Don’t be fooled by a report claiming that Columbus is the Hottest Housing Market in the country or by a news release that states home sales were up by 24.7% in March.
Both claims are misleading. Keep reading to find out what’s really going on …
Closed Sales, New Contracts, New Listings – ALL DOWN!
Housing stats usually compare data of a certain period (typically a month) to the same period of a previous year. Home sales increase dramatically in March over February (24.7% as stated above). March is when the buying season starts. We see a huge jump every year.
However, home sales have plummeted by 8.7% in March 2019 as compared to March 2018.
This means 206 fewer homes sold.
Pending contracts are down by 4.3%, and new listings are down by 4.8%.
What does this tell you about the housing market?
Looks like a bad year so far. If the US economy would shrink by 8.7% we would call this a major recession.
Which Areas are Still HOT?
Not everything is doom and gloom. Some price ranges and neighborhoods are buzzing. Buyers have to compete and sometimes bid over asking price to win a contract.
The best indicators of a hot housing market are:
- Days on Market (DOM) which tells us how long it took to go into contract,
- Ratio between sales price and original list price which indicates if the seller accepted a discount or if the buyer paid more than list price, and
- $ per square foot, a good way to see the price level of certain neighborhoods.
The first chart compares DOM (blue) to $/sqft (red), with the shortest days on market on top. You can see that homes sell the fastest in the Worthington School District (33 DOMs). They take the most time to sell in Bexley with an average of 85 days on market.
German Village and Grandview Heights are the most expensive neighborhoods.
The next chart shows the ratio between sales price and original list price (green). Homes in Powell sold for 98.1% of the original list price. This means Powell sellers accepted the smallest discounts. Bexley home owners discounted their listings by almost 9% in average.
March 2019 Housing Stats
Click this link to see detailed March 2019 Housing Data.
Here are the highlights (numbers compared to the same month a year ago):
- Closed Transactions – 2,175 – DOWN by 8.7%
- Pending Contracts – 3,274 – DOWN by 4.3%
- Inventory for Sale – 3,626 – UP by 4.0%
- New Listings – 3,228 – DOWN by 4.8%
- Days on Market – 42 – UP by 7.7%
- Average Sales Price – $232,169 – UP by 5.6%
Call or text me TODAY at (614) 975-9650, and don’t miss any opportunities in today’s housing market!