“The Ohio housing market continues to face the challenges of a higher mortgage interest rate environment combined with historic low inventory levels of homes for sale,” said Ralph Mantica, the statewide trade group’s president, in a news release. “Despite these hurdles, the ongoing increase in average sales price is a clear indication that consumers understand that housing is a smart long-term investment.”
In Cuyahoga County, July sales were down 15% from a year before, based on MLS Now’s data. Last month, the county had only 7.7 weeks’ worth of listings, according to the Redfin real estate brokerage. That’s far less than what’s needed for a balanced market, in which buyers and sellers have roughly equal power.
Across the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor area, inventory was ever tighter, at 7.3 weeks’ worth from early July to early August. And in the Akron metropolitan area, the pool of available properties was barely enough to sate buyers’ demand, at 6.5 weeks.
On Tuesday, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors said it will take a pullback in mortgage rates to get the market moving again. The average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage climbed back above 7% in mid-August.
Existing homeowners who bought or refinanced their homes a few years ago, in the era of 3% rates, have little incentive to move and take on costlier debt. And owners who are inclined to sell are nonetheless holding back, worried they won’t be able to find anywhere else to live.
“Two factors are driving current sales activity — inventory availability and mortgage rates. Unfortunately, both have been unfavorable to buyers,” Lawrence Yun, the national Realtors’ chief economist, said in a news release.
The trade group released its monthly report on existing home sales Tuesday. Purchases were down 16.6% from July of last year. And sales receded by 2.2% from June, based on seasonally adjusted data.
In the Midwest, sales fell 20% from July 2022 and were down 3% from June.
Nationally, the median sale price was $406,700 in July, a 1.9% gain from a year before. The Midwest’s median sale price was $304,600, a 3.9% annual increase.
Ohio real estate groups report average prices instead of medians. The Ohio Realtors said the state’s average sale price rose 5.4% over the past year, hitting $287,695 last month.
In Northeast Ohio, the average sale price for a single-family home was $260,806 in July. That’s up 4.4% from a year before. MLS Now said that condos, a sliver of the regional housing market, commanded an average price of $207,724, for a 7.7% annual jump.
July’s top home sale was the nearly $3.23 million purchase of an estate in Chagrin Falls. The four-bedroom, five-bathroom home sits on a 5.4-acre property, with a large cottage on the grounds and an infinity pool, hot tub, outdoor kitchen, bocce court and putting green.
The cheapest sale took place in Jefferson County, where a buyer paid $6,000 for a house in the tiny village of Adena, according to MLS Now and Zillow. The listing service captures most of the residential real estate transactions in the region, though properties sold without formal marketing can slip through the cracks.
Northeast Ohio home sales are trailing 2022 levels by 15.6%, based on MLS Now’s data. That’s a difference of more than 4,400 transactions over seven months.
New listings, meanwhile, are down 17.9% this year.