Cleveland Hts. Office smashes sales record!

The Cleveland Heights office of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services smashed the monthly record of unit sales with 103 homes sold in the month of April! That far exceeded the previous record of 86 homes sold in May of 2005. How's real estate these days? Unbelievable!

Encouraging Signs in Cleveland Heights Real Estate

After a very difficult period in the Cleveland Heights real estate market I see encouraging signs. According to Trendgraphix, which collates and measures MLS data, the following encouraging signs have been seen in the Heights market in the price range of $80,000 or higher. I have excluded less expensive home because these tend to be distressed home that distort the market picture. For the period February 2009-2010:



The number of homes for sale declined 8.1%, the sold price per square foot increased 11.7%, the average sold price increased 42%, and the months of inventory (meaning how many months would it take to sell everything on the market at the present rate of sales) dropped 40.9%. Days on market increased 10.2%, meaning it is taking a little longer to sell homes in this price range than a year ago. How could the average sold price rise 42% and the average per square foot price rise only 11.7%? That probably means that the larger homes are selling more as the economy recovers somewhat.



So, we have a decline in the number of homes for sale and rising prices. The two areas of concern are one, the fact that the federal government is ending its intervention in the housing market (by buying up mortgage-backed securities) at the end of this week and two, that the MIP (Mortgage Insurance Premium) for FHA loans will rise from 1.75% ot 2.25% on new loans on or after April 5th. This means mortgage rates will probably rise and FHA loans will become a bit more more expensive.

HOMEBUYERS TAX CREDIT- We still have five more weeks before the homebuyers tax credit program ends. That combined with the prospect of rising mortgage rates, upward price pressure, and the influx of new residents and doctors coming to the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals means we will probably see in increase of sales in April. What happens after that remains to be seen. Overall I would say that this is still a historically great time to buy or move up to a larger home.

I hope you are enjoying the milder weather and looking forward to spring!

Cleveland Heights Home Sales Rise during last 90 days

Sales of Cleveland Heights have risen in the last three month compared with the previous three months. Of those single family homes that sold in the last three months, all of them were $55,000 or less, so this may reflect bank-owned homes, foreclosure, distressed properties, or homes whose owners just had to lower the price to get them sold. In any case 131 homes were sold or pending in the last 90 days compared to 121 sold or pending for the previous three months. The down side of this is that there were 410 homes for sale during the last 90 days and only 89 for sale the previous 90 days. This may reflect people taking homes off the market for the Christmas holiday. So, more homes were sold but more came on the market the last three months, so the absorption rate has dropped for single family homes, from 45% to 11%. The same goes for condomiums. We had more sales in the last three months- 9 units compared to 3 the previous 3 months, but there were 67 for sale the last 90 days compared to 12 the previous three months. Thus the absorption rate dropped from 8% to 4%

The figures:

Last 90 days:

Single Family Homes

410 for sale
131 sold or pending (43.67/month)
Monthly Absorption Rate = 11%

Condominiums

67 for sale
9 sold or pending (3/month)
Monthly Absorption Rate = 4%

Previous 90 days (previous 4-6 months)

89 for sale
121 sold or pending (40.33/month)
Monthly Absorption Rate = 45%

Condominiums

12 for sale
3 sold or pending (1/month)
Monthly Absorption Rate = 8%

It seems that the net effect is that we did not really increase the rate at which homes are selling, so we're not out of the woods yet, but we are gradually working through the inventory. Let's see what the spring market of 2009 brings us!