Area home sales up 3 percent; inventory still declining

Toledo area home sales rose 3 percent in October, but for yet another month housing inventory levels continued to drop, falling 17 percent last month.

The impact caused the average days homes spend on the market to 86 days, which was a 17 percent drop from October, 2016.

“Lack of inventory is just making a mess of several markets,” said Mark Remeis, president of the Toledo Regional Association of Realtors, which released the new sales figures this week.

Home sales in metro Toledo rose 3 percent in October.

As an example, in Perrysburg — one of the consistently hot property markets in the metro area — home sales are down 6.7 percent year-to-date. But median and average home prices there are up 4.5 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively. Also, properties currently spend 105 days on the market in Perrysburg, a decrease of 3.7 percent.

Mr. Remeis, of A.A. Green Realty in Bowling Green, said those numbers indicate that when properties do come available, they often sell more quickly than a year ago and for more than the listed asking price — but inventory is lacking.

There were 514 homes sold last month in Lucas County and northern Wood County, up from 499 a year ago. The average sale price was $135,000, while the median sale price was $111,000 last month.

In the entire eight-county northwest Ohio multiple-listing service region, October sales totaled 740 homes, up 5.7 percent from 700 homes sold a year ago. The average sale price in the region was $134,284, down 1.4 percent, while the median sale price was $114,900, up just 0.3 percent.

Inventory in the region was down 14.5 percent, and homes spent 91 days on the market, down 14.2 percent.

Mr. Remeis said last week he attended a real estate convention in Chicago where Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, explained that home inventory levels are down nationwide.

“The piece of [the economy] that has not come back and is affecting inventory is new home builds,” Mr. Remeis said. “He 100 percent attributed the problem to the fact that the home builders are not back putting homes into the market.”

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