Greater Columbus Area Market Trends

(June 21, 2007) Central Ohio home sales in May were lower than sales during the same month in 2006 and 2005, but still the third highest number of sales for the month of May on record. The 2,492 homes sold last month was 3.4 percent lower than the number sold in 2006 and 6.1 percent less than in May of 2005, but 0.2 percent higher than May 2004 home sales according to the Columbus Board of REALTORS®.
 
“Although May home sales were less than last year, the 3.4 percent drop was much less than the annual sales decreases seen in March and April of this year,” says Brad Bennett, President of the Columbus Board of REALTORS®. “We’re optimistic that this trend will continue and that the decline in sales we’ve seen over the last 11 months will level off this summer.”
 
Another positive sign was that there were significantly fewer homes added to the market in May as compared to the previous year.

“Although we have still have a high level of inventory, the less significant drop in sales brought the month’s supply of homes for sale down to 7.59 – the lowest level we’ve seen since July of last year,” comments Bennett.

The average price of a home in May was $175,212, down 1.2 percent from a year ago. However, the average price of a home sold for the first 5 months of 2007 is just 0.5 percent lower than the average price for the same period last year.