Cleveland, Northeast OH Area Real Estate Market January 2013

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.  Competition over available homes has been more common over the past several months.

Sales comparing January 2012 to January 2013 show improvement after a small decline in December.  Among the 15 counties in Northeast Ohio, single family home sales are up 6.2% and condo sales are up a 29.7%.  An increase in sales contracts early in the year, indicate strong sales probable in February and March.  In addition to the increase in sales activity, Northeast Ohio is showing a 6.4% increase in single family home prices and 6.0% increase for condos, compared to last January. 

The key point here is that the market is starting to stabilize and shifting to a seller's market.  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.  In fact, rates have already shown increases over the past couple weeks.  The data over the past several months indicates we have seen the bottom of the local real estate market.



By comparison, Northeast Ohio is currently being outpaced by the national sales increase of 9.1% in January.  Prior to that, Northeast Ohio was ahead of the national numbers.  The US market has also seen a 12.3% increase in sales price from the year before.  Nationally, 4.92 million homes have sold, which is just shy of meeting the lower part of the 5-6 million of annual home sales considered to be a normal or healthy range.  

4th Quarter 2012 Real Estate Statistics, Cleveland and Northeast Ohio

Recent sales data in Northeast Ohio shows that out of every 100 homes listed for sale, 46 fail to sell.  This is actually an improvement over the first few quarters, where it was closer to a 50% fail rate.  This is mainly due to higher buyer demand relative to fewer homes for sale.

Even with this improvement, of the 54 that did sell in the third quarter, 33 of the homes (60% of the homes that sold) required at least one price reduction.  That tells us that 79 out of every 100 homes are priced incorrectly at the time it is listed.

To further dispel the the notion that pricing high at the beginning of the listing won't effect the sale or the price of the home, the graphic below shows the difference in homes that didn't require reductions versus homes that did.  Homes priced correctly sold in 34 days for over 96% of asking price, while the homes that required reductions sold in 191 days for 80% of asking price.



____________________________________________________________________________


The key to selling real estate is proper pricing from the start...it's a huge part of marketing your home effectively.  Related to that, is hiring an agent that has a solid marketing plan and can provide you with the proper research you need to make an informed decision on pricing.  That way, you're not wasting valuable time and money and wondering why your home is still on the market.

I invite you to contact me anytime to discuss further.

Cleveland, Northeast OH Area Real Estate Market October 2012

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

Usually the market slows in the fourth quarter, but that was not the case this year with a rise in sales during that time-frame. Sales comparing October 2011 to October 2012 show considerable improvement.  Among the 15 counties in Northeast Ohio, single family home sales are up 24.4% and condo sales are up 43.8%.  In addition to the increase in sales activity, Northeast Ohio is showing a 13.2% increase in single family home prices and 0.5% decrease for condos, compared to last October. 

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 2.1%.  Nationally, 4.79 million homes have sold, which is behind the 5-6 million home sales, considered to be a normal or healthy range.