Cleveland, Northeast OH Area Real Estate Market August 2014

According to the Northeast Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service (NORMLS) and an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, homes sales in the region decreased from July to August. Home inventory has been higher but not significant, along with higher rental prices and higher buyer demand due to low (but climbing) interest rates, have been driving this increase in activity and increase in sales prices over the past year or so. Sales volume is increasing, and sales prices have shown a slowing increase.
Among the 15 counties in Northeast Ohio, we saw a 1.9% decline from July to August for single family homes and a 5.5% decrease for condominiums.  Single family home sales and condos are down 2.3% from August of last year, and 2.4% over the first eight months of 2014 compared to 2013. As for sales prices, single family homes are up 1.4% and condos are 3% higher than August 2013.

Ohio's sales volume showed a decline by 4.5%, and Ohio's sales prices rose by 6.8%, compared to last August.  National figures have shown a 5.3% drop off in sales volume from last year, and is down 4.3% from July to August.  Meanwhile, national prices have increased 4.8% from last year, marking the 30th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains.  Ohio and Northeast Ohio's price increases have slowed or stabilized recently, but the increases are what would be typically expected for the region when compared with the nation.

The key point here is that the market is starting to stabilize and shifting to a balanced/seller's market.  Sellers are getting more for their homes than last year (low inventory), 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 decreased slightly, hovering around 4.1%-4.2%%.  A recent report indicates that economists are projecting rates to rise to 5-5.5% in 2015.

This is a great time for buyers who also have a home to sell, because rates are still relatively low on the buying side, but home values have risen in many areas to improve the financial return on the selling side.  If the economy continues to improve, buyers in the current market will be able to realize value gains for the homes they purchase as well.