2015 Ohio Housing Market Predictions

Ohio Housing Market
Find out what the future holds for Ohio in our newest housing market predictions

The Ohio Housing Market has seen an increase of 1.7% in the past year and the good news seems to be here to stay: according to the Zillow 2015 housing market predictions, it will continue to rise by 2.6% in the time interval from May 2015 to May 2016. Investors looking at the current Ohio real estate market have all the reasons to place their confidence in the growing value of their potential assets. This is good news for people looking to sell their homes in the Ohio state region as well, and perhaps also for those looking to buy homes there (since the values will be rising). Since the rent prices are also a bit on the rise, it’s probably not terribly good news for those looking to rent, but considering that Ohio boasts a strong job market and the overall country economy is doing well. The region is still very much attractive for those of you wishing to invest in a home or a real estate opportunity.

The strength of the economy is well-known since Ohio is dubbed as the Nation’s Industrial Capital. The state is performing well despite the slow economic recovery from the crisis these past few years. The unemployment rate of the state is currently only at 5.7% which is down by almost half of its rate in 2010 (around 10%). This data is courtesy of the Ohio Labor Market Information. Furthermore, the state has received numerous awards in the past 5-6 years from several business magazines ranking among the top 10 states which are friendly to businesses. This culture and economy makes Ohio a good place to earn a living in. This means the corresponding rise in the rent prices (which currently have a median of $895) isn’t bad news and contributes to a more attractive market for realtors. We will provide an overview of the 2015 Ohio Housing Market below. We’ll also examine a few key areas of the Ohio Real Estate such as Columbus (its main business and corporate job center), Akron, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo. For the sake of comparison, take a look at how the 2013 Ohio housing market evolved.

Ohio Housing Market
Find out what the future holds for Ohio in our newest housing market predictions

Influencing Factors for the 2015 Ohio Housing Market

  • The median home value of a house on the Ohio real estate market is currently $115,600, according to Zillow. This has gone up by 1.7% in the past year, as we already stated above, and the market will very likely continue this upwards trend.
  • At its peak, the median home value was at a historic high of $123,000 in May 2006 and has fallen greatly in 2012-2013, reaching a low of $104,000 (according to statistical data provided by Zillow). Now the values are on a steady path to growth and even if the current median of $115K hasn’t caught up with its 2006 precedent yet, things are still looking good, considering that experts are predicting a 2.6% growth in the next year.
  • There isn’t any official data released for the median listing price per square feet of property, but it did follow the same pattern of rising as the overall prices.
  • The median home rent list price in Ohio is $895, as also stated above, according again to Zillow. The median rent price per square foot of property is $0.83. The actual prices of rents are, yet, a bit higher than the reported listing price, currently being evaluated by Zillow to be at an average of $1,101 per month. This value is still a bit behind the national average of $1,367 but that may actually be due to the strength of the overall housing market, making home buying and selling more popular than rent-outs.
  • There has actually been a lot of sales activity in Ohio real estate: according to the OAR (Ohio Association of Realtors), the number of homes sold in the state during January 2015 was 4.2 percent higher than the number of sales performed in January 2014. This is yet another sign of the local real estate market getting busier and stronger. The activity was lower by 6.2 percent compared to just a month before, in December 2014, but the last months of each year are usually a busy time for sales, so it doesn’t mean anything in the overall upwards trend in the number of sales (hence the comparison with the same month of the previous year).
  • According to Greg Hraback, president of the OAR, “The market is well-positioned for current and would-be home owners, as we’re experiencing steady price growth and attractive interest rates”. Their data reported a value of $137,464 for the average home price in January 2015, which reflects an increase of 8% compared to the average price of January 2014 (which stood at $127,279). As a note, these values differ from the ones provided by Zillow above because those refer to the median listing price.
  • A peculiarity that will have a major impact on the Ohio housing market (and already has made an impact on it) is the situation of delinquency mortgage. Delinquency mortgage consists of foreclosure sales, caused by the fact that the original mortgage owners couldn’t pay the mortgage rates anymore and the property is hence being sold in a special regime. There are a lot of foreclosure sales and Zillow estimates that this type of transactions will continue to be significant for the Ohio real estate.
  • There is a 4.9% percent of delinquent mortgages in the Ohio housing market, a bit lower than the national average of 6.0%, but delinquent mortgages are only the first step to a foreclosure process. In that regard, Ohio has rates higher than the national average: there are currently 4.1 houses foreclosed out of 10,100, while across the country there are only 3.5. Also, there are about 18% home owners who are behind on their mortgage payments throughout Ohio, which again indicates there may be more foreclosures coming in the next year. (Data provided by Zillow.)

Best Places to Live in Ohio

As always, the state’s capital is one of the best places to live in Ohio, both in terms of career and business opportunities and in terms of the real estate market (this tends to be a de facto rule for many other states). According to data provided by Zillow, the Columbus OH real estate market is on an upwards trend even higher than the overall Ohio housing market. In the past year, the value of properties in the housing market Columbus Ohio rose by 3.9% and is expected to rise by a further 2.5% in the following year. The median home value in the area of Columbus is currently estimated at $104,400, and the median sale price is $139,165. There’s also a 5.6% mortgage delinquency phenomenon, so the area definitely fits the trend described above. Per 10,000 homes, 6.6 are foreclosed in Columbus, compared to the 4.5 rate in the Columbus Metro area and the 3.5 rate nation-wide. This is surely difficult for the owners in question, but for some realtors this is also an opportunity currently shaping the Ohio Real Estate landscape. Before we move on from the Columbus market, we will also mention that the average rent price in Columbus is $945 and in Columbus Metro area the average rent price is $995, according to Zillow.

The 2015 Cleveland housing market isn’t doing so well by comparison. Our research statistics show a median home value of $52,600 and an actual decrease of 1.3% in the past year. Housing market predictions for the area indicate that the median house value will rise a bit in Cleveland by 1.2% in the following year (almost recovering from the recent decrease). The median sale price here was $76,775 in April this year. Even though the numbers are modest compared to the capital of Ohio, the good news is that at least the market is warm and on an upwards trend.

As for the Cincinnati OH real estate market, Zillow experts report it to be on the rise. The median home value here is $98,200, 2.8% up from last year and expected to rise by a further 2.7% in the next year as well. Also, the median rent price in the overall area is currently estimated to be $825, while the metro area has a median rent price of $895, as centers tend to boast higher overall real estate values.

In Toledo, things are looking a bit bleaker than in the rest of the state. The Toledo OH real estate market is reporting a median house value of $56,000 and a general decrease of 2.4% in the past year. Zillow experts which provided the data also report that the local market will probably improve in the next year, but not spectacularly (only by 0.6%). The median rent price here is currently at $650, and in the Toledo metro area it is $700.

Akron is also not in excellent shape. The Akron OH real estate market is, according to Zillow, on a significant decreasing trend, losing 3.8 percent value in the past year. The housing market predictions for the upcoming year report that the Akron market will likely improve by 1.0%, but it still won’t fully recover from last year’s drawback. The median home value here is estimated at $60,800 and the median rent price at $675, with a bit more ($840) in the Akron Metro area.

Check out the Neighboring Competitors to the Ohio Housing Market

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