Cleveland, Northeast OH Area Real Estate Market September 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 slightly from August to September. Home inventory has been higher but not significant, along with higher rental prices and higher buyer demand due to low 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 decline from August to September for single family homes and condominiums.  However,  home sales are up 8.9% from September of last year, and 3.0% over the first nine months of 2014 compared to 2013. As for sales prices, single family homes are down 1% and condos are nearly 3% higher than September 2013.

Ohio's sales volume showed a increase of 2.8% from last month and 0.3% from September 2013.  Ohio's sales prices rose by 6.8%, compared to last September.  National figures have shown a 2.4% improvement in sales volume from August to September and showed a small decline from a year ago.  Meanwhile, national prices have increased 5.6% from last year, marking the 31st 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 4.0%.  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 (even in the Fall and Winter months), because rates are still relatively low on the buying side, but home values have risen overall 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.