COLUMBUS – The summer ended on an up note in the Columbus real estate market with double-digit hikes in home sales and a growing supply, which should slow down price increases.
The 2,573 homes and condos sold in central Ohio during September was a 5 percent increase over the previous year, but represented a 10.6 percent drop from August as the school year began and home-shopping began to slow down, according to data released Thursday by the Columbus Board of Realtors.
Sales during the first three quarters of the year were 10.1 higher than 2014.
Home sales in Ohio in September increased 12 percent from a year ago, the market’s 13th consecutive monthly year-over-year gain, according to the Ohio Association of Realtors.
Across the country, buying activity rebounded after slipping in August. The National Association of Realtors says sales of existing homes jumped 4.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.55 million.
The real estate market nationwide appears to have reached a stable plateau in recent months, aided by mortgage rates near historic lows and steady job gains. Yet first-time buyers remain scarce and relatively few properties are being listed for sale, capping the potential growth of the sector.
The inventory of homes for sale in the central Ohio area reached a high-water mark for 2015 and was slightly higher than last year, indicating a greater willingness to put properties on the market.
Buyers continued to snap up those properties faster than ever. Homes were selling 22.8 percent quicker than a year ago and the 55-day average that homes spent on the market during the first nine months of the year was a record low.
The tight supply drove the median sale price in central Ohio to $161,000, a gain of 6.9 percent from a year ago.
The number of “lender-mediated properties,” such as repossessions and foreclosed homes, for sale at the end of September in central Ohio was nearly half of what it was a year ago, which also helps drive up the prices.