CLEVELAND — New numbers looking at Ohio’s real estate market show the demand for homes is still high, but supply is low which means prices are going up in bidding wars.
According to the Ohio Realtor’s March report, home sales are up a little more than 3% compared to the same time last year. In addition, the buy-sell process is speeding up faster than expected. Experts say this is mostly because most sellers are also immediately becoming buyers after they sell.
The financial resource group, Nerdwallet.com, surveyed 3,000 Americans through a Harris poll.
It found 17% of homeowners plan on selling within the next 18 months. Only 10% of them do not wish to be homeowners anymore. This means 90% of sellers are planning on buying again.
"They're going to go from, you know, being excited and selling a house and probably selling it for more than they thought they could. And they're going to jump right into the crowded pool of buyers and be met with that shortage of homes and high prices,” Elizabeth said.
The study also found active listings in the Cleveland metropolitan area in March were down 55% year over year. Last March, the area had 42,000 houses listed. This year, it's down to 1,900 active listings. If you’re wondering about prices, home costs went up 14% as the average amounted to an estimated $231,000. Yet, houses are frequently selling for much more than that.
“I feel as though most buyers are kind of in that 150 to 250 price range. The majority. And so that's really where you're getting into the bidding wars, where there are just a lot more buyers in those price ranges and very few houses to choose from,” said Nerdwallet.com data analyst Angela Thompson.
Experts think more houses may need to be built to keep up with demand.
They also warn only a small number of houses may go up for sale as some people wait for the pandemic to end.
“So people are listing now that wouldn't have listed last year, but it is going to be some time before we see this even out in sort of any significant way," said Thompson.
