Local home prices fall in April

Toledo Realtors’ figures differ; higher than same time in 2013

5/29/2014

The median home price in metro Toledo in April was $70,000, a 5 percent decrease from March but an 8 percent increase from the same month a year ago, according to figures released today by real estate data firm RealtyTrac Inc.

The median price was $74,000 in March, and $65,000 in April, 2013, the company said. The median means that half the homes sold in April were above the median price and half were below.

The figures differ significantly from those collected by the Toledo Board of Realtors because the latter only includes homes sold by a real estate agent. According to the board, the median home price in April in metro Toledo was $95,000.

Homes tracked by RealtyTrac include distressed sales — foreclosed or repossessed homes sold at auction or by a lending institution — that drive the median price downward.

RealtyTrac said that when counting only nondistressed homes, the median home price in April in metro Toledo was $78,000, down 8 percent from a year ago.

For distressed homes only, the median price in April was $38,000, down 5 percent from a year earlier. The distressed discount — the percentage difference between the median price of distressed sales and nondistressed sales — was 51 percent in April in metro Toledo, RealtyTrac said.

For Lucas County, RealtyTrac said the median home price in April was $60,000, up from $59,000 in March, and up from $50,000 a year earlier.

For all of Ohio, the median home price in April was $100,000, up from $95,000 in March, and up from $87,000 a year ago.

Nationally, the median sale price of U.S. homes was $172,000 in April, up 4 percent from March and an increase of 11 percent from April, 2013, marking the biggest year-over-year increase since March, 2012.

“U.S. median home prices have now increased 21 percent since hitting bottom in March, 2012, although they are still 28 percent below their pre-recession peak of $237,537 in August, 2006,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac of Irvine, Calif.

Sales-wise, RealtyTrac data showed that the number of distressed properties in the nation’s housing market continues to decline.

Short sales — where the sale price is less than the outstanding mortgage owed — and distressed sales of properties both foreclosed and bank-owned accounted for 15.6 percent of all sales in April, down from 17.2 percent a year ago.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.