Ohio has had it as tough as many other places as it pertains to their housing market. Therefore, it was extremely good for Dayton to hear that home sales in their city went up 42.8% over the same time last year, and is also the 5th month in a row that home sales were up overall.
Per the Dayton Area Board of Realtors, along with home sales increasing, home prices also went up by 16% over last year on average, with the median home prices up 25.3% from last year. This means that the year to date decline for the Dayton area is down to 3.3%, whereas it was around 13.7% at the end of June.
Local Realtors are saying that the $8,000 tax credit worked well in their area, and seemed to have gotten a lot of people off the fence to finally go ahead and purchase a home. They’re also encouraged that the tax credits are being extended into 2010, along with the new tax incentive for existing home owners.
It wasn’t just Dayton that benefited in Ohio. The northwest region of the state also showed a growth of 21% from last November, and an increase in home prices of 15% from last year. The Realtors in this area are a bit more realistic in thinking about the long term, believing that there will be more foreclosures to come that might depress the market for awhile, but are hopeful that the upturn will help stimulate the job market.
That’s because the home sales are contrary to Ohio’s rising unemployment rate, which went up .1% in November to 10.6%, where many states had steady or declining unemployment rates for the month. However, this number is still lower than the 11.2% it was at in July.
Mitch Mitchell is a consultant who writes and participates in many different fields, including real estate finance issues. 
Seems like an unusually high jump in sales. Hopefully they can sustain it.
Gotta love those tax credits! Is this a real recovery or just an aberration brought on by the stimulus? Only time will tell…
I think some markets are going to start bouncing back. People won’t be able to pass on such low housing rates or only so long.
Oh my! I’m curious what that graph would look like today. And yes, the housing mortgage rates are at an all time low right now, the problem is everyone is still scared to buy. I agree with Donald people won’t pass those rates up forever. And when they start buying again… they will raise them. It will get better over time though.