CLEVELAND — The once-hot housing market is cooling off, and only the most desirable parts of the country are still over-performing. Turns out, that includes us, the Midwest. This is where people want to be, and it looks like they’re here to stay. News 5 anchor Rob Powers spoke with Theresa Pullen about her relocation to North Olmsted.
“I did not appreciate winter until I moved away from winter,” she said. “After living in Australia and having a hot Christmas all I wanted was a cold Christmas!” So Theresa, her husband Matthew and their two daughters packed up and came to Greater Cleveland. This is Theresa’s home, after all.
But a white Christmas isn’t the entire reason she returned to her roots. Data from the American Enterprise Institute shows eight of the nine cities with the highest appreciation for the year through August came from the Midwest. That includes Cleveland. Rob spoke with Jessica Chodaczek from LoFaso Real Estate.
“People are starting to realize this is a great place to live,” she said. “It’s keeping our numbers a bit stronger than some trendier areas.” Areas like Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas are all down or flat. Cleveland’s slow and steady pace in the market is seen to be key, along with demand.
“Across the country right now we have about three months supply of inventory at any given time on the real estate market. In Greater Cleveland it’s only 1.6 months,” Chodaczek said. Another factor making our area so desirable is the affordability.
“The cost of living where we were moving from was outrageous,” Pullen said. It’s the overall quality of life making the Midwest in general, and Greater Cleveland in particular, attractive to people looking for a new place to call home.
“This is a great place to live,” said Chodaczek. “There’s so much to do here, there’s great quality of life, it’s very affordable and I think people, as they’re somewhat reevaluating their values and priorities post-Covid, they’re realizing this is where I want to be.”
As Pullen called her house in North Olmsted, for a lot more people these days, Greater Cleveland is “Home sweet home.”
