Dayton home sales growth sees more first-time buyers

First-time home buyers are helping drive sales growth not seen in the past five years in the Dayton-area real estate market, local agents said.

The Dayton-area housing market continued to show signs of improvement last month as home sales jumped 10 percent from the same month a year ago to a total of 1,478, according to figures released Thursday by the Dayton Area Board of Realtors.

Both the average and median sales prices also edged up, climbing about 2 percent each to $146,477 and $125,950, respectively, according to the real estate group’s September report.

Experts attributed the price hikes to the continued dearth of available properties in the local area, driving up asking prices as demand outstrips supply. Last month, total listings fell 9 percent from year ago to 1,664.

“Prices are up because there are less homes on the market,” said DABR President Michael Martin. “Still, when something comes on the market, if it’s a good property, and it’s priced right, it goes. I tell my clients if they see something they like, get in the car, and let’s go. You don’t want to wait.”

An increasing number are first-time home buyers who had been sitting on the sidelines for much of the housing market recovery, but who have been drawn back into the market by an improving economy and continued record-low mortgage rates, according to Ralph Mantica, past president of the DABR.

“We’ve definitely seen more first-time home buyers,” Mantica said. “The low interest rates have definitely helped, and I think they felt a little bit more secure in their economic situations. The first-time buyers I’ve been dealing with have some really nice jobs.”

Mantica said many first time buyers are highly educated Millennials who have been exploring the housing market for some time and have concluded buying a home makes sense.

“These are smart shoppers,” he said. “If they’re living at home and planning to move out, they realize it’s almost cheaper for me to buy a house than it is to rent, especially if they can find that bargain buy.”

Inventories are so tight, however, that even the fastest responders sometimes come up empty, which has led the DABR to be more aggressive about encouraging home building.

“We’ve partnered with home builders more this year than we have in the past, and we want to partner with them even more next year,” Martin said. “This is a great opportunity for home builders because we have buyers out there now who can’t find a property.”

Available properties in good shape have been hard to find for most of the year, but it hasn’t slowed the sales pace. September’s total brought year-to-date sales to 12,237, up 9.7 percent from the first nine months of last year.

While Millennials and downsizing Baby Boomers have made downtown Dayton one of the hottest housing markets in the area, demand is also high in the surrounding cities and suburbs, Mantica said.

“Beavercreek, Kettering, Centerville, Springboro; anything reasonably priced in those areas is sold almost instantly,” he said.

Local home sales numbers reflected the national trend.

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that existing home sales rose 3.2 percent to an annual rate of 5.47 million units — beating most economists’ expectations for an increase to a 5.35 million-unit pace. And first-time buyers accounted for 34 percent of transactions last month, the largest share since July 2012.

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