Relocating GM employees seen to aid housing market

By HOLLY SCHOENSTEIN

Real estate experts anticipate that the nudge in the local market may grow to a spike.

YOUNGSTOWN — The first wave of relocating General Motors Corp. employees has nudged the real estate market in the Mahoning Valley.

As more employees follow suit, the nudge may grow to a spike.

“It will definitely have an impact on the real estate market,” said Rick Volpini, president and managing broker of Real Living in Howland and Poland.

“It’s going to be a positive thing for the real estate market in the Valley, and it’s about time ...”

It may take three months to determine the impact of GM employees coming to the area, he said.

Volpini recalled the early 1990s when many GM employees had relocated to the area.

He said this was the last time the local real estate market was significantly affected in a positive way.

He has anticipated that the local real estate market will be affected in a similar way again.

Even before GM’s announcement of the addition of a third shift at the plant in Lordstown, the two Real Living locations recorded a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in home sales during the past couple of months.

The two Real Living locations have listings for 65 homes in Trumbull County and 60 in Mahoning County. The face of prospective homeowners appears to be changing with the industry.

Some have identified additional desires in their searches for new homes, including good school districts and locations short distances from their places of employment because of higher gas prices, said Kathy Carroll, president of the Youngstown-Columbiana Association of Realtors.

In general, she said most of the relocating GM employees interested in buying homes will be looking in the middle price range, which is from $75,000 to $150,000.

Although the nudge in the real estate market may foreshadow a spike in activity in the near future, the number of home sales is down 20.55 percent compared with this time last year.

The number of homes for sale in Trumbull and Mahoning counties increased 3.34 percent and 3.44 percent respectively from April of this year.

Listings of homes decreased .29 percent in Columbiana County.

hschoenstein@vindy.com