Category Archives: Housing stats

10-Yrs of Home Sales Show That It’s A Buyer’s Market

Posted on 06/21/2011 | Leave a comment

Yesterday I posted a graph showing the average prices of homes sold the past 10 years. Today I’ve prepared a graph showing the NUMBER OF HOMES SOLD  in that same time period. This chart illustrates why there is so much concern about the real estate market and the need to improve the sales because the real estate industry supports jobs for many related industries.

2002-2011 # Homes Sold Jan May in central Ohio

Click to enlarge, then click again

You’ve probably heard Realtors® say that there are fewer buyers than there were in the early part of the 2000 decade. This chart certainly illustrates that. The bump-up in 2010 was due to the $8000 Gov’t tax credit for 1st time home buyers. Buyers had to be in-contract by the end of April to take advantage of that tax credit. Some of those contracts would have closed in May, thus driving up the sales for the Jan-May period.

Prices and interest rates have been declining in recent years, which should drive up the demand, but that’s not happening. The financial institutions began eliminating 100% financing and established tougher criteria for buyers to meet when seeking mortgages. Buyers had to begin having some down payment money and better credit scores. You can see this effect with the declines after 2007. This financing change impacted 1st time buyers the most and that’s likely why Hilliard and Westerville sales have declined so visibly as both suburbs are popular with 1st time buyers due to the average price of the homes. (See yesterday’s chart)

What should your take-away be from this chart’s info?

  • Buyers: If you have the funds, it REALLY IS a good time to buy.
  • Sellers: Competition is stiff so your home needs to be priced right and in top condition to appeal to the few buyers that are shopping.

View same data for AVERAGE PRICE OF HOMES SOLD

Copyright © 2011. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Hilliard Ohio, Home buying process, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio

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Olentangy school district has LOTS of kids

Posted on 03/21/2011 | Leave a comment

The U.S. Census Bureau data is interesting, but not always that surprising. The Dispatch published a map that shows the percentage of kids under age 18 according to the school district area in which they live. The caveat is that the child may or may not attend the schools in the district where they live (perhaps they attend a private school).

Statewide, 23.7% of Ohio residents are younger than 18. In Central Ohio …

Four school districts exceed 30%: Olentangy 32.8%; New Albany 31.9%; Pickerington 31.1%; and Canal Winchester 30.9%.

central ohio school map of students under 18

Click to enlarge, then click again

Young families typically seek to live in a district that meets their needs/wants for their offspring yet is affordable for their home budget. Too many or too few students has implications on the district’s budget. A high ratio of kids, like Olentangy, can put pressure on needing to pass levies to build new schools. A low ratio, like Columbus, can cause lack of support to pass levies if residents don’t have school-age children.

Read other articles I’ve written similar to this subject:

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Franklin County, Housing stats, Schools, Surveys

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Are you getting your money’s worth?

Posted on 02/07/2011 | Leave a comment

In Ohio, our property taxes pay a good portion of the funding for schools. That has been a hot topic politically for several years and the issue isn’t resolved yet. Of course, our property taxes pay for more than just the schools, such as police, fire, emergency services, libraries, etc.

For a number of years, I’ve provided readers with a graph of the residential tax rates for all the taxing areas within a school district. With every update each year, the tax rate increases. There are also significant differences from one school district to the other depending on the levies residents have voted on. How much a school has to spend can also rely on the number of homes, the type of property (upscale homes vs farm land) and the concentration of retail, office, and corporate businesses.

This year I added in the Ohio Dept of Education’s report card rating. As I was retrieving all the data, I thought that the higher ODE ratings would match the higher county assessed property values. As you’ll see on the chart, a district such as Buckeye Valley (mostly rural) seems to be “doing more with less” in that their ODE rating is the same as much higher assessed (taxed) districts.

central Ohio assessed tax rates per school district

Click to enlarge chart, then click again

Additional Stats
School District Graduation Rate 2010 Avg Home Price
New Albany 99.6% $429,398
Dublin 98.5% $331,705
Upper Arlington 98.3% $353,377
Hilliard 95.4% $197,642
Buckeye Valley 94.2% $205,342
Westerville 93.4% $193,447
Olentangy 98.1% $335,190
Big Walnut 97.9% $283,001
Worthington 95.5% $231,887
Delaware 91.5% $142,116

Copyright © 2011. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio

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What will housing prices do in 2011 in Central Ohio

Posted on 02/03/2011 | Leave a comment

Let me start by saying that I don’t believe anyone knows what home prices “will do” in 2011. There are just too many variables and too many national or global events that can have an impact. It also depends on the data the “forecaster” is using and the area the forecaster is considering.

Recently Forbes projected that the Columbus metro area housing prices would see a 2.1% price increase. Columbus was 5th of the 10 markets projected to increase in 2011.

“There really is this segmentation of these markets occurring where the one-size-fits-all national level numbers to represent all numbers really isn’t valid anymore,” notes Alex Villacorta, senior statistician at Clear Capital. “Overall we’re seeing prices start to stabilize going into 2011, but unfortunately some of those markets will stabilize in the downward direction where others will see a sustained recovery.”

Business 1st just released a 2011 projection with a headline that prices “will stink”. Their source was Fiserv, Inc.

Fiserv Inc. reports average home prices in Central Ohio fell 1.5 percent from the third quarter of 2009 through the end of the same period in 2010. Battered homeowners could see those prices sink an additional 2.8 percent by the third quarter this year and, according to Fiserv’s projections, and not begin to turn around until mid-2012.

That’s two totally opposite points-of-view. We all know that all real estate is local. In January, I did a year-end review of 10-Year Average Prices for the area I service. For my service area, I would project that prices may be stable-to-increasing for southern Delaware County (Powell, Lewis Center, Galena) and Dublin. Someone reporting on Hilliard, Westerville or Delaware real estate might have a different viewpoint.

The one thing I DO know is to not pay attention to National numbers. Another good idea is to always look at the source of the data the forecaster is using AND whether there is a motive to skewing the numbers to fit a particular objective.

If real estate is “location, location, location” then quoting data is “challenge, challenge, challenge”.

Copyright © 2011. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Hilliard Ohio, Home prices, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Media, Newspaper, Powell Ohio

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Luxury home sales around Columbus OH

Posted on 01/10/2011 | Leave a comment

Lots of people like to look at million dollar homes on the Internet, even though we may not have a prayer of affording them. It’s fun to see how “others” live.

In my continued end-of-year reviews, I looked at the number of homes that sold for more than $1 million around the Columbus metro area.

million $ homes sold in 2010 in central ohio

click to enlarge graph

Here’s the details on the numbers in the chart:

  • As might be expected, New Albany sold the most homes (14) over $1 million. The most expensive home ($5,184,000) was there as well. The average price of the homes was $1,579,678 and they averaged 8,483 sq ft. The $5 million dollar home had 17,771 sq ft and was located in The Farms community.
  • Southern Delaware County - specifically the Olentangy school district – saw 10 homes sell over $1 million. Nine of those were in the townships around Powell. The average price of the homes was $1,294,350 with a size of 7,722 sq ft. The highest price was $1,618,500 with 7,670 sq ft. This home was located in Liberty Twp.
  • Upper Arlington sold 5 homes over $1 million, at an average of $1,429,000 with 6,275 sq ft. The highest priced home sold at $2,045,000 and included 8,173 sq ft.
  • Dublin is next, having sold 4 homes over $1 million, averaging $1,481,250 with 9,454 sq ft. The highest priced home sold for $2,200,000 and it had 12,540 sq ft. It was located in Muirfield near #8 & #9 holes.
  • Galena had a couple of homes over $1 million. One sold at $2,812,500 (10,450 sq ft) and the other sold for $3,200,000 (12,500 sq ft).
  • Gahanna also sold 2 homes with both selling for $1,500,000.

If you’d like to buy a nice luxury home – and make next year’s chart – give me a call. :-)

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Home prices, Homes, Homes for sale, Housing stats, Muirfield, Powell Ohio

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2010 – A Year in Review of the Housing Market

Posted on 01/06/2011 | Leave a comment

Updates on how we fared in 2010 for the central Ohio housing market have been completed. You can check your area, school district or subdivision here:

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Galena Ohio, Home prices, Homes, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools, Worthington Ohio

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