Are Houses Selling In The Columbus Area? (Cleveland, Westerville: for sale, real estate)

[Torn2pieces]

Not sure if this is the right forum to ask...

I'm actually thinking of putting the house up, it depends on a job in another state...

There's already 2 houses next door up for sale and it's not looking promising.

I'm not even worried about making money, I just want to break even...

So - How Is the Market in the Columbus Area? Anyone Know?

Feel free to move this to the appropriate area, if I posted in the wrong area...


Thanks in advance

[NewToCA]

Well, according to this website sales are down significantly in Columbus proper. Scroll down to about 1/5th down on the page, and you will see sales volume posted per quarter. If you take a look at the last quarter of 2008, and the first quarter of 2009, you will see sales volume (the bar chart) down substantially.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Columbus-Ohio.html

Just to verify the data applied to the entire metro area, I took a look at the Westerville, Dublin, Hilliard and Reynoldsburg pages too, and the data validates a severe dive in sales volume:

http://www.city-data.com/city/Westerville-Ohio.html
http://www.city-data.com/city/Dublin-Ohio.html
http://www.city-data.com/city/Hilliard-Ohio.html
http://www.city-data.com/city/Reynoldsburg-Ohio.html

[floridaorbust]

We live in Delaware County. Near Lewis Center. Our home just sold. Plus the two homes next to us sold. Their homes took about 2-4 months to sale. hope this helps.

[GeminiGal]

The term "real estate is local" is very true and probably needs to be broken down a bit smaller than local - if that makes sense. Our neighborhood in the Powell area had 2 homes sell pretty quickly for asking price last Fall, nothing else since then though. We have a foreclosure here that has sat for months, with price drops that no one seems to want (?)

Two things that you need to focus on are the market that your selling in and the market that your buying in. Seems to me that if you are trying to sell here you'd expect to take a loss to sell - how much can vary greatly. If your looking to move and buy in an area that has not seen declines (like Houston, for example) compared to here you might be in for a rude awakening.

If I were you I'd also (take a DEEP breath) and look at the RE forum and follow some of those threads. The would-be buyers on those threads can be brutal though - not alot of sympathy for sellers over all. Your typical buyer is looking to get a DEAL and they seem to be looking and looking until they get what they want at a rock bottom price. If you are really needing/wanting to sell, looking at that forum may put you in the mindset you need to be in to navigate successfully this market.

Good luck to you - wishing you the BEST!

[NewToCA]

If you look at home sales in Franklin County as a whole, the sales volume numbers for the first quarter of 2009 are pretty dismal, down over 75% from the first quarter of 2007 and 2006:

http://www.city-data.com/county/Franklin_County-OH.html

[Torn2pieces]

Right now there are 2 houses right near mine for sale. Ones been sitting forever(price has a lot to do with it) And the other for a month...

I'm actually in Grove City...I've seen some other houses recently sold...I was just wondering if things are still sliding downward...

Thanks NewToCA For the Links..

[NewToCA]

Originally Posted by Torn2pieces

Right now there are 2 houses right near mine for sale. Ones been sitting forever(price has a lot to do with it) And the other for a month...

I'm actually in Grove City...I've seen some other houses recently sold...I was just wondering if things are still sliding downward...

Thanks NewToCA For the Links..

Glad to be of assistance.

My own perspective of the Columbus market is that you are in a big "stall".

I state this as someone who continues to follow the Columbus market, yet has left for another large metro area. Somewhat, this gives me a bit of an advantage in evaluating the markets, since I have the opportunity to see market contrast and the impact on sales. My explanation of this impact might be a bit long, but if you consider my comments for a moment or two there might be some insights of value to those considering the Columbus housing market (buyer or seller).

Nationally, the housing market had some big run ups in the 1998-2006 timeframe. Large metro areas such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami, Tampa, Sacramento and Boston had their prices more than double over that timeframe, sometimes a bit more than double. Other large metro markets such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Denver had significant increases too, but more in the 50-70% range during that time period.

However, markets such as Columbus, Cleveland, St Louis, Detroit, Rochester, Buffalo and Pittsburgh didn't have much appreciation in their homes during this period. Interestingly, during this period what happened in those markets is the builders built larger and fancier homes, for a higher price. The existing homes only appreciated modestly, while the new large homes saturated the upper end of those markets.

Now we come to the present time. It would appear to be reasonable that markets such as Columbus that didn't have significant home appreciation would be able to retain a steady and active market. However, the glut of upper level homes built during the 1998-2006 time period (take a look at Powell, New Albany, Dublin and Westerville for many examples) causes a price suppression, meaning that the resales of those homes are now flooding the market with homes beyond the means of practically everyone. As a result, price cutting needs to happen to ultimately move those homes, and the effect cascades downward towards the less expensive homes (competition is altered).

As a result, a place like Columbus has homeowners penalized despite not having obtained the benefits of the substantial price increases other markets experienced. Home sellers in a place such as Columbus are appropriately reluctant to cut prices to sell, since they never had the run up in the first place. However, buyers read the national stories, and see the price cuts on upper level Columbus market homes, and how long houses remain on the market.

Hence the "stall".

Throw in rather high property tax rates, especially considering the modest values of homes, and the transactions become difficult to complete.

At least, that is how it appears to me.

[Torn2pieces]

NewToCA - I totally understand what you've posted.

I think I might be one of the lucky ones - I got my house dirt cheap a few years ago..It was banked owned. So being able to sell fairly cheap might be on my side.

---

Gemini - Thanks too.

I didn't wanna post on the RE forums yet. I don't wanna get bombarded with DM's...

[Tenzo]

German Village seems to be moving

[GeminiGal]

I have a friend (neighbor) who has been in RE for a long time. She has stated some of the same things that NewToCA posted. Also, like Tenzo stated, those older always sought after inner areas are doing rather well. Entry level homes / prices are moving.