Housing inventory, days homes on market dropping in Toledo area

For buyers now house hunting in metro Toledo, Ohio, a word to the wise: Think very carefully about the offer you submit to a seller.

The inventory of homes available for sale in Lucas and northern Wood Counties, plus the number of days it takes for a home to sell both dropped significantly in September, making it ever more likely that homes listed for sale will draw competing offers.

Mark Remeis, president of the Toledo Regional Association of Realtors, remains hesitant to call the area a seller’s market. But the sales trend leans more towards a seller’s market than the reverse, he said.

toledo-1013-adobe.jpg
A panoramic view of downtown Toledo Ohio's skyline from across the Maumee river at a popular restaurant area with a paver brick boardwalk and a decorative iron railing.. A beautiful blue sky with white clouds for a backdrop.

According to figures released Wednesday by the local Realtors group, September home sales in the metro area closely mirrored those of a year ago. There were 548 sales that closed last month, a 1% increase over the same period last year.

"It seems like we've been in a pretty similar pattern the last several months. If you look at the September numbers, the sales were the same as last year," said Remeis, of A.A. Green Realty in Bowling Green.

But inventory levels dropped while home prices rose, both indicators of a tightening market, Remeis said.

"We don't want buyers to think 'I'm not even going to jump in because I don’t want to fight with three other offers' because that's not always the case," Remeis said.

But the president of the Realtors group said there continues to be "more multiple-offer situations and more homes going under contract quickly."

The median sales price rose 4% in September to $118,000 while the average sales price rose 9% to $149,000.

Inventory levels dropped 20% last month compared to a year ago, and homes in September spent an average of just 87 days on the market, a 9% drop from a year ago.

In the overall eight-county, multiple-listing service region served by the Realtors group, home sales were down 3% to 750 units. The median price rose nearly 12% to $121,250 while the average price rose 11% to $149,143.

Inventory in the region fell 17% to 3,004 units for sale, while homes spent 90 days on the market, down 9%. The region has a 4.3-month supply of homes for sale, but a year ago it was 5.3 months.

Tribune Content Agency
Housing markets Purchase Home prices Real estate Ohio
MORE FROM NATIONAL MORTGAGE NEWS