COLUMBUS – Although the residential real estate market in Columbus cooled off slightly in August, the region and the rest of Ohio bucked the national trend and saw an increase in home sales over the same period one year ago.
U.S. home sales slid 4.8 percent in August as higher prices and limited supply discouraged buyers.
In Columbus, a 7.2 percent increase in the number of homes and condos put on the market, compared with August 2014, and a barely noticeable increase in prices contributed to a 9.8 percent increase in sales, according to the Columbus Board of Realtors. Both the number of listings and sales declined slightly from July.
“Buyers have taken notice of the influx of inventory in central Ohio. They aren’t wasting any time at all going after new listings that interest them,” board President Kathy Shiflet said.
The number of homes sold across Ohio in August jumped 13.6 percent from a year ago, the market’s 12th straight month of year-over-year gains, according to the Ohio Association of Realtors.
During the month of August, homes spent an average of 46 days on the market in central Ohio, nine days fewer than last year but three days longer than in July.
Meanwhile, the median sale price of a home in the Columbus market in August was $165,500, only $1,000 more than a year ago. The median sale price of $161,900 for the first eight months of the year is up 4.6 percent from the same period in 2014.