“This indicates a healthy, growing community,” Keith said. “It’s a recognition of a growing, prosperous, vibrant community like we’ve never had before.”
Dayton has had a hotter housing market for the past few years, chalking up 3,120 valid residential sales in 2022 and 3,300 in 2021, according to auditor data.
The city had about 2,075 valid sales in 2020. Going back further the numbers were much lower — 1,205 in 2017; 750 in 2014; and 457 in 2011.
Valid real estate sales are sales between a willing buyer and seller, where neither party is related and they also aren’t under any kind of duress, which excludes foreclosures and sheriff’s sales.
Back in 2014, about 107 of Dayton’s 220 neighborhoods did not have any valid residential sales, the auditor said.
But the local housing market has improved dramatically since then, and this year all of Dayton’s residential neighborhoods had valid residential sales.
The county auditor’s definition of neighborhoods differs from the norm since the office counts every individual condo association as its own neighborhood.
Valuation update
The Montgomery County Auditor is working on a triennial property value update, and properties in communities across the county are seeing significant hikes in valuation.
The auditor’s office says 85% of Dayton’s residential neighborhoods saw their values increase this year, up from 57% of neighborhoods increasing in 2020 and 36% of neighborhoods in 2017.
Only about 1% of Dayton neighborhoods saw their values decline this year, which was down from 39% of neighborhoods in 2020 and 30% in 2017.
The only two areas of Dayton that saw property values decrease were a piece of North Riverdale (near North Main Street) and the Old Dayton View neighborhood (west of Salem Avenue close to downtown).
About 14% of Dayton neighborhoods saw no change in value this year.
The largest property value increases in the city occurred in parts of McPherson Town, immediately north of downtown (+70%); parts of South Park, south of the Oregon District (+65%); Five Oaks, just north of the Art Institute (+60%); and Eastmont near Woodman Drive and Woodbine Avenue (+56%).
The largest changes
Under the auditor’s triennial property value update, more than one in five residential parcels in Dayton will see their values increase by 40% or more.
About four in 10 parcels will see their values increase somewhere between 20% and 39%. And 27% of properties are expected to have valuation increases of 1% to 19%.
Slightly more than one in 10 properties will see no change in value or a reduction.
Keith said it’s important to keep in mind that a 30% or 40% increase in value does not mean a 30% or 40% increase in taxes. For most of the county, the auditor’s valuation update should lead to a 4% to 6% increase in property taxes.
Keith said values are rising in most of Dayton because of strong market conditions.
Last year, about 83% of residential properties sold in Dayton fetched prices higher than the county auditor’s listed values.
Just two years earlier, roughly two-thirds of properties were sold for more than the auditor’s values.
It took a long time for Dayton to recover from the Great Recession and bursting of the housing bubble in the late 2000s.
The city lost about $1.2 billion in property value between 2007 and 2014.
However, with this year’s revaluation update, Dayton has now recovered all of the property value it lost during the Great Recession and then some.
Rising property values are good for homeowners, because homeownership is one of the safest and best ways to acquire wealth, said Ohio Realtors President Ralph Mantica, who is owner and broker of Kinzeler Realty in Dayton.
But rising values is a “double-edged sword” because they also increase property taxes to levels that some people cannot afford, he said. Home-seekers, and first-time homebuyers especially, might have a harder time obtaining financing to purchase properties because of higher tax bills, he said.
“Lending institutions only let you borrow so much money,” he said. “They look at the tax value as part of that payment.”
Also, Mantica said, renters are likely to see higher monthly housing costs because landlords probably will pass on higher tax bills to their tenants.
This likely will be the largest property tax increase in a long time, he said.
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