COLUMBUS, Ohio – While the sales of existing homes nationwide took a dip last month, sales in Ohio and Columbus maintained steady progress.
In the Columbus area, sales were up fractionally from May and were 10.4 percent higher than June 2012, the 18th month of year-over-year sales increases, according to the Columbus Board of Realtors.
Statewide, the number of homes sold rose 15.5 percent in June as the market posted year-over-year gains in activity for the 24th consecutive month, according to the Ohio Association of Realtors.
“Over the past two years the Ohio housing market – month-by-month – has made slow, steady and consistent progress in its effort to recover from the economic challenges wrought by the recession,” association president Thomas Williams said.
The 24 months of gains is the longest stretch of uninterrupted growth in 16 years of the Association’s tracking of Ohio home sales, Williams said
Nationwide, sales of existing homes dipped last month but remain near a 3½-year high. The National Association of Realtors says sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million in June. May’s sales were the highest since November 2009.
Sales for the first six months of the year in central Ohio were 22.2 percent higher than last year, the next highest on record behind 2006.
The average sale price was $196,377 is 6.6 percent higher than last year.
Sales in Ohio through the first six months of 2013 were 15.8 percent higher than the first half of 2012 and the average sale price was up 6.4 percent.