Home prices

Valley remains an affordable market

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

A 24-percent drop in area home prices in the past year has kept the Mahoning Valley as one of the most affordable markets for buying a home.

Akron, however, suffered a 40 percent drop, which was enough for its median home sale price to dip below prices here.

Of the 152 metropolitan areas listed in a report by the National Association of Realors, Akron ranked 151sth with a median sale price of $50,100 in the first quarter of this year. The Youngstown-Warren metropolitan area ranked 150th at $51,200.

The median sale price for the local area has dipped from $67,700 from the first quarter of 2008.

In the Realtors’ last report, which covered the fourth quarter of 2008, the Mahoning Valley ranked 151st in the nation with a sale price of $61,700.

Tuesday’s report said home prices fell in nearly nine out of every 10 U.S. cities in the first quarter as first-time buyers looking for bargains dominated the market.

While sales rose in six states among the hardest hit by the housing slump, analysts said the nascent signs of recovery in the market could be short-lived if employers continue to lay off workers in bulk.

The report said that median sales prices of existing homes declined in 134 out of 152 metropolitan areas compared with the same period a year ago. Prices rose in the other 18 cities.

Nationwide, sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up about half of the market. Overall, sales dipped 3.2 percent from the year-ago period.

“I think we’re near a bottom, but we’re not there yet,” said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. While prices could hit bottom as soon as this summer, he said, they are likely to remain stable and start edging higher slowly.

“We are finally beginning to see the seeds of a bottoming” in housing, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said at the Realtors’ midyear conference in Washington, D.C., though he cited the massive inventory of unsold properties as a big concern.

At the conference, discussion focused on how to turn around the beleaguered market. Real estate agents hope the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers included in the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year will boost sales.

But in high-priced areas such as New York City, it doesn’t make much of a difference for buyers. “It’s not really a major motivator for people,” said Robert Oppenheimer, a Re/Max broker in nearby Englewood Cliffs, N.J. “It’s almost an afterthought.”

Many in the real estate industry say that Congress should do more to stimulate housing demand.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said the Federal Housing Administration soon will allow its borrowers to get short-term loans and turn the $8,000 tax credit into a down payment.