The housing market in the Dayton, Ohio, area continued to improve in February, with increases in the median sale price and number of homes sold.
The median price for February was up over 2% year-over-year to $129,900, and the sales volume climbed 11% since last year to $135.7 million, according to data from the Dayton Area Board of Realtors, which represents Montgomery, Greene, Warren, Darke, and Preble counties.
The number of existing homes that sold was also up 3% compared to February 2017, with 882 sales reported on the multiple listing service.
U.S. home sales also improved in February.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales rose 3% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.54 million. The median home sales price was $241,700 in February, a 5.9% increase over the past year.
But a shortage of properties for sale is creating a challenge for would-be homebuyers. As sales listings have steadily declined, prices have been climbing at the same time as a stronger job market has elevated demand — and, also, competition — for purchasing homes. Higher mortgage rates this year might also cause even fewer people to list their homes for sale, which would make the current supply squeeze worse.
In the Dayton area, February's average sales price totaled $153,923, up 8% since the same time last year.
Year-to-date sales the January-February the median price increased 6% to $126,450, and the cumulative sales volume was up by 7.7% to $259.3 million.
As demand for homes grew, supply in the Dayton tightened. The number of listings submitted in the month of February decreased over 2% to 1,448 entries. For the January-February period, 2,705 listings were entered, down nearly 5% from last year's 2,839 listings.
While the overall home market continues to heat up, there are also disparities.
The Dayton Daily News previously reported the Dayton area is one of 61 metros in the U.S. where minorities are denied mortgage loans at higher rates than their white counterparts — a modern-day system of redlining that keeps minority neighborhoods from recovery.
In 2016, black applicants in the Dayton metro area were 2.1 times as likely to be denied a conventional home mortgage as white applicants, even when controlling for applicants' income, loan amount and neighborhood, according to data analysis by Reveal, the online platform of The Center for Investigative Reporting.
