By Jim Weiker
The Columbus Dispatch - Saturday, October 22, 2011
Central Ohio home sales are poised to post the first annual increase in six years.
Figures released yesterday show that 1,719 central Ohio homes sold in September, up almost 17 percent from a year earlier.
Columbus-area home sales remain down 3.7 percent this year, but a 58 percent jump in the number of homes in contract in September could erase that deficit by the end of the year.
“Hopefully, those contracts will manifest themselves in closings,” said Rick Benjamin, president of the Columbus Board of Realtors. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re seeing traction in the marketplace.”
Central Ohio home sales have dropped each year since peaking at 27,493 in 2005. Last year, 19,676 homes changed hands in the Columbus area.
Benjamin and others don’t expect the housing market to fully recover until employment rises, but ending the year with more 2011 sales than a year ago would be a symbolic boost for an industry bludgeoned by the recession.
“I’d like to think we hit rock bottom,” said Ron Cadieux, a partner in the Raines Group real-estate firm in New Albany. “This is going to be our best year ever. ... The homes that are well-priced and in good condition are absolutely selling.”
Another reason real-estate experts are optimistic: a sharp decline in the number of people selling their homes.
The number of central Ohio homes on the market dipped below 15,000 in September, compared with almost 19,000 a year ago.
Fewer homes for sale typically results in greater competition for the homes, and therefore, higher sales prices.
“At the very least, this will lead to price stability, based on the laws of supply and demand,” said Mike Carruthers, a Coldwell Banker King Thompson agent in Bexley, where 91 homes are for sale, down from 157 a year ago. (Last year’s figures were inflated by an unusual number of condominium listings.)
Other communities that have seen a precipitous drop in the number of homes for sale include Dublin (519 a year ago, 378 today), Worthington (147 to 92) and Obetz (31 to 17).
Agents say some homeowners have stopped trying to sell, while others are waiting for prices to climb.
“I don’t think prices are where they should be yet,” said Cindy Calender, a Coldwell Banker King Thompson agent in Polaris. “If people are upside down in their homes” — owing more than the homes are worth — “they have a hard time getting what they need, so some are still waiting.”
Home sales in Ohio also were up in September but remain down 3.4 percent in 2011.
“In all corners of Ohio, we’ve experienced a significant uptick in activity in recent months, a hopeful sign of an improving and stable marketplace,” said Meg Hudson, president of the Ohio Association of Realtors.
jweiker@dispatch.com
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