Cleveland, Northeast OH Area Real Estate Market November 2012

According to the Northeast Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service and an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, homes sales in the region continue to surpass last year's sales figures. Lower home inventory, higher rental prices and higher buyer demand due to low interest rates, is driving this increase in activity and increase in sales prices.

Sales comparing November 2011 to November 2012 show considerable improvement.  Among the 15 counties in Northeast Ohio, single family home sales are up 15% and condo sales are up a remarkable 43.5%.  In addition to the increase in sales activity, Northeast Ohio is showing a 12% increase in single family home prices and 14.6% increase for condos, compared to last November. 

The key point here is that the market is starting to stabilize.  Sellers are getting more for their homes than last year, with buyers paying a bit more to purchase a home to take advantage of the low interest rates.  Buyers should note that interest rates have reached nearly as low as they can go, when deciding the best time to make a purchase.  The data over the past several months indicates we have seen the bottom of the local real estate market.





By comparison, Northeast Ohio continues to outpace the national sales increase of 14.5% in November, by a slight margin.  Northeast Ohio also eclipsed the 10.1% national increase in sales prices, as well as exceeding the Ohio sales price increase of 8.5%. Nationally, 5.04 million homes have sold, which is just meeting the lower part of the 5-6 million of annual home sales considered to be a normal or healthy range.