Home prices in metro area rise from 2013

Cost goes up 19% from last April, but sales decline by 4%

5/9/2014
BY CHIP TOWNS
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
The Toledo Board of Realtors is holding an ‘Open House Weekend’ May 17-18 to try to further boost sales of homes in the metro area.
The Toledo Board of Realtors is holding an ‘Open House Weekend’ May 17-18 to try to further boost sales of homes in the metro area.

The average sales price of homes in Lucas and northern Wood County last month was 19 percent higher than in April, 2013, according to data released by the Toledo Board of Realtors.

The number of sales fell 4 percent, from 441 to 425.

The average price was $115,276, compared with $96,975 a year earlier. The median price was $95,000, up 26 percent from last year’s $75,500. The median means half of the homes that sold were above that price and half sold for less.

According to the figures, 564 sales were pending in April, a 16 percent rise from April, 2013. That could bode well for May sales.

For the first four months of the year, both the average and median sales price is up 4 percent. But sales are down 11 percent.

Agents blamed slow sales in the early part of the year on the harsh winter, but sales haven’t bounced back as much as they had hoped.

The Board of Realtors will try to boost the market on May 17-18 with an “Open House Weekend,” sponsored by Fifth Third Bank.

Local real estate agents will hold a higher-than-usual number of open houses to give potential homebuyers a chance to see what’s available.

“Forty-five percent of recent buyers used open houses as a way to find their dream home,” said John Mangas, president of the Toledo Board of Realtors. “Open House Weekend is a great chance for buyers to do just that, as well as get an idea of what they can afford in the local market.”

Anybody who visits an open house that weekend can enter to win a cash prize of $1,000, $1,500, or $2,500.

The sales numbers outside Lucas and northern Wood counties were somewhat different last month.

In the rest of the 10-county area covered by the northwest Ohio multiple listing service, sales were up 3 percent from last year, and the median sales price fell 6 percent to $80,000. The average price of $97,876 was down 8 percent from a year earlier. For the year, sales are down 7 percent, but the median sales price is up 10 percent.

The multiple listing service includes Defiance, Fulton, Henry, Lucas, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Williams, and Wood counties.

Contact Chip Towns at: ctowns@theblade.com or 419-724-6194.