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Health & Fitness

Cleveland, Northeast OH Area Real Estate Market February 2013

Cleveland and Northeast Ohio home sales data for February 2013 and what it means for the current local real estate market.

According to the Northeast Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service (NORMLS) and an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, homes sales in the region were lower in February than it was in February 2012.  However, the article was quick to point out that some real estate agents aren't advertising their listings, so the figures aren't accounting for those sales.  Carl DeMusz from the NORMLS advised "...that at least 89 sales -- many of them involving higher-end properties -- were held out of the listing service last month. Overall, sales are "at least slightly better than what we're showing," he added. "What we're seeing in the market is not the optimistic numbers. They're the conservative numbers."

Using the "listed" home sales (not accounting for these missing sales) comparing February 2012 to February 2013 show a small decline.  Among the 15 counties in Northeast Ohio, single family home sales are down 1.6% and condo sales remained flat.  January's data reported a 20.8% increase in sales contracts early in the year, indicating strong sales were probable in February and March.  Northeast Ohio is showing a 15% increase in single family home prices and 11.7% increase for condos, compared to last February. 

What I'm finding is that buyers are very active right now, but some are waiting for more homes to come onto the market.  I see sellers wanting to list as we approach April and warmer weather, which would indicate February as more of a "hiccup" in the improving local real estate market. 

The key point here is that the market is starting to stabilize and shifting to a seller's market.  Sellers are getting more for their homes than last year, with buyers paying a bit more to purchase a home to take advantage of the low interest rates.  Buyers should note that interest rates have reached as low as they can go, when deciding the best time to make a purchase.  In fact, rates have already shown increases over the past couple months.  The data over the past several months indicates we have seen the bottom of the local real estate market.

By comparison, Northeast Ohio is currently being outpaced by Ohio's sales increase of 10.2% in February, however, Northeast Ohio is showing a higher price increase of 15% versus Ohio's 7.9%. The US market has also seen a 10.2% increase in sales from the year before, and Northeast Ohio is showing a higher price increase than the national average increase of 11.6%.  Nationally, 4.98 million homes have sold, which is just shy of meeting the lower part of the 5-6 million of annual home sales considered to be a normal or healthy range.  

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