have padded last months numbers.

Solds went down by just under 15%, which tells me that there are a lot less procrastinators out there than I thought...and/or some of the deals that were supposed to be closing fell through or have been extended (I bet those Buyers are pretty stoked about the last minute extension to the closing date, which was just passed by the Senate)



Only time will tell what this means for us. It stands to reason that the numbers will stay down for awhile. The tax credit did invoke a lot of would be Summer buyers to buy before the April 30th deadline. But people are still buying and the numbers won't take near that type of hit again anytime soon. Either way, I realize it doesn't help Buyer confidence but I believe it was Warren Buffet who said the time to invest is when no one else is (because you don't make money off of what's popular). If you're able to, now is the time to buy a rental or investment property (before interest rates go up...unless of course you have cash and then you might want to wait until then). Oh and just to disclose-these numbers change by the minute. This is a snapshot of what was going on at 1 o'clock this afternoon.