Toledo home market gaining momentum

9/11/2017

The Toledo area existing home market continued to build up steam in August with sales and prices increasing or staying strong and inventory getting tighter.

In the latest monthly report from the Toledo Regional Association of Realtors, closed home sales last month in Lucas and upper Wood Counties totaled 605 units, up 8 percent from a year earlier and a 14 percent increase from July.

The median sales price was $122,000 and the average sales price $148,000. Those were increases of 6 and 1 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Inventory remains the biggest problem for the Toledo area market.

Inventory in August was down 20 percent compared to the same month last year. And homes in August spent an average of 89 days on the market before selling — a 14 percent decrease from August, 2016. Homes were on the market an average of 89 days in July, and 92 days in June.

“Nice numbers, that’s for sure,” said Doug Kwiatkowski, president-elect of the Realtors group and a real estate agent with Re/Max Preferred Associates.

“It’s definitely the trend that we’ve been seeing — sales going up, prices going up and days on the market decreasing,” he said.

For all of the eight northwest Ohio counties covered by the board’s multiple listing service, closed sales in August totaled 837 homes, up nearly 4 percent. The median sales price last month was $123,000, up nearly 7 percent while the average sales price was $145,418, up just over 2 percent.

Inventory in the region was 3,122 homes, down 16 percent from a year earlier while homes spent an average of 88 days on the market, down 12 percent. The region’s inventory equaled a 4.5 month supply of units for sale, which was a decrease of 17 percent from a year ago.

“We were talking about inventory and 10 years ago there were about 8,000 homes in the metro area for sale. Nowadays, there’s 2,300 homes for sale,” Mr. Kwiatkowski said. “And the days on the market, it’s 89 now whereas 10 years ago we were probably in the range of 150 to 180 days on the market.”

While the Toledo market is showing enduring strength, Mr. Kwiatkowski isn’t quite ready to call it a “seller’s market” just yet.

“It’s definitely swinging toward a seller’s market. But in a seller’s market the offer situation is really strong. In some areas of the country, like Las Vegas, sellers are seeing 10 or 20 offers on one house,” Mr. Kwiatkowski said. “We’re not seeing that in Toledo. In situations with multiple offers, it’s two to three offers typically.”

Still, Mr. Kwiatkowski thinks the Toledo market will maintain strength at least another eight weeks.

“Typically, what we’ve seen over the years is things stay pretty strong through the end of October and then in November and December it starts to slow down,” he said.

However, with inventory down 20 percent that could curb buyers’ enthusiasm this fall.

“The pickings are thin. In certain markets it’s really thin — Maumee has three months’ inventory. For me that’s ridiculously low with four to five months being somewhat normal,” Mr. Kwiatkowsk said.

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