Ohio home sales hit record pace in May

Statewide home sales hit a record pace during May, edging up from April and besting the previous year's level.

The Ohio Association of Realtors said the state's housing market experienced its best May since at least 1998, when the trade group started tracking data. Buyers snapped up 15,366 new and previously owned houses and condominiums, the organization said, at an average price of $176,804.

Seasonally adjusted figures show that the annual sales rate was 3.4 percent higher than in May 2016. And activity was up 1.2 percent from April, based on the Realtors' calculations. The association predicts that Ohio will approach 152,400 sales this year, for a 2.3 percent increase over 2016.

Price also continued to climb across the state as buyers vied for a limited supply of properties. The average sale price was 5.2 percent higher in May than a year before.

"Ohio's Realtor community remains hopeful that we will begin to experience a rise in the number of homes being listed for sale so that we can continue to move the marketplace forward," Pete Kopf, the association's president, said in a statement posted online.

In Northeast Ohio, sales bounced back in May after an April slowdown.

The average sale price for a house across the 18-county region was $162,275 last month, based on data from the Northern Ohio Regional Multiple Listing Service. The average sale price for a condo was $138,362.

Nationwide home sales also rebounded last month, according to a Wednesday report from the National Association of Realtors. The group, which tracks only previously owned homes, said the pace of sales was up 2.7 percent from a year before. Sales rose 1.1 percent from April, based on seasonally adjusted figures.

The national association reports median — or middle — sale prices instead of averages. In May, the U.S. median sale price for a previously owned home was $252,800.

Homes purchased in May typically had been on the market for 27 days — the shortest window since the national Realtors started monitoring listing times six years ago.

"The job market in most of the country is healthy, and the recent downward trend in mortgage rates continues to keep buyer interest at a robust level," Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist, said in a written statement. "Those able to close on a home last month are probably feeling both happy and relieved.

"Listings in the affordable price range are scarce," he added, "homes are coming off the market at an extremely fast pace and the prevalence of multiple offers in some markets [is] pushing prices higher."

Tribune Content Agency
Purchase Real estate Ohio
MORE FROM NATIONAL MORTGAGE NEWS