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January home sales hit 10-year high

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By Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer 9:21 PM Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ohio home sales jumped 12.9 percent in January from the same month last year, the largest year-over-year percent gain for January in 10 years, according to the Ohio Association of Realtors. But sale prices remained weak.

A total 6,022 single-family homes were sold statewide in January. The average sale price statewide fell 0.2 percent to $115,000 , the association said Wednesday.

“Hopefully it’s a signal we’re ready to return to a more traditional marketplace,” said association spokesman Carl Horst. “Compared to where we’ve been, this is certainly a good start.”

Home sales were up in Butler County, but average sales prices were still less than a year ago.

A total 194 home units moved last month in Butler County, a 26.8 percent increase from 153 single-family homes and condos sold the same time last year, according to the Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati.

The average sales price in Butler County in January was $114,247.

Scott Adams was a home buyer who closed in January.

The house was an upgrade to three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and a three-car garage, Adams said. He bought the house for almost half of what it was sold for six years ago.

“I just wanted to take advantage of the housing market. I know a lot of people aren’t able to take advantage of the low interest rates, the new bank requirements and the low housing prices and everything. But fortunately, I was in a position to do that,” Adams said. “If the housing market would have been really, really strong, quite honestly, I would not have been able to afford a house in this neighborhood.”

The Cincinnati region saw home sales of 995 units in January, an increase of nearly 11 percent from the same month a year ago when 897 single family homes and condos sold, according to the state association figures.

The average sales price in the region last month was $137,996.

The gains do not make up for the total sales decline during the housing crisis of recent years. Ohio home sales peaked in January 2007 at 7,802 single family homes sold, also according to the state association.

If the pickup in home sales lasts, that could stabilize home prices, which in some local communities reached levels in 2010 lower than 2001.

Declining sales prices can put people underwater, meaning they owe more for their house than its worth, said David Marshall, a Miami University professor who specializes in real estate. But home prices need to fall to fix the market, Marshall said.

“There’s the conventional thought that if sales are increasing that’s only going to happen because we’re going to have more buyers who are interested. If you’ve got more buyers, that’s more demand, that may keep the prices of houses falling further,” he said. “It’s starting to signal demand is coming back.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.

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