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Ohio home sales see big jump in January

Dayton sales were up, but average sale price down from last year.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Lot sales and home construction have picked up at the long-stalled Pointe Oakwood development.

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By Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer Updated 1:55 AM Thursday, February 23, 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,” he added.

Home sales were up in Dayton area, but the average sale price fell compared to a year ago. A total 577 homes moved last month in Montgomery, Greene and Preble counties and parts of Warren County, a 4.2 percent increase from the same time last year, according to the association. The average sale price was $97,607, down 4.1 percent.

Scott Adams of Dayton closed the purchase of his new home on Clearsprings Drive in Springboro last month. The house represents 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 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,” said Adams, a Trotwood city employee. “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.”

Lois Sutherland, a real estate agent for Irongate Realtors in the Dayton area, said she has held open houses about every Sunday so far this year.

“I think people are coming out of the woodwork right now,” Sutherland said. “I think people are just feeling more confident in the market right now. The interest rates are lower than they’ve ever been.”

The average sale price increased 38.6 percent to $115,498 from a year ago in the region that includes Clark, Champaign and Miami counties. A total of 253 homes were sold last month in that area, up 5 percent from a year ago, according to the state association.

January was the seventh straight month of year-over-year home sales gains for Ohio. Dayton sales have been up from the year before in six out of the seven past months, according to state figures.

To have a few consecutive months of positive sales growth “means a lot more than we’ve seen in the past,” said Lori Fulk, president of the Springfield Board of Realtors. “Every time there’s a closing, that infuses ... back to the economy almost $60,000.”

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

If sales continues to rise, that could stabilize home prices, which fell in 2010 in some local communities to 2001 levels.

Declining sales prices can put homeowners “underwater,” meaning they owe more on their homes than they are worth, said David Marshall, a Miami University professor who specializes in real estate. But home prices need to fall to fix the market, he said.

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